Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Esther Didi Walson-Jack, admitted Wednesday that her office failed to conduct adequate checks before approving a recruitment waiver for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) and the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), two bodies the House of Representatives says were never legally established.
Appearing before the House ad-hoc committee investigating the matter, Walson-Jack acknowledged her office relied on documents that later turned out to be forged.
“We now, having seen all the facts and observed all the documents, concede that we ought to have carried out more due diligence in discharge of the duties of the office in issuing an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver to the PEAC/PFIPC,” she told lawmakers.
She said officials representing the purported agency showed up at the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence with what looked like an Establishment Act and a letter appointing a Director-General. Under normal civil service procedure, she explained, new agencies must present an enabling Act, the appointment letter of their chief executive, and other supporting documents before receiving an authorised establishment and provisional recruitment waiver.
Her office processed the request based on what was presented, she said, calling the case unprecedented. “In over almost a century of the Federal Civil Service, we have never encountered a situation like the current one. Criminals always try to be a step ahead of law enforcement.”
Pressed by the committee, Walson-Jack conceded the submitted Establishment Act was not genuine. “I requested to see the documents myself and I saw that the Establishment Act was not really an authentic Act. I have almost 30 years of legal practice experience and immediately I saw it, I knew it was not,” she said.
She also noticed inconsistencies in the appointment letter attributed to the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. “I’m not a forensic expert, but I can clearly see that the signatures are not the same,” she said.
The committee chairman said police forensic analysis had already confirmed the signatures did not match — and that whoever forged them hadn’t even tried to imitate the original. “There was not even an attempt to imitate the signature,” he said, adding that the document was outright fake rather than forged.
The panel also said the fake Establishment Act lacked the standard markers of a genuine National Assembly Act — citation numbers, Supreme Court numbers, Gazette numbers and titles.
Despite the admissions, Walson-Jack insisted her office followed standard procedure. Out of 88 ministries, departments and agencies processed that cycle, she said, PEAC/PFIPC was the only one that slipped through with a fake Establishment Act and a forged appointment letter. She pledged reforms to prevent a repeat: “We take full responsibility and we will definitely review our processes to make them more fraud-proof.”
Accountant-General’s office blames individual lapse
The committee also grilled officials from the Office of the Accountant-General over how the purported agency obtained an administrative code.
Former Director, Consolidation Account, Joshua Patmi Luka, said his office sent its response to the Permanent Secretary at the State House as a safeguard — but the letter never reached him. It was instead intercepted by the fake Director-General.
Investigators found no such office as the “Directorate of Administration and Support Services” referenced in the correspondence exists at the State House. The committee chairman accused Luka’s office of allowing the suspect to collect a letter meant for the Permanent Secretary. “If the letter had reached the Permanent Secretary, the fraud would have been unravelled immediately,” he said.
Luka maintained the failure was individual, not institutional. “The problem here was not an office lapse, it was an individual lapse. Somebody was supposed to deliver that letter to the Permanent Secretary, State House, and it was not delivered there.”
The committee said evidence points to a coordinated scheme involving fake appointment letters, forged legislative documents, and a fictitious State House office used to secure government approvals and budgetary access. A final report is expected once the investigation concludes.
IGP explains why suspect wasn’t produced
The Inspector-General of Police, represented by DCP Olufemi Akinola of the NPF National Cybercrime Centre, told the committee that the alleged fake Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi, could not be produced because he remains in police custody under a subsisting court order. The force said producing him would require a reproduction warrant from a competent court.
The hearing was tense throughout, with the committee chairman repeatedly cutting off officials mid-explanation. The panel said it will wrap up the clarification stage before presenting preliminary findings next week, ahead of a final report to the House when it resumes from recess.
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