FORMER Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode has approached the court to stop the probe by the House of Assembly concerning the 820 buses purchased before his exit as the governor.
Lagos State House of Assembly said it issued summons to Ambode concerning the alleged purchase of 850 buses worth over N7 billion without budgetary approval of the House.
Ambode is scheduled to appear before the House Committee on the probe on Wednesday after the Assembly reported that he has failed to honour their invite on two occasions.
The Assembly is reported to have threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on Ambode if he fails to appear before the committee on Wednesday.
In a counter move to stop the probe, Ambode on Tuesday approached the court to stop the probe scheduled to hold today.
His legal counsel, Tayo Oyetibo, filed an ex parte application to the Lagos High Court, asking the court to compel the assembly to stop the probe.
Ambode in his suit claimed that the Assembly is deliberately misrepresenting, noting that the 820 buses were included in the 2018 Appropriation bill that was approved by the House.
The suit listed the Speaker of the Lagos Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, Clerk of the House, A.A. Sanni as well as the members of the ad hoc committee set up for the purchase as defendants in the suit.
The sitting judge, Adesanya ordered the originating processes and all the accompanying processes filed by the claimant (Ambode) to be served on the defendants and subsequently fixed Wednesday, October 30, 2019, for a hearing of the motion for interlocutory injunction.
Adesanya ordered the defendants to appear before the court on Wednesday by 9 am after hearing the ex-parte moved by Ambode’s counsel.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94