Suspend Gbajabiamila Before Probe, Atiku Aide Tells Tinubu
Pressure on the Presidency over the widening PFIPC scandal has taken a sharper turn, with Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, insisting that President Bola Tinubu’s order for an anti-graft probe means little unless the officials at the heart of the matter step aside first.
Ibe, in a post on his verified X handle on Tuesday, said it was “flagrantly wrong” for the President to direct the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate the so-called Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council and its disputed Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, “without asking the key suspects, including his Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila to go on suspension pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
He argued that allowing implicated officials to remain in office would compromise the exercise. “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,” Ibe wrote.
His intervention followed Tinubu’s directive on Tuesday evening, conveyed in a statement by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, ordering the ICPC to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the PFIPC and submit a report within 30 days. According to the Presidency, the council was never established by the Federal Government and has no basis in any law, presidential instrument or executive approval. The commission was asked to examine forged appointment letters, the use of a false claim of presidential appointment to obtain diplomatic support and visa facilitation, and the opening of multiple bank accounts in the names of purported government agencies using allegedly forged documents.
The controversy dates back to June, when Adeyemi, at a press conference on June 25, alleged that he paid N600m, including N400m through proxies, to secure his appointment, and accused Gbajabiamila of demanding 48 per cent of the agency’s take-off grant, a sum he put at about N27.4bn. Gbajabiamila has firmly denied the claims. Through his solicitors, Pinheiro LP, in a cease-and-desist letter dated July 6, the Chief of Staff described the allegations as false, malicious and without evidence, gave Adeyemi 72 hours to retract and apologise, and threatened a N10bn defamation suit. His lawyers maintained that he had never met or communicated with Adeyemi.
At the centre of the storm is a question the Presidency’s denial has not fully settled: how an agency it insists does not exist came to secure an allocation of about N1,302,978,784 in the 2026 Appropriation Act under budget code 0111062001, listed alongside the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, and allegedly operated accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Senate, through its spokesman Yemi Adaramodu, has distanced the legislature from the line item, saying it was not inserted by lawmakers but arrived as an executive insertion, and that no petition was before the chamber to warrant a probe.
The affair has drawn a widening cast of critics. The Nigeria Democratic Congress and former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, have likewise demanded Gbajabiamila’s suspension. Civil society groups including SERAP and BudgIT have pressed for independent inquiries, with BudgIT noting that neither the PFIPC nor the PEAC appeared in the 2023, 2024 or 2025 budgets. The episode has revived long-standing concerns about opaque budget insertions, echoing BudgIT’s earlier finding of 11,122 projects worth N6.93tn allegedly inserted into the 2025 budget.
For now, the ICPC’s 30-day clock is ticking, even as the demand that suspects step aside remains unmet.