January 26, (THEWILL) – The Supreme Court has okayed the conviction and five-year jail term for a former Kano State House of Representatives member, Farouk Lawan, for an alleged $620,000 bribery allegation.
Lawan, a four-term member of the House of Representatives and former lawmaker, who represented Bagwai/Shanono Federal Constituency of Kano State between 1999 and 2015, in the case marked FCT/HR/CR/76/13, was alleged to have demanded $3 million for himself from the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Femi Otedola.
Otedola had accused Lawan, who was at that time the chairman of the House Ad hoc Committee Fuel Subsidy Regime, of receiving $620,000 from him to influence the removal of the name of his company from the list of indicted companies in the fuel subsidy scam.
He was alleged to have collected $620,000 out of the amount with a motive to remove Otedola’s companies’ names from a list of firms indicted by the ad-hoc committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.
While he pleaded not guilty to the charge before a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Lawan was convicted and sentenced to a 5-year jail term.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja had on August 2022, dismissed the appeal he filed seeking to quash his conviction
While submitting that the ruling of the FCT High Court, which ruled in Lawan’s no case submission, was well founded in law, Lawan had approached the Supreme Court to set aside his conviction.
In a unanimous judgment on Friday, a five-member panel affirmed the 2021 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld his conviction.
In the lead judgment prepared by Justice John Okoro but read by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the apex court found that Lawan’s appeal was without merit and proceeded to dismiss it.
