Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has appealed to the national assembly to summon the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the accountant-general of the federation over conflicting storylines on the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) bank accounts.
In a statement issued by his senior special assistant on public communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku noted that the contradictory positions by the CBN and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) have plunged the Tinubu administration into a credibility crisis.
He said the testimony of the CBN before the house of representatives fundamentally contradicted the earlier stance of the OAGF on the opening of the PFIPC accounts.
“This is where the cover-up appears to begin. One institution denied authorising the opening of the PFIPC accounts and alleged forgery,” he said.
“Another, before the representatives of the Nigerian people, stated that the accounts were opened on the directive of the Accountant-General after due process was followed. Both accounts cannot be true.”
He stated that the contradictions had left the administration trapped in a “web of deception”.
“When two of your most sensitive financial and monetary authorities publicly contradict each other on the same transaction, no serious leader needs a clairvoyant to know that his administration is trapped in a web of deception and a profound crisis of credibility,” he stated.
“The President cannot continue to watch from the sidelines while his government tears itself apart with conflicting narratives.
“President Tinubu must answer a simple question: Which version does he believe—the Accountant-General’s or the Central Bank’s? If he believes neither, why has he not acted?
“Every day he delays ordering a truly independent investigation, he deepens public suspicion that preserving his administration’s image has taken precedence over establishing the truth.
“The continued silence of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the nation’s chief law officer, only compounds this credibility crisis and reinforces the perception that this administration is more interested in containing the political fallout than uncovering the truth,” he stated.
Atiku asked the national assembly to invite the CBN governor and the accountant-general to appear together before its investigative committee under oath.
“If a single individual could allegedly orchestrate a scheme that has thrown two of Nigeria’s most critical financial and monetary authorities into public contradiction, Nigerians are entitled to ask how many other abuses may have escaped detection because of weak oversight and institutional failure,” he said.
