A technology and public policy analyst, Enitan Bello, has published what he describes as an independent review of Nigeria’s budget documents, raising fresh questions over the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal. In a detailed post on his X account, Bello said his findings traced the origins of the controversy to the Buhari administration’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), established in 2019, which he noted was never formally dissolved despite becoming inactive after the establishment of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC) by President Bola Tinubu in 2024. According to Bello, his review of the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Acts found no budget allocation for the PEAC. However, he claimed that the 2026 Appropriation Act introduced a new budget code listing both the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council” and the “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council,” with an allocation of over N1.3 billion. Bello argued that the use of the PEAC name may have been intended to lend credibility to the budget entry because it was previously a recognised advisory body under the Buhari administration. Citing court documents and media reports, Bello also alleged that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation processed requests to deploy civil servants to the PFIPC and posted three senior officials to the organisation, despite questions over its legal status. He further highlighted what he described as unresolved aspects of the case, including the death of Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, whom the Presidency reportedly identified as the individual who allegedly assisted the principal suspect in obtaining a forged appointment letter. Bello noted that Tanimola was said to have died in a fire at a hotel in Abuja in October 2025, adding that he could not find any independent media reports confirming the incident outside the Presidency’s official statement. The analyst also pointed to two co-defendants, identified only as “Femi” and “Anu”
in court documents, who remain at large. He questioned why their full identities have not been made public despite being listed in an active federal criminal case. Bello concluded by calling for further scrutiny of the case, asking who submitted the disputed budget proposal, who approved the deployment of civil servants and the allocation of office space, how a government domain was issued to the alleged agency, and whether any expenditure had been made from the N1.3 billion budget allocation. The Federal Government has maintained that the PFIPC is not a recognised government agency, while criminal proceedings against the principal suspect remain before the Federal High Court. Bello’s analysis represents his interpretation of publicly available budget documents, court filings and official statements, and has not been independently verified by Nexus Channels. This version follows Nigerian broadcast and print media standards by clearly attributing all allegations to Bello and distinguishing them from independently verified facts.
