Breaking: Budget Office Reveals How 'PFIPC Fake Agency' Got into 2026 Budget, "Buhari Started It"
- The Budget Office of the Federation said the PFIPC's origin traces back to a council created under former President Buhari in 2019
- Budget Office DG Tanimu Yakubu told House of Representatives members how the controversial agency received an N802.978m personnel allocation
- The Budget Office said no financial clearance was ever issued for the PFIPC, meaning no salary was paid and no kobo was spent
The Budget Office of the Federation has told the House of Representatives that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), declared fake by the presidency and now under investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), has institutional roots in the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari.
Budget Office Director-General Tanimu Yakubu made the disclosure in Abuja after appearing before House members, explaining that the PFIPC's entry into the 2026 federal budget was not the Budget Office's own doing but the result of official instruments received from other government bodies.
Source: Twitter
How the PFIPC entered the 2026 budget
Yakubu said the Council's history began with the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated by President Buhari on October 9, 2019. By the time 2026 budget preparations began, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation had already assigned an administrative code to the PFIPC, The Cable reported.
The Office of the Head of the Civil Service had also approved an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver, with a corresponding public-service salary structure in place.
"The Budget Office did not create the Council. It did not assign its code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal effect," Yakubu said.
The PFIPC submitted a personnel estimate of N3.850 billion for the 2026 fiscal year. The Budget Office rejected that figure and independently calculated N802,978,783.00 as the appropriate provision, using the authorised establishment, approved recruitment waiver, salary structure, and standard costing methodology. That amount was what entered the appropriation, Vanguard reported.
Fake agency: Why no money was ever released
Yakubu said the Council's promoter, Prince Adeyemi Adeniyi, could not obtain Financial Clearance, the regulatory instrument required before any personnel provision can translate into actual expenditure.
"There was no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrollment. There was no salary payment," he said.
The DG explained that the 2026 Appropriation Bill only received presidential assent on March 31, 2026, and that even after that, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed that the proposed staffing arrangements met its prescribed standards. Both conditions remained unmet.
He also clarified that personnel appropriations are never paid to agencies as lump sums; salaries are disbursed monthly into verified employee accounts on the federal payroll. Since no employee was ever enrolled, no funds moved.
"Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn. Not one kobo was drawn," Yakubu said.
The PFIPC controversy became public on June 11, 2026, when Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila declared the Council fake and petitioned law enforcement.
The PFIPC's director-general, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, later alleged at a press conference that Gbajabiamila had received N400 million through a proxy and demanded a further N200 million, claims the Chief of Staff denied. Gbajabiamila has since filed a N15 billion defamation suit against Adeyemi, who was subsequently arrested by police.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has since confirmed it opened two domiciliary accounts linked to the PFIPC on the directive of the Accountant-General's office, though both accounts were never funded or operated.
Adeyemi urged to apologise to Gbajabiamila
Previously, Legit.ng reported that Nigerian content creator and blogger MC Izzy publicly called on Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi to tender an apology to Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, over allegations that Gbajabiamila collected a N400 million bribe, saying the claims lack credible evidence.
MC Izzy made the remarks in a video shared across his social media platforms, citing recent developments in the probe by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which invited Gbajabiamila for questioning.
Source: Legit.ng
