FG Approved Recruitment of 300 Staff for ‘Fake’ Presidential Council, Documents Reveal

Segun Atanda/

The Federal Government approved the recruitment of 300 personnel for the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) months before the Presidency declared the organisation non-existent and disowned its purported leadership, according to official documents obtained by TheCable.

The revelation adds a new twist to the controversy surrounding the council, whose alleged Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, is currently facing criminal charges over accusations that he forged official documents and falsely presented himself as the head of a presidential agency.

According to TheCable, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation granted the PFIPC a waiver to recruit 300 members of staff in August 2025 despite an embargo on recruitment across the federal civil service.

The approval was conveyed in a letter dated August 7, 2025, and signed by Mimi Abu, Director of Organisation Design and Development in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

In the correspondence seen by the medium, the office approved the council’s request to fill 300 vacancies, raising fresh questions about how an organisation now described by the Presidency as fictitious was able to obtain official recognition for recruitment.

The latest disclosure comes barely weeks after the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President publicly distanced itself from the PFIPC.

In a statement issued in June, Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila said the council did not exist under the current administration and denied appointing Adeyemi or authorising the establishment of such an organisation.

He urged members of the public to disregard anyone claiming to represent the body.

The Presidency has since intensified its response to the controversy.

On Wednesday, presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed that Adeyemi is standing trial before the Federal High Court alongside two other defendants on charges including forgery and impersonation.

According to the Presidency, investigators alleged that forged documents were used to create the impression that the PFIPC was an official government agency.

The case is scheduled to come up again later this month.

The controversy has widened following reports that the disputed council also received a budgetary allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act despite the Presidency’s insistence that no such agency exists.

That development has prompted renewed calls from legal practitioners and governance experts for an independent investigation into how the organisation allegedly secured official approvals and financial allocations across multiple government institutions.

The alleged recruitment waiver granted the council is likely to deepen those questions.

Ordinarily, recruitment into the federal civil service requires approval from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, particularly during periods when a government-wide recruitment embargo is in force.

A waiver allows designated agencies to recruit personnel despite such restrictions.

The emergence of official documents approving hundreds of positions for an organisation now disowned by the Presidency is therefore expected to intensify scrutiny of administrative processes within the federal bureaucracy and could become a key issue as the criminal proceedings continue.

Neither the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation nor the Presidency had publicly explained how the recruitment waiver was issued for the PFIPC as of the time the report was published.

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