Diezani had just instituted a legal suit today challenging the competence of the National Assembly to invite her for questioning over the matter, even as the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, made it clear that if she failed to respond positively to the enquiries, court case would not help her, adding “she will risk arrest.”
Diezani was said to have incurred the expenditure in the last two years.The minister and other individuals and agencies invited in respect of the investigation have up to June 17 to file memoranda, while physical appearances will begin on June 18.
Mohammed, who addressed newsmen in Abuja today said that following Wednesday’s directive of the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, that the probe should resume, the House had “updated and re-issued” the invitations sent to the affected persons and agencies.
The investigation is being conducted by the Committee on Public Accounts.
The committee is headed by a lawmaker representing Lagos State, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan.
Mohammed explained that the committee, after a meeting today morning, decided to give all the parties enough time to prepare for the hearing.
“The position of the House is that we are going ahead with the investigation. We have re-issued the invitations. This length of time (June 17) is to enable everybody to be prepared.
“We want to avoid excuses such as people saying that they were not given enough notices to appear before the committee.”
He said that the House expected that the report of the investigation should be ready before the start of its annual break in late July.
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