Diezani Sues House Of Representatives

 

The Minister of  Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke,  has   halted the investigation by the House of Representatives into the N10bn she allegedly spent on a chartered private jet, Challenger 850, in the last two years for her trips.

 The House Committee on Public Accounts investigating the expenditure was set to conduct a public hearing on Monday, but it was stalled by an Abuja  Federal High Court order.

 Alison- Madueke and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation   listed the National Assembly  and the House   of Representatives as the defendants in the suit with reference number  FHC/ABJ/CS/295/2014 and dated April 11, 2014.

It was gathered  that a “surprised” Tambuwal was served the restraining order on Monday morning.

 “This has never happened before in this country that a serving minister is asking a court to stop the parliament from doing its work,” a committee source told The PUNCH on Monday.

 “These are indeed, no ordinary times. I am seriously disturbed about the way we want to run this country”, he added.

 The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, confirmed the development to journalists.

 “The court processes were served on us today (Monday); 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.

 Mohammed described Alison-Madueke’s  action as a “temporary setback”? for the House, but assured the public that the legislature would fight to the finish.

 “What has happened   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.”

The PUNCH gathered that, while the original mandate of the committee was to investigate the alleged N10bn expenditure on the Challenger 850, the committee stumbled on additional information indicating that Alison-Madueke chartered two other jets.

One of them, a Global Express XRS, was said to have cost €600,000 in a return charter trip to London.