The high-stakes legal battle surrounding an alleged N1.3bn “ghost agency” fraud has taken a controversial turn following the arrest of the suspect’s father by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force.
Security agents reportedly stormed the Ogbomoso residence of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew—the embattled self-styled Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)—and took his elderly father into custody.
Adeyemi is currently standing trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges bordering on conspiracy, impersonation, and the alleged forgery of presidential documentation.
The Federal Government has already lined up high-profile figures, including the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, to testify as prosecution witnesses when the trial resumes.
Legal heavyweights and human rights groups slam “arrest by proxy”
The arrest of the suspect’s father has drawn immediate and fierce condemnation from top legal minds and human rights advocates, who label it an unlawful “substitutional arrest.”
The prominent human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) confirmed the incident, stating that police vehicles swarmed the family compound in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. “There is no legal basis for substituted arrests. The young man has promised to show up in court, so why arrest his father?” Falana questioned.
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), along with Senior Advocates Prof. Sam Erugo and Dr. Wahab Shittu, warned that criminal liability is strictly personal.
They noted that Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 and Section 20 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020 expressly forbid arresting a relative in place of a suspect.
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) called on the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, to order an immediate release, calling the deployment an arbitrary display of intimidation and collective punishment.
In response to the growing outcry, Force Headquarters Spokesman Anietie Iniedu stated he had not yet been formally briefed on which specific unit within the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) executed the operation.
Accountant-General’s office: “No public funds were released”
Amid public outrage over how a fraudulent agency secured a massive N1.3bn allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has broken its silence.
The Director of Press and Public Relations, Bawa Mokwa, clarified that despite the council’s aggressive manoeuvres, it never managed to touch public funds. Mokwa revealed that while an application was submitted to open an official government treasury account, the process was flagged and frozen because the promoters failed to provide verifiable, authorised signatories.
Furthermore, Mokwa noted that implementation of the 2026 federal budget only commenced on July 1, 2026—by which time the criminal investigation into the ghost agency was already in full swing, completely blocking any potential disbursements.
National Assembly defends role in budget approval
The Senate has also aggressively defended its integrity against accusations of failing in its oversight duties. Lawmakers have pushed back against critics attempting to drag Senate President Godswill Akpabio into the controversy.
Principal officers explained that the National Assembly operates under an “envelope budgeting system” where initial vetted estimates originate strictly from the Executive branch, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, and the Budget Office.
Legislators maintained that during budget defence sessions, committees review the financial figures transmitted directly by the Presidency under the objective assumption that due diligence and rigorous security vetting have already been performed by the executive apparatus.
The Senate is expected to deliberate heavily on the fallout of the multi-million-naira institutional scam as plenary sessions resume this week.
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