The Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke
has refused to provide the information on the controversial Challenger
850 aircraft to the House of Representatives Committee on Public
Accounts.
Alison-Madueke
was given one week, starting from March 26, to state the sources for
aircraft purchase and the law enabling her to fly the chartered jets.
However, as on Tuesday no response followed.
It would be recalled
that the committee was authorized to probe the N10bn jet purchase.
During the investigation two more chartered aircrafts used for the same
purpose were discovered.
Three weeks after the probe started,
little progress has been achieved on the assignment because the minister
and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Andrew Yakubu are yet to
respond to enquiries by the committee.
Without any reaction from
the officials involved, the committee "can really not make much
progress", a source close to the body told Punch.
According to the
source, who pleaded anonymity, the Senate Committee on Petroleum
Resources (Downstream) decided after a closed-door meeting to begin
full-scale investigation of the chartering of aircraft for
Alison-Madueke by the NNPC.
It was revealed that the investigation
will not be limited to one case, because NNPC had consistently shunned
its invitation on six different occasions since October last year.
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