An internal disagreement between promoter of the National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office, George Nwabueze, and some directors in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) may have triggered the controversy surrounding the status of the project.
According to Saturday PUNCH, multiple officials in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was misled into treating the initiative as an unauthorized government agency.
The officials alleged that a disagreement between Nwabueze and some directors prompted a petition to the anti-corruption agency describing the project office as fake.
One of the officials insisted that the organisation was established as a project office rather than a statutory government agency.
One official said: “It is not a fake agency. It is a project office. The ICPC was misled into believing it is a fake agency by some directors.
“There was a disagreement between him (Nwabueze) and some directors over some issues, which prompted the directors to petition the ICPC, alleging that someone was running a fake office.
“Instead of the ICPC doing due diligence, they saw it as an opportunity to declare that they had discovered another fake agency. That is far from it. It is a project office, not an agency. It can wind down anytime.”
“How does a project office become an agency, and why has it been operating since 2010 in that office? ICPC didn’t discover anything; they were misinformed by some people at the SGF office who have scores to settle with the promoter of that office,” another official added.
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Recall that the ICPC had announced that it has uncovered what it described as another fake government agency operating in the OSGF.
Speaking to State House correspondents after briefing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu (SAN), said the President ordered the arrest and prosecution of Nwabueze and the suspension of three Permanent Secretaries.
The suspended PS are MS Danjuma, Nandungu Gagare and Richard Pheelangwa.
However, a highly placed source in the ICPC office said no arrest had been made days after the President directive and Nwabueze is not in the Commission’s custody.
“That’s all I can tell you,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Nwabueze also disputed the description of the National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office as an unauthorised government agency.
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In a statement issued on his behalf by the Directorate of Legal Affairs and Strategic Communications, he alleged that some serving and retired officials of the OSGF had frustrated the project through administrative sabotage and suppression of official files.
He stated that the project is a public-private special initiative operating under the OSGF rather than a separate agency.
According to the statement, he petitioned the SGF on May 15, 2026, over the alleged withholding of strategic project files, including one relating to the country’s advance delegation to the Asia-Africa Summit 2026 and sub-national energy programmes.
Nwabueze disclosed that he had instituted Suit No. CV/2634/26 before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, over what he described as threats of administrative eviction and file suppression.
He maintained that the suit was filed to prevent attempts to remove the project from the OSGF without due administrative process.
“The entire subject matter remains subjudice before a court of competent jurisdiction,” he said.
He argued that the project was anchored on Executive Orders 003 and 005 of 2017 and 2018.
He also cited correspondence with referenced PS-PEAO/2025/008/4, from the Political and Economic Affairs Office of the OSGF and supported the project’s institutional status.
According to him, the correspondence approved a five-member technical committee to oversee the project’s development objectives, monitoring framework and public-private implementation structures.
Efforts by the aforementioned platform to obtain ICPC’s reaction to the fresh allegations were unsuccessful.
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Similarly, the spokesman for the SGF, Christopher Ugwuegbulam, declined to respond to the allegations without receiving a formal request.
“If you want to get my reaction on the allegations, write to us,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the Presidency on Friday said the ICPC had not yet concluded its investigation into how fictitious government agencies operated undetected within the SGF office.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, urged Nigerians to be patient and await the commission’s final recommendations before drawing conclusions on culpability.
He said President Tinubu expected the ICPC to pursue the investigations to a logical conclusion and report back to him.
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He told The PUNCH “The ICPC has not finished their work. At the end of their investigation, they are supposed to make recommendations to the President and he is expecting them to.
“They have submitted their preliminary report; they are continuing with their work, and the President has asked them to make recommendations on how to strengthen the system where weaknesses have been spotted.
“The ICPC has said they have identified weaknesses in the system, so let’s wait for them to do their job.”
