Court grants lawyer leave to order Baru’s arrest

Justice O.A Musa of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has granted leave to Johnmary Jideobi, to compel the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission,(ICPC), to probe and arrest the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru.

Jideobi, a lawyer, is also seeking the sacking of Baru, following some allegations leveled against him by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, which were revealed in a leaked memo to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The applicant had also prayed the court to restrain Baru from further usurping the powers of the board of the NNPC and acting as the GMD of the NNPC pending the determination of the suit.

In his ruling, Justice Musa declared as meritorious Jideobi’s application for leave to seek an order of mandamus to compel the ICPC to discharge its statutory functions by proceeding with dispatch to arrest Baru and arraign him.

“Having gone through the application, I am of the view that it has merit and it is granted in the following terms: Leave is hereby granted to the applicant to apply for judicial review for an order of mandamus.”

The court asked Baru to show cause within three days why the application seeking his removal as the NNPC GMD should not be granted.

Justice Musa further instructed that the court processes be served on the minister of state for petroleum and the NNPC GMD.

The matter was adjourned till November 28, 2017, for hearing. In an August memo which was addressed to Buhari but leaked to the media last month, Kachikwu accused Baru of approving contracts worth $24bn without the approval of the NNPC board whose function it is to review potential appointments and terminations of senior staff prior to implementation.

According to the minister, the legal requirement is that all contracts above $20m should be reviewed and approved by the NNPC board.

He told the President that in over one year of Baru’s tenure as the boss of NNPC, no contract has been run through the NNPC board.

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