Olushola Omogbehin
The Budget Office of the Federation has revealed that none of the funds appropriated for the controversial Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council was released or spent.
The Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, disclosed this on Friday while appearing before the House ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives investigating the establishment of the council and the N1.3 billion budgetary allocation made to it in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
According to Yakubu, although the National Assembly approved funding for the council, the legal and administrative requirements needed before any money could be accessed were never fulfilled.
“The conclusion is firm. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn, and not one kobo was drawn. The overhead provision never matured into a lawful cash release.
“The capital provision never matured into procurement or expenditure. The conditions required for spending were not met and were not close to being met. There is therefore no personnel expenditure to recover. The money never moved because the controls held,” he said.
Yakubu explained that the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation were also directed not to process any payment linked to the council.
Assuring lawmakers that the Budget Office would always cooperate with the investigation by providing all relevant records and documentation, Yakubu said allocations for personnel, overhead and capital projects never progressed to the implementation stage because all statutory conditions for spending public funds remained unmet.
The controversy surrounding the PFIPC started after Adeniyi Adeyemi publicly identified himself as the Director-General of the council, despite repeated denials by the Presidency that the agency was ever established.
Adeyemi was seen many times in photographed attending official engagements with diplomats and senior government officials and reportedly operated from an office within the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.
Although the Presidency later disowned the council and initiated criminal proceedings against him, Adeyemi insisted his appointment was legitimate.
He also denied allegations of forging his appointment letter and accused the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, of receiving money through an intermediary in connection with the appointment.
Gbajabiamila rejected the allegation and instituted legal action, while Adeyemi was subsequently arrested in Osun State.
Being part of the investigation, the House committee has summoned officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and relevant security agencies to provide further clarification on the matter.
Recently, the Central Bank confirmed that it opened two accounts for the disputed council on the instruction of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation but disclosed that neither account had been activated or funded.
CBN Director of Banking Services, Abdullahi Hamisu, told lawmakers that no foreign exchange allocation, remittance or banking transaction had taken place because authorised signatories were never designated to operate the accounts.
As well, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, has denied that her office posted civil servants to the council or allocated office accommodation within the Federal Secretariat.
