The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, has admitted that her office failed to carry out adequate due diligence before approving requests submitted by the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), as the House of Representatives intensified its investigation into the alleged fake agency.

The admission came on Wednesday during a hearing of the House Ad-Hoc Committee probing the alleged creation of the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), both of which lawmakers say operated without any legal foundation.

The committee is investigating how Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who presented himself as the Director-General of the PFIPC, allegedly secured official recognition for the organisation using fake appointment letters, fabricated legislative documents and other forged government records.

Appearing before the panel, Walson-Jack acknowledged that her office approved an authorised establishment and recruitment waiver based on documents that have since been established to be false.

“We ought to have carried out more due diligence in issuing an authorised establishment and recruitment waiver to the PEAC/PFIPC,” she told the committee.

She explained that officials of the purported agency attended the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence and presented what appeared to be a valid Establishment Act and a letter appointing a Director-General, documents required under civil service procedures before recruitment approvals can be granted.

However, she admitted that a review of the documents revealed they lacked authenticity.

“I requested to see the documents myself and immediately realised the Establishment Act was not authentic. With nearly 30 years of legal practice, I knew it was not genuine,” she said.

Walson-Jack also questioned the authenticity of the appointment letter allegedly issued by the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, noting that the signature differed from those on verified official documents.

Committee Chairman Yusuf Gagdi disclosed that forensic experts from the Nigeria Police Force had confirmed the signatures on the appointment letter did not belong to the genuine signatory.

“The Police Forensic Department has established that the signatures are not the same. There was not even an attempt to imitate the genuine signature,” Gagdi said, describing both the appointment letter and the purported Establishment Act as fake.

The committee also uncovered irregularities within the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. Director of the Federal Project Financial Department, Joshua Luka, told lawmakers that while the office issued an administrative code in response to what appeared to be a request from the State House, the correspondence was addressed to the Permanent Secretary as part of its verification process.

However, the letter never reached the intended recipient. Instead, it was allegedly collected by Adeyemi after it was diverted by an official of the Accountant-General’s Office identified as Bello Abdullahi.

Lawmakers criticised the handling of the correspondence, arguing that delivering the letter to the Permanent Secretary would likely have exposed the alleged fraud much earlier.

Luka maintained that the incident resulted from the actions of an individual officer rather than a systemic failure within the office.

The committee further revealed that the Directorate of Administration and Support Services, listed on some of the documents, does not exist within the State House, raising further questions about the authenticity of the records used to obtain official recognition.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force informed the committee that Adeyemi could not be produced before lawmakers because he remains in lawful custody under a subsisting court order. Police representatives advised the House to obtain a production warrant from a competent court to facilitate his appearance before the panel.

Despite acknowledging shortcomings, Walson-Jack insisted her office followed established procedures based on the documents presented and pledged to strengthen internal verification processes to prevent similar incidents.

The House committee said it has concluded most of its fact-finding exercise and will present its preliminary findings next week before submitting a final report to the House of Representatives after lawmakers return from recess.

It is expected to recommend legal action against those implicated in the alleged fraud and propose reforms to strengthen safeguards within public institutions.