The Chairman/Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Zenon Oil and Gas Limited, Femi Otedola has told an FCT High
Court in Apo that the $620,000 he handed over to former lawmaker, Farouk Lawan,
was given to him by the Department of State Security, DSS.
The business mogul stated this
while being cross examined by Lawan’s counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN.
According to Chief Otedola, the
alleged bribe money was given to Lawan in a sting operation.
He told the court that the DSS
however did not catch Lawan red handed at the time of collecting the money from
him (Otedola), as shown in a video played in the open court.
The billionaire businessman also
told the court that he did not have any documentary evidence to the fact that
the money was given to him by the DSS, saying that the money was given to him
in bits.
He further said that he did not
take down the serial numbers of the money given to him by the DSS, adding that
he did not sign any document when collecting the money in bits.
Asked if the content of the
envelope exchanging hands in the video could have been a letter or an
invitation card, Otedola, who testified as the fifth prosecution witness, said,
“Possibly, the content could have been a letter or an invitation card.”
The witness further told the
court that going by the video shown in the court, Lawan did not remove his cap
and stuff it with dollars.
Otedola said Lawan, a former
Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy
Regime, demanded for a bribe of $3million out of which he handed over the sum
of $620,000 to him.
He told the court that he knew
Phillip Akinola, who he said was the Chief Operating Officer of Zenon Oil and
Gas Limited, but he was not aware that Akinola wrote a letter to Lawan,
informing him that Zenon supplied petroleum to Forte Oil on carefully agreed
terms.
The letter was tendered by
Ozekhome as exhibit and was admitted after argument and counter-argument on its
admissibility subject to the production of receipt of payment of necessary fees
at the next adjourned date.
The prosecution counsel,
Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), after evidence of Otedola, informed the court that
the prosecution was closing its case. The defence thereafter informed that it
intended to file a no-case submission.
The trial judge, Justice Angela
Otaluka has, meanwhile, adjourned the proceedings to September 24 for the
adoption of addresses by parties in the no-case submission.
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