Adeniyi Adeyemi, the man who claims to be the Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), has denied ever meeting President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, insisting that his only interactions with someone he believed to be the senior government official were through telephone conversations facilitated by a late associate.
Adeyemi made the claims during an interview with social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, amid the growing controversy surrounding the alleged council, which the Presidency has described as fictitious.
Responding to Gbajabiamila’s denial of any relationship with him, Adeyemi said he was not in a position to accuse or exonerate the Chief of Staff, urging President Tinubu to allow an independent investigation to establish the facts.
“I would not say he (Gbajabiamila) is lying, and I won’t say he is telling the truth. That is why I requested at my press conference and pleaded with the President to set up an investigative panel to look into this whole issue and unravel the truth to know who is involved,” he said.
Adeyemi maintained that he never met Gbajabiamila physically before or after his purported appointment, claiming his late associate, Dolapo Tanimola, connected him to someone introduced as the President’s Chief of Staff.
“I think three times I have spoken with Gbajabiamila, through my late friend, Dolapo Tanimola,” he said.
Asked whether the conversations took place through video calls, Adeyemi replied, “No, it was not on video call.”
He further claimed to possess documents supporting his alleged appointment and pledged to hand them over to security agencies to aid ongoing investigations.
“I am willing and ready to help security agencies or the panel by Mr President to unravel the truth. In fact, any moment from now, I will go to the DSS or police to submit all the documents I have to help them investigate and look into this matter.
“I will go any moment from now. I will go to authenticate and verify my document and unravel the truth,” he stated.
Adeyemi also questioned the Presidency’s June 11 statement distancing itself from the PFIPC, insisting that the circumstances surrounding his purported appointment deserve an independent probe.
The Presidency had dismissed the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council as a non-existent government body and denied that Gbajabiamila had any connection with it.
The Chief of Staff also denied ever meeting Adeyemi and has threatened a ₦10 billion defamation lawsuit over allegations linking him to bribery and murder.
The controversy took a fresh turn on Tuesday after President Bola Tinubu directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the activities of the purported council and all related matters, ordering the anti-graft agency to submit its findings within 30 days.
