No CBN Accounts For Controversial Presidential Council – OAGF Insists

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, OAGF,  has debunked claims that the controversial and phantom Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council PFIPC owned and operated a  Central Bank of Nigeria CBN domiciliary accounts.

The Presidency, in the wake of the scandal over the status of the non-existent agency, had in a statement from Presidential Adviser, Bayo Onanuga, noted that the PFIPC Director General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi misled the AGF into opening CBN account for the agency.

According to Onanuga ,the police in the course of its inquest into the circumstances surrounding the status of the agency, discovered that Adeyemi used documents he allegedly fraudulently obtained from the  office of the AGF to open account with the Country apex financial institution.

However, responding to the ongoing controversy, the OAGF insisted that although steps were started for the purpose of opening CBN accounts by the PFIPC, the processes were never concluded.

Bawa Mokwa, the Director of Public Relations in the OAGF, informed that the account opening processes were initiated shortly after the convener of the agency, Adeyemi presented a purported letter of appointment as the DG of an already existing Government body.

He emphasized that the processes later got stalled  following the inability of the progenitors of the phantom interventionist agency to present names of the would-be signatories to the accounts .

“The account has not seen the light of the day. It has also not received one Kobo because it was never fully opened and activated.

“The Accountant General has not released any money to the agency because there is no operational account for such payments”, Mokwa submitted.

While admitting that the agency may have had  budgetary allocations to its name, Mokwa however, noted that provisions in the Appropriation Act does not automatically translate into official release of funds.

He emphasized that there must be certain minimum acceptable standards and variables that have to be met before a Government body receives budgetary allocations and other entitlements.

This is as the OAGF debunked claims suggesting that salaries were also paid to staff of the agency.

It will be recalled that the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, HoSF, was reported to have greenlighted the PFIPC to source and recruit about 300 staffers for the operations of its offices across the country.

But according to Mokwa, all federal agencies are not permitted to recruit staff without the expressed approval of relevant authorities, including the Federal Character Commission FCC, the Budget Office, and the Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC .

He noted that such procedures must be strictly adhered to before such staff are enrolled on the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System IPPIS.

He explained that despite an agency being granted a waiver to recruit, an approval from all relevant bodies must be obtained before the commencement of the process.

The status of the PFIPC, and its supposed DG, Adeyemi, as well as the alleged involvement of Government officials, especially the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajiabiamila, has continued to occupy public discuss, with not a few calling for an independent probe to unravel the actual circumstances surrounding the unfortunate development .