The controversy surrounding the alleged Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) has taken a fresh turn as Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claims to have served as the agency’s Director-General, questioned how the council was included in the national budget despite the Presidency’s insistence that it never existed.
Adeyemi raised the concerns during an interview with social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, where he said he was in police detention when the federal budget was being prepared and therefore could not have participated in any budget defence process for the agency.
His comments come days after the Presidency, through the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, distanced itself from the PFIPC, maintaining that no such government agency exists.
Adeyemi insisted that the circumstances surrounding the appearance of the council in the national budget remain unclear and called on President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent investigative panel to uncover the truth.
According to him, he received an invitation from the Nigeria Police Force on October 27 following a petition allegedly written by Gbajabiamila over the activities of the PFIPC.
He said he honoured the invitation and was questioned extensively by investigators about the agency, his appointment letter and the people who facilitated his appointment.
“I was invited to respond to a petition from the Chief of Staff to the President questioning my activities in the agency,” he said.
Adeyemi explained that he handed over his appointment letter to the police and provided the names and contacts of those he said were involved in his appointment.
He further claimed that he was detained for 23 days, from October 27 until November 19, before he was later arraigned in court on November 27.
According to him, his detention coincided with the period the national budget was being prepared, making it impossible for him to take part in any budget discussions or defend the agency’s financial proposal before the National Assembly.
“I was in detention during the preparation of the budget. I did not defend the budget, and nobody went for the defence,” he said.
Adeyemi said he was surprised that the PFIPC eventually appeared in the national budget despite the absence of any known budget defence.
He questioned how lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly, as well as officials responsible for preparing and reviewing the budget, failed to identify what the Presidency now describes as a non-existent agency before the Appropriation Bill was passed and signed into law.
According to him, the issue raises serious questions that deserve a full investigation.
He said, “How come the agency found its way into the national budget? Both the Senate and the House of Representatives, with experienced lawmakers, did not detect that it was a fake agency before it was sent to the President for assent.”
Adeyemi also expressed surprise that the Chief of Staff, who now says the agency never existed, did not notice its inclusion in the budget if that was truly the case.
He maintained that he was not accusing Gbajabiamila of making false claims but said only a transparent investigation would establish what actually happened.
“I wouldn’t say he is lying, and I wouldn’t say he is saying the truth. That is why I appealed to Mr President to set up an investigative panel to look into the matter and uncover the truth,” he stated.
Adeyemi said he remains ready to cooperate fully with investigators and promised to hand over every document in his possession to security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force or the Department of State Services (DSS), to verify their authenticity.
He expressed confidence that a proper investigation would determine how the agency emerged, who approved its activities and how it became part of the federal budget.
The former PFIPC chief also disclosed that he survived an attack by unidentified gunmen near Zuma Rock, close to Madala, in Niger State, in September last year.
Although he did not provide details of the attack or suggest any link between the incident and the ongoing controversy, he mentioned it while recounting the challenges he had faced over the past year.
Adeyemi further claimed that after he regained his freedom from detention, he discovered that the office previously allocated to the agency had been reassigned to another government official.
He said he has not returned to the office since his arrest in October.
The PFIPC controversy has attracted public attention following conflicting claims over the agency’s existence.
While Adeyemi has insisted that he was appointed to lead the council and carried out official duties, the Presidency has reportedly maintained that no such agency was created by the Federal Government.
The dispute has raised wider questions about transparency in public administration and the process through which government agencies are created, funded and supervised.
In Nigeria, the creation of most federal agencies usually follows legal or administrative procedures, while their funding is expected to pass through several stages of scrutiny involving the executive and the National Assembly before being included in the annual Appropriation Act.
Budget proposals from ministries, departments and agencies are typically examined by relevant committees of the Senate and House of Representatives before lawmakers approve the final budget for presidential assent.
Adeyemi’s claim that no budget defence took place for the PFIPC has therefore added another layer to the controversy and may increase calls for a thorough review of how the agency appeared in the budget documents.
So far, there has been no official response from the Presidency or the National Assembly to Adeyemi’s latest claims.
The outcome of any future investigation could determine whether the agency was legitimately established, whether its inclusion in the budget resulted from an administrative error or whether there were other factors behind the controversy.