Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has intensified his criticism of President Bola Tinubu, urging him to apologise to Nigerians and step down over what he described as the administration's handling of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) controversy.
The former vice president said recent testimonies by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) before the House of Representatives had exposed glaring inconsistencies that undermined the credibility of the Federal Government.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the contradictory accounts from the two institutions had plunged the administration into a major crisis of confidence.
According to him, the President must take responsibility for the conflicting narratives or immediately order an independent investigation into the matter.
"President Tinubu owes Nigerians an unreserved apology for presiding over this unprecedented collapse of public accountability. If he cannot immediately restore public confidence through a genuinely independent investigation and ensure that everyone responsible is held to account, then he has forfeited the moral authority to continue in office. The honourable course is simple: apologise to Nigerians and resign," Atiku stated.
The former vice president argued that it was unacceptable for two key financial institutions of government to publicly present conflicting versions of the same transaction.
"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. The President cannot continue to watch from the sidelines while his government tears itself apart with conflicting narratives," he said.
He challenged President Tinubu to clearly state which of the two official accounts he accepted, insisting that silence on the matter would only reinforce public doubts.
"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," Atiku added.
The former vice president also criticised the Attorney-General of the Federation for failing to publicly address the controversy, saying the silence had further eroded confidence in the government's commitment to transparency.
He urged the National Assembly to summon the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Accountant-General of the Federation to appear together before its investigative panel under oath to reconcile the conflicting accounts.
According to Atiku, the controversy has gone beyond questions about disputed financial records and has become a test of the administration's integrity and accountability.
"The PFIPC scandal has ceased to be merely about disputed accounts. It has become a referendum on President Tinubu's integrity and competence. 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.
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