By Imisioluwa Afunmiso
The Nigerian Senate has suspended its probe into the inclusion of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The decision followed a motion raised under matters of urgent national importance by Senator Kawu Sumaila (APC, Kano South), who sought a probe into how the agency allegedly received a budgetary allocation of N1.3 billion despite reportedly being disowned by the Presidency.
While presenting the motion, Sumaila argued that the inclusion of the PFIPC in the national budget had raised concerns over the integrity of the appropriation process.
According to him, the agency was allocated N1.3 billion under budget code 0111062001 in the 2026 Appropriation Act, comprising over N800 million for personnel costs, more than N200 million for overheads and over N300 million for capital expenditure.
He said the allocation to what he described as a purportedly non-existent agency had undermined public confidence in the budget process and exposed weaknesses in legislative scrutiny.
The lawmaker urged the Senate to mandate its Committees on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, and Appropriations to investigate how the allocation was proposed, scrutinised, justified and approved.
He also called for an inquiry into whether any funds had been released, committed or spent under the budget line and whether any bank account had been opened or operated in relation to the allocation.
However, Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin, who presided over plenary, interrupted the presentation, noting that the matter should ordinarily come before the Senate as a substantive motion.
Barau further informed lawmakers that the Presidency had already directed the ICPC to investigate the matter and that the anti-graft agency had commenced its probe.
He said the Senate would await the outcome of the ICPC investigation before deciding on any further legislative action.
“As I said earlier, the Presidency has taken up this matter by directing that the ICPC should investigate fully how this matter came to be.”
“I believe that what we need to do at this stage is to have the report of the ICPC, and then we can act on that report and deal with it as we feel appropriate,” Barau said.
The Senate subsequently declined the motion for an immediate investigation and resolved to await the findings of the anti-corruption agency before taking any further action.