PFIPC Scandal: Atiku demands names of ‘insiders’ after ICPC admits ‘connivance’

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged the Federal Government to identify public officials allegedly involved in the “negligence and connivance” that enabled the activities of the so-called Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC.

Mr Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, on the PFIPC saga as an indictment that raises more questions than it answers.

He said the Presidency could not present the report as an exoneration when the findings, as cited by him, reportedly acknowledged negligence and connivance within government processes that facilitated the alleged fraud.

According to Mr Atiku, the findings indicate that an individual allegedly forged a presidential appointment letter, created a fictitious federal agency, appropriated offices and instruments belonging to the former Presidential Economic Advisory Council, opened bank accounts using forged legislative instruments, engaged in widespread impersonation and created two additional fictitious government agencies.

He questioned how such activities could have occurred within government facilities and systems without the involvement or negligence of public officials.

“Both claims cannot comfortably coexist,” Mr Atiku said.

“If there was connivance, who connived? If public officers were negligent, who are they? Who granted access to government offices? Who recognised this supposed Director-General? Who enabled him to operate within the machinery of government?”

Mr Atiku said the reported recommendation of sanctions against public officers whose negligence allegedly facilitated the operation undermined any attempt to portray the matter as the work of a lone impostor.

“A fake agency does not walk into government offices by itself. A forged appointment letter does not validate itself. Bank accounts do not open themselves. Behind every door that opened, every process that was bypassed and every official instrument that was accessed was a human being. Name them,” he said.

The former Vice President argued that the unanswered questions surrounding the identities of alleged insiders further strengthened the case for an independent panel of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the affair.

“What the ICPC Interim Report has done, in the main, is to shield the identities of shadow operatives within the presidency who allegedly connived to enable the fraud,” he alleged.

“Their identities should be made public and their roles fully explained. Nigerians deserve to know who did what, who authorised what, and who opened the doors that made this possible.”

Mr Atiku also cautioned against treating an interim report as a final declaration of innocence, particularly while investigations into alleged collaborators and associated bank accounts reportedly remain ongoing.

He said the government’s sincerity would ultimately be tested by its willingness to allow an open investigation, particularly following a reported request by the central figure in the saga, Mr Adeyemi, to appear before a National Assembly investigation broadcast live on national television.

“The Presidency now has nowhere left to hide. If Mr Adeyemi is prepared to appear publicly, testify under oath, and answer questions before Nigerians, then let him be heard,” Mr Atiku said.

He called on the National Assembly to immediately institute an open and live-broadcast public hearing into the matter.

“The Presidency must not attempt to block, gag, or shield anyone connected to this matter. If the Villa is truly clean, it should be the first to welcome live television coverage.

“Let Nigerians watch, unedited, as the witnesses testify, and the evidence is presented under oath. What is the Presidency afraid of?”

Mr Atiku warned that anything short of a transparent public hearing could deepen suspicions that powerful interests were being protected.

“You cannot admit negligence and connivance within government and simultaneously pronounce the system spotless. That is like washing charcoal and expecting white water,” he said.

He further demanded the publication of the full ICPC report and the identities of all public officials found culpable, insisting that only an independent and transparent inquiry could address concerns over whether politically exposed persons or officials within the Presidency were shielded from scrutiny.

“Transparency cannot stop where the trail enters the corridors of power. The Presidency cannot investigate itself into innocence,” Mr Atiku said.

“Open the investigation. Put the witnesses under oath. Switch on the cameras. Let Nigerians hear the truth for themselves.

“The question remains: WHO INSIDE THE VILLA OPENED THE DOOR?”