Segun Atanda/
ABUJA — President Bola Tinubu has ordered the suspension of three federal permanent secretaries and the arrest of a businessman after anti-corruption investigators uncovered what they described as an unauthorised government agency operating from within the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Dr Musa Aliyu, announced the measures on Friday after briefing the president at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Aliyu said the organisation, identified as the National Brands Development and Mandates in the Nigeria Special Project Office, had been allocated office space within the SGF’s premises despite having no lawful authority to operate as a government agency.
The discovery emerged from a wider ICPC investigation into another purported government body, the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, which investigators had previously identified as fictitious.
“The ICPC has uncovered another fake agency and office operating under the name National Brands Development and Mandates in the Nigeria Special Project Office, which had been illegally allocated office space within the premises of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,” Aliyu said.
He said the commission had briefed Tinubu on the findings and was widening its investigation to establish how an unauthorised organisation was able to secure space within one of the federal government’s most important administrative offices.
The ICPC identified Prince George Buchi Nwabueze as the alleged promoter of the organisation.
According to Aliyu, Nwabueze established and promoted the body without presidential authorisation and in violation of procedures governing the creation of federal agencies.
Tinubu subsequently ordered his immediate arrest, Aliyu said.
The president also directed the immediate suspension of three permanent secretaries — M.S. Danjuma, Engineer Nadungu Gagare and Richard Pheelangwah — as investigators examine the circumstances surrounding the operation.
Aliyu did not disclose what specific roles, if any, the suspended officials were alleged to have played. The announcement of their suspension does not in itself establish wrongdoing, and the ICPC said its investigation was continuing.
The commission has sought information from the Office of the SGF as investigators attempt to determine how the purported agency was established, who authorised its presence within the government complex and whether other officials or individuals were involved.
The episode raises broader questions about internal controls within Nigeria’s federal bureaucracy, particularly the processes through which government offices, agencies and personnel are authorised and accommodated.
Aliyu said the findings reinforced the need for a forensic audit of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, or IPPIS, as well as a review of internal administrative procedures ordered by the president.
The government says the measures are intended to close bureaucratic loopholes that could allow fictitious offices or agencies to operate under the appearance of official authority.
Aliyu said the ICPC would continue to brief the president as the investigation progresses, with investigators seeking to establish the full extent of the operation and identify any weaknesses in government systems that may have enabled it.
The latest discovery comes as the Tinubu administration faces continuing pressure to strengthen accountability across the federal civil service and demonstrate that anti-corruption safeguards can detect abuses occurring within government institutions themselves.
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