.. Pressure mounts for Gbajabiamila’s resignation
By Eshioromeh Sebastian, James Adam and Nathaniel Irobi in Abuja
The Senate is in the line of fire as it resumes plenary on Tuesday to confront the explosive N1.3 billion allocation to a non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council in the 2026 Appropriation Act, even as demands for the head of the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, grow louder by the hour.
This came on the heels of a report that a forged appointment letter, bearing a falsified signature of Gbajabiamila, was brandished before civil service authorities and accepted without the requisite scrutiny, granting one Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew the keys to an office at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, while he paraded himself as a government appointee for over 12 months.
The phantom agency, which existed only on letterheads, somehow found its way into the national budget, a development that has thrown the National Assembly’s oversight functions into serious question.
Civil society organisations have not minced words in their response to the scandal. The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has thrown its weight behind calls for Gbajabiamila to voluntarily step aside, insisting that his continued stay in office while investigations proceed would compromise the integrity of any probe.
Similarly, the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) echoed similar sentiments, demanding his immediate suspension and describing the allegations as grave enough to warrant a thorough and transparent investigation to restore public confidence in government institutions.
In a strongly worded Freedom of Information request, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) gave Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas a seven-day ultimatum to produce every document relating to how the N1.3 billion allocation found its way into the 2026 budget.
The organisation, known for its no-nonsense approach to accountability, warned that it would not hesitate to approach the courts should the National Assembly leadership fail to comply. “Nigerians have a right to know whether public funds were appropriated for an entity that was not lawfully established and, if so, how this occurred,” SERAP declared.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, never one to shy away from a fight, has weighed in with characteristic fire, describing the scandal as the latest symptom of a governance pattern that has become all too familiar under this administration.
“When scandals become a pattern of governance, the inevitable conclusion is this: you are no longer managing scandals; you have become the scandal itself,” Atiku said in a statement he personaly signt.
The former Vice President gave the Presidency five days to tell Nigerians who created this phantom organisation and who must be held responsible.
The Grassroots Mobilization Network (GMN), a support group of the African Democratic Congress, has also joined the fray, calling on President Bola Tinubu to direct his Chief of Staff to resign and submit himself to an independent investigation.
“The honourable thing to do is for Femi Gbajabiamila to resign. Nigeria is not yet a banana republic. Too many scandals have ravaged this government, but this one should not be swept under the carpet,” the group’s Deputy Secretary stated bluntly.
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has waded into the controversy, calling for an independent investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). Falana argued that the Presidency lacks the constitutional authority to clear anyone involved in the matter, and demanded explanations over reports that N24 billion was allegedly budgeted for the non-existent agency.
He also questioned how the phantom council was able to open an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Kwankwasiyya Movement, loyal to former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, has also demanded answers, arguing that the matter has gone far beyond one individual.
“If the council never existed, how did it find its way into the national budget? Who proposed and approved the allocation? Which government offices processed the documentation? Was any public money released or committed?” the group’s spokesperson, Dr Habibu Sale Mohammed, asked pointedly.
But the Presidency has mounted a spirited defence of Gbajabiamila, insisting that he was the one who alerted security agencies to the fraud. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, alleged that internal collaborators enabled Adeniyi to sustain the fraudulent scheme while attempting to implicate the Chief of Staff.
The Presidency also disclosed that Adeniyi was arraigned on an eight-count charge before the Federal High Court in November 2025 and operated a staggering 34 bank accounts linked to fictitious government agencies.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has backed a fair investigation while rejecting calls for Gbajabiamila’s removal before the conclusion of a lawful probe, insisting that no public official should be condemned on the basis of unproven allegations.
Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, also urged Nigerians to allow the courts to determine the controversy, stating that the matter is being handled legally and Nigerians will get to know in detail what transpired.
However, senior lawyers who spoke to this newspaper dismissed calls for Gbajabiamila to be charged alongside Adeyemi, describing such demands as based on sentiment rather than established facts and proper criminal procedure.
John Ata, argued that the issue of joining a person in a criminal matter is not done on emotions, adding that mere allegations are not enough to suggest that the Chief of Staff should be charged.
The scandal has exposed what many are now calling systemic institutional failure, with documents showing that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation even cleared Adeniyi to attend the Canada-Africa Fintech Summit in August 2025.
The fraud reportedly circumvented bureaucratic safety checks at multiple points in the Budget Office, the House of Representatives, and the Civil Service Headquarters, allowing the fictitious council to ensnare diplomatic missions, government ministries, and the National Assembly.
Adeniyi is due to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27, 2026, alongside two accomplices identified only as Femi and Anu who remain at large.
As the Senate prepares to tackle this scandal head-on, Nigerians will be watching closely to see whether the red chamber will rise to the occasion or merely go through the motions.
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