Sacred Cow: How Nigerian Government Shields George SGF Akume Despite Involvement in Establishing Three Fake Agencies

Secrets Reporters

A series of investigations by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has exposed multiple fictitious government bodies that operated for months with the trappings of official legitimacy, including office space inside federal premises, formal correspondence processed through senior government channels, and in one case an allocation in the national budget.

Across these developments the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation processed requests, hosted office space for one of the entities and issued an appointment letter on its letterhead signed by one of its permanent secretaries. Three permanent secretaries linked to the latest discovery were suspended and the promoters of the organisations face arrest or prosecution. Senator George Akume, the SGF in whose office these activities occurred, has not been suspended, causing allegations of Akume being illegally protected by the presidency.

The controversies began with the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, an organisation that for much of 2025 presented itself as a legitimate body tasked with attracting foreign investment. Its self-styled director-general, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, operated from an office inside the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, maintained a website on a government domain, met cabinet ministers, financial regulators, the head of an anti-corruption agency and foreign diplomats, and secured an allocation of 1.3 billion naira in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

The Presidency later declared the council fictitious, stating it had never been created by law, presidential order or any official instrument. Officials said its apparent legitimacy rested on a single forged appointment letter bearing the purported signature of Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila. Adeyemi denied the forgery, insisted the council was lawfully established in 2024 and accused senior officials of demanding bribes. Police charged him with forgery, impersonation and related offences, and he faced an eight-count charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Investigators recovered exhibits including alleged forged documents and found he operated dozens of bank accounts, some in the names of non-existent entities.

Documents obtained by reporters showed that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation received, acknowledged and acted on correspondence from the council months before the Presidency publicly disowned it. In November 2024 a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary, General Services Office, on behalf of the SGF formally forwarded Adeyemi’s request for office accommodation from recovered federal properties to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Registry stamps confirmed the SGF’s office processed the request. Former SGF Babachir Lawal stated that if correspondence from such an agency is received, processed and forwarded without verification of its legal status, it amounts to dereliction of duty on the part of the SGF’s office, which keeps records of all recognised ministries, departments and agencies and serves as the clearing house for federal entities.

President Bola Tinubu directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate the PFIPC and related procedural weaknesses, ordering a report within 30 days. The ICPC’s interim findings linked Adeyemi to two additional fictitious bodies: the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public-Private Partnership. Investigators said he forged legislative instruments styled as enabling acts for both and used them to open bank accounts. No federal funds were confirmed as having been disbursed to the PFIPC itself, though the agency had appeared in the national budget.

Further probing of these entities led the ICPC to uncover a fourth organisation operating under the name National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office. This body had been illegally allocated office space within the premises of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, headed by Senator George Akume.

Its promoter, identified as Prince George Buchi Nwabueze (who also operated under variations including George Nathan Nwabueze, Hon. George Buchi Nwabueze and George Nwabueze), maintained a detailed organisational structure that included zonal directors, 20 state coordinators and representatives in the United States and China.

The organisation’s website claimed Federal Executive Council approval dating to 2017 for a national campaign on patronage of made-in-Nigeria products and presented the outfit as a federal agency under the oversight of the permanent secretary for political and economic affairs in the OSGF.

Nwabueze shared an appointment letter on LinkedIn dated 3 October 2025, bearing the OSGF letterhead and reference number OSGF/MIN/59310/11/205. Signed by Nadungu Gagare, permanent secretary at the Political and Economic Affairs Office, the letter conveyed approval of his appointment as National Coordinator and Executive Director of the Made in Nigeria Project Office under the OSGF for a five-year tenure starting from July 2025.

It assigned him duties including overseeing programmes, projects and policies, supervising regional and state coordinators, and organising exhibitions and trade expos, and noted temporary office space at Room B53, Ground Floor, within the OSGF Complex. The letter stated the appointment was at the pleasure of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and aligned with the Renewed Hope agenda.

At various points in 2025 the Made in Nigeria Project Office sent letters to at least 15 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory requesting nomination of state coordinators. The letters, signed by Nwabueze, described the appointments as critical to collaboration between the federal project office and state governments in promoting local production. After initial non-responses, reminder letters followed. Sources said state governments eventually nominated aides or members of their executive councils under the assumption the project was genuine because OSGF officials appeared involved. The organisation’s website displayed portraits of coordinators from Kogi, Bauchi, Oyo, Taraba, Kano, Ondo, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, Abia, Sokoto, Ogun, Anambra, Osun, Kebbi and Delta. Nominated coordinators were added to a WhatsApp group. In May 2026 an inauguration of 28 state coordinators took place in Nasarawa State, attended by Governor Abdullahi Sule, who was decorated as a grand patron.

The Secretary to the Anambra State Government, Chiamaka Nnake, confirmed she was nominated by Governor Chukwuma Soludo after the state received a letter from the office and that focal persons from the 36 states had engaged in the WhatsApp group; she said her involvement was limited to official communications and preparations for a proposed fair.

ICPC Chairman Musa Adamu Aliyu disclosed the discovery while briefing State House correspondents after meeting President Tinubu. He stated the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office had been allocated space within the OSGF contrary to extant laws and without presidential authorisation, and that the promoter had suspected collaborators in the office.

Following the briefing, the President ordered the immediate arrest of Nwabueze and the immediate suspension of three permanent secretaries: M.S. Danjuma, Engineer Nadungu Gagare and Richard P. Pheelangwah. The ICPC linked the find to its ongoing investigation into the PFIPC and procedural weaknesses in the public service. Nwabueze rejected the fake-agency tag, stating the Made in Nigeria Special Project Office was a project office in the OSGF that had operated since 16 July 2010.

As the investigations continue, the pattern of official responses has drawn attention to the differential treatment of those connected to the entities. While the President ordered the arrest of the promoters of the organisations and the suspension of three permanent secretaries linked to the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office, Senator George Akume has remained in office.

It has been alleged that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is being protected by the Presidency despite the repeated appearance of unauthorised bodies within or processed through the structures of his office.

Such selective application of accountability measures is said to be standing at variance with Section 15(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), which directs that the State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power, and with Section 17(2)(a), which provides that every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law.