BRIBERY: FAROUK LAWAN REGAINS FREEDOM AFTER SERVING 5-YEAR JAIL TERM
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Farouk Lawan, a former member of the House of Representatives, was freed from prison after serving five years for soliciting and receiving a $500,000 bribe.
From 1999 to 2015, he served as the Kano state representative for the Bagwai/Shanono federal constituency in the green chamber.
In 2012, while serving as the chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating gasoline subsidy fraud, he was found guilty of trying to extort a $3 million bribe from Nigerian billionaire oil mogul Femi Otedola.
Lawan presided over the House of Representatives committee that looked into fuel subsidies provided by the Nigerian government in 2012. The committee was established during widespread strikes in Nigeria following the removal of fuel subsidies by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to Lawan’s committee’s findings, it found numerous instances of fraud. The petroleum products subsidy, which was never provided, was reported to have cost an astounding $6.8 million. While investigating corporations implicated in the gasoline subsidy scheme, Lawan became embroiled in a bribery scandal. Meeting with Femi Otedola, a millionaire oil magnate,
Before delivering the report to the House, he was captured on camera accepting $500,000 to remove the former’s name from it. In addition to undermining his anti-corruption position, the bribery scandal also made it more difficult for him to reenter the green chamber in 2015.
Otedola had maintained throughout the trial that the DSS was fully aware of the plan (to bribe Lawan) in an effort to “catch a corrupt politician in the act.”
Lawan acknowledged receiving the money, but he maintained that it was intended to reveal the businessman and persuade the House of the strain its committee looking into fuel subsidy fraud was under.
Lawan frequently appeared in courtrooms to demonstrate his “innocence” of the accusations made against him for eight years. However, Lawan was found guilty on all three counts by trial judge Justice Angella Otaluka.
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