•Committee begins sitting today
A warrant of arrest may be issued against Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deziani Allison-Madueke, if she fails to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts today to answer to questions on N10 billion she allegedly used to charter private jets, a dependable source told Daily Independent on Sunday.
The House Committee will today begin sittings to probe the circumstances surrounding the N10 billion allegedly used by the minister to pay for chartered private jets for her use.
The minister was alleged to have used the chattered jets both for local and international flights.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was said to have been mandated by the minister to pay for the chartered flights, an action that contravenes Fiscal Responsibility Act, sources said.
However, since the scandal broke out, the minister and the management of NNPC had refused to accede to the request by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account for submission of relevant documents on the transactions between the NNPC and the operators of the chartered flights.
But despite the refusal of the minister and the NNPC to respond to the demand, the Solomon Adeola-Olamilekan-led committee has expressed its readiness to proceed with the probe even if the minister and NNPC management opted to stay away.
The committee had three weeks ago, condemned the failure of the minister and the NNPC management to turn in the required documents, preferring to rather to pay some hirelings to stage a protest at the National Assembly.
There are indications that the committee might rely on some documents in its possession to draw inference on the matter.
It was reliably gathered that as at Sunday the minister, the NNPC, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other agencies of the Federal Government requested to submit certain documents have refused to do so.
The committee has obtained various passenger manifests for the chartered flights showing who and who flew with the minister on the different journeys she embarked on using the chartered jets.
A member of the committee told Daily Independent in confidence that the invitees risk the possibility of having a warrant of arrest issued on them should they fail to turn up at the committee sitting today.
“As I speak we are yet to hear from the minister and others; all what we are hearing is that the public hearing will not hold, but I can assure you that as lawmakers we will do our part of the deal.
“Even if need, we will issue warrant of arrest on those involved, nobody is above the law of the land,” the committee member said.
When contacted, Chairman of the committee, Olamilekan, confirmed that his committee would meet today but declined further comment.
“All I can say for now is that our committee will meet tomorrow (today) on the matter and thereafter we will revert back to the House for the next action.”
Source: Daily Independent
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