The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that it opened two foreign-currency domiciliary accounts for the controversial and non-existent Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The revelation came on Monday during a public hearing convened by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the existence and operations of the fake council, chaired by Representative Yusuf Gagdi.
Represented by the Director of its Banking Services Department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN explained that the US dollar and British pound sterling accounts were opened on July 30, 2025, following an official mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Ibrahim clarified that while the accounts were created after standard mandate verifications, they were never activated, recorded no transactions, and maintained a zero balance.
“We did not receive any correspondence, mandate, signature or mandate cards. Based on that, those accounts remain inactive, with zero balance,” Ibrahim told the panel.
The CBN’s testimony directly contradicted earlier submissions by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, who had previously claimed that no bank accounts were ever created in the PFIPC’s name.
Head of Service denies allocating secretariat office
Also testifying before the house panel, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, denied allocating office space to the fake agency at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.
She noted that the space occupied by the PFIPC was officially assigned to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
However, Walson-Jack revealed that during the 2025 manpower budget exercise, her office approved an establishment of 314 positions and a subsequent recruitment waiver for the fake council after receiving forged credentials through an operative now under police questioning.
Following the disclosures, Committee Chairman Yusuf Gagdi summoned key government officials to appear on Thursday, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, the Inspector-General of Police, the Minister of Finance, and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
Femi Gbajabiamila testifies at ICPC
Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, appeared at the headquarters of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Monday to volunteer information regarding the probe.
His legal counsel, Jiti Ogunye, confirmed that Gbajabiamila spent 30 minutes at the anti-graft agency cooperating with investigators in compliance with President Bola Tinubu’s directive.
Concurrently, Gbajabiamila has filed a ₦15 billion defamation lawsuit before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory against the arrested “Director-General” of the fake council, Prince Adeyemi Matthew.
The lawsuit follows public allegations by Adeyemi that the Chief of Staff demanded kickbacks from the agency’s purported take-off grant. Gbajabiamila has denied ever meeting or communicating with Adeyemi, who himself recently admitted in a viral video interview that he had never met the Chief of Staff physically.
Adeyemi is scheduled to reappear before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27 as investigations into the multi-billion naira administrative scam continue.
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