Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke
A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday refused a proposed amendment by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to her suit challenging the National Assembly’s power to probe her spending of N10bn on chartered jet.
The minister, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation are the plaintiffs in the suit.
Their proposed amendments are seeking additional prayers to their suit.
The fresh prayers were to seek court’s pronouncement on whether by the virtue of provisions of section 88 of the constitution, the National Assembly had the power to conduct oversight functions of probing government’s Ministries Departments and Agencies after receiving a petition to that effect.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed in his ruling on Monday held that granting such amendment would change the character of the claims contained in the original suit before the court.
But the judge granted the a proposed amendment to include prayer seeking the court to determine whether or not the proposed investigative public hearing by the House of Representatives is not illegal, null and void for failure to comply with the requirement of section 88 of the 1999 constitution.
The court had on June 19 made an order restraining the House of Representatives from going ahead with the public hearing on the allegation that Alison-Madueke spent N10bn on a chartered aircraft.
