Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the businessman who accused President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, of demanding a multi-billion-naira kickback, has been transferred from the Nigeria Police Force’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) detention facility to the Nigeria Police National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) in Abuja.
The transfer followed Adeyemi’s arrest in Osun State. Sources within the Nigeria Police Force told SaharaReporters that he spent two nights in IRT custody before he was moved to the cybercrime detention facility in the Federal Capital Territory.
The reasons for the transfer remain unclear, as the Nigeria Police Force has yet to issue an official statement explaining the basis for Adeyemi’s continued detention or the status of its investigation.
The latest development comes amid an intensifying legal battle between Adeyemi and Gbajabiamila, who recently filed a ₦15 billion defamation suit before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, over allegations that he demanded a 48 per cent kickback from a proposed ₦27.3 billion take-off grant for a federal agency.
In the suit, Gbajabiamila is seeking ₦10 billion in general damages, ₦5 billion in aggravated damages, ₦200 million as the cost of the action, and an order compelling Adeyemi to publish a full retraction and apology in five national newspapers. He is also asking the court to direct Adeyemi to pin the apology on all his social media platforms for 30 consecutive days.
Through his lawyers, the Chief of Staff described the allegations as false, malicious and defamatory, insisting he had never met Adeyemi, communicated with him, or authorised anyone to demand or receive money on his behalf.
Court documents showed that Adeyemi had alleged during a press conference that he paid ₦400 million through an intermediary allegedly acting for Gbajabiamila and was later asked to pay an additional ₦200 million to secure presidential approvals.
Gbajabiamila, however, denied the claims, maintaining that he had no personal, official or professional relationship with Adeyemi and had never demanded or received any financial benefit from him or anyone acting on his behalf.
The court filings further revealed that Adeyemi later admitted during an interview with social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, that he had never met Gbajabiamila in person and had not independently verified the identity of the individual he believed represented the Chief of Staff. According to the documents, all communications were allegedly conducted through the late Babatunde Tanimola.
Despite that admission, Gbajabiamila alleged that Adeyemi repeated the bribery allegations during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on July 13, 2026.
The Chief of Staff also informed the court that Adeyemi is already standing trial before the Federal High Court, Abuja, in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/652/2026: Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew & Others, over allegations of forgery, impersonation and operating a fictitious government agency.
According to the court documents, Adeyemi allegedly presented himself as the Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), an agency the Presidency has insisted does not exist.
Despite its disputed status, the purported agency reportedly secured a ₦1.3 billion budget allocation and office space within the Federal Secretariat.
Adeyemi had accused Gbajabiamila of demanding a 48 per cent kickback from the agency’s proposed ₦27.3 billion take-off grant, allegations the Chief of Staff has consistently and categorically denied.
With Adeyemi now in the custody of the Police National Cybercrime Centre and the ₦15 billion defamation suit before the court, the high-profile dispute has entered a new phase, raising fresh questions over the police investigation and the legal battle surrounding the explosive bribery allegations.