Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s directive on the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

According to a Tuesday statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to thoroughly investigate the activities of PFIPC and all related matters.

The president ordered all ministries, departments and agencies of government to provide the ICPC, upon lawful request, with all relevant information, records and assistance required for the expeditious completion of the investigation.

He further directed that the investigation be concluded and a comprehensive report submitted to him within 30 days, emphasising that the integrity of the Presidency and the institutions of government must be protected against impersonation, forgery, abuse of official identity, and the exploitation of weaknesses in the public service.

Reacting, Ibe said no fair probe could be conducted unless key personalities linked to the saga, including Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, are first suspended.

“It is flagrantly wrong for President Bola Tinubu to order the ICPC to investigate the so-called “fake” agency, Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) and its “phantom” Director General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew without asking the key suspects, including his Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to proceed on suspension pending the conclusion of the investigation,” Ibe said in a Facebook post.

He added, “Not suspending all those involved in the #GbajaGate scandal is akin to them being a judge in their own case.

“Their continued stay in office while the investigation is going on, gives them the opportunity to interfere with the investigation process.”

Gbajabiamila has threatened to institute a N10 billion lawsuit against Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who has been parading himself as the Director-General of PFIPC, an agency the federal government insists does not exist.

President Bola Tinubu, according to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of a “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” (PFIPC) and all related matters.

The President directed that the investigation be concluded and a comprehensive report submitted to him within 30 days.

The directive follows the discovery of the fictitious PFIPC, which was never established by the Federal Government of Nigeria and has no basis in any law, presidential instrument, executive approval, or other lawful act of Government.

The statement has noted that “One Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew presented himself as the Director-General of the so-called PFIPC and falsely claimed to be a presidential appointee.”

Among the issues to be investigated by the ICPC, according to the statement, are the forged appointment letters and other official government documents; the use of a false claim of presidential appointment to seek or obtain official recognition and diplomatic support, including visa facilitation; and the opening of multiple bank accounts in the names of purported government agencies using allegedly forged documents.

Tinubu further directed the ICPC to investigate not only the conduct of the principal individual and other collaborators involved but also the wider circumstances that may have enabled a fictitious body and a false claim of presidential appointment to acquire an appearance of official legitimacy.

The investigation is to examine the provenance and use of false official documents; the processes through which official recognition or diplomatic support may have been sought or obtained; the opening and operation of any related bank accounts; the source and movement of any funds involved; and the role of any public officer, private individual, financial institution, intermediary or other person or entity that may have facilitated, enabled or participated in the alleged scheme.

The President further directed the Commission to identify any weaknesses in government and institutional procedures that may have been exploited and to recommend immediate measures to prevent the recurrence of similar abuses.

All ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government have been directed to provide the ICPC, upon lawful request, with all relevant information, records and assistance required for the expeditious completion of the investigation.

President Tinubu stated that the integrity of the Presidency and the institutions of the Federal Government must be protected against impersonation, forgery, abuse of official identity and the exploitation of weaknesses in the public service.

The President directed that all persons found culpable be treated strictly in accordance with applicable law.

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has asked President Bola Tinubu to reveal to Nigerians those who stole two per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Atiku made the demand through a statement issed on Saturday by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.

The demand followed revelations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Nigeria omitted public expenditure equivalent to two per cent of its gross domestic product, GDP, from recent budgets.

Reacting, Atiku said the IMF’s revelation has exposed what appears to be a deeply entrenched system of institutional corruption under the Bola Tinubu administration.

According to him, the IMF’s disclosure, coming on the heels of the scandal surrounding the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), paints the picture of a government where public institutions are increasingly being converted into instruments for opaque financial dealings.

“The Constitution is not a book of suggestions. Section 80 is unequivocal: no money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly. Budgetary appropriation is not a ceremonial exercise; it is the legal authority upon which every kobo of public expenditure rests.

“If, as the IMF has revealed, expenditure amounting to two per cent of Nigeria’s GDP was omitted from the budget process, then Nigerians are entitled to one simple question: Who stole the missing two per cent of our GDP?

“This is no longer an accounting discrepancy. It is a constitutional, legal and moral scandal. Money does not simply disappear from a national budget. Somebody authorised it. Somebody approved it. Somebody spent it. Somebody benefited from it. Nigerians deserve to know who those people are.

“The question before the nation remains simple and unavoidable: Who stole the missing two per cent of Nigeria’s GDP? Until that question is honestly answered, every claim of transparency by this administration will ring hollow,” Atiku stated.