Dalung Challenges Presidency Over Alleged Fake Agency Scandal
Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has criticized the Presidency's defense of Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, arguing that the official response fails to address fundamental questions about how a fictitious presidential agency allegedly functioned within government structures. Dalung was reacting to a statement by Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, which sought to distance Gbajabiamila from the activities of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the individual at the center of the alleged scheme.
How the Alleged Fake Agency Evaded Detection
While conceding that the matter is before the courts, Dalung said the Presidency's explanation exposed serious gaps in government oversight rather than resolving public concerns. He argued that Nigerians deserve answers on how a purportedly fictitious presidential agency could establish itself, recruit staff, engage with government institutions, meet foreign diplomats, and reportedly secure a Central Bank of Nigeria account without triggering any official alarm.
His sharpest scrutiny was directed at budget oversight. Dalung noted that budget proposals pass through multiple layers of executive and legislative review before receiving approval, and questioned how a fake agency could have cleared all those checks. 'If the council was fake, explain how it entered the budget,' Dalung said. He added that the Presidency had not identified who introduced the budget provision, who processed it, or who authorized its inclusion.
He raised similar concerns about the alleged allocation of office space at the Federal Secretariat, asking which authority approved it and why the operation went undiscovered for as long as it reportedly did.
Questions Over Witness Death and Institutional Accountability
Dalung also turned his attention to the circumstances surrounding Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, whom investigators reportedly identified as the individual Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew claimed helped procure the alleged forged presidential appointment letter. Tanimola reportedly died in a hotel fire just days before Adeyemi's arrest, a detail the Presidency referenced in its statement. Dalung questioned whether investigators had rigorously examined the death, including whether an autopsy, coroner's inquest, or forensic review of Tanimola's communications and financial records had been carried out.
The former minister stressed that accountability in the matter should extend beyond the prosecution of a single individual. He called on the Presidency to publish documentary evidence, timelines, and official records that address the agency's reported appearance in the national budget, its alleged operations within the Federal Secretariat, and the apparent failure of institutional safeguards to detect the scheme earlier.
Atiku Reacts to Alleged Fake Agency
Meanwhile, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) shows President Bola Tinubu’s administration is being held hostage by fraudsters. Atiku lamented that fraudsters are operating from within the very institutions established to protect Nigeria.
