Two key federal institutions; the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have officially disowned the existence and operations of the alleged Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).
​The developments came on Monday, July 20, 2026, as the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee, chaired by Rep. Yusuf Gagdi, convened in Abuja to investigate the legal status of the body and its controversial ₦1.32 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
​Appearing before the legislative panel at the National Assembly Complex, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, testified that her office has no record establishing the council.
​Walson-Jack stated that the PFIPC never received administrative clearance or establishment approval from the civil service authority. Dismissing claims that the council was granted a official workspace within the federal bureaucracy, she noted:
​”The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation did not allocate any office space to the PFIPC. The cited premises at Phase 3 of the Federal Secretariat was originally allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”
​Testimony provided during Monday’s proceedings further revealed that while account-opening requests were previously initiated through formal channels, the apex bank never fully activated operational status or granted regulatory clearance for the PFIPC as a recognized federal entity.
​The hearing follows an order by Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, represented at the session by House Majority Leader Julius Ihonvbere demanding a full-scale probe into how an unconstitutional entity secured line-item funding in the national budget framework.
The investigation was sparked by the arrest of Adeyemi Adeniyi Matthew, accused of impersonating a Director-General using fake presidential signatures, forged seals, and unauthorized diplomatic correspondence.
Lawmakers are examining procedural lapses that allowed a line item of ₦1.32 billion to pass into the 2026 budget for a non-existent council.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has mandated the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to conduct a concurrent 30-day investigation into the administrative loopholes surrounding the scandal.
​The House ad hoc panel adjourned after issuing summonses to additional high-ranking officials, including the Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General of the Federation, to appear at subsequent hearings this week.
