•Adeyemi Adeniyi
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected President Bola Tinubu’s directive for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) controversy, insisting that only an independent investigation should do so.
According to the opposition party, only “an independent judicial panel will be able to provide answers beyond all reasonable doubt to the many questions that this historic scandal has thrown up,” reports Daily Trust.
Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, in a statement, warned against any attempt to reduce the controversy into the actions of a single individual.
“We therefore note that President Tinubu has now accepted the central argument advanced by the ADC: that this matter requires an investigation and should not simply be explained away, as his presidency had initially attempted to do.”
However, ADC said by handing the investigation to the ICPC, an agency of government under the Executive, it conveys the impression that the president intends to keep the investigation in-house and possibly be a judge in his own case.
“A presidency that is at the very heart of a historic scandal such as this does not have the credibility to authorise an investigation into a matter that has brought an entire country into disrepute.
“This is why the president should seize this moment as an opportunity to restore some credibility to his government by allowing an independent inquiry made up of trusted citizens. A government that is drowning in scandals cannot be trusted to investigate itself.”
ADC noted that even as the presidency has ordered an investigation, “the presidency’s statement remains stubbornly presumptuous, appearing to have concluded that the appointment letters and other official documents were “forged”, even before any investigation had started. Yet, one of the central questions that the investigation is expected to determine is whether the appointment letters and other documents that Mr. Adeyemi relied on were genuinely issued, as he has claimed, or whether they were forged, as the Presidency has insisted.
“Therefore, by anchoring the investigation on its own position, the government would have effectively biased the entire process.”
The party said investigation must be allowed to “independently determine whether the documents were forged, improperly issued, fraudulently obtained, or lawfully issued under the authority of the Presidency. The credibility of the entire exercise depends on allowing investigators to follow the evidence wherever it leads, rather than predetermining the outcome through official pronouncements.”
They also said since the presidency itself acknowledged that the investigation may extend to the conduct of public officials and institutions connected to the Presidency, Nigerians deserve to know whether every relevant office, including the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, will be subjected to the same level of scrutiny as every other institution.
“If this is so, the minimum expectation is for the president to direct his chief of staff to proceed on leave until the investigations are concluded. As long as he remains an active official of government, it creates the impression that the President is deliberately shielding a key party in this matter. It would also be difficult to convince anyone that the Chief of Staff would not use his powerful office to influence the investigations in his favour.”
The presidency, ADC said, should immediately clarify whether the findings of the ICPC investigation will be made public, adding that the report submitted only to the President is not enough as Nigerians have a right to know the truth.
“Transparency demands that the final report be released in full and that its recommendations be implemented without fear or favour.
“The president must commit to releasing the full report at the end of the investigation. Merely announcing the outcome, or punishing a few expendable officials or scapegoats, will not satisfy a nation crying out for justice and will certainly not restore the confidence of the international community, which now views our Presidency as a den of scammers.”
ADC also condemned the reported arrest of the father of Mr. Adeyemi Adeniyi, describing it as an act of intimidation which only strengthens the impression that the government is panicking and is desperate to hide the truth rather than uncover it.
“If indeed a crime has been committed, only the suspect can be legally arrested,” the party said.
