Reps probe alleged appropriation for ‘phantom’ agency

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The House of Representatives has constituted an Ad-hoc Committee to probe how the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) got appropriation for the 2026 fiscal year, despite government position that it is not a legal entity.

The committee chaired by the Chairman, House Committee on Navy, Yusuf Gagdi, is expected to trace how appropriation for the agency entered the 2026 budget and report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative actions.

The panel was mandated to invite the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning and the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation  to clarify the verification procedures applied before new agencies  are admitted into the budget.

The Ad-hoc Committee is also expected to verify all  Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), and other bodies reflected in the 2025 and 2026 Appropriation frameworks against their instruments of establishment, as well as “receive briefings from the relevant security and anti corruption agencies without prejudice to the proceedings pending before the Federal High Court.”

Furthermore, the parliament requested the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to confirm to it  that no releases have been made, and no warrants will be honoured, in respect of any provision attributable to the entity pending the conclusion of investigations.

It also directed the Budget Office to submit to the National Assembly a comprehensive list of all MDAs and other bodies proposed for funding, alongside the instrument establishing them, ahead of the presentation of each Appropriation Bill.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Gagdi on urgent need to safeguard the integrity of the national budget, following reported inclusion of PFIPC in the federal budget.

The legality of the PFIPC has been a subject of controversy, following a war of words between the director general, Mathew Adeyemi and Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu.

Indications later emerged that the “agency” got N1.3 trillion appropriation in the 2026 budget.

The lawmaker, in his motion, informed the House that  between November 2024 and October 2025, the PFIPC, which is said to lack legal backing, operated from the Federal Secretariat in Abuja and  interacted with various organs of government.

He explained concern that the ease”with which a single unestablished entity progressed through official processes suggests a systemic vulnerability rather than an isolated lapse.”

According to him, “reports indicate that a budgetary provision in excess of N1.3 billion attributable to the entity found its way into the 2026 Appropriation framework.”

He stated that the issue raises a  fundamental question, on  how a body without any authentic  instrument of establishment could enter the federal budget, without existing safeguards detecting it.

Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, while contributing to the motion, explained that he unknowingly engaged  with officials of the PFIPC, after he received an official letter from  the group bearing the Presidency, requesting an audience with him over the review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

According to him,”the experience shows that a letterhead bearing the Presidency or an office in the Federal Secretariat is no longer sufficient proof that an organisation is legally established.”