Mr Adeyemi Matthew
This came to the fore when CBN’s Director of Banking Services, Abdullahi Hamisu, appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee investigating the PFIPC controversy.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has confirmed that it opened two accounts for the controversial ‘Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)’ but added that both accounts never had any inflows or remittances.
This came to the fore when CBN’s Director of Banking Services, Abdullahi Hamisu, appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee investigating the PFIPC controversy.
Hamisu confirmed that the CBN received instructions from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, mandating it to open two accounts for PFIPC.
Hamisu told the committee: “The accounts have never been operated. As a result, there have not been any foreign exchange allocations to the council from CBN. There have not been any remittances into those two accounts. There have not been approvals because the authority has not been established for those who will operate the account,
“So, there was no transaction made to or by the council throughout the period: from August when it was opened till today when we generated the statement. The details of financial inflow – I think I’ve mentioned this. That’s the number three question. The account has maintained a zero balance from inception to date. The accounts have maintained a zero balance from inception to date and have never recorded any inflow or outflow.”
Hamisu’s disclosure may have opened another door to the sleaze, pointing to the fact that the PFIPC Director General Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew may not have acted alone.
Hamisu continued: “On the 30th of July 2025, we received a mandate dated 29th July 2025 from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation authorising the Central Bank of Nigeria to open accounts.
“On the 30th of July, 2025, we received the mandate, but the mandate has a date on it that is July 29, 2025, and I have submitted our response. A copy of the mandate is also attached to our response.
“So, we received the mandate authorising us to open two accounts. One is a US dollar domiciliary account. The other one is a GBP domiciliary account for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.
“Based on that mandate, we did the normal verification to confirm the genuineness of the mandate and also processed the account opening, and two accounts were actually opened (domiciliary): a dollar account and a pound sterling account for the Presidential Economic Advisory council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council wall summit.
“Usually, when we open the account, we also advise OAGF through a letter that this account has actually been opened so that he can inform the agency directly. So, after opening this account, we did not receive any correspondence to collect signature mandate cards, or we were not introduced to who the authorising officers or the approving officers were. We were not introduced to that. Based on that, those accounts remain inactive with zero balance and have never been operated. Those two accounts have never been operated.”
