July 6, (THEWILL) — The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) has clarified that no account was successfully opened with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), stating that no public funds have been released to the body despite its allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The clarification comes amid growing controversy over the inclusion of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council in the 2026 federal budget, despite the Presidency’s insistence that the body was never established by the Federal Government.
Speaking with Vanguard on Monday, the Director of Information and Public Relations at the OAGF, Bawa Mokwa, said the process of opening a CBN account for the council was initiated by Prince Adeyemi Adeniyi Matthew but was never completed because the mandatory details of authorised signatories were not submitted.
According to Mokwa, the absence of account signatories meant the Central Bank could not activate the account, effectively preventing any disbursement of public funds to the council.
“The CBN account was not successfully opened because there have to be signatories to such an account, which were not provided. As such, no money was paid into the said account”, he said.
He explained that although the PFIPC received a budgetary allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act, implementation of the federal budget only commenced in July, and no payment could be processed under the circumstances.
“With the current development, it is clear that no money can be paid into the said account”, Mokwa added.
The OAGF spokesman further disclosed that the proposed CBN account never received the statutory approval of the Accountant-General of the Federation, making it ineligible for government transactions.
He also revealed that, aside from personnel temporarily deployed from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, no employees were recruited by the council under its purported Director-General.
According to him, the officials deployed from the OAGF have since been withdrawn and are expected to serve as prosecution witnesses in investigations surrounding the controversial council.
The Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council was allocated ₦1,302,978,784 in the 2026 Appropriation Act, with ₦802.98 million earmarked for personnel costs, ₦200 million for overhead expenditure and ₦300 million for capital projects.
The budgetary provision has come under intense public scrutiny after the Presidency, in a statement issued on July 1, denied the existence of the council, describing it as a fictitious entity that was never established by the Federal Government.
The Presidency’s position triggered widespread concerns over how a non-existent agency secured a budgetary allocation exceeding ₦1.3 billion in the national budget.
The controversy has also attracted the attention of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which has petitioned Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, demanding the release of all documents relating to the approval of the allocation.
SERAP has also called on the National Assembly to investigate the circumstances surrounding the inclusion of the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act and identify officials responsible for what it described as an apparent irregularity in the budgeting process.
The latest clarification by the Accountant-General’s Office appears to reinforce the Presidency’s position that, despite the budgetary allocation, the council never became operational, as no valid CBN account existed through which public funds could be disbursed.
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