$620,000 bribe scam: Court adjourns, awaits Lawan’s appeal

An Abuja High Court on Wednesday adjourned the trial of a former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of the Fuel Subsidy Regime, Farouk Lawan, to await the report of an appeal filed by the lawmaker.

Lawan and his co-accused person, Boniface Emenalo, are facing trial over a seven-count criminal charge bordering on allegations that they demanded and received the sum of $620,000 as bribe from a businessman, Femi Otedola.

The accused persons had approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, to challenge the dismissal of an application in which they sought to quash the charges brought against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission.

Following the appeal, their counsel, Rickey Tarfa, SAN, applied for a stay of proceedings in the trial, pending the determination of the appeal.

The motion for stay of proceedings was initially dismissed on July 10, but at the resumption of hearing in the matter on Wednesday, the defence counsel again asked the court to stay action in the suit.

Prosecuting counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, opposed the request.

“The prayer asking for a stay of proceedings is not appropriate, a further adjournment may be for another three weeks, to enable us know the fate of the appeal.

“It will not be right to stay proceedings, as if that is granting the application before the Court of Appeal,” he said.

In a brief ruling, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi adjourned the matter to enable the court receive a report on the appeal.

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