Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, Mohammed Adoke has bowed to pressure to file charges against Farouk
Lawan and Mr. Emenalo Boniface, both members of the House of Representatives
over the allegation by Zenon Oil boss, Femi Otedola that they collected
$620,000 bribe from him to expunge the name of his company from the list of
companies involved in the fraudulent oil subsidy claims
The Independent Corrupt Practices and
other Related Offences Commission, ICPC will arraign Farouk and his colleague.
The move came just as the ultimatum given
by Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, to the attorney general expired. Keyamo had
said should the AG fail to arraign the lawmakers; he would file a case against
them as a private prosecutor.
The lawmakers will be arraigned on Friday
before Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi of an Abuja High Court on a seven counts
criminal charge.
Farouk Lawan, currently chairman of the
House of Representatives’ Committee on Education, was formerly the chairman of
House of Reps Ad-Hoc committee on fuel subsidy, which probed the administration
of the fuel subsidy regime.
He will be arraigned alongside Emenalo
Boniface, who served as the Secretary of House of Reps Ad-Hoc committee on fuel
subsidy regime.
Their scheduled arraignment followed the
leave granted the ICPC to file a seven count criminal charge against them.
Justice Oniyangi, who granted the
anti-corruption commission’s request to file the charges noted that upon
careful consideration of the application and attached documents in support of
same filed by the ICPC’s Counsel, that the court is minded to grant leave for
criminal charges to be preferred against the lawmakers under section 185 (b) of
the Criminal Procedure Code, CPC, and subsequently fixed their arraignment for
Friday, 1st February.
Farouk and Emenalo Lawan are charged for
violation of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
Attached to the charge sheet marked
FCT/HC/CR/76/2013 are names and addresses of witnesses, proof of evidence as
well as a list of exhibits.
The charge sheet was signed by Mrs. O.O.
Fatunde, the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, on behalf of
the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed
Bello Adoke (SAN).
Counts 4 and 5 of the charge read:
“That you Hon. Farouk Lawan (M) while
being a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of Ad-hoc committee
on Monitoring of fuel subsidy regime sometimes in April 2012 or thereabout at
Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this
honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duty corruptly
obtained the sum of $500,000 (five hundred thousand dollars) for yourself from
Mr. Femi Otedola Chairman Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd as an inducement to
remove the name of Zenon petroleum gas ltd from the report of the House of
Representatives Adihoc committee on Monitoring of fuel subsidy regime and you
thereby committed an offence contrary to section 17 (1) of the Corrupt
practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 17
(1) of the same Act.”
“That you Mr. Emenalo Boniface (M) while
being a public officer, an Assistant Director and Secretary of. the House of
Representatives Ad-hoc committee on Monitoring ofFuel Subsidy Regime sometimes
in April 2012 or thereabout at Abuja within the. Federal capital territory
under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course
of your official duty as Secretary…corruptly asked for the sum of $3,000,000
(three million US dollard) for yourself from Mr. Femi Otedola…and you thereby
committed an offence contrary to section 8 (1) (b) (ii) of the Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 23
(3) of the same Act.”
In an affidavit deposed to by one Chidi
Amaeze, the ICPC disclosed that investigation into the criminal case has since
been concluded.
Businessman, Femi Otedola, had sometime
last year alleged that upon pressure from Hon. Farouk to exonerate Zenon
Petroleum and Gas Ltd from culpability in the mismanagement of fuel subsidy
funds, he doled out about $620,000 to the lawmaker.
He claimed that the “bribe-for-clearance”
money was given to stave off pressure.
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