The controversy surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council deepened this week after the Senate rejected, for the second time in one week, a request to investigate a controversial budgetary allocation linked to the alleged agency.
The Nigeria Police Force had earlier arrested Adeniyi Adeyemi, the self styled Director General of the alleged council, following a bench warrant issued by a Federal High Court, as scrutiny mounted over an N1.3 billion allocation reportedly captured in the 2026 Appropriation Act despite the Presidency maintaining that no such agency existed.
Senator Suleiman Kawu, representing Kano South Senatorial District, brought the renewed request before the upper chamber, seeking an investigation into how the budgetary provision made it into the national budget, but the Senate again declined to open a probe.
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Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the National Assembly could not investigate a matter already before a court of competent jurisdiction, adding that President Bola Tinubu had already directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate the controversy within 30 days.
Civil society groups and lawyers have called for a truly independent investigation, insisting that documents relating to the 2026 budget and payments linked to the alleged agency should be made available to investigators and that whistleblowers must be protected from harassment.
Ex Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who Adeyemi claimed issued his appointment letter, has denied any knowledge of the alleged agency and has threatened a ten billion naira defamation lawsuit, while Adeyemi maintains the council was not fake.
