The House of Representatives has explained why it did not invite and interrogate Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu during its probe of the contentious Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC.
The House ad hoc committee probing the alleged establishment and operations of the PFIPC said its first responsibility was to establish how the alleged agency came into existence, rather than summon individuals whose names appeared in documents connected to it.
It stated that its investigation was never designed to focus on Gbajabiamila but on how an agency without a valid legal foundation allegedly became integrated into the Federal Government’s administrative and financial systems.
Chairman of the committee and Plateau State federal lawmaker, Yusuf Gagdi, made this statement during an interview programme on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
Gagdi said the committee advertised its investigation and invited members of the public and relevant institutions to submit memoranda and documents.
According to him, the committee’s mandate was to establish who created the agency and under what authority.
DAILY POST reports that the committee exonerated Gbajabiamila when it presented its findings on Wednesday in Abuja.
Recall that the self-acclaimed Director-General of the PFIPC, Adeniyi Adeyemi, accused Gbajabiamila of receiving N400 million through proxies in connection with appointments to the fake organisation.
The President’s Chief of Staff has since denied the allegations and filed a N15 billion defamation suit against Adeyemi.
Speaking during the programme, Gagdi said the House gave the committee a broad mandate requiring it to establish, among other things, whether the PFIPC had any legal backing.
“Actually, the impression that people have that the entirety of that committee is about Femi Gbajabiamila is not true.
“There are so many issues and terms of reference donated to the committee by the House of Representatives in view of the activities surrounding the unestablished agency,” he said.