Loading ...ABUJA, NIGERIA — The House of Representatives has been thrown into state-level panic following revelations that a non-existent executive agency—the “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” (PFIPC)—not only managed to dupe Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu into granting them official audience but also breached federal financial defenses to secure a staggering ₦1.32 billion allocation in the legally passed 2026 Budget.
The alarming security lapse has sparked intense suspicion within the National Assembly, with lawmakers pointing toward deep-seated institutional collusion. Critics argue that an entirely fabricated entity could not have bypassed the rigorous vetting procedures of the Budget Office of the Federation, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, and parliamentary appropriation committees without high-level inside assistance.
The “Due Diligence” That Failed
The controversy reached a boiling point during Wednesday’s plenary session when Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu defended his decision to host the group’s self-styled Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, at the National Assembly.
Kalu revealed that his office did not merely rely on official-looking letterheads bearing the Presidency’s insignia; his team conducted physical verification at the Federal Secretariat Complex (Phase Three) in Abuja and confirmed that the council was fully operational from the site.
“I was a victim, and I’m sure if you watch the news, you would see my picture all over the screen standing side by side with the purported Director-General,” Kalu stated during plenary, detailing how the fraudsters presented an flawless veneer of official legitimacy. “I sent my team to verify the existence of this organisation at the stated address. They came back confirming that the organisation was operating from that location. It was based on that verification that I approved a meeting.”
Institutional Failure or Deliberate Sabotage?
Despite Kalu’s narrative of being an innocent victim of an elaborate hoax, the core focus of parliamentary outrage has shifted to a much more dangerous question: How did a ghost agency penetrate the federal budget?
In the newly enacted 2,790-page 2026 Appropriation Act, the completely unauthorized PFIPC appears on page 4, tucked directly beneath the legally recognized National Council on Climate Change.
| Layer of Breach | Critical Questions Facing the Investigation |
| The ₦1.32bn Budget Line | How did a non-existent council pass the executive budget defense phase undetected? |
| The CBN Account | Who authorized the creation of a Treasury Single Account (TSA) for a phantom group? |
| Secretariat Logistics | Who allocated a physical office block within a heavily secured federal complex to a fraudulent operation? |
| Mass Recruitment | How did the group secure civil service clearance to issue employment letters to over 300 individuals? |
The sophisticated nature of the scam has led lawmakers to suspect that the PFIPC was an engineered front designed by powerful public officials to smoothly siphon ₦1.32 billion out of the federal treasury under the guise of an executive council.
House Summons Ministers, Freezes Funds
Adopting a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Hon. Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), the House of Representatives resolved to launch an aggressive, deep-dive probe into the incident.
The House has officially summoned the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, alongside the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, to explain the systemic failure that allowed a fictitious entity into the national budget document.
The lawmakers also ordered the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to immediately freeze all financial warrants, accounts, and allocation lines linked to the PFIPC. Simultaneously, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has been directed by the Presidency to track down Adeyemi and unmask his high-level accomplices within the civil service machinery.
