Fidelia Soriwei, Abuja
The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) has uncovered fresh discrepancies surrounding the agency’s alleged establishment, with the State House denying any role in its creation and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) explaining how it approved official vehicle number plates for the council.
At an investigative hearing in Abuja on Thursday, lawmakers heard testimony from officials of the State House and the FRSC as part of an ongoing probe into how the PFIPC allegedly operated as a government agency despite questions over its legal status and appearance in aspects of the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Representing the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Director of Administration, Abdulkadri Idris, told the committee that the Presidency neither created the council nor requested the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to generate a budget code for it.
“I want to state that we did not send any correspondence nor any request to the Office of the Accountant-General in respect of this council. We don’t even know anything about this council. We never heard about this council until we started seeing it in the media,” Idris said.
He also dismissed documents presented to the committee as fraudulent, stating that they referenced a Directorate of Administration and Support Services that does not exist within the State House and bore the signature of an individual who was never a director in the Presidency.
“I presented the list of Directors of Administration in the State House from 2003 to date, and there was no name resembling Akande Adewale.
“In addition, there is no department known as Directorate of Administration and Support Services in the State House. We have only the Department of Administration. Akande Adewale has never, ever been Director of Administration in the State House,” he clarified.
The State House further denied issuing any appointment letter to the council’s purported Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, stressing that appointments of heads of federal agencies are communicated through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Reacting to the testimony, committee chairman Yusuf Gagdi said the evidence exposed major contradictions between documents obtained from the Accountant-General’s Office and records provided by the State House.
“The State House has denied that it ever wrote any letter to the Accountant-General requesting budget codes. Secondly, there is no Directorate of Administration and Support Services as contained in those documents.
“The Accountant-General responded to an office that the State House says does not exist, while the name of the signatory, Akande Adewale, is absent from all official records submitted to this committee,” Gagdi said.
The FRSC, however, defended its decision to allocate seven official Federal Government vehicle number plates to the PFIPC, saying it followed standard verification procedures based on documents and representations submitted by the applicants.
In a memorandum signed by Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed, the agency said the request was made by Adeniyi Adeyemi and was accompanied by documents outlining the council’s mandate.
The FRSC said officials verified the documents, inspected the council’s office at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, checked a government-domain website provided by the applicant and confirmed the chassis numbers of the vehicles before approving the registration.
“Having completed the foregoing verification processes and being satisfied with the information presented, the Corps approved and allocated seven Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates to the Agency,” Mohammed said.
The vehicles included a 2024 bulletproof Lexus LX, two Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs and four Toyota Hilux vehicles, which were assigned registration numbers PFIPC 01 to PFIPC 07.
Mohammed said the Corps later discovered that the PFIPC was not an approved federal agency and had begun steps to recover all seven number plates.
“It therefore came as a profound shock to the Corps when it subsequently emerged that the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council was not an approved Federal Government Agency and that the representations made by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi were false,” he stated.
During the hearing, Gagdi questioned the adequacy of the verification process, noting that some of the documents relied upon by the FRSC lacked standard government security features and unusually listed several top government officials as members of the council. Asked whether the arrangement appeared normal, the Corps Marshal replied: “No, not at all.”
The committee directed the FRSC to provide details on the current status and location of all vehicles registered under the PFIPC and announced that the investigation would conclude next Wednesday.
Lawmakers say the probe is aimed at establishing how the council emerged, identifying those responsible and recommending safeguards against similar breaches of government administrative processes.
