Laolu Akande Urges Gbajabiamila to Step Aside Over Agency Scandal

(Laolu Akande. Photo by Guardian Nigerian news)

Former presidential aide Laolu Akande has joined calls demanding that Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, step aside amid the fake agency scandal.

Akande made the appeal during an interview on Thursday online, responding to the arrest of Adeniyi Adeyemi, self-acclaimed Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC.

He argued that Gbajabiamila owed it to himself, his family, the President and Nigerians to step aside, describing it as simply the decent thing to do.

Akande noted that Adeyemi had claimed he had no knowledge of how the "fake" agency was itemised in the budget, adding that he wasn't asserting whether that claim was true or false.

He questioned how public trust could be maintained when individuals implicated in such serious allegations against government officials remain in their positions, asking how Nigerians could reasonably view the President's ordered investigation as fair if those involved were still sitting in office.