PFIPC scandal: Timi Frank demands forensic probe

A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has called for a thorough forensic probe into the mysterious death of Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, the principal intermediary in the appointment and bribery scandal.

Frank said that, for the sake of accountability, Tanimola’s parents, family members, relatives, the nation at large, and the public deserve to know what led to his death at a time when his presence could have helped uncover the truth in the current scandal.

The Presidency, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, had dismissed allegations against the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, over the scandalous activities of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and its Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi.

In the statement, the Presidency claimed that the police confirmed Mr Tanimola died in a hotel in Abuja five days before Prince Adeyemi was arrested.

Responding to the claim in a statement he released on Friday in Abuja, Comrade Frank said the circumstances surrounding Tanimola’s death must be uncovered and unravelled because he was identified as an intermediary and go-between for Prince Adeyemi in the bribery and appointment scandal involving the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Frank called on the international community, including the United States of America, the European Union, and other technologically developed nations, to help Nigeria uncover the true circumstances behind what he described as monumental corruption rocking the country.

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According to him, it is impossible for an ordinary citizen to operate boldly and enjoy government patronage, including receiving annual allocations, securing office space at the Federal Secretariat, representing the nation at foreign events, and hosting National Assembly leadership, the EFCC chairman, foreign ambassadors, among others, without the backing of the Presidency.

The political activist expressed his belief that such an agency could not have existed, opened an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), received allocations, recruited staff, and operated from a government building without the knowledge of the Presidency.

He said: “By now, we expected the Office of the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the Central Bank, the Budget Office, the National Assembly, and the relevant security agencies to be answering uncomfortable questions.

“Despite widespread claims that the agency Prince Adeyemi ran did not legally exist, there is information in the public domain that the purported Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention and Promotion Council enjoyed the services of six police escorts, official vehicles, and even an official residence.”

Describing the scandal as “monumental corruption of the century”, Timi Frank urged Nigerians at home and abroad, civil society organisations, opinion leaders, and all lovers of Nigeria not to remain silent at this critical moment.

Frank, who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East, said the developments under the current administration showed “incompetence” and suggested that President Tinubu is not in charge of his government, adding that Nigerians should not allow him to continue beyond 2027.

He added that if the National Assembly had been functioning effectively and performing its oversight duties properly, such a questionable agency would not have seen the light of day.