Daud Olatunji
The House of Representatives has uncovered how a purported presidential agency allegedly secured official government recognition by using a forged State House letter, with the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, insisting that no public funds were released to the controversial body despite its attempts to access government resources.
Ogunjimi disclosed this on Sunday while testifying before the House committee investigating the alleged operation of the fictitious Presidential Economic Advisory Council/PFIPC.
He told lawmakers that the Office of the Accountant-General first came into contact with the organisation in November 2024 after receiving a letter purportedly issued by the State House requesting the creation of an administrative code for the council to facilitate budgeting, accounting and financial reporting.
According to him, the letter, dated November 7, 2024, carried an official State House reference number, prompting his office to process the request in line with standard government procedures.
He explained that after creating the administrative code, the approval was communicated to the State House, with a copy sent to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The Accountant-General, however, revealed that investigations later established that the correspondence did not originate from the Presidency.
“The letter that was received by the Treasury was respectfully addressed as coming from the State House. That letter was never issued by the State House,” Ogunjimi told the committee.
The revelation prompted lawmakers to describe the document as a “hijacked” State House letter allegedly deployed to deceive government institutions into recognising a non-existent agency.
Ogunjimi said following the approval of the administrative code, the purported council submitted additional requests, including applications for self-accounting status, deployment of staff, opening of Treasury Single Account and domiciliary accounts, as well as funding approvals.
Despite processing some of the administrative requests, he maintained that the Treasury never released any public funds to the council.
“It is important to note that no funds were released under salaries, overhead, capital or any form of intervention or special allocation to the council,” he said.
He further disclosed that the council sought an establishment grant of ₦27.4 billion, but the request was rejected because there was no budgetary provision to support it.
The Accountant-General also explained that although the Central Bank of Nigeria opened two domiciliary accounts for the organisation to receive inflows, the accounts never became operational because the council failed to satisfy regulatory requirements.
Lawmakers also questioned how officers of the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President eventually became attached to the purported council without the knowledge of the Treasury.
Responding, Ogunjimi said two Treasury officials deployed to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser in 2010 and 2013 remained there after the office was allegedly taken over by the new council because no formal notification was sent to his office.
“It was never communicated to us that those two officers had been taken over. The officers themselves never informed us that another council had assumed control of the office.
“As far as I was concerned, we were dealing with a new agency, not the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser,” he said.
He added that when the council later requested five additional staff members, only three were approved because officials considered the agency too small to justify the number requested.
“It was when this matter came to light that I discovered two of our staff had actually been absorbed by the agency. We never knew. Based on our records, they were still serving in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser,” he added.
The hearing is part of the House investigation into allegations that forged presidential approvals, fake State House documents and other falsified government records were used to establish and operate the purported Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
The committee had earlier received evidence from the Nigeria Police Force confirming that criminal charges had been filed against the prime suspect, Adeyemi Martin, over allegations bordering on conspiracy and fraud.
Lawmakers have also directed the Inspector-General of Police to produce Adeyemi before the committee on Wednesday to answer questions over the alleged forgery of official government documents and the operation of the purported presidential agency.
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