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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Crime & Justice

Presidency vows to prosecute collaborators in fake agency scam, accuses suspect of exploiting corruption narrative

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • The Presidency announced that internal collaborators who enabled a man to operate a fictitious presidential agency will be prosecuted.
  • Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who ran a fake presidential body, is accused of exploiting corruption narratives to shield himself and dragging the Chief of Staff into his alleged multi-billion naira fraud.
  • Investigators are tasked with dismantling a criminal network within government institutions that allowed Adeyemi to forge documents and maintain multiple bank accounts.

The Nigerian Presidency has vowed to hunt down and prosecute internal collaborators who allowed Prince Adeniyi Mathew to operate a fictitious presidential agency for months. The Presidency also urged security agencies to dismantle a criminal network embedded within affected federal establishments.

What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeniyi to get this far.

— Temitope AjayiSenior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, explaining the investigation into a fake presidential agency.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, accused Matthew Adeniyi of being an "irredeemable con artist." Ajayi stated that Adeyemi is expertly exploiting Nigerian public psychology regarding corruption to shield himself from criminal accountability. He alleged that Adeyemi is dragging the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into his multi-billion naira fraudulent enterprise.

Investigators from the Department of State Services, the Police, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have been tasked with unraveling the full extent of the collaboration that enabled Adeyemi to forge presidential appointment letters, maintain 34 bank accounts under fictitious government bodies, host foreign ambassadors, and open a Central Bank account. He was parading himself as the Director-General of a non-existent body called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.

That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel.

— Temitope AjayiSenior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, detailing the ongoing investigation.

"What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeniyi to get this far," Ajayi said. "That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel. The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled, and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted."

The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled, and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted.

— Temitope AjayiSenior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, calling for accountability.

Ajayi further alleged that Adeyemi understands Nigerian public psychology and is using it to his advantage. "In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption. Once that accusation is thrown into the mix, the water is polluted, the lines are blurred, and everyone is kept busy arguing over distractions rather than the real issues," Ajayi explained. He concluded that the Chief of Staff is simply Adeyemi's "last straw."

In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption.

— Temitope AjayiSenior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, explaining how corruption allegations are used.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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