The embattled director general of phantom Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, has said he will only submit himself for investigation if President Bola Tinubu constitutes an independent panel comprising civil society groups, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), international observers and anti-graft agencies.

In an open letter addressed to the President on Monday, Adeyemi, who is at the centre of the alleged N1.3 billion PFIPC budget insertion scandal, commended Tinubu for directing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the matter but argued that the current arrangement could not guarantee impartiality.

He said he was not evading accountability but was seeking a transparent process capable of inspiring public confidence.

“I write to you not as a fugitive evading accountability, but as a Nigerian citizen who maintains an unwavering belief in equity, justice, and the rule of law,” he wrote.

Adeyemi described the President’s directive to the ICPC as “a vital first step” but maintained that “the structural realities of this investigation compel me to speak out of a profound desire for absolute transparency.”

According to him, allowing the investigation to proceed solely through existing government institutions would undermine public trust because the agencies involved operate within the same executive structure where the allegations originated.

“True accountability cannot be achieved when the agency conducting the investigation answers directly to the branch of government within which the core allegations lie,” he stated.

The embattled PFIPC figure also claimed that surrendering himself under the present circumstances would endanger his life, alleging he had received “verified, highly reliable intelligence” that he could be killed if he appeared in an unmonitored environment.

He further linked his fears to the reported death of Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, whom he described as a key intermediary in the controversy.

While noting that official accounts attributed Tanimola’s death to a fire incident at Kachi Hotel in Utako, Abuja, Adeyemi questioned the circumstances surrounding the incident, alleging there was no independent verification of the reported fire.

He also alleged that unidentified armed men later demolished the hotel without the involvement of relevant federal authorities, claiming the action destroyed what he described as a crucial crime scene.

“Following this calculated destruction of a key locus of this investigation, alongside multiple direct attempts on my life and the safety of my family, I am forced to communicate from a secure, undisclosed location,” he wrote.

Adeyemi urged Tinubu to establish what he described as an independent, multi-stakeholder investigative panel to oversee the probe.

He proposed that the panel should include the NBA, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Amnesty International, independent media representatives, officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, diplomatic observers from the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, ECOWAS and the African Union, while the ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should serve as technical partners.

“The moment this independent, multi-stakeholder panel is constituted, I will immediately step forward to present comprehensive documentation and verifiable evidences,” he stated.

He argued that “a system cannot credibly investigate itself when its own key actors are central to the discourse,” adding that constituting such a panel would demonstrate the administration’s commitment to transparency and anti-corruption.

President Tinubu had directed ICPC to investigate all activities linked to the purported council and submit its comprehensive report within 30 days.

In a statement issued by his special adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the president also directed the commission to investigate the alleged forgery of appointment letters and other official documents, the alleged use of false claims of presidential appointments to obtain official recognition and diplomatic support, including visa facilitation, as well as the opening of multiple bank accounts in the names of purported government agencies using allegedly forged documents.

Tinubu further ordered investigators to identify and probe any public officials, private individuals, financial institutions or intermediaries who may have aided the alleged scheme, while recommending measures to close procedural loopholes that may have enabled the operation.

The controversy erupted on July 1 after the Presidency publicly disowned the PFIPC, describing it as a fictitious organisation and accusing Adeyemi of falsely presenting himself as its Director-General with forged State House documents.