Justice Angela Otaluka of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday sentenced a former member of house of representatives member, Mr. Farouk Lawan, to seven years imprisonment for demanding $3 million bribe from a billionaire, Mr. Mr. Femi Otedola.
Lawan who served as chairman of the defunct house ad-hoc committee investigating fuel subsidy fraud in 2012 was in the suit marked No. FHC/HC/CR/76/2013, accused by the federal government of receiving a bribe of $500, 000 from Otedola.
He was accused of asking for $3 million and obtaining $500, 000 from Otedola to remove his (Otedola’s) company from the list of companies indicted in the subsidy scam.
In her ruling, Otaluka found Lawan guilty of all the three counts of bribery.
Evaluating evidence in her judgement, the judge noted that from the pool of evidence before the court, the prosecuting lawyer, Mr. Adegboyega Awomolo, had established a case of corrupt practices against the defendant in Count 1 of the charge that borders on corruptly requesting a bribe of $3m million bribe.
“Count 1 of the charges is not based on suspicion but on credible evidence. The defendant (Lawan) corruptly asked for $3 million and received a $500,000 bribe in two tranches from Femi Otedola.
“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,” she said.
