Coalition Petitions ICPC Over Alleged 2026 Budget Irregularities, Seeks Adeola’s Suspension

Esther Oluku

The Coalition of Civil Society in Nigeria has petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate alleged irregularities in Nigeria’s 2026 federal budget, including the circumstances surrounding disputed allocations and projects allegedly linked to Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi.

The Coalition also called for Adeola, who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations, to relinquish the position pending the outcome of an independent investigation into the allegations.

The petition, signed by the Coalition’s Convener, Comrade Buna Olaitan, and General Secretary, Comrade Wyseman Ajayi, was presented yesterday to journalists at a press conference in Lagos.

In the petition addressed to the ICPC Chairman, the group urged the anti-corruption agency to investigate what it described as questionable provisions in the 2026 Appropriation Act, including allocations to an allegedly non-existent government agency, projects reportedly outside the statutory mandates of some federal institutions and projects allegedly relocated to Ogun State.

A major focus of the petition is the allocation of about N1.3 billion to the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) in the 2026 budget.

The coalition questioned how an entity whose legal existence has subsequently been disputed by the federal government could have secured a budgetary allocation and passed through the various stages of the appropriation process.

The controversy surrounding PFIPC has already prompted investigations by Nigerian authorities.

The ICPC had earlier said its investigation established that PFIPC was not created by any law, executive order or other valid government instrument, while its alleged promoter, Adeniyi Adeyemi, was never appointed by the federal government.

The commission recommended Adeyemi’s prosecution for alleged forgery, impersonation and related offences, as well as sanctions against public officers whose actions or omissions allegedly facilitated the scheme.

The Budget Office of the Federation, however, said that although N1.302 billion was appropriated to PFIPC, no funds were released to the purported agency because the statutory conditions required for expenditure had not been met.

The coalition said the development raised a broader question about how an entity allegedly lacking legal existence was able to secure a place in the national budget.

“There is a need for ICPC to establish the chain of responsibility, including those who proposed, processed, reviewed, approved and defended the disputed allocation Almajiri Commission Allocation,” they stated.

The coalition also drew the ICPC’s attention to about N8.4 billion allocated for road projects under the 2026 budget of the National Commission for Almajiri and out-of-school children education.

The allocation had previously attracted scrutiny because road construction does not fall within the commission’s core statutory mandate.

The commission subsequently explained that the projects were constituency projects inserted by members of the National Assembly and were not conceived by the commission.

The coalition urged the ICPC to establish who originated the projects, who facilitated their inclusion in the budget, why they were assigned to the commission and whether any public official or other person obtained an improper advantage from the arrangement.

It also asked the agency to verify the locations and beneficiaries of the projects and determine whether any were subsequently relocated to Ogun State.

The petition further alleged that some federal projects originally associated with institutions or agencies in other parts of the country were relocated to Ogun State and subsequently presented as constituency or politically associated projects.

The Coalition specifically called for verification of projects allegedly associated with the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, Enugu State, among others.

“ICPC should examine original appropriation documents, project codes, agency submissions, committee records, procurement documents, payment records and the physical locations of the projects.”

The group also wants the agency to establish whether any projects were diverted, substituted, relocated or misrepresented.

The allegations come amid scrutiny of projects associated with Adeola, who represents Ogun West and chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

A recent report by FIJ examined a road project in Ogun State funded through the National Horticultural Research Institute and reported that Adeola publicly described himself as the facilitator of the project, although the institute is located in Ibadan.

Separately, the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta recently announced that an ongoing two-storey hospital complex at the university was donated by Adeola.

The latest petition follows an earlier petition by another civil society organisation, the Pan-African Society for Social & Economic Change (PASSEC), which asked the ICPC to investigate alleged budgetary irregularities involving projects allegedly linked to Adeola between 2023 and 2026.

PASSEC alleged that projects linked to the senator amounted to more than N1.8 trillion during the period.

The figure and allegations, however, remain claims by the organisation and have not been established by a court or anti-corruption agency.

The latest Coalition petition similarly called for an investigation into Adeola and other public officers, legislative officials, committee personnel, contractors, consultants, intermediaries and other individuals whose conduct may have contributed to any wrongdoing.

It asked the ICPC to conduct a comprehensive investigation, invite Adeola to answer questions and provide relevant documents, and examine the original 2026 appropriation records.

The group also urged the commission to establish how the PFIPC allocation entered the Appropriation Act, conduct a forensic review of the disputed projects, including procurement, payments, contractors and beneficiaries, and verify the legal existence and statutory mandates of the agencies involved.

It further called for investigation into alleged diversion or relocation of federal projects, determination of whether public resources were used for political or personal advantage, recovery of public funds where unlawful diversion or financial loss is established, and prosecution where sufficient evidence of criminal liability is found.

The Coalition also demanded that Adeola step down as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, or be removed from direct oversight of the disputed matters, pending the outcome of an impartial investigation.