Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoS), Esther Walson-Jack, has said the office space used by the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) at the federal secretariat in Abuja was allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
Walson-Jack spoke on Monday when she appeared before the house of representatives ad hoc committee investigating the PFIPC controversy and the N1.3 billion allocated to the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Recall that Chief of Staff to the president, Femi Gbajabiamila, is at the centre of the PFIPC controversy.
Adeniyi Adeyemi, the man accused of operating the agency, claimed the chief of staff issued his appointment letter — an allegation Gbajabiamila has denied.
The presidency said the appointment letter bearing Gbajabiamila’s signature was forged, while the chief of staff had earlier petitioned security agencies over the matter.
Adeyemi was arrested on July 14 by the operatives of the police intelligence response team (IRT) in Osun state.
Walson-Jack told lawmakers that although the council operated from an office in the federal secretariat phase III, the space was officially allocated to the OSGF.
“We can state categorically that the office of the head of the civil service of the federation did not allocate any office space to the PFIPC,” she said.
Walson-Jack said the PFIPC approached the office of the head of service on August 6, 2025, seeking approval of its organisational structure, but the request was initially declined because the council did not submit the required documents.
She explained that newly established organisations are expected to provide either an establishment Act, an enabling legal instrument or other valid documents establishing their existence before such requests are processed.
Walson-Jack told lawmakers that during the 2025 annual workforce projection and human resources exercise, officials of the PFIPC said the council was participating for the first time and was operating with personnel seconded from other government agencies.
She said the council also sought an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver to employ substantive staff, informing the office of the HoS that 14 officials, including its director-general, were already in place.
The HoS said the council submitted copies of its director-general’s appointment letter and documents showing that it already had a budget code.
She said the request was included alongside those of other ministries, departments and agencies in the fourth batch of submissions approved on July 18, 2025, by the permanent secretary overseeing the office during her absence.
Walson-Jack also dismissed claims that the office of the head of service posted civil servants to the council.
She said her office received a request seeking deployment of officers to support the PFIPC but said the request was never approved.
Walson-Jack noted that recruitment and placement of staff are the responsibility of individual government agencies and do not fall within the mandate of her office.
During the hearing, Hassan Fulata, a member of the committee, questioned why the HoS accepted the PFIPC’s documents without confirming the authenticity of its purported enabling Act.
Fulata said government agencies cannot participate in the budget process without valid legal backing, noting that officials ought to have verified the documents in line with the Acts Authentication Act before assigning a budget code.
Responding, Walson-Jack admitted shortcomings in the verification process, saying officers who initially assessed the documents were not lawyers and therefore failed to detect that the purported enabling Act was fake.
Walson-Jack said she only discovered the irregularity after the controversy surrounding the council’s budgetary allocation prompted her to review the documents personally.
She said the discovery exposed weaknesses in the HoS office, adding that a review of its standard operating procedures is underway to strengthen the legal scrutiny of documents submitted by government agencies.
“We need to have another level of verification. We need to have a lawyer on the team that will receive legal documents so that the lawyer can assess every legal document,” she said.
She added that multiple verification layers would now be introduced before legal documents are accepted.
“So we concede that we didn’t do the best we ought to have done in cross-checking those documents at the time they were presented,” she said.
Walson-Jack added that issues relating to the establishment, supervision and operations of the PFIPC fall outside the statutory mandate of the HoS and rest with the OSGF and other relevant government institutions.
On his part, Abdullahi Hamisu, director of banking services at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said two foreign currency accounts were opened for the PFIPC on the directive of the office of the accountant-general of the federation (OAGF).
He said the CBN followed its standard account-opening procedures and did not require an enabling Act before processing the request.
Hamisu added that the accounts were never funded or operated.
