The Withdrawal Of The Charges Against Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi And A Government Existing On Denials And Falsehood -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

When Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, the Director-general of the so-called non-existent Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) was arrested on July 14, 2026, in Osun State by the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Response Team after a bench warrant was issued by Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, many concerned Nigerians raised questions about the justification for the arrest. Many had asked if the agency does not exist why try him for posing to be the DG of a non-existent entity. Many had asked why he must be rearrested when the matter had been in court since late last year.

And even when Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) submitted its interim report on the matter on August 6, 2026, three weeks after his arrest, many were cynical about it. And so the report was seen as an attempt to justify the arrest and clear the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, who shortly after the ICPC Chairman Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, turned in the report, was appointed to lead a Nigerian delegation that included some serving governors on a trade mission to Canada, of any wrongdoing. Many Nigerians were more surprised that the said report did not indict or implicate the leadership of any of the agencies that interfaced with alleged fake agency. It is like a movie script that one man woke up one day created his agency and got other government agencies and parastatals to work with him. It can only be in Nigeria that such bizarre thing can happen and those involved would be commended and rewarded.

And now the case is taking another twist confirming the government’s haste and lack of due process in handling the scandal. On Monday October 12, Justice Mohammed Umar struck out the eight-count charges against Prince Adeyemi following application by Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation after the Attorney General of the Federation reviewed the file and found what was described as jurisdictional loopholes. The prosecutor had stated that the alleged forged documents fall under the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) rather than that of the Federal High Court. Now Prince Adeyemi would be re-arraigned in an FCT high court. Interestingly, it was the same Justice Mohammed Umar who issued the bench warrant for his arrest that eventually struck out the case after three months. This means that the government and the prosecution team did not do their homework well. It was as if the government was in a hurry as we suspected to nail Prince Adeyemi and clear its erring officials.

Obviously, the government is confused about the trial of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi and I am not in any way surprised about it. It is a scandal that needs to be followed to the end. Tinubu government is a government of scandals. The government and its officials operate like people without any sense of decorum. Like many concerned Nigerians, I have followed the matter since inception and I have written about five published articles on the case and I am not going to stop until the case is settled conclusively.

In one of the essays that I wrote after his arrest entitled, “the arrest of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi and the cover up game”, I had observed as follows: When Adeyemi was arrested on the 14^th of July, 2026, many concerned observers have examined the arrest from different perspectives. Some see it as an attempt to intimidate the young man. Some think it is an attempt by desperate government officials to suppress the truth. Others believe it was an attempt to settle the young man and shut him up for good. Whatever the purpose of the arrest, many are concerned about his safety. The arrest is an abuse of his fundamental right to freedom. Keeping him in custody till September is an attempt to break him and suppress the facts of the case. But this might be counterproductive. The authorities might attempt to silence Adeyemi but they cannot silence the public and independent investigators.

I also stated that it seems that the government is in a hurry to defend its erring official rather truth and justice, questioning why a supposed fake agency would exist and operate for two years and have interface with high-level government functionaries and MDAs undetected. I also stated that the first thing that the government would have done if it was sincere would have been to ask Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to Tinubu who is at the center of the whole scandal to step aside to enable a thorough and objective investigation into the matter but the government is doing the opposite, allowing Gbajabiamila to use his position to persecute and prosecute Prince Adeyemi. Another issue I raised was the case of the death of the alleged Gbajabiamila’s proxy, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola through whom Prince Adeyemi was said to have couriered the said N400 million bribe. I wondered why the case has been swept under the carpet. I also noted that the swift demolition of the Kachi Hotel where the said witness and Gbajabiamila proxy was killed has something to say about someone trying to cover up and conceal evidence of crime. The questions that are yet to be answered are: Who authorized the demolition of the hotel? Must a hotel be demolished because there is fire incidence in it?

Again, in one of the articles, I satirically suggested that if Prince Adeyemi could beat our government and security agencies and operate for almost two years, then he must be a genius for exposing the weakness, the lack of cohesion and internal control in our system and deserves to be named the man of the year. And in conclusion, I declared that if Prince Adeniyi did run a fake agency for two years then the heads of the agencies that he interfaced with from the SGF, Head of Service, CBN, Accountant-general’s office, Budget Office, National Assembly etcetera should be fired for culpable negligence otherwise, Prince should be released.

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed
hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com
An actress, social activist, politician
London, UK