The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) has denied claims that the disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) opened and operated an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The clarification follows an earlier statement by the Presidency alleging that the convener of the council, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, used fake documents to fraudulently open a CBN account after allegedly misleading the OAGF.
The Director of Press and Public Relations at the OAGF, Mr Bawa Mokwa, said the council never completed the process required to activate a CBN account.
According to him, the failure to conclude the account-opening process made it impossible for any government funds to be paid into the account.
“The account has not seen the light of day. It has not received one kobo because it was never fully activated.
“The Accountant-General has not released any money because there is no operational account for such payment,” Mokwa said.
He explained that the account-opening process began after Adeyemi presented what he described as an appointment letter linked to an existing government agency.
However, Mokwa said the process was abandoned because the names of authorised signatories were never submitted, a mandatory requirement before such an account could become operational.
He also clarified that although the council had a budgetary provision in the 2026 Appropriation Act, the inclusion of an allocation in the budget did not automatically result in the release of public funds.
Mokwa further dismissed reports alleging that salaries had been paid to staff of the council.
He explained that no federal agency could recruit personnel or process salary payments without obtaining approvals from the Federal Character Commission, the Budget Office of the Federation and the Federal Civil Service Commission.
According to him, such approvals must be secured before employees can be enrolled on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
“If an agency is granted a waiver to recruit, it must still obtain approvals from the relevant agencies before presenting staff details to the Accountant-General.
“Without those approvals, not even one employee can be captured on the payroll,” he said.
Mokwa maintained that none of the statutory conditions required for account activation, staff recruitment or salary payments had been fulfilled by the PFIPC.
He insisted that the council neither operated a functional CBN account nor maintained an approved payroll through which government funds or salaries could have been disbursed.
