Former Vice President and ADC presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has voiced strong concerns regarding a N6.44 billion provision in the 2026 budget designated for a presidential support group for World Cup qualifiers. This expenditure is particularly controversial because Nigeria had already been eliminated from the tournament before the budget was even introduced.
Speaking through his aide, Phrank Shaibu, on Wednesday, Atiku questioned the legitimacy of the spending, asking how such an amount could be set aside for a competition in which the nation is no longer participating. He characterized this as a serious failure in the budgeting process, suggesting that it reflects a systemic issue where funds are allocated for questionable or non-existent purposes.
This concern follows the recent arrest of Adeniyi Adeyemi, who had been posing as the Director General of a fraudulent agency known as the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council. That fake entity had somehow been granted N1.3 billion in the 2026 budget.
Atiku is now demanding an independent investigation into both the N6.44 billion sports allocation and the circumstances surrounding Adeyemi’s fake agency. He noted that the deeper issue lies in the government’s apparent lack of oversight, which allowed an imposter to operate with the appearance of official state authority.
