Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who accused the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, of demanding a bribe, has been transferred from the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT) detention facility to the National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) in Abuja.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Adeyemi spent two nights in IRT custody after his arrest in Osun State before he was moved to the cybercrime detention facility in the Federal Capital Territory.
The reason for the transfer has not been disclosed by the Nigeria Police Force.
The police are yet to issue an official statement explaining the circumstances surrounding Adeyemi’s arrest, the basis for his continued detention, or the status of any ongoing investigation.
The transfer comes amid an ongoing ₦15 billion defamation suit filed against Adeyemi by Gbajabiamila at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
In the suit, the Chief of Staff is seeking ₦10 billion in general damages, ₦5 billion in aggravated damages, and ₦200 million as the cost of the action. He is also asking the court to order Adeyemi to publish a full retraction and apology in five national newspapers and pin the apology on all his social media platforms for 30 days.
Through his legal team, Gbajabiamila described the allegations against him as false, malicious and defamatory, insisting that he had never met or communicated with Adeyemi and had never authorised anyone to demand or receive money on his behalf.
Court documents showed that Adeyemi alleged during a press conference that he paid ₦400 million through an intermediary on behalf of Gbajabiamila and was later instructed to pay an additional ₦200 million to secure presidential approvals.
Gbajabiamila denied the allegations, maintaining that he has no personal, official or professional relationship with Adeyemi and has never requested 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 content creator and social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, that he had never met Gbajabiamila in person or independently verified the identity of the individual he believed to be the Chief of Staff. He reportedly said all communications were conducted through the late Babatunde Tanimola.
According to the Chief of Staff’s witness statement, Adeyemi repeated the allegations during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on July 13, 2026, despite those admissions.
The suit also stated that Adeyemi is currently standing trial before the Federal High Court in 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 non-existent government agency.
Adeyemi allegedly presented himself as the Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), an agency the Presidency has said does not exist.
Despite the agency’s non-existent status, it allegedly 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, an allegation the Chief of Staff has consistently denied.
