Fake agency probe: Adeyemi rejects House panel’s planned closed-door interrogation

The purported Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, has rejected the House of Representatives ad hoc committee’s decision to interrogate him at an undisclosed location while he remains in police custody, insisting that any appearance before lawmakers should be conducted publicly.

 

Adeyemi, through his lawyer, Ademola Oyedokun, said on Wednesday that he welcomed the House investigation into the alleged establishment and operations of the PFIPC but opposed the committee’s plan to question him behind closed doors.

 

The lawyer argued that fairness required his client to respond publicly to allegations already made against him during the committee’s open hearings.

 

“We have read that the committee intends to interview our client at an undisclosed date and place. We ask it, respectfully, to think again.

 

“Everyone else in this matter has been heard in public, and what has been said about our client was said in public. He should be allowed to answer in the same place it was said,” the statement read.

 

Oyedokun urged the committee to invoke its constitutional powers under Section 89 of the 1999 Constitution to compel the police to produce Adeyemi for a public hearing.

 

“Section 89 of the Constitution gives the committee power to summon any person and to compel his attendance.

 

“We ask it to use that power and to require the police to produce our client at a public sitting.

 

“He will attend on any date it names, with his counsel, and answer every question put to him,” he said.

 

He added that while the criminal allegations against Adeyemi would be addressed before the Federal High Court and relevant investigative agencies, the House inquiry into how the PFIPC came into existence and whether government officials acted upon it should remain open to the public.

 

“Our client does not ask the committee to compromise any investigation. He will answer in public the questions this committee was constituted to ask, and will reserve, upon legal advice, any question touching a matter before a court or an agency.

 

“Those may be taken separately and in private. What cannot be right is that the whole of his account be taken behind a closed door because part of it is sensitive,” Oyedokun said.

 

The lawyer also challenged the legality of his client’s continued detention, arguing that the bench warrant relied upon by the police authorised only Adeyemi’s arrest and production before the Federal High Court, not his prolonged detention.

 

“No order committing him to custody has ever been made, served on him or shown to him, and none could have been made, because he has never been brought before any court,” he stated.

 

The House ad hoc committee, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi, had on Tuesday announced plans to question Adeyemi at an undisclosed location while he remains in police custody.

 

Gagdi said the arrangement was intended to avoid interfering with ongoing investigations by the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

 

The committee is investigating allegations surrounding the creation and operations of the PFIPC, including claims of impersonation, forgery, financial impropriety and the unlawful use of government facilities and official insignia.