The trial of the self-proclaimed Director-General of the disputed Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, stalled on Monday after he failed to appear before the Federal High Court, Abuja, to answer an eight-count forgery and fraud charge.
Adeyemi was expected to take his plea before Justice Mohammed Umar in a case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/562/2025, but his name on the court’s cause list went unanswered as the matter came up for hearing.
With the defendant absent, the Inspector-General of Police, who is prosecuting the case, is expected to apply for a bench warrant to compel his arrest.
The police filed the charge against Adeyemi and two others on November 27, 2025, through prosecutor Wisdom Madaki. Expected witnesses in the case include the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, alongside Paul Emmanuel, Jeremiah Imoukhede, Ituah Sylvester, and civil servants from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
Adeyemi, whose location remains unknown, told Channels Television on Monday that he had gone underground over fears for his life, not to dodge prosecution. He insisted he was ready to face the law but claimed to have survived several attempts on his life.
He repeated his claim that he paid N400 million through a proxy to secure his appointment as DG of the council, alleging the money was borrowed from persons who have since petitioned the EFCC against him.
Police investigations, triggered by a petition from the Chief of Staff’s office in October 2025, allege that Adeyemi forged appointment letters bearing fake signatures, seals and the Nigerian Coat of Arms to give the impression that PFIPC was a legitimate federal agency. He allegedly ran the operation from an office at the Federal Secretariat, Phase III, Abuja.
One of his alleged accomplices, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, died in a hotel fire in Abuja under circumstances Adeyemi has cited as part of the reason for his disappearance.
Adeyemi has continued to insist the council is real and is demanding an independent panel — including civil society groups, the NBA, the EFCC and ICPC — to investigate the N1.3 billion budgetary allocation controversy tied to PFIPC in the 2026 Appropriation Bill.
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