The lawyer representing embattled Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council figure Adeniyi Adeyemi says his client has written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu expressing fears for his life, even as the lawyer himself admits he has not been able to reach him in over a month.

Speaking to reporters, counsel Genesis Francis said “someone has to be alive before justice is heard” in Adeyemi’s case, describing the situation as sad but a reflection of the current reality surrounding his client.

Adeyemi has been at the centre of weeks of controversy over the PFIPC, an agency the presidency has dismissed as fictitious despite a N1.3 billion allocation to it in the 2026 budget. He was previously arrested in October 2025 over the agency’s operations from the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja and now faces an eight-count charge bordering on forgery, impersonation and related offences before the Federal High Court in Abuja.

He has repeatedly failed to appear for arraignment, prompting the court to issue a bench warrant for his arrest.

In his open letter to the president, Adeyemi called for the constitution of an independent, multi-stakeholder panel to investigate the PFIPC scandal, arguing that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission cannot credibly probe a matter in which the government itself is a central party. He proposed that the ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission instead serve as technical partners within a broader coalition, insisting that only such an arrangement would command public and international trust.

He pledged to immediately surrender comprehensive documentation and evidence once such a panel is established.

Adeyemi has tied his safety concerns to the death of Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, a figure linked to the PFIPC case who reportedly died in a hotel fire in Abuja, an incident he claims was never independently confirmed by eyewitnesses or media coverage. He alleged the hotel structure was subsequently demolished by unidentified armed individuals without the involvement of any regulatory agency, a development he said effectively destroyed a potential crime scene.

Adeyemi has maintained that he is not evading the law but staying out of public view because he believes his life is in danger, a claim that has drawn the involvement of a US lobbying firm reportedly assisting him in seeking asylum and briefing officials in Washington on his allegations against senior Nigerian government figures.

Photo Credit: Nigerian eye