Accountant-General Tells Reps Fake State House Letter Led to Recognition of Alleged PFIPC Agency

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, has told the House of Representatives committee investigating the alleged operation of a fake presidential agency that a forged State House letter enabled the purported Presidential Economic Advisory Council to gain official government recognition.

Testifying before lawmakers on Monday, Ogunjimi said the Office of the Accountant-General created an administrative code for the council after receiving what appeared to be authentic correspondence from the State House, but investigations later established that the document was not issued by the Presidency.

He said the first communication from the purported council reached the Treasury in November 2024 through a letter requesting an administrative code for budgeting, accounting and reporting purposes.

Following established procedures, the Treasury approved the request and notified the State House and the Office of the Auditor-General.

Ogunjimi said the office subsequently processed additional requests relating to self-accounting status, staff deployment, Treasury Single Account (TSA) and domiciliary accounts, as well as funding applications.

However, he maintained that no public funds were disbursed to the council.

“It is important to note that no funds were released under salaries, overhead, capital, or any form of intervention or special allocation to the council,” he said.

He further disclosed that a request for an establishment grant of ₦27.4 billion was declined because it had no budgetary backing, while two CBN domiciliary accounts created for the council never became operational due to unmet regulatory conditions.

Explaining how the agency gained official recognition, Ogunjimi said the Treasury acted in good faith because the correspondence appeared to originate from the State House.

“The letter that was received by the Treasury… was respectfully addressed as coming from the State House.

“That letter was never issued by the State House,” he stated.

Lawmakers described the document as a “hijacked” State House letter allegedly used to mislead government agencies into recognising a non-existent institution.

The Accountant-General also explained that two Treasury staff originally assigned to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser remained there after the office was allegedly transformed into the purported council because no formal notification of the change was received.

“It was never assumed or written to us that those two officers were being taken over,” he said.

“As far as I was concerned, we were dealing with a new agency, not the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser.”

He added that the Treasury only discovered the situation after investigations into the alleged agency commenced.

The House inquiry is examining allegations that forged presidential approvals, State House correspondence and other official government documents were used to establish and operate the purported Presidential Economic Advisory Council.

The committee has already heard evidence from the Nigeria Police Force, which confirmed that fraud and conspiracy charges have been filed against the prime suspect, Adeyemi Martin. The Inspector-General of Police has also been directed to produce him before the committee on Wednesday to answer questions over the allegations.

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