The African Democratic Congress has faulted the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

This was just as the party alleged that the findings failed to address the involvement of government officials in the scandal.

It particularly described the ICPC report as inadequate and more focused on containing the political fallout from the controversy than establishing how the purported agency penetrated several layers of the Federal Government.

In a statement issued on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the report failed to provide convincing answers to critical questions surrounding the PFIPC’s alleged access to government facilities, personnel, vehicles, official recognition and a reported N1.3bn allocation in the 2026 federal budget.

The party recalled that it had opposed President Bola Tinubu’s decision to assign the investigation to the ICPC, insisting that an independent investigative panel would be better positioned to examine the matter.

According to the ADC, the interim findings appeared to shift attention towards Adeniyi Adeyemi, the purported Director-General of the PFIPC, while leaving unanswered questions about the government institutions that allegedly enabled the organisation to operate.

“The report is not only predictable, it appears more concerned with exonerating government officials rather than providing clear answers to the serious questions that the scandal has raised,” the party said.

The ADC rejected the suggestion that the controversy could simply be attributed to administrative lapses, arguing that the alleged activities of the PFIPC were too extensive to have occurred without either complicity or serious negligence by officials in relevant government institutions.

It questioned how an organisation allegedly lacking a legitimate legal or executive foundation could secure office accommodation within the Federal Secretariat, obtain civil servants and official vehicles, and gain access to other government processes.

The party also challenged the reported recommendation for Adeyemi’s prosecution while the ICPC had described its investigation as ongoing.

“If all that the commission had to present was a preliminary report, why not simply present it as a confidential brief to the President instead of making a public drama of it?” the ADC asked.

The opposition party argued that identifying an alleged fraudster was not enough to explain how the purported council progressed through multiple government institutions.

“A forgery may explain the first door that was opened. It cannot explain why every subsequent door appears to have opened as well,” the statement read.

The ADC further questioned the circumstances surrounding the reported N1.3bn provision for the PFIPC in the 2026 Appropriation Act, describing the allocation as one of the most disturbing elements of the controversy.

It said the inclusion of such a provision should have generated a verifiable administrative trail, including a proposal, budget submission, approvals and verification by relevant government authorities.

“Budgetary provisions do not materialise by accident,” the party said, demanding to know who proposed the allocation, who processed it and who verified the existence and eligibility of the purported agency.

The party also pointed to reports that the ICPC had uncovered two other fictitious organisations allegedly linked to Adeyemi, arguing that the discovery should prompt investigators to widen the probe rather than concentrate responsibility on one individual.

The ADC noted that the House of Representatives had also commenced an investigation into how the disputed council found its way into the federal budget.

It therefore called on the ICPC to make its full interim report public and disclose the roles of any public officials whose actions or negligence may have facilitated the operation of the purported agency.

The party maintained that anyone found culpable should face appropriate sanctions after due investigation, regardless of their position in government.

“What has happened is a national disgrace in the full glare of the entire world. No serious government should be satisfied with identifying one culprit for prosecution,” the ADC said.

The opposition party insisted that Nigerians were not demanding that investigators manufacture suspects, but that they follow the evidence and establish how an allegedly fictitious organisation was able to penetrate the machinery of government.

It said the credibility of the investigation would ultimately depend on whether it accounted not only for the alleged actions of Adeyemi but also for the officials and institutions that may have enabled the PFIPC to operate.