Question Me in Public” — Adeyemi Rejects Closed-Door Reps Probe While in Police Custody

By Victor Idajil

Adeniyi Adeyemi, who is being paraded as the purported Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC, says he will not answer questions from the House of Representatives behind closed doors.

Through his lawyer, Ademola Oyedokun, Adeyemi said on Wednesday that he has no problem with the House ad hoc committee investigating how the PFIPC was set up and operated. His objection is to the venue. 

The committee had announced it would interview him at an undisclosed location because he is currently in police custody.

“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,” Oyedokun stated.

The lawyer urged the committee to use its constitutional powers under Section 89 to compel the police to produce Adeyemi at an open sitting. 

“Section 89 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.

Oyedokun drew a line between the House probe and the criminal case. He said allegations of impersonation, forgery and financial impropriety are already before the Federal High Court and agencies like the NPF, EFCC and ICPC, and those will be handled there.

But, he argued, the House is asking a different question — how the PFIPC came to exist and who in government acted on it. That, he said, should be answered openly.

“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. 
What cannot be right is that the whole of his account be taken behind a closed door because part of it is sensitive,” Oyedokun added. 
“No court has yet heard him say a single word.”

The lawyer also faulted Adeyemi’s continued detention. He said the bench warrant the police are relying on only authorized arrest and production before the Federal High Court, not indefinite custody. 
“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 argued.

Committee Chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, had on Tuesday said the closed-door plan was to avoid clashing with ongoing police, EFCC and ICPC investigations. He noted that the police told the House Adeyemi is still in custody based on a court order, and that the National Assembly cannot override a judicial directive.

The House panel is probing allegations around the PFIPC, including claims of impersonation, forgery, financial misconduct and the unauthorized use of government facilities and official insignia.