Politics
…says it aises more questions than answers
…rejects attempt to reduce national scandal to one-man fraud
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has received with profound disappointment the so-called interim report submitted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on the scandal surrounding the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), describing it as a document that appears to answer only the easiest questions while carefully avoiding the more fundamental issues that continue to disturb millions of Nigerians.
From the very day this unprecedented scandal broke, HURIWA warned that there was a real danger that the investigation would end with the prosecution of a single individual while leaving untouched the powerful interests, institutional failures and possible collaborators that enabled one of the most embarrassing infiltrations of Nigeria’s governmental architecture in recent history. Unfortunately, the contents of the interim report appear to reinforce those fears.
The ICPC now says Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi forged documents, falsely presented himself as Director-General of the PFIPC, created additional agencies, opened bank accounts with forged instruments and exploited weaknesses within government institutions. While HURIWA supports the prosecution of any individual against whom sufficient evidence exists, the organisation insists that these findings merely scratch the surface of what is clearly a far deeper and more disturbing national scandal.
The questions confronting Nigeria are neither difficult nor complicated.
How did a non-existent government agency acquire the aura of official legitimacy?
Who admitted its operators into government circles?
Who authorised meetings, endorsements and engagements with public institutions?
Who ignored obvious red flags?
Who processed documents?
Who failed to carry out elementary verification?
Who enabled the agency to function openly without challenge?
How did an organisation later described by the Presidency itself as non-existent find its way into the 2026 Appropriation Act with a budgetary allocation running into billions of naira?
These are the questions Nigerians expected the ICPC to confront directly.
Instead, the interim report appears to concentrate overwhelmingly on the alleged actions of one individual while leaving unanswered the institutional and official dimensions of the scandal.
HURIWA refuses to accept the proposition that one private citizen, acting entirely alone, successfully penetrated multiple Ministries, Departments and Agencies, operated for an extended period, secured official interactions and allegedly built an elaborate structure involving forged instruments without significant failures—or possible complicity—within the public service. Such a proposition stretches credibility beyond reasonable limits.
The anti-corruption body itself admitted that there were glaring weaknesses in inter-agency coordination, verification mechanisms and internal controls. Those weaknesses did not emerge overnight. They were sustained by human decisions, official omissions and institutional failures. Nigerians deserve to know who made those decisions and whether any public officials acted negligently or unlawfully.
HURIWA is particularly concerned that the interim report reportedly recommends administrative sanctions for some public officers whose negligence allegedly facilitated the illegal operation of the fake agency. If negligence or misconduct enabled a fraud of this magnitude, the public deserves a transparent explanation of why administrative measures alone would be considered sufficient in every case. Where evidence points to criminal wrongdoing, the law should take its full course.
The association therefore urges the ICPC to ensure that the ongoing investigation follows every credible lead, regardless of the status or influence of those involved. No office, institution or individual should be treated as beyond scrutiny.
HURIWA also calls on the National Assembly to deepen its independent investigation and publicly establish the chain of events that allowed the PFIPC saga to unfold. Nigerians are entitled to know not only who allegedly forged documents, but also how official systems failed and whether any public officials should be held accountable.
The credibility of Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign will not be measured by the prosecution of one suspect alone. It will be measured by whether the investigation is comprehensive, impartial and fearless enough to identify every person whose actions or omissions contributed to the scandal.
History teaches that scandals are rarely sustained by one actor. They endure because institutions fail, oversight weakens and accountability breaks down. Nigerians deserve the whole truth—not a partial narrative that leaves the most consequential questions unanswered.
HURIWA therefore calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure that the investigation is pursued to its logical conclusion and that every individual against whom credible evidence emerges, irrespective of office or political proximity, is subjected to the same standard of justice.
The Nigerian people deserve nothing less than a complete accounting of how a body later declared non-existent was able to present itself as a government institution for so long. Until those questions are fully answered, the PFIPC scandal will remain one of the gravest tests of transparency, accountability and institutional integrity under the present administration.
A.I
Aug. 7, 2026
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