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• Say ‘phantom’ agency’s DG detained on court order
• We didn’t do enough due diligence -HoSF
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), yesterday, failed to produce the Director General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council PFIPC, Adeniyi Adeyemi, before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee probing the operations of the “phantom” agency.
The Inspector General Police (IGP), Tunji Disu, represented by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Akinola, said Adeyemi was being detained by the police on the order of a court. He explained that the force would need another court order to bring before the panel.
The IGP, in a letter addressed to the committee, said while he appreciated the oversight function of the National Assembly, the force would need another court order to bring before the panel.
The letter read: “This is to respectfully inform the committee chairman that the suspect is currently in our custody on the strength of a court order.
“The Nigeria Police Force may not be able to produce the suspect as requested in view of the subsisting remand warrant. The police acknowledge the constitutional oversight powers of the National Assembly and remain committed to cooperating with the committee in the discharge of its mandate.
“However, in this case, it will be appreciated if a production warrant is obtained from a court of competent jurisdiction to enable the police to comply with this request.”
The Ad-hoc Committee, had on Monday, directed the Police to bring Adeyemi before it, yesterday, noting that it has become imperative for him to appear before the panel to speak to some of the documents before it in the ongoing probe.
Controversy has been trailing the operation of the PFIPC in recent times after the Presidency disowned the agency, amid revelations that the agency got N1.3 billion appropriation in the 2026 budget, as well as opened accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Consequently, the House resolved to probe the operation of the agency, including how it got into the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The CBN, during its appearance before the probe panel disclosed that two domiciliary accounts were opened for the agency based on the mandate of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF).
In the Budget Office of the Federation, he also told lawmakers that the PFIPC was included in the 2026 Appropriation based on an administrative code created for it by the OAGF.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Shamsudeen Ogunjimi, who also appeared before the panel, on Monday, confirmed that his office issued an administrative code to the PFIPC upon which it was included in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
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However, the Head of Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, who appeared before the probe panel, for the second time, yesterday, admitted that her office failed to do enough due diligence in the interaction with the PFIPC.
Walson-Jack, who explained that newly created agencies seeking to recruit staff are expected to present an enabling Act, the appointment letter of the chief executive and other supporting documents before an authorised establishment and provisional recruitment waiver are issued, stated that her office dealt with the PFIPC based on the documents they presented, which later turned out to be fake.
Furthermore, the HoSF, while responding to the Committee’s query, said it was when the operations of the agency became controversial that she requested to see the documents they presented to her
“I requested to see the documents myself and I saw that the Establishment Act was not really an authentic Act. I have almost 30 years of legal practice experience and immediately I saw it, I knew it was not.
“Now, having seen all the facts and observed all the documents, we concede that we ought to have carried out more due diligence in the discharge of the duties of the office in issuing an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver to the PEAC/PFIPC.
“Everything was done in accordance with the practice in the office. Out of the 88 ministries, departments and agencies processed, we are really surprised that we were unable to detect that PEAC/PFIPC had actually given us a false Establishment Act and what has now been proved to be a false letter of appointment.
“We take full responsibility and we will definitely review our processes to make them more fraud-proof,”
In a related development, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation ( OAGF), said whatever lapse that existed from its end was at the individual level.
A former director, Consolidation Account and Director, Federal Projects in the OAGF, Mr. Joshua Luka, told lawmakers that the Office received a request from the State House for an administrative code for the agency.
“As part of our due diligence, what we did was to convey the administrative code to the Permanent Secretary, State House and not to the so-called agency. The idea was that if it was not genuine, the whole thing would unravel.
“The problem here was not an office lapse; it was an individual lapse. Somebody was supposed to deliver that letter to the Permanent Secretary, State House and it was not delivered there.”
Another official from the OAGF, Bello Abdullahi, told the panel that Adeyemi collected the letter for the Permanent Secretary from him in his office.
The Committee Chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, accused the OAGF of allowing the controversial PFIPC DG “to come and pick the letter from your office instead of allowing someone from the Permanent Secretary’s office to receive it. If the letter had reached the Permanent Secretary, the fraud would have been unraveled immediately.”
