Concerns about the legitimacy of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) have prompted an ad hoc committee in the House of Representatives to summon the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Security Adviser (NSA) to explain the council’s alleged operations.
This followed a memorandum submitted by Mr. Dunoma Ahmed, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In it, Ahmed claimed that the ministry had no official dealings with the council and instead sought clarification from the NSA after noticing irregularities in its correspondence.
Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, posing as the Director-General of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC), approached the ministry three times to seek its support and cooperation in organising a World Investment Summit in Nigeria, according to the ministry’s permanent secretary, who testified before the committee on Tuesday with a letter dated July 21, 2026.
These petitions were received on June 26, 2025, August 5, 2025, and June 5, 2026, but they were not addressed, according to the ministry.
In accordance with the rules and regulations in place and the need to thoroughly investigate any request before fulfilling it, the Ministry… did not act upon the requests, according to the letter.
“Some inconsistencies in Prince Adeyemi’s letters and the continuing investigation into the PFIPC’s legitimacy and the character of its purported director-general further necessitated the Ministry’s refusal to grant the requests.”
In addition, the ministry disclosed that on October 16, 2025, it sent a letter to the Office of the National Security Adviser, requesting an update on Prince Adeyemi’s situation.
“Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew is unknown to any office of the Federal Government,” the National Security Agency (NSA) revealed in a response given by the ministry on November 26, 2025, after enquiries with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
It was also made clear to the committee by the government that it was not associated with the council.
“No diplomatic engagement or bilateral or multilateral conversations were held by the PFIPC in which the Ministry took part. The putative Director-General of the PFIPC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both denied ever having any official contact with the government.
In his criticism of the ministry’s response, committee member Abubakar Hassan Fulata questioned the lack of more stringent action following the ministry’s confirmation that the council did not have legal recognition.
“Did you inform the so-called Director-General… that this organization is illegal and that you should not engage with it in any way after receiving confirmation from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Office of the Chief of Staff to Mr. President that this entity does not exist legally?” Fulata enquired.