The
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, and the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation have filed a fresh suit before a
Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to restrain the National Assembly
from probing her over the alleged N10bn chartered jet scandal.
Through the suit,
marked FHC/ABJ/CS/346/2014, the plaintiffs are praying the court to
declare that both the Senate and the House of Representatives lacked the
power to conduct any investigation into allegation of fraud, corruption
or criminal activities.
The Senate and
the House of Representatives are the only respondents in the suit. The
suit followed an order given by the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, directing Diezani to appear before
the lawmakers for further probe of the jet scandal.
Meanwhile, the applicants are
praying the court to restrain both the Senate and the House of
Representatives from further “conducting direct personal or physical
probe, inquiry and/or investigation into any alleged fraud, corruption
or other criminal activities in the agencies under the applicant’s
supervision or control.”
They
also seek an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the National
Assembly from summoning them “or any agencies under the applicants’
supervision or control, to appear before them for the purpose of giving
evidence and/or producing any papers, books, records or other documents,
which relate to the unpublished official records of the applicants
without the consent of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
first and obtained by the Respondents or their Committees.”
Diezani has a
similar suit pending before Justice Ahmed Mohammed. The matter has been
adjourned till Monday for further proceedings.
The fresh suit by the minister and the NNPC was filed through their counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
REF http://www.punchng.com/news/jet-scandal-diezani-nnpc-ask-court-to-stop-probe/
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