Tag Archives: Farouk Lawan

Farouk Lawan’s Statements Are Afterthoughts- Witness

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A prosecution witness, David Igbodo, has told an FCT High Court sitting in Lugbe that statements made by former Chairman of House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on fuel subsidy, Farouk Lawan, are fallacies and afterthoughts.

Igbodo, who is a Commissioner of Police, Legal Section, told the court that the claims by Lawan that the Chairman of Zenon Oil, Femi Otedola, called him over 30 times and texted him and threatened to ruin his future political career with his presidency connection after the Adhoc Committee indicted his companies in the 2012 fuel subsidy inquiry could not be substantiated.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) is prosecuting Lawan for allegedly “corruptly” collecting $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he requested from businessman, Femi Otedola.

Lawan was accused of accepting the bribe in  exchange for the removal of Otedola’s company’s name, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for allegedly  abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.

At the resumed hearing today, the witness was asked by prosecution counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) if the Police investigated the claims made by the defendant that he reported to the then EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde. The witness said they investigated this claim.

“He did report to the EFCC on the 28/04/2012 that some fuel marketers are bringing plane load of dollars to bribe the adhoc Committee. We also found out that the Chairman of EFCC asked him to come back for a sting operation if the plane load of dollars arrived. However, the defendant never reported to the Chairman of EFCC or any other security agencies that he has collected the sum of $500,000 on 24/04/2012 from Otedola which was caught on video”, he said.

He added that the claim that he also reported to the Speaker of House of Representatives was also found to be false. He said they found out that the then speaker (Aminu Tambuwal) called the defendant when the DG of DSS confronted the defendant with the video clip of him collecting $500,000 from Otedola.

He said it was at this point that the defendant knew he was caught on video and that was what generated all the afterthoughts.

“The whole story of a plane load of dollars started when it was revealed to him he was caught on video.”

He said they also investigated the claim that the defendant gave the $500,000 to Hon. Jagaba (then Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Drugs and Narcotics) including the $100,000 collected by the Secretary of the fuel subsidy Committee, Emenalo Boniface, and found the claims to be afterthoughts.

“We confronted Hon. Jagaba and he denied it. We brought him and the defendant together and he also denied it in the presence of the defendant.”

The witness said they also confronted the security man at Hon. Jagaba’s house who denied the claim  of the defendant that he was at Jagaba’s house between 3 & 4am on the 24/04/2012.

He said they investigated a letter “purportedly” written by the defendant to Hon. Jagaba  on 24/04/2012 by 03:47am and discovered that the letter was an attempt to cover the crime. He added that Jagaba denied seeing or receiving the letter. He said they also discovered that the letter was not signed to be received by anyone.

“We took a critical look at that letter purportedly signed by 3:47am and we found out that it was a lie and even if that letter existed, it was concocted”, Igbodo said.

Credit: Dailytrust

Subsidy Scam: How I Collected $100,000 From Otedola For Farouk Lawan – Emenalo

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Clerk to the then House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Boniface Emenalo, on Monday told a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Lugbe, that he collected $100,000 from billionaire businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, as part of the alleged $3m bribe promised to the then Chairman of the committee, Farouk Lawan.

 
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, is currently prosecuting Lawan for allegedly “corruptly” collecting $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he requested from Otedola in exchange for the removal of the name of the company of the businessman from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.

 

Emenalo, testifying as the first prosecution witness before Justice Angela Otakula, on Monday, said he collected the sum of $100,000 from Otedola in $100 bills.
He said, “I came across Femi Otedola during this assignment on April 24, 2012. I received persistent calls from Mr. Otedola in the morning and reported to Lawan and he asked me to play along with him, that he was with him (Otedola) the previous night.

 

“When Otedola called again, he asked me to come over to his house. He gave me the description (of his house). When I got there, he also confirmed that he was with my chairman the previous night. He gave me two bundles of dollar bills in $100 denomination. Each bundle was $50,000 making it $100,000 that were not converted.

 

“When I got back to the office, I wrote a memo forwarding the money to my chairman that same April 24, 2012, which he took from me.”

 

A copy of the memo was tendered before the court and marked Exhibit PW1 C.
The defence, led by Mike Ozekhome (SAN), did not object to the admissibility of the document.

 

Under cross-examination, Emenalo told the court that it was surprising when he read in the newspapers that Otedola actually gave him $120,000.

 

Emenalo, who was led in evidence by the lead prosecuting counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), said Otedola’s three companies, Zenon Oil & Gas, AP and Forte Oil, were named in the subsidy report.

 

However, Ozekhome sought an adjournment to serve the prosecution with a notice to produce an additional statement made by the witness as contained in the prosecution’s proof of evidence.

 

Meanwhile, the judge adjourned till April 12 and 13, 2016 for continuation of trial and cross-examination.

 

Credit : Daily Post

Alleged Bribe: Otedola To Testify Against Farouk Lawan

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Billionaire businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, has been scheduled to appear as a prosecution witness before a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Lugbe, Abuja, in the ongoing trial of a former Chairman, House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Mr. Farouk Lawan, for alleged bribery.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission is prosecuting Lawan for allegedly “corruptly” collecting $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he requested from Otedola in exchange for the removal of the businessman’s company’s name from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.

The presiding judge, Justice Angela Otakula, on Tuesday adjourned the case till March 7 and 8 to enable the first prosecution witness, Mr. Boniface Emenalo, who was then secretary to the Lawan-led committee, to conclude his evidence.

Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, is expected to appear in court as the second prosecution witness on either of the two days, depending on how soon Emenalo concludes his own part.

Otedola was initially scheduled to testify against Lawan on February 2, but the businessman, who was somewhere within the court premises during the proceedings, was said to have taken his leave when it was clear that Emenalo was going to stay much longer in the witness box.

Credit: Punch

$620,000 Bribe: Trial Of Farouk Lawan Continues

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Hearing commences Tuesday in the trial of the former Chairman, House of Representative Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Farouk Lawan, for allegedly obtaining $620,000 bribe money from Femi Otedola, chairman of Forte Oil.

A reliable close to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission said Mr Lawan and Boniface Emenalo would stand trial before Justice Angela Otaluka of a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Lugbe, on a seven-count criminal charge bordering on obtaining $620,000 from Mr. Otedola, in order to doctor a report by his then committee in favour of Zenon Oil and Gas Ltd.

The duo were first arraigned before Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi on February 2, 2013, before the judge was elevated to the Court of Appeal.

The case was then reassigned to Justice Adebukola Banjoko, and later to Justice Otaluka.

The duo were alleged to have conspired in April 2012 to demand $3million gratification from Mr. Otedola to remove his firm from the list of oil companies indicted for the fuel subsidy scam.

The prosecution team, led by Adegboyega Awomolo, had argued before the court, that the offence contravened provisions of Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and punishable under Section 8 (1) of the same act.

Mr. Emenalo was separately arraigned on a seven-count charge of receiving $120,000 as gratification from Mr. Otedola for the same purpose, an offence which violates Section 10 (a)(ii) of ICPC Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 10 of the same Act.

Credit: PremiumTimes