A businessman on Tuesday told the House of Representatives how he lost N400 million to a man who posed as the Director-General of a non-existent presidential agency, using official-looking offices, security aides and government vehicles to seal the deal.
Mr. Gbenga Collins, Managing Director of Divine Dopacy Nigeria Limited, said Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew, who calls himself DG of the “Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC,” lured him with a bogus contract to renovate the agency’s official residence.
Collins appeared before the House Ad-hoc Committee investigating the activities of the purported agency, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi.
Collins said he first met Mathew in December 2024 at a programme in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. In February 2025, Mathew invited him to Abuja for what he described as a lucrative federal contract.
“I picked him at the airport and brought him to the office,” Collins told the committee. “The receptionist convinced me he occupied an important position. I met many prominent people waiting to see him, and security officers were guarding the office.”
According to him, the Lexus SUV that conveyed him bore Federal Government number plates, while police officers escorted Mathew.
Mathew allegedly introduced himself as DG of both the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and PFIPC. The office setting, Collins said, left him with no reason to doubt him.
“He told me he wanted to renovate and refurbish the official residence assigned to him and asked if I could handle the contract,” Collins said. Mathew later took him to inspect the property, accompanied by staff and security personnel.
Weeks later in April 2025, Collins was invited back to Abuja and handed what appeared to be a contract award letter, scope of work and agreement between PFIPC and Divine Dopacy Nigeria Limited.
To demonstrate financial capacity and “fast-track mobilisation,” Mathew demanded N400 million.
Believing the deal was genuine, Collins said he raised the money from associates and investors.
He told the committee that the first payment of N100 million was made on May 16, 2025, into a Guaranty Trust Bank account in the name of World Entrepreneurs Limited.
Subsequent payments, according to him, were made in tranches:
– N100 million on May 22
– N100 million on May 28
– N80 million on June 20 into an account belonging to World Entrepreneurs Limited
– N20 million on July 29 into an Access Bank account belonging to Sunshine Confectionery and Catering Services
Collins said Mathew repeatedly assured him mobilisation would begin in August 2025. Later, the date was shifted to November. When he could no longer raise funds, Mathew allegedly insisted on the balance before work could start.
As pressure mounted from investors, Collins said he kept travelling to Abuja but found it harder to reach Mathew. The self-styled DG eventually stopped taking his calls.
“I consulted a lawyer in Abuja. My lawyer was the first person who told me that I had been scammed,” he said.
Collins told the committee he has a degree from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and runs Divine Dopacy, an agribusiness firm established in 2017 to source farm produce for export.
Shocked by Collins’ account, the committee resolved to summon the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps to explain how vehicles allegedly used by the fake agency carried official FG number plates.
Members described the case as a serious security breach and warned that fraudsters were tarnishing the image of government to defraud citizens.
The committee said it would also verify the existence of PFIPC and PEAC, and track the accounts where the N400 million was paid.
There is no record of a “Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council” or “Presidential Economic Advisory Council” in the federal structure. Both names are not part of existing government agencies, sources said.
