Otedola Sends Hon. Farouk Lawan To Jail

By Gideon Njoku

After years of arguments and counter arguments, Femi Otedola, a business mogul, has finally sent Hon.  Farouk Lawan, a former member of the House of Representatives to Jail.

Farouk will serve five years in jail, unless he appeals, and the appeal succeeds.

His offence? Daring to demand for, and receive a bribe to the tune of $500,000 from Otedola.

The amount was part of the sum of three million US Dollars, he demanded from Otedola to remove his  company, Zenon Oil, from the list of companies  indicted for the alleged abuse of fuel subsidy.

Farouk was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee which probed the Fuel subsidy scam in 2012.

Apparently, Farouk was unaware that Otedola whose  company was innocent of the allegation, had gone to report to graft agencies his approaches to him.He was given marked money, as the first instalment for the bribe asked.

He had earlier lost a-no-case submission at the Appeal Court. The Judges ordered him to go and enter his defence.

Convicting Farouk, whose political career ended with that allegation, a Judge of the Federal Capital High Court, Apo, the Hon. Justice Angela Otaluka, found him guilty on all the three count charges for which he was prosecuted.

She sentenced Farouk to seven years imprisonment on counts one and two, and five years on count three.

The sentence will run concurrently.

Farouk, who hails from Kano,  was prosecuted by the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC.