A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja before Justice Ahmed Mohammed, on Thursday, temporarily stopped the House of Representatives from inviting the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, to appear before it for the purpose of investigation until July 3, when the court is expected to hear the substantive suit brought before it by the minister.
The directives of the court followed complaints by the counsel for the minister, Mr Etigwe Uwah, that the House had, in a letter dated May 3, 2014, invited the minister to appear before its Public Accounts Committee between June 25 to 27, despite the pendency of a suit seeking to stop it from investigating the minister before a court of competent jurisdiction.
Justice Mohammed, in his ruling on Uwa’s application seeking an order of the court restraining the House, directed parties to maintain status quo until the next adjourned date of July 3.
The minister and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for an interlocutory injunction to stop the Senate and the House of Representatives from summoning them for the purposes of giving evidence or producing any documents which relate to the official records pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The minister is asking the court for an order to maintain status quo, pending the final determination of the matter on allegation of N10 billion allegedly spent on the charter of air craft.
It will be recalled that at the last hearing of the matter, counsel for Diezani and NNPC, Etigwe Uwah, had prayed the court to grant his request for an order of interim injunction stopping the probe of his clients.
He noted that the Speaker of the House, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, had announced that it would commence investigation on the matter and prayed the court to stop the action, as it would jeopardise the ongoing legal process.
Counsel for the House, A.B. Mahmud, promised to talk to his client not to do anything that would jeopardise the legal process and asked the court to accelerate the hearing of the suit instead of granting an order of interim injunction.
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Court stops House from inviting Alison-Madueke over Private Jet Scandal
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