The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has given President Bola Tinubu a seven-day ultimatum to order an independent investigation into the scandal surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), warning that failure to act would fuel suspicions of official complicity.
The former vice president said the controversy had gone beyond allegations of forgery and impersonation, describing it as a major test of the credibility of government institutions.
In a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku argued that the central issue was no longer whether one individual forged documents but how an agency the Presidency insisted never existed allegedly operated through official government channels.
He maintained that President Tinubu should direct a “transparent, comprehensive and independent investigation” into the matter and make the findings public within seven days.
According to Atiku, failure to do so would “only strengthen the growing public suspicion that powerful interests at the highest levels of government may have benefited from the alleged fraud, and that many Nigerians seeking public sector appointments may have been duped through a racket that enjoyed official protection.”
The opposition leader questioned the Presidency’s explanation of the controversy, saying the account presented by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, left more questions than answers.
“If the government wants Nigerians to believe that one man single-handedly created an office for himself, secured office space within a government facility, held meetings with foreign embassy delegations, paid courtesy visits to the EFCC, processed staff salaries through official channels, allegedly operated institutional accounts, and carried on all these activities without the knowledge, approval, negligence or collaboration of anyone within government, then that narrative raises even more troubling questions than it answers,” Atiku said.
“At this point, the story looks less like a clean explanation and more like an attempt to isolate one man after an internal arrangement went sour. If Mr. Adeniyi Adeyemi committed fraud, he must face the law. But the bigger question is this: what kind of government system allows such an elaborate operation to pass through budgetary, administrative, security and institutional channels without detection?
“Haba. Nigerians cannot be asked to swallow such a story whole.”
Atiku said while the antecedents of the accused, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, might be relevant to the allegations against him, they could not explain how official government processes allegedly accommodated the agency.
“Was it his character that secured budgetary allocations for a supposedly fictitious office? Was it his antecedents that got him office space within a government facility? Was it his dubious nature that enabled him to hold meetings with foreign delegations, legislators and public officials, with some of those engagements reportedly covered by the media? Was it his character that opened or operated official financial channels for the agency?
“At some point, we must separate an individual’s alleged conduct from the institutional systems that either enabled it or failed to detect it,” he stated.
The former vice president also referenced reports that the PFIPC appeared in the 2026 Appropriation Act with a budgetary allocation running into billions of naira and that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation allegedly approved the recruitment of more than 300 personnel into the agency.
He argued that such developments could not be dismissed as mere administrative errors.
“These developments cannot be dismissed as administrative oversights. Budget preparation is a structured process involving ministries, departments, agencies, the Budget Office, the National Assembly and ultimately presidential assent. Recruitment into the Federal Civil Service is also governed by manpower planning, establishment approvals, financial implications, grade-level classifications and institutional clearances. These things do not happen by accident.
“It stretches credibility beyond reasonable limits to suggest that an agency described as entirely fictitious could appear in official budget documents, reportedly obtain recruitment approval for hundreds of personnel, secure official space, interact with state institutions and foreign missions, and yet have no enablers within government.
“As Chinua Achebe once reminded us, a man who has been asked to carry a basket of eggs does not break them all and then blame the road. The Presidency cannot continue blaming one man while refusing to account for the official systems that gave life to the scandal,” he pointed out.
Atiku further said fresh claims by Adeyemi, who has denied wrongdoing and alleged that influential individuals were trying to silence him, had made an independent inquiry even more necessary.
“Whether his claims are true or false is not for the Presidency to determine through press statements. That is precisely why Nigeria needs an independent investigation. Let the facts speak. Let every document be examined. Let every approval be traced. Let every official who acted, neglected a duty, or enabled this scandal be identified and held accountable,” he said.
According to him, the controversy now raises broader concerns about the integrity of Nigeria’s budgeting process, the credibility of the Federal Civil Service, the effectiveness of institutional oversight, and the Presidency’s ability to account for activities allegedly carried out in its name.
