PFIPC Scandal: ‘If Gbajabiamila Resigns, These Four Top Officials Must Go With Him’

The legal consultant to the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, Jiti Ogunye, has asserted that the call for the resignation of his principal spells doom for four top government officials.

Naija News reports that Ogunye made this known during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, saying that calls for his principal to resign over the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal are unjustified.

Ogunye argued that Gbajabiamila had the least official interaction with the ‘fake DG’ of PFIPC, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, compared to other government officials.

According to him, if Gbajabiamila were expected to resign because of the ongoing controversy, several other public officials who had more direct dealings with Adeyemi would also have to step aside.

Ogunye listed the Director-General of the Budget Office, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and the Accountant-General of the Federation among officials whose offices allegedly had more documented interactions with the individual.

He said available records, including official correspondence and documentation, showed that Gbajabiamila’s office had the least official engagement with the person in question.

The legal consultant also described the focus on Gbajabiamila as unfortunate, adding that officials who processed requests, generated correspondence, and had more direct interactions with Adeyemi were better positioned to answer questions arising from the controversy.

He said, ‘This man in the chain of those who dealt with him, if I were to say, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila is the least person, is the least authority that dealt with this man.

“So, if Mr. Gbajabiamila were to leave office because of this investigation that some people are calling for the United Nations to come and investigate, no institution in Nigeria is competent to investigate, who and who will leave the office?

“The DG Budget Office that dealt with the man on record, the head of service that dealt with the man on record, the SGF (Secretary to the Government of the Federation) whose office dealt with the man on record, and whose officer ensured that the man got an office at the federal secretariat, the accountant of the federation. All this will have to leave office. Is that what you are saying?

“If you look at the trails, the paper trail, the documentation, and all that, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila was the person who had the least official interaction with the man you are talking about.

“So, except there is something there that I do not know why people are going for his head. I don’t see how his being in office is so important or not important to the investigation that’s going to be conducted.

“So the point I’m making is that this fixation on Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila is rather unfortunate. I have just told us that those who dealt with the man, those who interacted with the man more, are the officers I have mentioned, generating letters, making requests on his behalf, and so on and so forth.”