Tinubu orders 30-day probe of fake agency that got $944,000

President Bola Tinubu has ordered a high-level investigation into a fictitious government agency that operated openly in the federal secretariat in Abuja and was nearly allocated nearly a million dollars in the national budget. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has been directed to conduct a comprehensive probe and report back within 30 days.

The agency, called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, does not exist under Nigerian law and was never established by any presidential instrument or executive approval. Despite this, it was listed to receive approximately 1.3 billion naira, or about $944,300, in this year's federal budget. Its offices were reportedly located inside the same government complex in Abuja that houses legitimate ministries.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the investigation was triggered by the discovery of the alleged scheme. Onanuga described the man claiming to run the agency, Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, as a "con artist" with a history of misrepresentation. Matthew allegedly presented himself as the Director-General of the council and falsely claimed to...