Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has said the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation should have been the first to detect and report the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), which has become the centre of an ongoing forgery and impersonation case.
Lawal said the responsibility of identifying and flagging any suspicious or unauthorised agency within the Presidency rests with the SGF, except where the office has been sidelined by powerful individuals in government.
His comments came as the controversy surrounding the alleged N1.3 billion PFIPC scandal deepened, with fresh reports that the Nigeria Police Force had detained the father of the council’s alleged Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi.
The PFIPC has been described by investigators as a “ghost agency” that allegedly operated under the guise of being linked to the Presidency.
Adeyemi, who claimed to be the Director-General of the council, is currently standing trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges bordering on conspiracy, forgery and impersonation.
The Federal Government has also listed the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, along with 10 other individuals, as prosecution witnesses in the case. Authorities have maintained that listing a person as a witness does not imply criminal liability but is part of efforts to establish the facts before the court.
Speaking during an interview on Arise News on Monday, Lawal drew from his experience as a former SGF under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He explained that the SGF’s office plays a central coordinating role in government and supervises several ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that report directly to the Presidency.
According to him, the office is expected to scrutinise agencies under its supervision, particularly during the budget preparation and defence process.
Lawal said that during his time in office, he personally attended budget defence sessions involving agencies under the supervision of the SGF to ensure proper oversight.
“In my own time, all the 23 agencies that report directly to the SGF, when it was time to defend their budget, I attended with the MDA that was going to defend the budget,” he said.
He explained that before the budget of any agency reaches the National Assembly, it passes through the SGF’s office if the agency reports to the President through that office.
According to him, this process gives the SGF the opportunity to verify the legitimacy of agencies operating under the Presidency.
“If that MDA is part of the Presidency, that is, it reports to the President through the SGF, the SGF should be able to know because before it gets to the National Assembly, that budget goes to the SGF in that regard,” he stated.
Lawal said that unless there was a failure in the performance of official duties, the SGF’s office should have detected any attempt to introduce an unauthorised agency into the government structure.
“I can tell you, unless there’s a dereliction of duty by the SGF’s office, the responsibility to flag this fake agency would have come from the SGF,” he said.
However, the former SGF also suggested that internal power struggles within the Presidency could sometimes weaken the effectiveness of the office.
He said there are situations where the SGF may be sidelined by influential figures, making it difficult for the office to carry out its constitutional responsibilities effectively.
“But if sometimes, maybe they feel so much sidelined that they don’t care, they just look the other way. But the responsibility to flag that fake agency comes from the SGF’s office,” he added.
Lawal insisted that he would not have allowed such a situation to continue if he were still occupying the office.
According to him, any attempt to bypass the SGF would have prompted him to report the matter directly to the President.
“If that happens to me, I’ll go to the President. If you sideline me, I’ll go to the President and protest immediately,” he said.
The PFIPC controversy has generated widespread public attention following allegations that the council presented itself as a government agency linked to the Presidency despite questions over its legal status.
The case has also attracted political interest because of the inclusion of senior government officials among those expected to testify during the trial.
Although details of the prosecution’s evidence are yet to be fully presented in court, investigators are seeking to establish how the alleged organisation operated and whether official government documents or identities were forged to give it legitimacy.
The detention of Adeyemi’s father by the police has further heightened public interest in the investigation, although the circumstances surrounding his detention have not been fully disclosed by the authorities.
The Federal Government has repeatedly stated that the prosecution is aimed at uncovering the truth behind the alleged activities of the PFIPC and ensuring that anyone found to have violated the law is held accountable.
The trial is expected to continue before the Federal High Court in Abuja, where prosecutors will present evidence and call witnesses, including senior government officials named in the case.
Lawal’s intervention has added another dimension to the debate by focusing attention on the oversight responsibilities of the SGF’s office and raising questions about whether established administrative procedures were followed.
His remarks also highlight the importance of strong institutional checks within the Presidency to prevent unauthorised bodies from presenting themselves as official government agencies and to protect the integrity of public institutions.
If needed, I can also make this story more investigative in tone while remaining balanced and legally cautious, in line with Nigerian newspaper style.