The Supreme Court of Nigeria has upheld the conviction of Farouk Lawan, a former member of the House of Representatives, sentencing him to a five-year jail term for accepting a $500,000 bribe from businessman Femi Otedola.
Lawan faced charges related to receiving the bribe during a legislative probe into the fuel subsidy regime back in 2012.
Previously, on February 24, 2022, it was reported that the Court of Appeal in Abuja affirmed Lawan’s conviction over $3 million bribery charges brought by the federal government.
As the chairman of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the multi-billion naira petrol subsidy fraud in 2012, Lawan was accused of soliciting $3 million from Femi Otedola to exclude Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited (Otedola’s former company) from the list of oil companies implicated in the subsidy fraud.
Initially arraigned on seven counts of bribery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Lawan was alleged to have accepted a $500,000 bribe from Otedola. The charges were later amended to three counts.
Justice Angela Otaluka of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo convicted Lawan on all three counts on June 21, 2021, sentencing him to seven years’ imprisonment.
However, in the recent appeal judgment, the court discharged and acquitted the former lawmaker on two out of the three counts for which he was convicted.
