The announcement by the House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Monday that it could not proceed with the probe into alleged N10 billion expended by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the lease of private aircraft for the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, owing to a court injunction, has been dismissed as an outright lie by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Taking the lawmakers to task, the court yesterday in Abuja summoned the House of Representatives to come and show it the purported order which stopped it from going ahead with the probe.
THISDAY had correctly reported yesterday that the court had rejected the request by the minister and NNPC seeking an interim injunction stopping the House from its investigation.
In the alternative, the plaintiffs had asked the court for an order of status quo, directing the parties to maintain the current position as at the date of filing the suit.
Instead of granting their request, the court had on April 14 directed the House of Representatives to appear before it to show cause why the interim orders being sought should not be granted.
However, at the resumed sitting on the suit yesterday, a visibly exasperated Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed said he was embarrassed when he woke up on Monday night and saw a barrage of headlines claiming that he granted an order restraining the House’s committee from going ahead with the probe.