The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoS), Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, has admitted that her office failed to carry out sufficient verification before approving requests linked to the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), as the House of Representatives uncovered fresh evidence of widespread irregularities surrounding the non-existent agency.
The admission came on Wednesday during an investigative hearing by the House Ad-Hoc Committee probing the alleged illegal establishment and operations of the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), both of which lawmakers say have no legal foundation.
The investigation centres on Prince Adeyemi Adeniyi, who allegedly presented himself as the Director-General of the PFIPC and reportedly secured official recognition for the agency using fake appointment letters, fabricated legislative documents and other forged government records.
Key government institutions involved in the hearing included the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), the Nigeria Police Force and the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee chaired by Rep. Yusuf Gagdi.
During the hearing, Walson-Jack acknowledged that her office mistakenly approved an authorised establishment and recruitment waiver for the PFIPC after relying on documents that have now been confirmed to be false.
She explained that officials representing the purported agency attended the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence and submitted what appeared to be an Establishment Act alongside an appointment letter for the agency’s Director-General.
According to her, the Civil Service followed its standard administrative procedures because the documents appeared genuine at the time. However, after reviewing the materials during the investigation, she admitted that her office should have conducted more thorough verification before granting approval.
The disclosures were made on Wednesday during a public hearing of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee in Abuja as lawmakers intensified their investigation into how the PFIPC allegedly obtained official recognition despite lacking any legal backing.
The committee has been conducting hearings involving several federal agencies that processed documents submitted by the purported organisation
.Lawmakers are seeking to determine how multiple government institutions accepted and acted upon documents that investigators now believe were fabricated.
The committee has uncovered what it described as a network of fake appointment letters, fabricated legislative documents and fictitious government offices allegedly used to convince federal agencies that the PFIPC was a legitimate government institution.
Investigators believe the fraudulent documents enabled the agency to obtain official approvals and administrative recognition despite never being established through an Act of the National Assembly.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation explained that it had received what appeared to be an official request from the State House seeking an administrative code for the agency.
Joshua Luka, Director of the Federal Project Financial Department, told lawmakers that the administrative code was deliberately addressed to the Permanent Secretary of the State House as part of the office’s internal verification process rather than being sent directly to the PFIPC.
However, the committee discovered that the correspondence never reached the Permanent Secretary. Instead, it was collected by the alleged PFIPC Director-General, Adeyemi Adeniyi.
Lawmakers criticised the Accountant-General’s Office for allowing the suspect to obtain the official correspondence, arguing that the fraud could have been uncovered much earlier if the letter had reached its intended destination.
