Presidency defends Gbajabiamila as fake agency scandal deepens
The Presidency insists Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila is not involved in a fake agency scandal, but critics demand independent investigation.
The Presidency has defended Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila over his alleged ties to a fictitious government agency. The suspect at the centre of the scandal, Adeniyi Adeyemi, is facing prosecution for forgery, impersonation and fraud. Police investigations found that Adeyemi forged presidential appointment letters, operated 34 bank accounts linked to fake government bodies and falsely claimed to head the non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.
The Presidency urged the public not to politicise the case, noting that Adeyemi is due in court on July 27. But the defence has not held. Human rights lawyer Femi Falana rejected the Presidency’s position, arguing that only independent law enforcement agencies can determine responsibility. He called for an investigation into both Gbajabiamila and Adeyemi, questioning how a fictitious agency allegedly appeared in the 2026 budget and obtained a Central Bank account.
Adeyemi has also demanded an independent probe, accusing Gbajabiamila of corruption and denying the allegations against him. The case now sits at the intersection of three uncomfortable questions: how did a fake agency get into the budget, how did it open a CBN account, and who in the Presidency authorised the letters that Adeyemi allegedly forged?
This is not the first time a senior government official has been linked to a scandal involving fictitious entities. The 2012 pension fraud scandal, where officials siphoned billions through fake pensioners, echoes here. The mechanism is the same: create a non-existent entity, insert it into government systems and collect payments until someone notices.
The winners: the Presidency, which has contained the immediate political damage. The losers: the Nigerian public, which must now wonder how many other fictitious agencies are collecting money, and the rule of law, which takes another hit every time a scandal is dismissed as politics.
Bottom Line: A fake agency got into the budget and opened a CBN account. The Presidency says it is a scam. The question is who let the scammers in.