PFIPC Probe: Nigerians Deserve To See Full, Unredacted Report – ADC

African Democratic Congress (ADC) has insisted that only an independent judicial panel can guarantee a credible and impartial probe of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal.

The party dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s directive to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the council.

In a statement issued in Abuja, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said while the President’s decision to order an investigation validates the ADC’s earlier demand for a probe, entrusting the exercise to an agency under the Executive raises serious questions about its independence.

“The President has now accepted the central argument advanced by the ADC—that this scandal requires investigation and cannot simply be explained away as the Presidency initially attempted to do.

“However, assigning the investigation to the ICPC, an agency under the Executive, creates the impression that the President intends to keep the investigation in-house and ultimately be a judge in his own case. 

“A Presidency that is at the centre of a scandal of this magnitude lacks the credibility to investigate itself.”

The opposition party urged President Tinubu to constitute an independent judicial panel comprising respected Nigerians to restore public confidence and ensure that the truth is established without interference.

ADC also faulted the Presidency for prematurely describing the appointment letters and official documents presented by Mr. Adeyemi Adeniyi as “forged” before any investigation had commenced.

According to the party, one of the key objectives of the investigation should be to determine whether the documents were genuinely issued, fraudulently obtained, improperly authorised, or forged.

“By declaring the documents forged before investigations begin, the government has effectively prejudged the outcome and compromised the integrity of the entire process,” the statement noted.