Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the latest revelations surrounding the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) have moved the matter beyond ordinary forgery allegations into a full-blown crisis of institutional credibility.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must, within seven days, order a transparent, comprehensive and independent investigation into the scandal and make the findings public.
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) warned that failure to do so would only strengthen the growing public suspicion that powerful interests at the highest levels of government might have benefited from the alleged fraud, and that many Nigerians seeking public sector appointments might have been duped through a racket that enjoyed official protection.
Atiku said the issue before Nigerians was no longer whether one individual forged documents or impersonated government officials but how official government processes allegedly recognised, processed and advanced the affairs of an agency the Presidency insists never existed.
He said the official explanation offered by the Presidency through Mr. Bayo Onanuga did not add up and had 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.
“At this point, the story looks less like a clear 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 the antecedents of the accused person might be relevant to his alleged capacity or propensity to commit fraud, but they could not explain away the institutional processes he reportedly navigated.
“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.”
Atiku noted that public records had reportedly shown the PFIPC captured in the 2026 Appropriation Act with a budgetary allocation running into billions of naira.
He said fresh reports that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service allegedly granted approval for the recruitment of over 300 personnel into the same agency had fundamentally altered the nature of the scandal.
“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.”
Atiku said the latest intervention by Prince Adeyemi, who has denied the allegations and claimed that powerful figures are attempting to silence him, has made an independent inquiry even more urgent.
“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 the controversy now touches the integrity of Nigeria’s budgeting process, the credibility of the Federal Civil Service, the effectiveness of institutional oversight and the capacity of the Presidency to account for activities carried out in its own name.
“Nigeria deserves the truth. Quietly investigating the matter and addressing the lapses would have been better than publicly presenting a story that collapses under its own contradictions. The President must order a comprehensive, independent investigation immediately. Anything short of that will amount to complicity by silence.”