HoSF admits poor verification led to fake council recognition, vows to fix verification
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, admitted her office failed to properly verify documents that led to the recognition of a purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council. She said they relied on documents bearing the State House logo and a familiar signature without sufficient verification, though police forensics later confirmed the signatures were different from genuine State House correspondence.
Walson-Jack accepted responsibility for the lapse while appearing before a House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the alleged council. She assured lawmakers her office would review internal verification procedures to make them more robust and fraud-proof. Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police stated the self-acclaimed Director-General of the purported council, Mr. Adeniyi Adeyemi, could not appear before the committee due to a subsisting court order requiring judicial authorization for his appearance.
The committee has adjourned further deliberations on the matter until next week. This admission exposes a verification gap in federal offices that could allow fraudulent groups to gain illegitimate recognition through seemingly authentic documents, potentially undermining public trust in government processes.