Follow Us on Google
By Kenneth Udeh, Abuja
The Senate on Tuesday adopted a motion on the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal, resolving to decide on investigating the circumstances surrounding the agency’s controversial inclusion in the 2026 Appropriation Act after receiving the report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The resolution followed a motion sponsored by Senator Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu (Kano South) titled: “Urgent Need to Investigate the Budgetary Allocation, Operations and Controversy Surrounding the Purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) to Safeguard the Integrity of the Senate and the Federal Government.”
Presenting the motion during Wednesday’s plenary, Kawu described the controversy as a matter of “grave institutional concern,” warning that the allegations surrounding the PFIPC directly affect the integrity of the Senate, the credibility of the National Assembly and the effective exercise of its constitutional oversight and appropriation responsibilities.
The lawmaker noted that the public had in recent weeks been inundated with allegations, accusations and counter-accusations over the existence of the PFIPC, even as senior officials of the Presidency publicly disowned the organisation, describing it as a “fake,” “fictitious” and unauthorised entity.
He further observed that despite the Presidency’s denial, the purported agency was captured in the 2026 Appropriation Act under Budget Code 0111062001 with an allocation of N1,302,978,784, raising fundamental questions about the integrity of Nigeria’s budget preparation and appropriation process.
According to him, the budgetary provision comprises N802,978,784 for personnel costs, N200 million for overhead and N300 million for capital expenditure.
Kawu noted that although the controversy was initially reported in sections of the media as a N2 billion scandal, official budget documents showed that the actual appropriation stood at N1.302 billion for an entity now officially declared by the Federal Government to be non-existent.
He warned that the inclusion of a purportedly unauthorised agency in the national budget undermines the credibility of the appropriation process, exposes weaknesses in institutional budget scrutiny, erodes public confidence in the National Assembly and exposes the Federal Government to avoidable domestic and international criticism over transparency, accountability and fiscal governance.
The senator maintained that unless the circumstances surrounding the inclusion of the PFIPC are thoroughly investigated, public confidence in both the budgetary process and the oversight functions of the National Assembly would continue to suffer.
In his motion, Kawu urged the Senate to condemn in the strongest terms what he described as the administrative lapses, internal collaboration or possible fraudulent schemes that enabled a purportedly non-existent agency to find its way into the national budget.
He also proposed that the Senate Committees on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, as well as Appropriations, be mandated to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
According to the motion, the proposed investigation is expected to determine how the N1.302 billion allocation was proposed, scrutinised, justified and approved during the appropriation process; identify the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), public officials or individuals responsible for facilitating the inclusion of the PFIPC in the national budget; and establish whether any funds have been released, committed or expended under the controversial budget line, including whether any bank account was opened or operated in connection with the allocation.
However, while responding to the motion, Deputy President of the Senate Barau Jibrin advised against commencing an immediate parliamentary investigation, noting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had already directed the ICPC to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
Barau told his colleagues that the issue could have been processed as a substantive motion through the Senate Committee on Rules and Business but argued that the Presidency had already activated the appropriate investigative mechanism.
“The Presidency has taken up this matter by directing that the ICPC should investigate fully how this matter came to be. The marching order has been given, and I think the ICPC has started.
“To me, I believe that what we need to do at this stage is to have the report of the ICPC, and then we can act on that report and deal with it as we feel appropriate,” he said.
Following his remarks, the Senate adopted the position through a voice vote after lawmakers overwhelmingly endorsed the proposal to await the ICPC’s findings before embarking on its own investigation.
The Senate’s resolution effectively means that the red chamber has not abandoned the matter but has deferred its legislative probe pending the outcome of the anti-graft agency’s investigation.
The controversy centres on the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), an organisation the Presidency insists was never established or authorised by the Federal Government.
The scandal deepened after Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claims he was appointed to head the council, declared his readiness to submit himself and all documents in his possession to the Department of State Services (DSS) or the Nigeria Police Force to assist ongoing investigations.
Adeyemi also questioned how the agency found its way into the national budget despite the Presidency’s insistence that it never existed.
Speaking during an interview with social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, Adeyemi claimed he was in police detention during the period the 2026 budget was being prepared and therefore could not have participated in any budget defence process leading to the controversial appropriation.
The development comes barely hours after President Tinubu directed the ICPC to conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of the PFIPC and every issue connected to its inclusion in the 2026 budget.
The President also ordered the anti-corruption agency to conclude its investigation and submit a comprehensive report within 30 days.
With the Senate now formally adopting the motion, attention has shifted to the ICPC investigation, whose findings are expected to determine whether the National Assembly proceeds with its own legislative probe and possible sanctions against any individuals or institutions found culpable in what is fast emerging as one of the most controversial budgetary scandals of the year.
