How a Phantom Presidential Council Fooled Nigeria’s System
I first saw this scandal in WhatsApp forwards from Professors Falola and Ochonu and ignored it. But when social media buzz became too loud, I had to pay attention. A man named Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew claimed to head the nonexistent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council. The Presidency now says he forged his appointment, opened 34 bank accounts, registered a fake domain and even sneaked more than ₦1.3bn into the 2026 budget before his arrest. Before being exposed, Adeyemi led a delegation to the EFCC and secured public partnerships. His phantom council was on official letterhead, met ambassadors and showed up in budget lines. How did it slip past protocol, domain regulators and budget offices? Adeyemi insists he had a real appointment and accuses senior officials of corruption—a claim not yet proven. But the bigger scandal is state porosity. Who inside government enabled a fake council to roam the halls of power?
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