Tinubu Cracks Down on Massive Fake Agency Scandal, Top Officials Suspended

President Bola Tinubu has taken decisive action following the discovery of a new fraudulent entity, the ‘National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office,’ which was found operating illicitly within the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF). In response, the President ordered the immediate suspension of three permanent secretaries—M.S. Danjuma, Nadungu Gagare, and Richard P. Pheelangwah—and commanded the arrest of the alleged mastermind behind the fake agency, George Buchi Nwabueze, who was found to operate under multiple aliases including George Nathan, George Nathan Nwabueze, Hon. George Buchi Nwabueze, Prince Geroge Buchi Nwabueze, and George Nwabueze.

This latest discovery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is a significant development stemming from earlier investigations into a series of fictitious government bodies. The ICPC chairman, Musa Aliyu, briefed State House correspondents on Friday, confirming that this marks the fourth such phoney agency uncovered during the commission’s recently concluded 30-day investigation. The probe into the ‘National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office’ was an offshoot of an earlier inquiry into the ‘Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council’ (PFIPC), a previous fraudulent scheme that had also made headlines and implicated several government officials, including the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was later vindicated by the ICPC.

The newly exposed ‘National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office’ operated with remarkable audacity, presenting itself to state governments as an official federal initiative. Documents obtained reveal that it utilized presidential insignia, letters of appointment, and extensive correspondence to solicit financial, land, and other forms of support. The agency maintained a dedicated website and had established state coordinators across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Between January and February, it engaged with governors in states such as Lagos, Imo, Ondo, Sokoto, Edo, and Nasarawa, requesting various forms of backing. These requests included nominations for state coordinators, funding for programmes both within Nigeria and abroad, and land for specific projects.

One notable example includes a letter dated February 23, where the agency sought authorization for state governments to fund participation in an international summit in Bahrain. It directed the Edo State government to make payments, totaling an estimated $75,000 for a delegation of 30 people, into bank accounts belonging to the ‘Made in Nigeria Project Office, Abuja,’ providing both naira and dollar domiciliary accounts at Zenith Bank. Another correspondence to the Nasarawa government outlined plans for a ‘national stakeholders’ meeting in Lafia, aimed at inaugurating a State Coordinators Executive Council. In Ondo State, the agency requested land for a ‘Made in Nigeria Product Market,’ described as a national platform for promoting local goods. Similarly, the Imo State Governor was invited as a ‘special guest of honour’ to a national inaugural convention and asked to provide financial support for logistics, including transportation, accommodation, and conference materials.

The previous case of the PFIPC further illustrates the alarming penetration of such phantom agencies into government bureaucracy. Despite being flagged as a fake entity, the PFIPC managed to acquire the trappings of a legitimate institution, even appearing in the 2026 federal budget with an allocation of approximately N1.3 billion. Adeniyi Adeyemi, the self-proclaimed Director-General of PFIPC, confessed to lobbying the budget office for an allocation in the 2025 appropriation bill, and was surprised to later discover his agency listed in the 2026 budget, an arrangement he claimed was based on promises of future employment opportunities for budget officials' contacts rather than monetary exchange.

The repeated uncovering of these fake agencies, as highlighted by the ICPC chairman, underscores critical accountability gaps and the porous nature of Nigeria’s government system. While President Tinubu has moved swiftly to sanction those linked to the latest discovery, the overarching challenge of preventing such deep-seated infiltration remains a significant concern for national security and governance integrity.