By Adesina Soyooye
“I lie prostrate, utterly humble in my heart and entire being, grateful for the mercy which Allah (SWT), through Mr President and my country have shown me”
Former House of Representatives Member, Farouk Lawan, who served a five-year jail term for bribery, but was granted full Presidential Pardon on Thursday, October 9, 2025, by President Bola Tinubu, has thanked the President, profusely, for giving him a new lease of life.
“Mr President has cast a warm blanket over me, pulling me back from the harshness of yesterday’s cold”, he wrote in an emotional post on his Facebook page.
Lawan is one of the 175 persons granted Presidential prerogative of mercy approved by the Council of State which sat on Thursday, on President Tinubu’s recommendation.
In a statement Thursday night after his pardon was made public, a humbled Lawan took to his Facebook page to thank President Tinubu.
He wrote: “To a fatherly, compassionate, and decisive political leader, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, God and history shall remember you.
“Mr President has cast a warm blanket over me, pulling me back from the harshness of yesterday’s cold. A day like this is not for a long treatise.
“I lie prostrate, utterly humbled in my heart and entire being, grateful for the mercy which Allah (SWT), through Mr President and my country have shown me.”
The road to jail began for the former House of Representatives Member, Bagwa/Shanano Federal Constituency, Kano, when he was accused by businessman, Femi Otedola, of demanding the sum of three million US Dollars from him to remove his former company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, from the list of companies allegedly involved in the Petrol subsidy scam in 2012.
Lawan was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee set up to probe the alleged fraud.
Nobody can forget the video of Lawan, in a native attire, babaringa, hiding wads of Dollar notes underneath his cap. He never knew it was a string operation between Otedola and Security Agencies when he took part of the money from the businessman.
Lawan, on arrest, was arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC on a seven count charge of bribery which was reduced to three.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court convicted him on all three charges and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on June 22, 2021.
He appealed his conviction. And, in February 2022, a Court of Appeal, discharged him of two out of the three charges, and reduced his jail term to five years.
Lawan appealed to the Supreme Court, which sustained the Court of Appeal’s ruling in January 2024.
After his five-year jail term, he was released in October 2024.
On the day he was released, Lawan stepped out from prison, wearing a babariga, slid into the driving seat of a high profile SUV, and drove off.
On Thursday, October 9, 2025, President Tinubu renewed his hope, and granted him full presidential pardon. “My hope is renewed” a grateful Lawan exclaimed.
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