The Nigerian Senate has absolved itself from the controversy trailing the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and Adeniyi Adeyemi, the Director General of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council PFIPC.
Some federal government agencies and individuals including the National Assembly, the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, have been smeared in the controversy.
The NASS has come under severe criticism for allegedly allocating funds to the ‘fake’ agency in the 2026 budget.
Over N24 billion was allocated to the Agency in the budget as take-off grant, with another N1.3 billion in the budget, covering planned capital and recurrent expenditure of the agency.
Not a few Nigerians have raised posers on how an agency described as fake by the government was allocated funds in the budget without anyone discovering, particularity the lawmakers whose duty is to vet the Budget before it’s passed to the President for assent.
Critics of the government are calling on the Senate to be probed for its alleged involvement in the saga.
Reacting to the allegation, the Senate spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu said it cannot be blamed for the alleged scam, saying the Presidency made the Budget insertions, and that the lawmakers only approved what was sent to it by the Executive.
He said the controversy should be addressed by the agency and Presidency as the Legislature has nothing to do with it.
The Senate spokesperson stressed that the DG of the agency was not even among the government officials screen by the Senate, wondering why it’s being dragged into the controversy.
Adaramodu: “The allegations and counter-allegations over fake agency and fake Director-General are all within the executive, which should be sorted out by it, specifically between the office of the Chief of Staff and the alleged fake DG.
“The budget line being referred to was not created or inserted by the National Assembly and it is not the duty of the Senate or the House of Representatives to carry out security checks on those supposedly appointed to head the various MDAs.
“If the alleged fake DG were to be one of the Presidential appointees screened and confirmed by the Senate, the controversy might have been perceived to be somewhat linked to us.
“However, if a petition is sent to the Senate by any of the feuding parties or any concerned Nigerian on existence or non-existence of the the agency or DG, it will be legislatively looked into.”
The controversy became a public item after the President’s Chief of Staff, Gbajabiamila wrote a petition to the Police to probe Adeyemi, who he described as a fraudster.
On his part, Adeyemi accused the CoS of sending law enforcement agencies against him, after he refused to pay the N200 million balance from the N600 million he promised Gbajabiamila to get the job as the DG of the controversial agency.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu, on Monday, ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC to investigate the alleged scam within 30 days.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
