PURCHASE OF 820 BUSES: Ambode’s effort to stop probe fails

Efforts by former Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode to stop the state House of Assembly from probing him has failed.

This followed the ruling of an Ikeja High Court on Thursday, which held that the former governor cannot prevent the state lawmakers from probing him.

The state assembly had made moves to probe Ambode’s purchase of 820 buses for the Lagos Bus Reform Project.

But the former governor swiftly ran to the court to stop the probe.

However, when the matter came up on Thursday, Justice Yetunde Adesanya, frowned at Ambode’s suit.

According to her, the suit breached the doctrine of separation of powers.

The judge said, “An ad-hoc committee is an investigative committee performing a fact finding function and not a court, judicial body or a tribunal.

“It is not set up to determine the civil rights and obligations of the claimant. In the same breath, an investigation is not an indictment, it precedes an indictment.

“The claimant, in this instance, has not been indicted by the House of Assembly neither has the committee indicted the claimant by a mere invitation by summons to appear before it.

“The ad-hoc committee is yet to carry out its constitutional function as contained in Section 128 and 129 of the Constitution.

“Assuming that the claimant’s claim of bias by the constituted ad-hoc committee is real and well founded that some members of the committee had concluded that the claimant is guilty of the allegation before inviting him to appear before the committee, this will still not amount to a threat to his fundamental right to fair hearing because the whole exercise is nothing more than an investigation.

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“I hereby find that the claimant’s action is an invitation to the court to cripple the legislative exercise of the statutory power of the Lagos State House of Assembly under Section 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution.

“That is not the function of the court, and no court of law should accede such invitation. The claimant’s suit is hereby struck out.”

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