PFIPC: ADC Rejects ICPC Report, Says Probe Shields Govt Officials

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on the alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), describing it as predictable and inadequate.

The party accused the Federal Government of being more interested in damage control than conducting a comprehensive investigation into how the alleged fictitious agency operated within the government system and reportedly secured a N1.3 billion provision in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

The ADC’s position was contained in a statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, on Saturday.

The party said the ICPC report failed to answer critical questions about how the alleged fake agency obtained office space within the Federal Secretariat, had civil servants deployed to it, received official vehicles and security personnel, and was included in the federal budget.

The ADC recalled that when President Bola Tinubu directed the ICPC to investigate the matter, it had called instead for a full investigation by an independent panel.

According to the party, the interim report had now confirmed its fears that the investigation would focus on a single individual rather than uncovering the government officials and institutions that may have enabled the alleged fraud.

The party said the report appeared to portray the development as a failure of government processes, arguing that available information suggested that the matter required a broader investigation into the institutions and officials involved.

The ADC questioned the ICPC’s reported recommendation that Adeyemi be prosecuted, particularly while the Commission’s investigation was still described as ongoing or inconclusive.

It said Nigerians expected investigators to establish how an organisation that allegedly had no legal or executive foundation could obtain the institutional support required to operate as a government agency.

The party asked how the alleged PFIPC secured accommodation within the Federal Secretariat, had civil servants deployed to it, obtained official vehicles with customised number plates and benefited from the reported N1.3 billion budgetary provision.

“If according to the ICPC report, Adeyemi had kicked down the door of the Secretariat office and allocated it to himself, did he also deploy the civil servants to himself, allocated a reported N1.3 billion to himself in the 2026 Appropriation Act, allocated official vehicles with customized number plates to himself and deployed armed security to himself?” the party asked.

The ADC further raised concerns over the ICPC’s reported discovery of two other fictitious organisations linked to Adeyemi, arguing that such a development should lead to an expansion of the investigation rather than a narrowing of its focus.

“If an investigation into one fake government agency leads investigators to two more, then the obvious question is no longer merely how one individual perpetrated an elaborate fraud,” the party said.

“It is how has this administration operated that made such systemic criminality possible?”

The party also questioned the circumstances surrounding an alleged appointment letter bearing the signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, which investigators reportedly found to have been forged.

According to the ADC, establishing that a signature was forged would not explain how the alleged deception passed through subsequent government verification processes.

It asked who verified the existence of PFIPC before civil servants were deployed to it, who authorised its accommodation in a federal facility and who processed its interactions with other government institutions.

The party described the reported N1.3 billion provision for PFIPC in the 2026 federal budget as one of the most significant issues requiring investigation, arguing that budgetary allocations normally involve records, submissions, approvals and other processes.

The ADC noted that the National Assembly had also commenced an investigation into how PFIPC was included in the federal budget.

It therefore urged the ICPC to establish who proposed the allocation, who processed it, who verified the beneficiary agency and how an organisation which the Presidency now says never existed was able to appear in the Appropriation Act.

The party warned against limiting prosecution to Adeyemi without addressing the wider institutional questions surrounding the alleged scandal.

“What has happened is a national disgrace in the full glare of the entire world. No serious government should be satisfied with identifying one culprit for prosecution,” the ADC said.

The party called for the immediate publication of the full ICPC interim report and demanded that any public official whose action or negligence enabled the alleged fictitious organisations to acquire official legitimacy should be identified and held accountable where wrongdoing is established.

The ADC said Nigerians were not asking the government to manufacture culprits but to follow the evidence wherever it led.

It added that anything short of such a comprehensive investigation would amount to an exercise aimed at containing what it described as a historic embarrassment rather than uncovering the full circumstances surrounding the alleged PFIPC scandal.