Contrary to his frantic denial of involvement in the ongoing scandal over a $3m bribery allegation, the chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on the fuel subsidy probe, Hon. Farouk Lawan, collected money to alter the outcome of the probe, LEADERSHIP findings have revealed.
A top state security official who spoke to LEADERSHIP on the condition of anonymity yesterday said Lawan was taped in a sting while he was collecting the money.
“We have him on tape and video. He took the money and he can’t deny it,” the source said.
The chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Mr. Femi Otedola, had said in press reports yesterday that Lawan collected $500,000 from him in two instalments in a sting arranged with the security agencies.
Otedola said that, on April 21, the Saturday before the plenary, Lawan came to his residence and collected $250,000 in cash as the first instalment.
“Then the next Monday night he came and collected another. On Tuesday at 9am, just before the House commenced sitting, Boniface (secretary of the committee) came and collected another $120,000.”
This has also been confirmed by Emenalo, who, in a letter dated April 24, 2012, stated that he, indeed, received $100,000 from Otedola.
The letter which he addressed to Lawan and was obtained by LEADERSHIP on Monday reads in part: “I wish to inform you that I was, on his invitation, at the residence of their Chairman, Mr. Femi Otedola in Maitama, (Aso Drive) this morning and he offered me the sum of One Hundred Thousand US Dollars in two bundles of $50,000 each. The money is hereby forwarded as evidence.”
Confirming that Otedola’s narration of what transpired between him and Lawan was the truth, the source disclosed that, unknown to Lawan, Otedola was part of a sting operation that went all the way to the presidency and that even the dollar notes offered by the oil marketer and received by Lawan were marked by security officials.
Lawan had called a press conference on Sunday where he denied either demanding or receiving bribe in the course of the fuel subsidy probe, claiming that the allegation was contrived by those who wanted to discredit his committee’s report.
But sources with inside knowledge of the scandal insist that Lawan’s denial is mere grandstanding as there is overwhelming evidence against him including a video of the transaction.
Meanwhile, following implicating evidence emerging from the scandal, the House of Representatives may convene a special session to move for the suspension of the lawmaker.
LEADERSHIP gathered on yesterday that the consideration by the House leadership is due to the pressure that has been mounting on them to protect the integrity of the House and remove the persons involved in the scandal to be fully investigated by the relevant anti-graft agencies.
But some members and the leadership have stated that it is unlikely that a special session will be convened just to suspend the lawmaker, though they admitted that it was the prerogative of the speaker to do that.
“It is unlikely that we will reconvene just to treat Lawan’s suspension”, a lawmaker said. “The matter will definitely come up when we resume on Tuesday next week.”
Attempts to contact other members of the House leadership proved abortive as they were either out of town or not available for comment.
Sources who pleaded anonymity told LEADERSHIP that the leadership of the House had already met on the matter on Sunday and resolved that Lawan would not be shielded, especially because he kept the matter secret until the lid was blown open and the speaker confronted him with the facts which he initially denied until the video was played for him to watch.
It was learnt that Farouk’s attempt to explain to his colleagues during plenary on Wednesday last week, before the House went on recess, that the money was received as evidence to show that he was being bribed by Otedola, an explanation which was rejected by his colleagues because of the time
that it had taken between when the money was allegedly received and the time he decided to report it.
A lawmaker who spoke to LEADERSHIP said, “He is on his own. We cannot be deceived to accept an explanation that the money was kept as evidence. If that is true, why did he decide to bring it to the open only after it had been found out? For the sake of the integrity of this House and in line with our legislative agenda which states zero tolerance for corruption, we have taken a stand that he has to be suspended pending the outcome of investigation on the matter.”
Some returning members who spoke on the scandal described it as karma for the lawmaker for the role he played in the impeachment of former speaker Patricia Etteh under his ‘‘Integrity Group’’. According to one of the lawmakers, “he who comes to equity must come with clean hands”.
The news broke over the weekend that Femi Otedola induced the chairman with a part payment of $600,000 in a $3m deal that would ensure that his companies were not implicated in the fuel subsidy probe report.
Lawan allegedly received the money in person from an intermediary of the oil mogul, but he did not know that the transaction was being secretly recorded with a pen camera.
The development will be a setback for a House battling to redeem its image, which was only recently dented by a similar bribery scam between the House Committee on Capital Markets and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs Hon. Zakari Mohammed had earlier stressed that they stood by the resolutions of the report as adopted and passed by the House and urged the executive not to use the allegations as an excuse for not implementing its recommendations.
Mohammed stated: “The attention of the House of Representatives has been drawn to reports alleging that one of its members has, in the course of his committee work as a member of the ad-hoc committee which investigated the subsidy regime, allegedly received a gratification from an oil baron to exonerate his companies from complicity in the oil subsidy scam.
