Uncertainty surrounds the investigation
by the House of Representatives into the alleged N10bn the Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, spent to charter a
private jet, Challenger 850, for her trips in the last two years.
The Public Accounts Committee of the
House, which is investigating the expenditure, had two weeks ago,
directed Alison-Madueke to make written submissions on the allegation
before April 28 (today).
The committee, which is chaired by an
All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Lagos State, Mr. Solomon
Olamilekan, had also fixed Monday (today) as the start of a public
hearing on the investigation.
However, We gathered on
Sunday that the anticipated public hearing would be a mirage as the
committee had not received any reply from the minister.
Checks with committee sources indicated
that up till the late hours of Sunday, no response had been received
from Alison-Madueke.
It will be recalled that the minister
had also failed to reply a March 26 letter signed by Olamilekan,
asking her to explain all she knew about the N10bn expenditure and to
state clearly the law that empowered a minister to fly overseas in
chartered jets.
The Group Managing Director of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, was also
asked to submit a memo to the committee.
The committee had called for the NNPC’s
response after the corporation defended the minister on the grounds that
chartered jets were allowed for oil industry operations.
Yakubu has also not replied the committee.
One of our sources said, “As I speak, there is nothing from the minister; she has not replied our letter.
“The story is the same with the NNPC;
the corporation too did not send any documents to the committee as of
Friday, the last working day for the week that just went by.
“Even key aviation agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, among others, have not filed any documents.”
Two weeks ago, the committee had threatened to proceed with the hearing today if the minister still failed to make submissions.
Findings by Us showed that
some members of the committee reportedly made a U-turn of the plan to
proceed without the minister’s responses after realising that it would
lead them no useful results.
One of them said, “That would have been
an exercise in futility. The committee would have merely wasted
resources and energy conducting a public hearing today that would lead
to nowhere.
“The minister is at the centre of the
investigation; how far can the committee get without hearing from her?
They are really in a quandary.”
We learnt that in place of
starting the public hearing today, the committee had resolved to hold a
meeting for the “purpose of reviewing the situation.”
Another source said, “The committee will meet on Monday (today) to review the situation before we talk of public hearing.
“However, the committee will do its best to ensure that the minister does not trample on the constitution.”
The source did not explain how the committee would get the minister to comply.
Olamilekan declined to comment on the
alleged dilemma his committee was facing, but merely admitted that a
meeting of the committee today would deliberate on the way forward.
He added that since the assignment was given to the committee, its members would revert to the House on their findings.
“We have a meeting on Monday (today); we
have issues to discuss as a committee. Wait till after our meeting”,
the committee chairman said.
Although, the original mandate of the
committee was to investigate the alleged N10bn expenditure on the
Challenger 850, the committee stumbled on additional information
indicating that Alison-Madueke chartered two other jets.
One of them, a Global Express XRS, was said to have cost €600,000 in a return charter trip to London.
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