Head of Civil Service Admits Due Diligence Failed in PFIPC Recognition, Accepts Responsibility

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, admits that her office did not carry out adequate due diligence before the purported Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) gained recognition within government processes. She makes the admission while appearing for a second time before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the council’s establishment and operations.

Walson-Jack tells the committee that her office relied on documents that appeared authentic, including a letter bearing the State House logo and what looked like a familiar signature, without subjecting them to sufficient verification. Subsequent comparisons with genuine State House correspondence, backed by police forensic findings, later confirm that the signatures were different.

“We take full responsibility, and we will definitely review our processes to make them more fraud-proof,” Walson-Jack tells the committee, pledging reforms to prevent a recurrence.

She adds that out of 88 ministries, departments and agencies her office processed, it did not detect that the council had submitted a false Establishment Act and a forged letter of appointment.

The committee chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, says the panel has now established that the appointment letter presented by the council’s self-acclaimed Director-General, Mr Adeniyi Adeyemi, is fake, along with the Establishment Act submitted to the Head of Service. Gagdi says different agencies have confirmed the letter was fake and that the Act was equally forged by Adeyemi.

Walson-Jack maintains that her office did not allocate office space at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja to the council, nor did it deploy civil servants to it, saying a request for the deployment of officers was received and noted for consideration only.

Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, represented before the committee by Deputy Commissioner of Police Olufemi Akinola, says Adeyemi could not appear due to a subsisting court order and can only do so on the order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

Background

The controversy stems from allegations that Adeyemi used forged documents, including a letter bearing a falsified signature attributed to the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, to establish himself as Director-General of a council the Presidency says was never legally created. Using the disputed paperwork, the council reportedly secured office space at the Federal Secretariat, opened accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and was included in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

The House constituted a 12-member ad hoc committee, chaired by Gagdi, to investigate the council’s establishment, its place in the budget, and the alleged allocation of public funds to it. The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, has told the committee that his office declined a request by the council to open a Treasury Single Account, citing incomplete due diligence. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission says it has commenced its own investigation into the matter, following a directive from President Bola Tinubu.