Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohamed Adoke (SAN) has filed charges against former Chairman of the Federal House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime, Hon. Farouk Lawan and his erstwhile secretary, Mr. Emenalo Boniface, over allegations of demanding $620,000 from Femi Otedola, chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd.
The case, which has been assigned to Justice M.N. Oniyangi of the FCT High Court, means it’s now the Federal Government versus Lawan and Emenalo.
The bribery scandal was one of the dirtiest in the country’s political space in 2012 but after an initial media frenzy, it appeared little was being heard of the matter.
Human rights lawyer, Festus Kenyamo subsequently urged the Nigeria Police to prosecute Honourable Farouk Lawan within one week, without which he would proceed to court to seek justice.
“It is more than six months now that the scandal broke regarding the collection of $620,000 US dollars by a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Farouk Lawan from Mr. Femi Otedola, a private businessman, for the purpose of doctoring his committee’s report relating to the fuel subsidy scam probe by the House of Representatives,” Kenyamo had written.
“The Attorney-General can only intervene by taking over to continue or discontinue the proceedings… I have taken it upon myself as a responsible citizen to bring Farouk Lawan to justice. By this release … I expect that Farouk Lawan and his cohorts in the House of Representatives should be arraigned before a court of law within ONE WEEK of this release … else I would have no other option than to proceed to court to bring him to justice.”
Filing a seven-count charge against the duo, the attorney-general, in the first count, alleged that Lawan and Emenalo “sometimes in April 2012 or thereabout at Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court while acting in the course of your official duties as Chairman and Secretary (respectively) of House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime conspired between yourselves and with each other to corruptly obtain the sum of $3,000,000 for yourselves from Mr. Femi Otedola Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited as inducement to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime’s report and did cause the House of Representatives to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from the said list and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 8(1) of the same act.”
Attached below is a full production of all seven charges, flied on 29th January 2013 by Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Mrs. O. O. Fatunde on behalf of the AGF:
