The Senate on Wednesday rejected a motion to launch a full-scale parliamentary investigation into a controversial N1.3 billion budget allocation assigned to the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)—a body senior Presidency officials have already disowned as “fake.”
Instead, lawmakers resolved to wait for the outcome of an ongoing investigation ordered by President Bola Tinubu.
The call for a probe was spearheaded by Senator Suleiman Kawu (APC, Kano South). Raising a point of order during plenary, Kawu argued that the controversy surrounding the PFIPC severely threatens the credibility of the National Assembly and the integrity of Nigeria’s federal budget.
“The public space has been inundated with allegations, controversies, accusations, and counter-accusations concerning an entity known as the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council,” Kawu stated, citing Order 9 and Rule 9(c) of the Senate Standing Orders, 2026.
Kawu pointed out a glaring contradiction: while top Presidency officials have publicly labeled the PFIPC as fictitious and unauthorized, the entity was successfully smuggled into the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Kawu urged the Senate to condemn the administrative lapses or potential fraud that allowed a non-existent agency to secure federal funding. He demanded a joint probe by the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Ethics to identify the public officials responsible and to check if any funds had already been moved or spent.
The bid for a fresh Senate inquiry was ultimately blocked by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, who presided over the session.
Barau shut down further debate on the matter, informing lawmakers that President Tinubu had already ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the rogue allocation.
Arguing that a parallel Senate probe would be redundant, Barau advised the upper chamber to wait for the ICPC’s findings. The Senate subsequently voted down the motion, putting a pin in parliamentary action until the anti-graft agency concludes its investigation.
