BEVERLY HILLS, CA, May 26, (THEWILL) – For misrepresenting its orders on the planned probe of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, over alleged $10 billion spent on chartering private jet, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Monday ordered the House of Representatives to immediately organise a media briefing to inform the public that Justice Ahmed Mohammed did not issue any order stopping its investigation.
This came as hearing resumed Monday in the case filed by the Minister and NNPC to stop their appearance before the Public Accounts Committee the House with the court still refusing to issue an order to stop the House from going ahead with the probe.
The minister’s lawyer, Mr Etigwe Uwah, SAN, though made several attempts to persuade Justice Mohammed to issue an order in the interim to stop the House of from going ahead, the judge refused to make such order.
According to Uwah, despite the fact that the matter was before the court and that all the parties had been served, the House was bent on continuing with the matter and had continued to issue invitations to his client to appear.
Citing a statement credited to the Speaker of the House, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, where he urged the Public Accounts Committee to go ahead with the probe, Uwah also told the court that a subsidiary of NNPC, the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) was also summoned despite the pendency of the suit.
But all these would not persuade the court to grant an interim order to stop the probe as the judge noted that Uwah’s application to prevail the court to ask the House to stop was not before him since it was filed Monday.
The House has however apologised to the judge for misrepresenting the order of the court which asked the lawmakers to come and show cause why the minister’s request for an interim order should not be granted but which the lawmakers claimed barred them from going ahead with the probe.
Counsel to the House, Mr Abubakar Mahmud, SAN, wh tendered the apology, repeated it several times before the judge accepted it.
Following the acceptance of the apology, the court thus reviewed its earlier stance, saying it would dispense with the House appearance if only the House could issue another statement to inform the general public that the court did not make any order stopping it from going ahead with the probe.
Mahmud, who promised that this would be done, then asked for a short adjournment to enable him prepare his defence to the suit.
Uwah, who did not oppose the adjournment request of the House, however asked the court to issue an interim order to preserve the res by stopping the House from going ahead with the probe.
He contended that the request for time was a strategy to tie his client’s hands behind her back while the House went ahead with the same investigation that she sought to stop.
Relying on the principle of lis pendis (pending legal action) Uwah argued that the House should ordinarily, even without the court making any order, stop further deliberations on the controversial aircraft charter issue having been served with court papers showing that the matter is already pending before the court.
”The principle of lis pendis demands that once a matter is pending before the court, no further action should be taken to overreach the court.
“The directive of the Speaker to the Public Accounts Committee to go ahead with the investigation into the issue will foist a fait acompli, a state of helplessness upon this court.” he argued.
His position was however contested by Mahmud who pleaded with the court not to allow it to be used by the minister to stop the House from conducting its constitutional functions.
“No court should allow itself to be used to stop an institution from carrying out its constitutional duties. This court cannot grant the orders sought by the minister without looking at the entire processes filed in the substantive suit.,” Mahmud said.
Justice Mohammed, who had twice summoned the House to appear before it to show him the purported order allegedly made by him wqhich stopped the House from going ahead with the minister’s probe,said attributing to the court an order which did not emanate from the court was capable of putting judiciary at ridicule.
He therefore adjourned to June 19 for hearing of the substantive suit.
