Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has taken on President Bola Tinubu over the controversy surrounding the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) an agency the government has described as fake.
Atiku called on President Tinubu to apologise to Nigerians and resign over what he described as a cover-up surrounding PFIPC accounts scandal.
His demand followed conflicting testimonies by the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation OAGF.
In a statement on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) said the CBN’s testimony before the House of Representatives fundamentally contradicts the narrative earlier advanced by the OAGF, plunging the Tinubu administration into one of the gravest credibility crises in Nigeria’s democratic history.
He insisted that the president owed Nigerians an apology and had lost the moral authority to remain in office if he failed to act.
“President Tinubu owes Nigerians an unreserved apology for presiding over this unprecedented collapse of public accountability. If he cannot immediately restore public confidence through a genuinely independent investigation and ensure that everyone responsible is held to account, then he has forfeited the moral authority to continue in office. The honourable course is simple: apologise to Nigerians and resign,” he declared.
The former Vice President said he could only sympathise with President Tinubu, adding that no serious leader needed a clairvoyant to know that his administration was trapped in a web of deception.
“When two of your most sensitive financial and monetary authorities publicly contradict each other on the same transaction, no serious leader needs a clairvoyant to know that his administration is trapped in a web of deception and a profound crisis of credibility. The President cannot continue to watch from the sidelines while his government tears itself apart with conflicting narratives,” he said.
Atiku insisted that Tinubu must clarify which of the two accounts he believed, warning that his continued silence deepened public suspicion.
“If he believes neither, why has he not acted? Every day he delays ordering a truly independent investigation, he deepens public suspicion that preserving his administration’s image has taken precedence over establishing the truth,” he said.
He also faulted the attorney-general of the Federation for maintaining silence on the matter, describing it as a compounding factor in the crisis.
He called on the National Assembly to immediately summon the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Governor of the Central Bank to appear together before its investigative committee under oath so that Nigerians could finally hear one truthful account of the transaction.
“The PFIPC scandal has ceased to be merely about disputed accounts. It has become a referendum on President Tinubu’s integrity and competence. If a single individual could allegedly orchestrate a scheme that has thrown two of Nigeria’s most critical financial and monetary authorities into public contradiction, Nigerians are entitled to ask how many other abuses may have escaped detection because of weak oversight and institutional failure,” he said.
(Ripples)
