Controversy has continued to trail the status of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council/Presidential Economic Advisory Council, following a disclaimer by Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and counterclaims by an acclaimed Director General of the council, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi.

This is just as Adeyemi was reportedly told to refrain from further media comments on the issue that has raised more questions than answers.

The council’s website www.pfipc.gov.ng has been inactive, but its mandate is described as “Facilitating global partnerships & foreign investment into Nigeria” on its Instagram page.

Daily Trust could not find any official statement announcing Adeyemi’s appointment as the DG of the council, contrary to the tradition by the Presidency or the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

The Presidency and the National Assembly have yet to respond to Daily Trust’s inquiries on the agency and Adeyemi’s allegations since last weekend.

Gbajabiamila had issued a disclaimer dated June 11, 2026, dismissing the existence of the council, saying “it has come to the notice of the Federal Government of Nigeria and specifically the Office of the Chief of Staff to His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR that a certain Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, under the auspices of an alleged organisation styled as the ‘Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council’ is portraying himself to the general public, as having been appointed by my office.”

“The unsuspecting public is hereby advised to note that such an office does not exist under this administration and no appointment has been made in that regard. Foreign and Diplomatic Missions, Financial and Multilateral Institutions, Development Organisations, Security Agencies and so on are hereby advised to note the contents of this Notice,” he wrote.

But in a press conference in Abuja, last Thursday, which coincided with Gbajabiamila’s birthday, Adeyemi countered the disclaimer. He said he found it expedient to open up on what he described as a cloud of public misrepresentation, institutional denial and deliberate attempts to silence legitimate questions that concern matters of national interest.

Adeyemi said, “I reject outright any attempt to reduce this matter to simple denials without addressing the core questions that Nigerians are now asking. The issue is no longer about personalities. It is about contradictions that demand answers. This claim of the Chief of Staff to the President, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, that he doesn’t know about the existence of the agency is derisory because in the real world, he should cover his face in shame.

“If Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, who is supposed to be the Chief of Staff to the President and also the administrative gateway to the Presidency, can make such an administrative error, by allowing the president to sign a document with a fake agency in it, he should possibly resign his appointment now.”

He wondered why the council was captured in the 2026 budget and its allocation was approved by the National Assembly before the President eventually signed the budget, if indeed it did not exist.

He stated, “The national budget does not emerge in isolation. It passes through multiple layers of technical drafting, executive coordination, ministerial inputs, budget office review, and finally legislative scrutiny by both chambers of the National Assembly, where COS has meritoriously served for good 20 years and rose from Minority to Majority leaders and Speaker for 4 years.

“So the question becomes unavoidable: at what point in this process did references to a non-existent agency allegedly enter the official record? And if they are indeed present in official documentation, what does that imply about the integrity of the process that produced and approved those documents?”

Checks by Daily Trust revealed that the council is, indeed, captured on pages 50 and 51 of the 2026 budget with an allocation of N1,302,978,784, with N1,002,978,784 set aside for recurrent expenditure and N300,000,000 for capital expenditure.

Some of the council’s budget line items include: salary, N573,260,187; allowances and social contribution, N229,718,596; logistics for preparation of hosting World Investment Summit 2026, N182,500,000; strategic negotiation for investment professionals, N11,000,000 and negotiation and leadership N10,000,000.

Adeyemi further claimed that the disputed council has a domiciliary account and a Treasury Single Account domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Please note that the process of opening an account with the CBN starts from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. Therefore, the CoS is telling the Accountant General of the Federation, his polls of directors, deputy directors, assistant directors and other professional experts in his office, that they are sit-down-look civil servants not to have detected forged documents.

“How did the agency get an office space at the Federal Secretariat and operate for over a year? These are not trivial matters but questions on the sensitivity of governance, accountability, and public trust,” he added.

Allegation over bribe, threat to life

Adeyemi explained that he fell out with Gbajabiamila after he declined to part with 48 per cent of an alleged N27,395,510,136 take-off grant of the agency, allegedly demanded by the former Speaker.

He alleged that Gbajabiamila collected N400 million by proxy to secure him appointment as the head of the agency, with a balance of N200 million.

He urged the President to set up an independent investigative panel to, among others, compel the Chief of Staff to produce all the official documents he has signed since assumption of office for forensic analysis, review budgetary references and institutional records, investigate alleged assassination attempts on his life and compel Gbajabiamila to step aside pending the outcome of the probe.

He also demanded that the panel should include credible civil society organisations and international organisations and make its findings public.

“I remain willing to cooperate fully with any lawful inquiry. If I am wrong, let an independent process prove it. If Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila is right, let me confirm it,” he added.

Several attempts to get more details on the matter from Adeyemi met a brick wall. When contacted on Monday, he asked our correspondent to call back the following day. He said he was in transit when contacted on Tuesday and asked our reporter to call back in two hours.

Adeyemi said he was in a meeting when he was phoned again and promised to call back. He neither did nor picked up subsequent calls to his line.

However, sources close to him confided in Daily Trust that he had been cautioned from granting media interviews for now.

“They have asked him from ‘the above’ to refrain from the media for now. He has made some allegations; let them respond. They should be the ones responding now. He is observing if the presidency would take action or not,” a source said.

