Teddy Oscar, Abuja
An Abuja Federal High Court on Monday prevailed against the House of Representatives from investigating the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, for allegedly spending N10 billion on a chartered private jet, Challenger 850, in the last two years for her trips.
The House had on March 27, mandated the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) to investigate Alison-Madueke’s use of state funds in the last two years to charter, operate and maintain a jet for her personal use.
The House had scheduled Monday, April 28 for the hearing, but Alison-Madueke, however, dragged the speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and the committee members before the Abuja Federal High Court.
Her prayer was to “restrain” the House from conducting the probe pending the determination
of the suit.
The House leadership expressed surprise when it was served the restraining order on Monday
morning.
Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, who confirmed the development while addressing reporters on the issue, described the minister’s action as a
“temporary setback”.
“The court processes were served on us today; the speaker has been served. Simply put, it is to notify us that this matter,
which you want to investigate, we have gone to court,” Mohammed stated.
He, assured that the legislature would fight to the finish.
“This has never happened before in this country; that a serving minister is asking a court to stop
the parliament from doing its work. We expected the minister to be here today for the hearing. Instead, we have been served with court processes.
“As law-abiding citizens, we have decided to wait. We will tarry awhile, take some legal
opinions and take it up from there. What has happened today tells you the kind of frustration that the House is facing.
“A matter of public importance is under investigation and a minister is telling us that she
has gone to court. However, our job is to expose corruption. We will study the court papers and take it up from there.
“We are studying the papers, taking legal opinion and very shortly we will let you know our official position on this matter,” he said.
The chairman of PAC, Hon. Solomon Adeola, said the
committee had received responses from Vistajet
International and Executive Jet Hangar involved in the transaction.
He said that the only responses being awaited by the
committee were those of the NNPC, NCAA, FAAN and the minister of petroleum resources relating to the investigation.
“Today is April 28, the committee scheduled to
receive the honourable minister of petroleum resources and other agencies that have stake in this investigation. But as we speak, there is a court order, which has been served to the office of the speaker, even though the committee has not gotten the copy of that order.
“As you are all aware, we are law abiding citizens and a house that has respect for the rule of law, we have decided to hold on until further directive after wider consultation will be done.
“The nature of the court order is simple. They are just restraining us from carrying out our own
investigation. I don’t know what they are afraid of that they have gone to court,” Olamilekan said.
Olamilekan expressed surprises that the minister waited until the day of the commencement of the investigation before coming up with a court order.
He said that as the chairman of the committee, he was not under pressure from any quarter to
stop the investigation.
Reacting to the minister’s decision to rush to court, Olamilekan said: “Is this to say there is something to hide? What was she afraid of that she went to court? The restraining order was served on the Office of the Speaker, stopping us from going ahead with the investigation. As a committee, we have not seen a copy, but since the speaker was served, we cannot pretend not to be aware.”
