The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on the alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The party, in a statement on Saturday by its spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, accused the Federal Government of pursuing damage control rather than a thorough investigation.
The ADC said the report was “predictable and inadequate”, arguing that it failed to answer how a fictitious organisation allegedly secured office space within the Federal Secretariat, had civil servants deployed to it, obtained official vehicles and security personnel, and was allocated N1.3 billion in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The opposition party said the ICPC investigation appeared focused on identifying one alleged culprit while ignoring the government officials and institutions that enabled the organisation to operate as though it were a legitimate government agency.
It argued that the circumstances surrounding the PFIPC could not reasonably be dismissed as a mere administrative failure or procedural lapse.
“What happened was a grand scam that could have been possible only with the active conivance of government officials and institutions at the highest level,” the ADC said.
It criticised the ICPC for recommending the prosecution of only Adeyemi, whom the commission reportedly identified as the principal suspect, despite describing its investigation as ongoing or inconclusive.
The opposition party questioned why the commission would publicly release an interim report capable of prejudicing the investigation instead of submitting it confidentially to President Bola Tinubu.
“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 party said.
The ADC further questioned how Adeyemi, acting alone, could have secured accommodation at the Federal Secretariat, caused civil servants to be deployed to the organisation, obtained official vehicles with customised number plates and armed security, and secured a N1.3 billion provision in the federal budget.
It also challenged the ICPC to explain how the alleged fake agency found its way into the Appropriation Act when budgetary allocations ordinarily pass through official submissions, reviews, approvals and verification processes.
The party noted that the ICPC had reportedly uncovered two additional fictitious organisations linked to Adeyemi, saying the discovery should have widened the investigation rather than narrowed its focus to one individual.
“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?”
On the purported appointment letter bearing the signature of the President’s Chief of Staff, which investigators reportedly found to be forged, the ADC said establishing the forgery did not explain how the document allegedly passed through several layers of government without detection.
“Who verified the existence of PFIPC before civil servants were deployed to it, who authorised its accommodation in a federal facility, and who processed its dealings with other government institutions?”
The party also demanded answers over the N1.3 billion budgetary provision, saying the House of Representatives’ ongoing investigation should establish who proposed, processed and verified the budgetary allocation.
The ADC said prosecuting Adeyemi without identifying other officials whose actions or negligence may have enabled the alleged fraud would amount to punishing “the man who entered through the window while refusing to ask who left the doors open.”
“What has happened is a national disgra
(The Whistler)