Council’s engagements with EFCC, NERC, others

Findings by our correspondent showed that Adeyemi, in his capacity as the council’s ‘DG,’ had official engagements with heads of some government agencies and global partners, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) and the China Investment Business Development Commission (CIBDC).

On September 4, 2025, he announced a partnership with the EFCC to drive foreign direct investment into the country during a visit to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja alongside his team. He was received by the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede.

“We must find a balance between the fight against corruption and the sustenance of investment and attraction to foreign direct investments,” Olukoyede said.

The same month, he also led his team to the NERC office to brief the Commission on the upcoming World Investment Summit. He was welcomed by the Commissioner for Corporate Services, Mr. Nathan Shatti, who emphasized the importance of strategic collaboration.

In June 2025, Adeyemi received a “high-powered delegation” from the CIBDC led by its Chairman Daniel Zhang, during which they discussed the establishment of the Nigeria-China Investment Group, a new bilateral platform that will be co-owned by Nigerian and Chinese stakeholders.

The initiative is designed to deepen investment ties, promote technology and infrastructure exchange, and foster trust between both nations’ private and public sectors.

Presidency, National Assembly keep mum

Efforts to get the reaction of the Presidency on the development was not successful as Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy could not be reached for comment. The line of Mr. Daniel Bwala, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communications’ phone was not reachable either.

As at the time of filing this report, messages sent to Onanuga and Bwala, including WhatsApp texts, had yet to be replied to. Similarly, the Senate spokesperson, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, did not respond to the WhatsApp message sent to him on the issue since Sunday. He did not respond to calls put across to him either.

However, a source close to the Senate Committee on Appropriations said the committee—which is saddled with the approval and monitoring of the national budget to ensure transparency, fiscal discipline, and the effective allocation of public funds—often follows laid-down procedures in approving funds for federal government agencies.

The source said it is nearly impossible for funds to be approved for non-existent federal government agencies or bodies.

“All the funds allocated to the agencies were defended by the heads of such agencies before the relevant Senate committees. The reports of these committees will be put together and brought for passage during the plenary,” the source said.

Efforts to get the reaction of the spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon. Akin Rotimi, on the matter proved abortive as he did not respond to calls.

He also did not respond to a WhatsApp message sent to him to clarify if the council is actually authentic and to explain issues surrounding its allocation in the 2026 budget.

‘All agencies in the budget recognised’

Attempts to get comments from the spokesperson for the Budget Office of the Federation, Afolabi Olajuwon, were unsuccessful as messages and calls sent to his phone did not go through.

However, a source in the office, who wants to remain anonymous as he is not authorised to speak with the media, reiterated that the 2026 budget is an instrument of the federal government, noting that “all government agencies in the document are recognised agencies.”

The source said, “The budget document comes from the ministries and from the National Assembly, so the budget Office has nothing to do with it. We all know that the budget still has to pass through the National Assembly as well as the Presidency, so it will be scrutinised adequately. If it were to be altered or doctored, it is between these two powerful arms of the government.

“The problem between the Chief of Staff to the President and the head of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) is a political fight so they know where it started and how they will resolve it. So, it is the National Assembly or the Presidency that can answer the question on whether the agency is recognised or how it got into the 2026 budget.”

Allegation a national scandal – Atiku

Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has urged President Tinubu to lead by example by holding his appointees accountable for their actions.

Reacting to the N400 million bribery allegation against Gbajabiamila, Atiku, in a statement on Tuesday by his Media Office, explained that the Chief of Staff’s claim that the agency did not exist had only created more credibility gaps for him.

The ADC presidential candidate explained that the Chief of Staff’s claim only created more problems for the government. He asked that Gbajabiamila be suspended and an independent investigation be carried out to establish the whole truth about “this national scandal.”

“Good governance is based on transparency and accountability and you can’t achieve that by protecting your family and friends. President Tinubu must lead by example by holding his Chief of Staff to the same standards of accountability as other public officials. The rule of law must prevail in this issue. Let President Tinubu prove to Nigerians that he is sincerely committed to accountability in his administration,” the statement said.

But a coalition, comprising Concerned Nigerians in Diaspora United Kingdom, Concerned Fulani People of Nigeria, and Assembly of Lagos Youths, faulted what it described as destructive criticism against the Chief of Staff.

The coalition’s position was contained in a joint statement by US-based public affairs commentator, Kofo Williams; Chairman of Concerned Nigerians in Diaspora United Kingdom, Abanikanda Olumoro; Convener of the Concerned Fulani People of Nigeria, Alhaji Ibrahim Barkindo Chubado; and leader of the Assembly of Lagos Youths, Mr Lasisi Robert.

According to the groups, the allegations were unverified and aimed at tarnishing the former Speaker’s image.

The statement read in part, “Public service, particularly at the highest levels of government, often comes with intense scrutiny, criticism, and, at times, outright accusations. While accountability remains a cornerstone of democratic governance, it is equally important that public discourse is guided by facts, evidence, and due process rather than speculation or political grandstanding.

“Recent allegations and public statements targeted at the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, over issues relating to the Presidential Fiscal and Investment Policy Commission (PFIPC) and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) have once again brought to the fore the need for caution and responsibility in public engagements.” (Daily Trust, but headline reworked)

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