Diezani’s aircraft charter: House of Reps lied over court order

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja

A visibly angry Justice Ramat Mohammed of Federal High Court in Abuja, Tuesday berated Nigeria’s House of Representatives over a purported injunction said to have been granted by the court restraining the House Committee on Public Accounts from inviting and interrogating the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezanni Allison Madueke, in connection with the committee’s probe of a controversial N10 billion aircraft charter scam involving the Petroleum minister.

The embattled minister had approached the court seeking to stop the House from inviting or summoning her to appear before it over the multi billion Naira aircraft charter scam which is being investigated by the legislators but the court declined to grant her application.

Tnstead, the court directed the minister to serve court papers on both the National Assembly and the House of Representatives to come before the court and show cause why the reliefs being sought by the minister should not be granted.

The House Committee chairman on Information, Hon Zakari Mohammed reportedly told newsmen on Monday (yesterday) at the National Assembly in the company of Hon Solomon Adeola, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, that the proposed interrogation of the minister by the Public Accounts Committee, PAC, over the matter had been stalled following a receipt of the court’s order restraining the PAC from inviting or summoning Mrs Allison Madueke over the investigations.

The angry judge declined to go further with the proceedings and threatened to summon the Director of Legal Services at the National Assembly to come and show the purported order said to have been made by the court which barred the House of Representatives from inviting the minister.

But the counsel who represented the National Assembly at the proceedings, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau, a senior advocate of Nigeria, told the court that the Director of Legal services of the National Assembly who briefed him on the matter was also shocked at the development and explained that the National Assembly had no hand in the spread of the misinformation.

The court thereafter focused its attention on the House of Representatives who, though a party in the matter, was not represented at the proceedings.

“I will not proceed with this matter. Since the confusion emanated from the House of Reps, which incidentally is not represented today in this court, I will adjourn this matter. Let the counsel of the House of Representatives come here and explain what happened. I have seen a copy of the press release in the media that was said to have been issued by the National Assembly that this court had ordered them to stop their investigation over the subject matter. As the presiding judge of this court, no such order was made”

Explaining the events that gave rise to the purported order, the judge noted that after hearing the minister’s exparte application wherein she sought to stop the Public Accounts Committee from summoning her over the matter, he ordered the minister’s lawyer, Mr. Etigwe Uwa, a senior advocate of Nigeria to serve the processes on the National Assembly to come here on the 17th of April to show cause why the reliefs sought should not be granted.

According to the judge, the minister’s lawyer returned to the court on the 17th of April and informed the court that due to the bomb blasts which rocked a bus terminal in Nyanya on the outskirts of the Abuja metropolis, that the court papers were not served on the National Assembly before the court adjourned the matter for today.

He expressed shock at the level of misinformation and deliberate and mischievous twisting of the facts for reasons yet to be unraveled.

Diezani Alison-Madueke’s media spin doctors also contributed to the misinformation on the court order, as they pushed out the false court order, which journalists bought hook, line and sinker.

Further hearing into the matter was subsequently adjourned to Monday 5 May.