The Senate has rejected a motion seeking to launch a comprehensive investigation into the operations and growing controversy surrounding the N1.3 billion budgetary allocation earmarked for the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

The decision came during Wednesday’s plenary session after Senator Suleiman Kawu of Kano South raised a point of order, presenting a motion that highlighted the need to investigate the matter to safeguard the integrity of both the legislature and the federal government. Kawu argued that the public outcry and conflicting claims regarding the unauthorized council directly threatened the credibility of the National Assembly and its constitutional appropriation powers.

In his presentation, Senator Kawu expressed concern over the severe administrative lapses or potential fraudulent schemes that allowed a nonexistent or unapproved agency listed under Budget Code 0111062001 to bypass legislative scrutiny and be included in the 2026 Appropriation Act. His motion urged the Senate to mandate its committees on Appropriations and Public Petitions to conduct a thorough review to determine how the exact sum of 1,302,978,784 naira was proposed and approved, identify the public officials who facilitated the inclusion, and ascertain whether any funds had already been disbursed or if bank accounts had been opened for the budget line.

However, following the presentation, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary, intervened and advised against debating the motion. Jibrin noted that the executive arm of government was already actively handling the situation, highlighting that President Bola Tinubu had already directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to probe the unauthorized budget insertion. Consequently, the Senate decided to step down the legislative probe and await the outcome of the executive branch’s ongoing anti-graft investigation.