The House of Representatives has clarified that its investigation into the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) was primarily aimed at determining how the organisation allegedly emerged within the Federal Government, rather than investigating President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The clarification was made by the Chairman of the House ad hoc committee investigating the alleged establishment and operations of the PFIPC, Yusuf Gagdi, during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
Gagdi explained that the committee’s mandate was broad and centred on establishing whether the alleged agency had a legal foundation, who created it and how it allegedly became connected to government administrative and financial structures.
He said the committee publicly advertised the investigation and invited relevant institutions and members of the public to submit documents and memoranda that could assist its work.
According to the lawmaker, the appearance of Gbajabiamila’s name in documents relating to the alleged organisation did not automatically make him the focus of the investigation.
“The impression that people have that the entirety of that committee is about Femi Gbajabiamila is not true,” Gagdi said.
He added that the committee had several terms of reference concerning the activities surrounding the alleged agency.
The House subsequently exonerated Gbajabiamila when the committee presented its findings in Abuja on Wednesday.
The development follows allegations by Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claimed to be the Director-General of the PFIPC, that Gbajabiamila received N400 million through proxies over appointments linked to the organisation.
Gbajabiamila has denied the allegation and instituted a N15 billion defamation suit against Adeyemi.
The committee’s position therefore shifts attention from the allegations against the Chief of Staff to the larger question of how an organisation allegedly lacking a clear statutory foundation could have operated within government circles and whether proper procedures were followed in its creation and activities.
