President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered the immediate arrest of Prince George Buchi Nwabueze alongside the suspension of three Federal Permanent Secretaries, M.S. Danjuma, Engr. Nadungu Gagare, and Richard P. Pheelangwah.
The executive actions followed a briefing at the State House by Musa Adamu Aliyu, Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). The ICPC uncovered a bogus body styled as the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office operating illicitly out of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
Nwabueze, who operated under several aliases including George Nathan and Hon. George Buchi Nwabueze, allegedly masterminded the unauthorized scheme. Investigations revealed that restricted federal office space within the SGF premises was illegally allocated to the fake entity, prompting President Tinubu to order a full forensic audit across government internal controls to identify structural loopholes and compromised officials.
This latest finding directly links back to the genesis of a broader federal racket first exposed through the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC). That initial scheme was spearheaded by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who created multiple fake agencies, including the PFIPC, using forged official gazettes, fake presidential appointment letters, and falsified documents.
Adeyemi managed to secure physical office space in the Federal Secretariat, recruit unsuspecting personnel, and insert a fake budget allocation of ₦1.3 billion into the 2026 Appropriation Act.
As the PFIPC investigation intensified, public controversy erupted when Adeyemi made explosive allegations against Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. Adeyemi claimed Gbajabiamila demanded a 48% kickback from a proposed ₦27.3 billion take-off grant and alleged that ₦400 million had already been paid to proxies.
Gbajabiamila denied all claims under oath, clarifying that he had never met Adeyemi or accepted bribes, and noted that his office originally flagged the fraudulent signatures to the police for prosecution.
Following a 30-day presidential probe directive issued in July 2026, the ICPC officially cleared Gbajabiamila of any involvement, confirming that police forensic analysis proved his signature had been forged and that no public funds were disbursed to the entity.
However, while probing how Adeyemi’s fraud bypassed civil service oversight mechanisms in the SGF, Budget Office, and Treasury, investigators uncovered Nwabueze’s secondary operation embedded within the same SGF office infrastructure. The ICPC’s wider investigation into administrative compromises and collaborating officials remains ongoing.
