The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on the alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), demanding explanations on how the organisation operated within government structures despite allegedly having no legal existence.
The opposition party said the central issue was not only how an individual, identified as Adeyemi, allegedly impersonated a government official, but how the purported fictitious agency obtained office space at the Federal Secretariat, civil servants, official vehicles, armed security and a reported N1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 budget.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC described the ICPC’s report as predictable, alleging that it appeared more focused on damage control and the protection of government officials than on addressing the wider questions raised by the scandal.
“The ICPC report appeared to have given the impression that what happened was mere failure in government processes or procedures. This position is difficult to sustain in the light of publicly available evidence,” Abdullahi said.
According to the party, the alleged PFIPC was neither established by law nor backed by any legitimate executive approval, yet it reportedly obtained the institutional support necessary to function as a government agency.
The ADC also questioned the ICPC’s recommendation that Adeyemi be prosecuted while suggesting that other accomplices may exist within government without identifying them.
The party asked why the commission chose to publicly release an interim report if the investigation was still ongoing.
“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?” it asked.
A major concern raised by the ADC was the reported N1.3 billion provision for PFIPC in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The party noted that the National Assembly had commenced an investigation into how the allocation was inserted into the budget, insisting that the process should establish who proposed the allocation, who processed it and who verified the organisation listed as the beneficiary.
“Budgetary provisions do not materialise by accident. They leave records, submissions, approvals and an audit trail,” the party said.
The ADC further demanded explanations over how the alleged agency secured accommodation within the Federal Secretariat and how civil servants were assigned to an organisation the Presidency now maintains did not exist.
“To prosecute Mr. Adeyemi without answering these questions would be to punish the man who entered through the window while refusing to ask who left the doors open,” the party said.
The opposition party also questioned the circumstances surrounding an alleged appointment letter bearing the purported signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, which investigators reportedly found to have been forged.
According to the ADC, proving that the signature was forged does not resolve the broader issue of how the document allegedly passed through various layers of government verification.
“A forgery may explain the first door that was opened. It cannot explain why every subsequent door appears to have opened as well,” the party stated.
The ADC said the reported discovery by the ICPC of two other fictitious organisations allegedly linked to Adeyemi should prompt a wider investigation rather than a narrower focus on one individual.
It argued that the development raised further questions about how government systems allowed organisations that allegedly did not exist to acquire the appearance of official legitimacy.
The party recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had directed the ICPC to investigate the matter, but said it had previously called for an independent panel to conduct a comprehensive probe, arguing that a government agency could not adequately investigate a scandal involving government institutions.
“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 said.
The party called for the immediate publication of the full ICPC interim report and demanded that every public official whose actions or negligence may have enabled the alleged fictitious organisations to gain official recognition be identified and held accountable where wrongdoing is established.
The ADC said Nigerians were not asking the government to manufacture culprits, but to follow the evidence wherever it leads, warning that anything short of a comprehensive investigation could amount to an attempt to contain the embarrassment rather than uncover the truth.
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