By Ayodele Adegbuyi
Abuja
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has dragged the House of Representatives to the Federal High Court to prevent it from probing her on the controversial chartered jet deal.
The House had last month mandated its Committee on Public Accounts to conduct a public hearing on the scam and to report back to it within three weeks.
Consequently, the committee sent a memo to the minister, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the operators of the private jets and others involved in the deal to submit details of the transaction ahead of the public hearing which was scheduled to start yesterday.
But briefing reporters yesterday, the House’s spokesman, Zakari Mohammed, said the office of the Speaker had been served with a court order.
Zakari said the House would seek legal opinion to know the way forward, adding that as a law-abiding institution, it would not do anything further on the probe.
He said the duty of the House was to expose corruption, and wondered why they waited till the day the House was inviting them before they got a court order.
He said: “We have been served a court order regarding the investigation on the chartered jet. Our responsibility is to expose corruption but this is part of the frustration we get. We will tarry awhile as law-abiding institution.
We are seeking a proper legal opinion on the way to deal with the situation.”
Olamilekan expressed regret that such assignment, which was already ongoing, was stopped.
