PFIPC scandal: Babachir Lawal reveals only reason SGF might have refused to flag fake agency

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, has said that it rested on the shoulders of the Secretary-General of the Federation to flag the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC.

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, chieftain the SGF could only look the other way in such matters especially when his office is being sidelined by some highly placed people in the presidency.

DAILY POST reported that the controversy regarding the purported N1.3bn Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC, scandal intensified on Monday, as the Nigeria Police Force allegedly detained the father of the council’s director, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi.

This development comes amid ongoing investigations into the purported ‘ghost agency’ associated with the Presidency.

Adeyemi, who claimed to be the Director-General of the council, is currently facing trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges including conspiracy, forgery, and impersonation.

The Federal Government has identified the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, along with 10 other individuals, as witnesses for the prosecution in the case.

Speaking on Arise, Lawal said he would not create the space for anyone to sideline him as the SGF, saying he would go to the President protesting.

He argued on Arise News, “In my own time, all the 23 agencies that report directly to the SGF when it’s time to defend their budget, I attended with the MDA that’s going to defend the budget,” he said.

“If that MDA is part of the presidency, that is, it reports to the president through the SGF, the SGF should be able to know, because before it gets to the National Assembly, that budget goes to the SGF in that regard.

 “I can tell you, unless there’s a dereliction of duty by the SGF’s office, the responsibility to flag this fake agency would have come from the SGF.

“But if sometimes, maybe they feel so much sidelined that they don’t care, they just look the other way. But the responsibility to flag that fake agency comes from the SGF’s office.

“If that happens to me, I’ll go to the president. If you sideline me, I’ll go to the president and protest immediately.”