A former chairman of the defunct House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the fraud around fuel subsidy regime in 2012. Farouk Lawan, has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for taking bribes while serving as chairman of the committee.
Penpushing reports that, Lawan who created ‘Integrity Group’ while serving at the lower chambers of the National Assembly was found guilty by the Federal High Court in Abuja, of all the three counts of bribery against him
The trial judge, Justice Angela Otaluka, sentenced the self acclaimed ‘Mr integrity’ on Tuesday, while it is also recalled that the court had earlier dismissed Lawan’s preliminary objection against the trial that has spanned nine years
Penpushing further reports that, the judge while handing over the sentence declared that Lawan’s conduct had elements of corruption, and while evaluating evidence in her judgement noted that from the pool of evidence before the court, the prosecuting lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, had established a case of corrupt practices against the defendant in Count One of the charge that borders on corruptly requesting a bribe of three million dollars.
The former lawmaker was prosecuted on charges of demanding a bribe of $500,000 and receiving part payment of $3milllion from Femi Otedola, a billionaire oil magnate, to have the businessman’s firms removed from the list of companies indicted for fuel subsidy fraud
“Count One of the charges is not based on suspicion but on credible evidence. The defendant (Mr Lawan) corruptly asked for $3million and received a $500,000 bribe in two tranches from Femi Otedola’,the court said.
“The conduct of the defendant established the ingredients of corruption which he was charged to court, as he did not report any case of inducement to any law enforcement agency,” the judge stated.
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