The Presidency is fooling no one if it thinks a partial report can wash away the stench of the fake Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal. That is the blunt message from Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, who accused the Villa of trying to sweep its own mess under the rug.
Atiku dismissed the interim findings from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as anything close to a clean bill of health. Instead, he argued, the report itself exposes gaping holes in how a phantom agency managed to set up shop inside the very heart of government. The document, he said, points to negligence and even possible connivance by public officers — raising the question of how such a brazen fraud could unfold without anyone pulling the alarm.
The scandal, as Atiku framed it, is far bigger than one man. The suspect, a certain Mr Adeyemi, is accused of forging a presidential appointment letter, inventing a federal agency out of thin air, taking over government office space, and opening bank accounts using doctored legislative papers. That kind of operation does not happen in a vacuum. Atiku fired off a series of pointed questions: Who were the negligent officials? Who granted access to government offices? Who acknowledged this supposed Director General? Who let him move through the gears of government machinery without a second glance?
The fact that the ICPC has reportedly recommended sanctions against public officers whose carelessness enabled this scheme shows the saga cannot be dismissed as the work of a lone con artist. Atiku demanded those names be dragged into the light. Nigerians, he insisted, have a right to know exactly who did what, who signed off on what, and who turned the keys that made this fiasco possible.
He also took aim at the decision to rely on an interim report as a verdict of innocence while investigations into possible accomplices and linked bank accounts remain unfinished. The full ICPC report, he said, must be published without delay. Anything less only fuels suspicion.
Atiku went a step further, urging the National Assembly to launch an open, televised investigation into the affair. His call gained urgency after reports that Adeyemi himself had volunteered to testify publicly before lawmakers. If the Presidency has nothing to hide, Atiku argued, it should be the first to embrace live coverage. Let Nigerians watch, unedited, as witnesses take the stand and evidence is laid out under oath.
He warned that any attempt to keep the probe behind closed doors would only deepen public distrust, suggesting powerful figures were being shielded. Transparency, he said, cannot stop at the gates of power. The Presidency cannot investigate itself into innocence.
Atiku closed by demanding the government throw the investigation open to full public scrutiny, put witnesses under oath, and let the nation hear the evidence firsthand. Anything short of that, he implied, is just another exercise in damage control.
