‘Phantom’ council: Last moments of alleged middleman to Gbajabiamila

When the controversy over the phantom Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) erupted, public attention quickly shifted to two men at the centre of the dispute — the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claimed to be the Director-General of the council. Largely overlooked in the exchange of […]

When the controversy over the phantom Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) erupted, public attention quickly shifted to two men at the centre of the dispute — the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claimed to be the Director-General of the council.

Largely overlooked in the exchange of allegations was a third figure: Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola.

Tanimola died at the National Hospital, Abuja, in October 2025, after sustaining severe burns in a fire incident at Kachi Hotel in the Federal Capital Territory, according to a police investigation report.

Adeyemi had claimed that Gbajabiamila issued him the appointment.

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He also alleged that he paid N400 million to Gbajabiamila through Tanimola to facilitate the appointment.

According to Adeyemi, he never met Gbajabiamila in person but communicated with him by telephone through Tanimola, who he claimed handled the financial arrangements relating to the appointment.

Adeyemi further alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded 48 per cent of the PFIPC’s proposed N27.4 billion take-off grant, a request he said he rejected.

He also claimed that Tanimola died under suspicious circumstances in the Abuja hotel fire.

Adeyemi urged President Bola Tinubu to investigate “the death of an intermediary identified as Babatunde Tanimola,” alongside the council’s records and budgetary references.

Gbajabiamila has strongly denied the allegations. He said he never met Adeyemi, never authorised anyone to collect money on his behalf, and had no knowledge of either Tanimola or the alleged transactions.

The Presidency has also disowned the PFIPC, describing it as a fictitious body with no legal backing.

Last week, Gbajabiamila threatened a N10 billion defamation suit against Adeyemi over the allegations.

 

The man at the centre of competing claims

Several months after his death, Tanimola’s name has become central to the questions surrounding the PFIPC controversy.

Was he merely an intermediary, as alleged, whose death was a tragic coincidence? Or does the fire that claimed his life warrant closer scrutiny?

For many following the controversy, Tanimola has become the forgotten third figure — a man whose name now features prominently in the allegations but who is no longer alive to respond.

Long before his name became linked to the PFIPC saga, Tanimola was fighting for his life after suffering severe burns in the hotel fire.

According to a source close to the deceased, the 42-year-old was asleep in his room at Kachi Hotel in Abuja when smoke filled the building in the early hours of October 9, 2025.

As the fire spread, he desperately tried to escape.

The source told Daily Trust that as many scrambled to flee the building, Tanimola was pushed in the ensuing panic, suffering severe burns before eventually making his way out.

Despite sustaining burns over more than half of his body, the source said Tanimola managed to escape the burning building, reached the adjoining street and flagged down a commercial tricycle, which rushed him to the National Hospital’s Trauma Centre.

“Late Tanimola was in the hospital between October 9, when the fire incident occurred, and October 22, 2025, when he was eventually confirmed dead at the National Hospital, Abuja.

“Before he died, Tanimola noted that while he was sleeping at the hotel, he noticed smoke in his room.

“He got up and ran through the door, but noticed that someone pushed him, and he fell and sustained severe burns.

“He was reported to have been burnt up to 53 per cent, and about four other persons were said to have died due to the incident on the same day.

“After he managed to run through the door, he boarded a tricycle, locally known as keke, to the National Hospital,” the source said.

Another source privy to the incident said some unknown men visited Tanimola at the hospital and offered to take him to a hospital in Minna, Niger State, but the family declined.

The Federal Fire Service confirmed that a major fire occurred in Utako on October 8, 2025, about the same period the Tanimola’s incident happened.

In a press statement on its X (formerly Twitter) handle and signed by its National Public Relations Officer, DCF P.O. Abraham, the Service said it “promptly responded to a fire outbreak at a two-storey commercial building in Utako, FCT-Abuja, following an emergency report by a concerned resident.”

It added that “Upon arrival, firefighters met the building already engulfed in flames and immediately commenced firefighting operations to bring the situation under control.”

On what triggered the blaze, the agency said: “The cause of the fire is under investigation to unravel the remote and actual cause of the incident.”

Beyond the brief statement, however, no detailed public report identifying the affected hotel or explaining how the fire started has been released.

Daily Trust visited three locations associated with Kachi Hotel in Abuja.

The locations include Kachi Hotel and Suite Annex at Plot 1125 Okotie Eboh Street, Utako, Abuja; Kachi Hotel and Suite at Plot 1061 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja; and KACHI HOTEL at 18 Y.P.O. Shodeinde, Abuja.

Although the structure at the third location has been demolished, the address remains listed on Google Maps.

A security guard confirmed the site had indeed been the Kachi Hotel and Suites before demolition commenced about a month earlier.

“They should have removed it from Google Map since they know demolition is ongoing. This is the Kachi Hotel and Suite. The demolition started about a month ago,” the guard said.

Daily Trust also visited the National Hospital in Abuja.

Officials in the hospital’s Information and Protocol Department confirmed that Tanimola died there on October 22, 2025.

 

More than a name

Available pictures online have shown that Tanimola was not just a name but a man who had mingled with the high and mighty.

In one of the instances, he was photographed with former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), billionaire businessmen Tony Elumelu and Abdulsamad Rabiu, former Inspectors-General of Police Mike Okiro, Solomon Arase and Kayode Egbetokun, philanthropist Arthur Eze, Lagos Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat and other prominent Nigerians.

He was reportedly known for connecting people in government and business, a role commonly associated with intermediaries or lobbyists rather than public office holders.

Nine months after the hotel fire, many of the questions surrounding Tanimola’s death remain unanswered.

There has been no publicly released investigation establishing what caused the fire, whether it was accidental or deliberate, or addressing the claim that someone allegedly pushed him during the rush.

His death has since become intertwined with the wider PFIPC controversy because of the role Adeyemi said he played in introducing him to influential figures. Whether those claims are true remains the subject of dispute.

But one fact is no longer contested: the man who could have answered many of the questions surrounding his own role in the saga died before the controversy exploded into public view.

As investigations into the alleged phantom agency continue, Tanimola’s final days remain one of the least understood chapters of the unfolding story.