The self-styled Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, has told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that he would not honour any invitation from the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission because he is afraid he would be killed like they did to one of the principal actors in the process of his appointment, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola.
Adeyemi said this in an open letter, dated July 13, 2026, to President Tinubu who directed the ICPC to probe the PFIPC scandal.
He said unless a panel that is “independent” and “multi-stakeholder” is set up to “guarantee complete neutrality”, he would not come out of hiding.
He said in the open letter copied to several bodies, including the United Nations: “Furthermore, I must state clearly that walking freely into custody under the current arrangement poses an immediate, existential threat to my life.
“I have received verified, highly reliable intelligence indicating that I am targeted for elimination the moment I surface in an unmonitored environment.
“This is not an unfounded fear.
“My concerns are deeply validated by the highly alarming events surrounding Mr. Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, a central intermediary in this matter.
“Official reports claim Mr. Tanimola tragically died in a sudden fire incident at Kachi Hotel in Utako, Abuja.
“Yet, there remains a total absence of independent eyewitness or media verification of any such inferno.
“More disturbingly, under highly unclear circumstances and without the official involvement of any federal capital regulatory agency, the entire Kachi Hotel structure was swiftly invaded by unidentified armed actors and manually demolished down to the rubble days later—effectively erasing a vital physical crime scene and erasing material evidence.”
According to Adeyemi, the membership of the panel that must be set up should be drawn from civil society organisations and independent media representatives, international financial observers, and human rights observers such as Amnesty International.
He wrote: “Diplomatic Observers: Representatives from the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, ECOWAS and the African Union” and “Statutory Enforcement: The ICPC and EFCC, serving as technical partners within this broader, independent coalition.
“If this investigation is to command the absolute trust of the Nigerian public and the international community, it must transcend standard bureaucratic boundaries.
“The moment this independent, multi-stakeholder panel is constituted, I will immediately step forward to present comprehensive documentation and verifiable evidence.
“A system cannot credibly investigate itself when its own key actors are central to the discourse.”
Though he commended President Tinubu for directing the ICPC to investigate the circumstances “surrounding the PFIPC Scandal and ₦1.3 billion allocation inserted into the 2026 Appropriation Bill”, Adeyemi said “true accountability cannot be achieved when the agency conducting the investigation answers directly to the branch of government within which the core allegations lie”.
Copies of the letter were also sent to President Donald Trump, World Bank, IMF, Amnesty International, European Union Delegation to Nigeria, African Union Commission, Nigerian Bar Association, ECOWAS, National Assembly leadership, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Department of State Services, Inspector-General of Police, National Intelligence Agency, Defence Intelligence Agency, ICPC, EFCC, International Criminal Court, and several foreign embassies and civil society organisations.
