Former governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, has dragged the State House of Assembly to court over the probe of his administration’s procurement of 820 buses worth N7 billion for public transport.
A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Tuesday ordered the assembly’s speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, to appear before it.
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Justice Y.A. Adesanya gave the order after hearing a motion ex-parte moved by Ambode’s lawyer, Tayo Oyetibo.
Mr Obasa is to appear in court on Wednesday.
Others who are to appear in court include House Clerk, A.A Sanni; chairman of the ad hoc committee set up by the assembly to probe the procurement, Fatai Mojeed, and members of the committee.
The members are Gbolahan Yishawu, A.A Yusuff, Yinka Ogundimu, Mojisola Meranda, M.L Makinde, Kehinde Joseph, T.A Adewale, and O.S Afinni.
Ambode, according to his statement of claim before the court, said that contrary to deliberate misrepresentation of facts by the lawmakers, the procurement of the 820 buses was included in the 2018 Appropriation Law which was approved by the assembly.
The former governor added that in continuation of deliberate misrepresentation of facts of the issue, the assembly falsely claimed that an invitation had been extended to him to appear before the committee but that he failed to honour the said invitation.
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He said it was obvious that the lawmakers were totally biased against him having regard to their pronouncements on the floor of the house by reason of which he believes that his right to fair hearing as guaranteed by the Constitution had been seriously compromised by the defendants.
Among other things, Ambode wants the court to declare the setting up of a 9-man committee to investigate all transactions in respect of the 820 buses as unconstitutional, null and void.