“While we await investigation into these weighty accusations, we wish to state without equivocation that this Honourable House will never take sides with corruption and we will always stand on the side of the rule of law. The reason we inaugurated the ad-hoc committee to look into the controversial subsidy regime in the first place was to expose corruption in the sector; as such, we cannot, for whatever reason, support any underhand dealing from any quarter.
“However, these accusations, whatever their merits, do not detract from the quality of the work done by the committee. The report of that committee was adopted by the whole House and we stand by the resolutions of the House.
“We hope that the Executive will not, because of this allegation, abandon its commitment towards bringing to justice the culprits already identified in the committee’s report”.
Anger and apprehension pervaded the Senate over the raging allegation of bribery in the House of Representatives.
A source disclosed that the only mitigating factor now would be the expected report of its ad-hoc committee that handled a similar assignment.
“For now, it is Senator Magnus Abe, chairman of the ad-hoc committee that probed the management of the subsidy fund, that will give the status of the report. We will never be cowed into carrying out our function… even at that, we will still view the development as an allegation yet to be proved. Yet acceptable is that the current situation is not a good commentary,” the source said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Which state is this fulani man from?
ReplyDeleteThief stealing while probing thief and another thief monitoring & exposing them. In no smal time, the one exposing them will also thieve. All na cycles of thieves!Thats why all probes of corruption have always ended enmessed in more corruption.
ReplyDeleteThe cycle continues!
I weep for Naija!!!
Abeg where the 620,000 Dollar together with the balance dey sef? Anybody with usefull information will be rewarded with 5000 dollars.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder d chief thief (ex-presido) was quick at saying that their members are encycled in d both houses of d gov't when he called them rogues. Rogue probing rogues, rogue identifying rogues, rogues summoning a rogue to d house, ...what will be d outcome? Rogues' gov't!
ReplyDeleteI knew this Aboki Bastard is a thief since 2009 when he denied...
ReplyDeleteat second anonymous: My thoughts exactly!!
ReplyDeleteIt appears corruption is powerful than anybody in this country. Corruption can only be fought successfully in Nigeria if everybody in Nigeria including those kids in their mother's belly- because they have benefitted from corruption of either their mother or father, are kill, then new set of people are brought to live in Nigeria. GOD SAVE NIGERIA!!! Amen.
ReplyDeletesee him and his over size cap lol. obj dey talk, God will continue to expose them one after the other.
ReplyDeleteWe should stop addressing these guys in government as "Honorable", "His/Her Excellency", etc., rather "Thieves", "Looters", and the like. Where is Elumelu of the Power probe? and a host of others? All these guys received bribes and cover up what they discovered. One listening to these probes chairmen, you will think they are Saints, but what do we have? Nothing near that. All these keep on recurring because no one gets punished (of course who will be the punisher?) if all of them are thieves. We are not rife for this so-called democracy, we need a dedicated leader of the type of Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, our Dear late Idiagbon to cleanse this rotor else a militant group will spring up to wage war against these politicians.I weep for Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteDoes this conspircy by Otedola and the security agents whose pockets have also been lined with dollars to nab some of there co-thiefs vindicated Mr Otedola' companies of the allegations levelled against them by the probe panel?. Let us remember that their is no honour among thieves afterall.
ReplyDeleteIt is only a monkey dat understand a monkey. God help us for dis naija.
ReplyDeleteFarouk is just a fool. He should have known that when the House set up a committee to investigate amount spent by OBJ government on electricity generation, the chaiman wept and said that he merely saw virgin land in either Akwa Ibom or Cross River state where OBJ sank billions then. He ended up in jail for this same thing.May Farouk die in jail for his indiscretion. I used to like him and thought that he could lead this nation one day. Sad end indeed.
ReplyDeleteWat u sow u shall reap, as small as u ar stealling moni dat is bigger dan u
ReplyDeleteOle,Barawo, Thief Farouk Lawan,that is your new name. You of all, who on presentation of your report appeared as saint. Lord let thy kingdom come. Where are Jerry Rawlings of our time?
ReplyDeleteWhy the sting operation in the firdt place? could it be that they had anticipated or had know that lawal would go all out to fustrate or implicate the offenders at such they a diviced a plan B to to rether fustrates effort with the help of SSS, may God help us
ReplyDeleteHoping this isn't a gimmick to divert attention and eventually sweep the Oil subsidy probe report under the carpet as the case has always been!
ReplyDeleteQuite everyone, Otedola knew his company was found liable in the subsidy mess, he offered and gave bribe. The bribe did not save the situation, hence he had to cry out. all i know is that both the giver and the receiver are all liable. but don't forget that the one that took bribe to enhance the commission of a crime and later reneged is better that the principal that procured him
ReplyDelete