The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Prices Marketing Corporation (PPMC) have told the House of Representatives that they will not be able to appear before its committee investigating allegations that the minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, expended N10 billion on charter of jets.
LEADERSHIP gathered yesterday that the two agencies which fall under the purview of the minister had written to the House Committee on Public Accounts to state that they would not honour the invitations extended to them to appear before it.
In the separate letters addressed to the chairman of the committee, Hon Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, NNPC and PPMC said they were currently before different courts of competent jurdistion on the same subject and, as such, would not appear before the committee as it would be subjudicial to the case.
Alison-Madueke had approached three different courts to seek perpetual injunction to stop the lawmakers from going ahead with the probe .
But while Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja refused to grant the request to stop the probe and fixed hearing for today, the other two courts were yet to take any action on the matter.
However, the House has reaffirmed its earlier position to go ahead with the investigation.
Speaking on the matter yesterday, the chairman of the committee, Hon Olamilekan declared that there was no going back on the probe as directed by the House of Representatives.
He said, “As we speak, we are set to commence the probe; there is no court injunction barring our committee from doing our job, so, whether they appear or not, it is not our problem. The law is very clear on this. We will do our job, write our report and submit our report to the House.”