The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of shielding some government officials in its investigation into the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).
In a statement issued on Saturday by Bolaji Abdullahi, its
national publicity secretary, the ADC insisted that the controversy extends
beyond Adeniyi Adeyemi, PFIPC director-general, who has been recommended for
prosecution.
The opposition party described the ICPC’s interim report as
“predictable” and “inadequate”, alleging that it was more concerned with
protecting government officials than uncovering the full extent of the scandal.
The ICPC had, on Thursday, recommended the prosecution of
Adeyemi after concluding that the council had no legal backing and never
existed as a government agency.
The commission also cleared the presidency and the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of wrongdoing but blamed institutional lapses in several
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) for enabling the fraud.
‘ICPC REPORT RAISES MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS’
Reacting, the ADC said the report failed to explain how a
fictitious agency allegedly secured office space within the federal
secretariat, had civil servants deployed to it and appeared in the 2026 budget
with a reported N1.3 billion allocation.
“It would be recalled that when President Bola Tinubu
directed the ICPC to undertake investigation into this case, ADC had waved it
off, insisting instead on a full investigation by an independent panel,” the
statement reads.
“With the so-called interim report of the ICPC, our fears
have come to pass as the report is not only predictable, it appears more
concerned with exonerating government officials rather than providing clear
answers to the serious questions that the scandal has raised.”
The political party stated that the ICPC’s conclusion that
the incident resulted from procedural failures was inconsistent with the
evidence already in the public domain.
“The ICPC report appeared to have given the impression that
what happened was mere failure in government processes or procedures,” ADC
said.
“This position is difficult to sustain in the light of
publicly available evidence, which establishes that this is not an error of
omission or a mere glitch in the system.
“Instead, what happened was a grand scam that could have
been possible only with the active connivance of government officials and
institutions at the highest level.”
The ADC questioned why the anti-graft agency recommended
only Adeyemi for prosecution despite admitting that investigations were ongoing
and that there could be accomplices within the government.
“If all that the commission had to present was a preliminary
report, why not simply present it as confidential brief to the president
instead of making a public drama of it in a manner that potentially prejudiced
the overall investigation and cast Adeyemi as the principal culprit?” the
political party asked.
The party also faulted the ICPC for failing to explain how
the alleged fake agency operated across government institutions.
“What Nigerians expected was an investigation into how a
‘fictitious agency’ managed to obtain all authorisations and institutional
support required to operate as a legitimate government agency,” the ADC stated.
“Yet this same organisation managed to secure office space
within the Federal Secretariat.
“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, allocate a reported N1.3 billion to
himself in the 2026 Appropriation Act, allocate official vehicles with
customised number plates to himself and deploy armed security to himself?
“It is indeed impossible to answer yes to these questions
and not conclude that this is the most incompetent and porous government in
Nigeria’s history.”
The opposition party said the discovery of two additional
fictitious organisations allegedly linked to Adeyemi should have widened the
scope of the investigation.
“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 ADC said.
“The question is how has this administration operated that
made such systemic criminality possible?”
ADC DEMANDS PUBLICATION OF FULL REPORT
The ADC also demanded answers on how the purported agency
was included in the 2026 budget.
“Budgetary provisions do not materialise by accident. They
leave records, submissions, approvals and an audit trail,” it said.
“The National Assembly has itself commenced an investigation
into how PFIPC found its way into the federal budget.
“The ADC therefore expects the ICPC to tell Nigerians who
proposed the allocation, who processed it, who verified the beneficiary agency
and how a body that the presidency now says never existed survived the scrutiny
required to appear in an Appropriation Act.”
The party called for the immediate publication of the full
interim report and urged the ICPC to identify and sanction every public
official whose actions or negligence enabled the alleged fraud.
“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 added.
“Nigerians are not asking the government to manufacture
culprits; they are asking it to follow the evidence wherever it may lead.
“Anything short of this, this so-called investigation, will
remain what it presently appears to be: an exercise designed less to discover
the truth than to contain the historic embarrassment.”
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