Quick Reads:

• A Federal High Court judge has ordered Adeyemi’s arrest after he skipped his fraud arraignment.
• His lawyer says Adeyemi is in hiding, fearing for his life, and wrote to President Tinubu about it.
• A US lobbying firm working for Atiku Abubakar has offered to help Adeyemi seek asylum.
• The lobbyist says Tinubu will be held responsible if Adeyemi is harmed.
• Adeyemi faces eight charges and up to 21 years in prison if convicted.

The walls appear to be closing in on Adeniyi Adeyemi from two very different directions at once. At home, a Nigerian judge has ordered Adeyemi’s arrest for dodging his own trial. Abroad, a Washington lobbying firm is offering him a way out through asylum in the United States. Between the two, the fake agency scandal that has embarrassed Nigeria’s presidency for months just got a lot messier.

On Tuesday, Judge Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja signed a bench warrant for Adeyemi’s arrest after the self-styled director-general of the fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) failed, for the third time, to show up for his own arraignment. Prosecution lawyer Wisdom Madaki told the court he had no idea where the defendant was. Defence counsel Genesis Francis explained that his client was staying away because he feared for his life, and had even written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu about the threat. The judge was not persuaded. He told the lawyer the court would instead “help him be alive,” before ordering Adeyemi’s arrest and fixing 30 September for a fresh arraignment date. Adeyemi faces eight charges of conspiracy, forgery and impersonation over the fake council, and could be jailed for up to 21 years if convicted.

While Nigerian authorities were chasing him down, help was arriving from an unexpected quarter. A day earlier, Karl Von Batten of the US lobbying outfit Von Batten-Montague-York had announced on X that his firm was ready to assist Adeyemi in seeking asylum and whistleblower protection in the United States. Von Batten argued that Washington has skin in the game because World Bank funds, of which the US is the largest shareholder, flow into Nigeria’s national budget, the same budget the PFIPC reportedly tapped despite having no legal existence. After speaking with Adeyemi directly, Von Batten said he found him “sincere and credible” and believes his allegations warrant investigation by the US Congress, State Department, Treasury and Government Accountability Office. He said he had already briefed members of President Donald Trump’s team and would begin briefing Congress this week, adding a pointed warning: if any harm comes to Adeyemi or his family, President Tinubu would be held responsible and made to face justice in the US.

Adeyemi’s central allegation is that Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila appointed him to head the council, collected N400 million through a proxy, and later demanded a further N200 million to secure the appointment. He has also called for a probe into the death of an alleged intermediary, Babatunde Tanimola, and insists attempts have been made on his own life. The presidency has firmly disowned both Adeyemi and the PFIPC, insisting no such agency exists under Tinubu, and Gbajabiamila has threatened Adeyemi with a N10 billion defamation suit unless he retracts his claims.

There is also an intriguing wrinkle to the US lobbyist’s intervention: Von Batten-Montague-York is the same firm former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar hired in April, reportedly for $1.2 million, to shore up his reputation in Washington ahead of the 2027 elections. Whether that overlap is coincidence or strategy, it places Adeyemi’s asylum bid squarely inside Nigeria’s wider political battles. For now, Tinubu has ordered the ICPC to investigate the PFIPC affair within 30 days, even as Adeyemi remains at large with a warrant hanging over his head.