Atiku asks NASS to summon CBN governor, accountant-general

FORMER Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked the National Assembly to summon the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) over what he described as conflicting accounts surrounding bank accounts linked to the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).

In a statement on Wednesday, July 22, by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for the 2027 poll said the contradictory explanations by the two institutions raised serious questions about the handling of the PFIPC accounts and should be subjected to legislative scrutiny.

Abubakar’s call followed testimony by the CBN before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the legal basis, operations and budgetary allocation of the PFIPC, as well as the N1.3 billion appropriated to the council in the 2026 budget.

Representing CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso before the committee on Monday, July 20, the bank’s Director of Banking Services, Abdullahi Hamisu, disclosed that the apex bank opened two domiciliary accounts.

He said one was opened in United States dollars and another in British pounds sterling, for the PFIPC on the directive of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF). He, however, said the accounts were never funded or operated.

Hamisu told lawmakers that the CBN acted on a formal mandate dated July 29, 2025, from the OAGF and carried out its standard account-opening procedures. He added that the bank did not require an enabling law establishing the council before opening the accounts because it acted solely on the accountant-general’s instruction.

The CBN’s position was, however, contradictory to an earlier statement by the OAGF, which maintained that although an application was made to open a PFIPC account, the process was never completed because the required documentation to activate the account was not submitted.

Reacting to the conflicting positions, Abubakar said the two explanations could not both be correct and accused President Bola Tinubu administration of allowing contradictory narratives to deepen public distrust.

He argued that while one government institution denied authorising the accounts and alleged that documents used in the process were forged, another had informed lawmakers that the accounts were opened after receiving directives from the Accountant-General.

“This is where the cover-up appears to begin. One institution denied authorising the opening of the PFIPC accounts and alleged forgery,” he said.

“Another, before the representatives of the Nigerian people, stated that the accounts were opened on the directive of the Accountant-General after due process was followed. Both accounts cannot be true,” he said.

The former vice-president urged Tinubu to publicly clarify which account his administration accepts and criticised the continued silence of the Attorney-General of the Federation, saying it had compounded the credibility concerns surrounding the controversy.

He also called on the National Assembly to invite both the CBN governor and the Accountant-General to appear jointly before its investigative committee under oath to explain the circumstances surrounding the accounts.

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Abubakar further urged Tinubu to order an independent investigation into the PFIPC affair, arguing that the controversy had exposed broader concerns about financial oversight and accountability within government institutions.

“When two of your most sensitive financial and monetary authorities publicly contradict each other on the same transaction, no serious leader needs a clairvoyant to know that his administration is trapped in a web of deception and a profound crisis of credibility,” he stated.

He added that “the President cannot continue to watch from the sidelines while his government tears itself apart with conflicting narratives.” 

The ICIR reports that the PFIPC controversy surfaced in June after the Presidency and Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, distanced themselves from the council, insisting it was not established by the Tinubu administration despite receiving a N1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act, operating an office at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja and reportedly recruiting about 300 staff members.

The Presidency later alleged that the council’s embattled Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, used forged documents to facilitate the opening of bank accounts and operated dozens of accounts linked to fictitious government agencies. Adeyemi has denied wrongdoing and has called for an independent probe into the allegations.

Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M