The Buhari Media Organization (BMO) has rejected claims that the late President Muhammadu Buhari established the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The BMO, in a statement on Sunday, described claims linking the PFIPC, which is currently under investigation, to the Buhari administration as false.
Naija News recalls that the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) had, on Friday, claimed that the PFIPC had its origin in the Buhari administration.
The BOF Director-General, Tanimu Yakubu, who provided the explanation in a statement after appearing before members of the House of Representatives, said PFIPC’s institutional origin was premised on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated by the late president on Oct. 9, 2019.
However, the BMO clarified that what the late president created was the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).
It explained that at inception, PEAC operated from the second floor of the Ministry of Health, Federal Secretariat, the offices designated for the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, a position it said Buhari did not appoint until much later.
BMO added that PEAC had no budget line; its role was purely advisory, and its activities were funded through presidential approvals to the Minister of Finance.
“PEAC was an ad-hoc (part-time) body, purely advisory, made up of professional economists and financial experts to offer expert economic advice to the president under the chairmanship of Prof. Doyin Salami, CFR, before he was eventually made the Chief Economic Adviser.
“Others in the PEAC were Prof. Mahmuda Sagagi, Vice-Chairman, and the members were Prof. Ode Ojowu, Dr Shehu Yahaya, Dr Iyabo Masha, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Mr Bismark Rewane and Dr Mohammed Salisu, Senior Special Assistant to the president on Development Policy, as secretary.
“They were not paid salaries but office expenses were paid by the Permanent Secretary, State House, upon approval by the president.
“When the current administration assumed office in 2023, it neither dissolved the Buhari-appointed PEAC nor re-appointed its members.
“The members, being political appointees, considered that their term had ended following the departure from office of the administration that appointed them.
“The office at the secretariat branded both as “Presidential Economic Advisory Council” and “Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President,” remained vacant. It was only put to use two to three years later by others,” the organisation stated.
It rubbished claims linking the alleged fictitious PFIPC to the Buhari administration as false, groundless and lacking any factual basis.
