The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has named 10 government officials and agencies to be probed in the fraudulent agency’s scandal involving the presidency.
NPO Reported that the presidency had in a statement issued on Wednesday by President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, declared a now disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) non-existential and fictitious with its self-acclaimed Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Matthew, labelled an impostor and con artiste.
The development stemmed out Adeniyi’s earlier press statement where he accused the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, of demanding N24.7 billion from the agency’s take-off grant.
He also accused the COS of collecting N400 million bribe from him while alleging assassination attempts on his life.
The allegations had since escalated into a full-blown scandal as controversies erupted over the existence of the purported fraudulent agency led by Adeniyi.
Videos and pictures of the Adeniyi with several top officials and foreign investors had further indicted the Federal Government with allegation of the fraudulent council being deliberately staged by top officials within the Tinubu-led cabinet.
Reacting in a statement issued on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC identified ten government individuals and institutions that must be investigated if the mystery behind the scandal must be unraveled.
Coupled with the demand for the probe of Gbajabiamila and Adeniyi, the opposition also listed for investigation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume; the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Esther Walson-Jack; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amongst others.
The statement partly read; “Based on the Presidency’s own statement, and the documentary evidence already in the public domain, we have identified at least ten government institutions that must be investigated if we must unravel the mystery behind this major scandal that in saner climes would have ended so many people’s political careers already:
“1. The Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila: To determine how documents bearing the authority of his office were issued and the publicly reported claims of receiving bribes of between N200million and N600million from Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi.
“2. Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi: To establish the full extent of his role in the creation, operation, and promotion of PFIPC; to verify the authenticity of the documents and approvals he publicly relied upon; to investigate his claims of making payments to senior government officials; and to determine whether he acted alone or as part of a wider network involving public officials and private actors.
“3. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume: To establish whether any approvals, recognitions, or official records existed in relation to PFIPC in his office.
“4. The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson- Jack: To determine whether she actually gave approval of a recruitment waiver for over 300 civil servants into an organisation the Presidency now says never existed.
“5. The Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Tanimu Yakubu: To explain how PFIPC reportedly appeared in the 2026 Appropriation with a budget running into billions of naira.
“6. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs: To determine the extent of PFIPC’s engagements with foreign diplomats and whether established diplomatic protocols were subverted or bypassed altogether.
“7.The Office of the National Security Adviser: To establish how what the president was alleging was even possible and why his office was not able to flag it or take action.
“8. The Department of State Services, DSS, and the Nigeria Police Force: To explain the timeline of their investigations, if any, and whether earlier intervention could have prevented the alleged activities.
“9. The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, and the Central Bank of Nigeria: To determine how public funds could be drawn and expended by a fictitious organisation using allegedly forged documents.
“10. The relevant oversight committees of the National Assembly, including the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, the Senate Committee on Anti- Corruption and Financial Crimes, and the House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements: To establish the basis upon which official correspondence and invitations were reportedly extended to PFIPC.
“This matter must not be swept under the Presidential red carpet.”
The ADC further called for the establishment of an independent Judicial Panel of Inquiry to carry out the probe.
It held that since the presidency had declared the agency fictitious, Nigerians deserve to know those behind the fraudulent scheme which secured recruitment approvals, budgetary allocations, and official correspondence amongst others.
“The ADC therefore calls for the immediate establishment of an independent Judicial Panel of Inquiry headed by persons of unquestionable integrity, to investigate every aspect of the PFIPC affair, summoning all the foregoing, as well as others that may be relevant to the cases, as witnesses.
“The panel should have full powers to compel the production of documents, and determine the extent of any negligence, misconduct, collusion, abuse of office, and criminal wrongdoing involved in this case.
“As the Presidency has alleged, if indeed the PFIPC was a fictitious organisation, then Nigerians deserve to know how a fictitious organisation allegedly secured recruitment approvals, budgetary allocations, official correspondence, diplomatic engagements, interactions with federal institutions, and recognition across multiple arms of government.” The party stated.