By Our Reporter
President Bola Tinubu has ordered the immediate arrest of Prince George Buchi Nwabueze and the suspension of three permanent secretaries following the discovery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of another alleged fictitious government office operating from within the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
ICPC Chairman Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, disclosed that the office named National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office was allocated space within the OSGF without presidential approval, during a briefing after his second meeting with the President in two days.
According to Aliyu, Nwabueze was identified as the promoter of the office and was found to have operated under several variations of his name, including George Nathan and Honourable George Buchi Nwabueze. Following the ICPC briefing, Tinubu directed the suspension of three permanent secretaries allegedly linked to the matter: M.S. Danjuma, Engr. Nadungu Gagare and Richard P. Pheelangwah.
The latest discovery is part of the ICPC’s broader probe into the PFIPC scandal involving Director-General Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, facing charges like forgery and impersonation. Aliyu submitted an interim report to Tinubu on August 6, 30 days after the investigation began. The report identified two supposed fictitious agencies—the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency—and also mentioned the Public-Private Partnership.
The growing list of alleged phantom agencies has raised questions about the ability of government institutions to monitor offices operating within the federal administrative structure. What began as an investigation into an allegedly fake council has now expanded into a broader inquiry into how fictitious bodies could acquire office space and present themselves as legitimate government entities without being detected earlier.
The development therefore goes beyond the individuals being investigated or suspended. It raises concerns about institutional controls, oversight and accountability within the federal bureaucracy. While the ICPC probe may establish individual responsibility, its more consequential task will be to determine how the alleged offices gained access to government facilities and whether officials or systems within the public service enabled them to operate undetected.
For Nigeria, the emerging scandal is a reminder that the problem may extend beyond so-called ghost workers, inflated contracts and abandoned projects to the more fundamental question of whether government has adequate systems for verifying the agencies and offices operating in its name. The outcome of the ICPC investigation could therefore have implications far beyond the latest arrests and suspensions, particularly if it exposes weaknesses that allowed alleged phantom institutions to take root inside the machinery of government.