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.
had reported
exclusively on Monday that the hearing might not take place, as the
minister had already flouted a deadline the committee gave to her to
make submissions before April 28.
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 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.
According to him, being a “law-abiding
House”, the first reaction was to put the hearing on hold until legal
opinions were sought.
He spoke further, “We expected the minister to be here today(Monday) for the hearing.
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