Quote from Idris on July 9, 2026, 11:20 am

The Senate on Wednesday declined to launch a parliamentary investigation into the controversial N1.3 billion budgetary allocation for the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), opting instead to defer to an ongoing executive probe ordered by President Bola Tinubu.

The decision came after a motion by Senator Suleiman Kawu (APC, Kano South), who sought a comprehensive investigation into the council’s operations, the circumstances surrounding its inclusion in the 2026 Appropriation Act, and the officials responsible for the disputed budget insertion.

Raising a point of order during plenary, Kawu cited Order 9 and Rule 9(c) of the Senate Standing Orders (2026) while presenting a motion titled, “Urgent Need to Investigate the Budgetary Allocation, Operations, and Controversy surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) to safeguard the Integrity of the Senate and the Federal Government.”

The lawmaker argued that the controversy surrounding the council had raised serious concerns about the integrity of the National Assembly’s appropriation process and its constitutional oversight responsibilities.

“The Senate notes with concern that, in recent weeks, the public space has been inundated with allegations, controversies, accusations and counter-accusations concerning an entity known as the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC),” Kawu stated.

He urged the Senate to condemn what he described as administrative lapses, internal collaboration or possible fraudulent activities that allegedly enabled what appeared to be a nonexistent or unauthorized entity to be inserted into the 2026 Appropriation Act under Budget Code: 0111062001.

Kawu further requested that the Senate Committees on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, as well as the Committee on Appropriations, investigate how the exact sum of N1,302,978,784 was proposed, scrutinized, justified and eventually approved in the national budget.

The senator also sought an inquiry into the ministries, departments and agencies or public officials that facilitated the inclusion of the PFIPC in the budget, whether any funds had already been released, committed or spent under the allocation, and whether any bank accounts had been opened in connection with the specific budget line.

However, the Senate declined to entertain debate on the motion.

Deputy Senate President Senator Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano North), who presided over the plenary, ruled against opening parliamentary deliberations on the matter, stating that the Executive arm of government had already initiated steps to investigate the controversy.

Jibrin informed lawmakers that President Bola Tinubu had directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the disputed budget allocation.

He consequently urged senators to refrain from launching a separate legislative inquiry and instead await the outcome of the executive investigation.

The ruling effectively halted Kawu’s bid for a Senate-led probe into the controversial N1.3 billion budget insertion, leaving the ICPC investigation as the primary official inquiry into the matter.

https://saharareporters.com/2026/07/08/senate-kills-motion-seeking-probe-controversial-n13billion-pfipc-2026-budget