By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
Senator Ahmed Makarfi, representing Kaduna North in the Senate, has faulted the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja’s directive that the lower chamber of the National Assembly should not enforce its invitation on the Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the scheduled probe of the allegation of the N10 billion charter of aircraft preferred against the minister.
The minister had filed a fresh application for an interim injunction to restrain the House of Representatives from going ahead with the probe of the allegation that she spent N10 billion on a chartered aircraft.
Makarfi, who chairs the Committee on Finance, described as “wrong” the decision of the court to stop the National Assembly from carrying out its legislative duty of investigating the matter.
He, therefore, called on the Federal High Court to desist from interfering in the operations of the National Assembly to make laws or investigate any matter.
Makarfi told journalists yesterday: “I think it was wrong for any court to stop the National Assembly from legislating or investigation. The National Assembly cannot stop any court from trying any case before it. Equally, the court should not interfere in the operation of the National Assembly to make laws or to investigate any matter.”
He said the court after all had a right to fault a legislation which is unconstitutional given that it had the power to annul such legislation.
He, therefore, appealed to the Federal High Court to allow investigations into the matter before the House of Representatives in the interest of preserving the ideals of democracy.
“If an investigation was biased, and someone proves before the court that he was not given a fair hearing, that is a post-investigative issue and not a pre-investigation.”
