$620,000 Bribe: Farouk, Boniface's Trial Begins Friday as Govt files charge

Farouk and Emenalo will be arraigned before an Abuja High Court Friday for allegedly receiving a bribe of $620, 000 from a Lagos based oil magnet, Femi Otedola.

Lawan and  Emenalo are alleged to have sometime in April 2012 or thereabout in Abuja within the FCT under the jurisdiction of the court while acting in the course of their official duties as chairman and secretary respectively of House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on monitoring of fuel subsidy regime conspired between themselves and with each other to corruptly obtain  $3 million from Mr. Femi Otedola, Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited.

The charge continued that   this amount was an inducement to remove the name of Zenon from the committee’s report and did cause the House of Representatives to remove same from the said list and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1)(C) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.   The charge said the offence was punishable under Section 8 (1) of the same Act.

According to the prosecutor, Mrs. O.O. Fatunde who is also the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lawan who has four of the seven-count charge also corruptly obtained  $500,000 from Otedola as an inducement to remove the name of Zenon from the report. She said that the offence was contrary to Section 17 (1) (a) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 17 (1) of the same Act.

In the fifth count charge, Emenalo was alleged to have corruptly asked for $3 million from Otedola to remove the name of his company from the list of companies indicted in the fuel subsidy scam, thereby violating the ICPC Act, 2000.

He was also alleged to have received gratification from the oil magnet and refused to report the offer of gratification to any officer of the ICPC, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 23 (1) of the ICPC Act and punishable under Section 23 (3) of the same Act.

Emenalo was also accused in count seven of receiving $120, 000 as gratification from Otedola in order to remove his company’s name from the report of the ad-hoc committee on monitoring of fuel subsidy regime, an action that violates Section 10 (a)(ii) of ICPC Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 10 of the same Act.

This development follows the decision of Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi of an Abuja High Court granting the Federal Government leave to prefer a criminal charge under Section 185 (b) of the Criminal Procedure Code against Lawan and his co-accused person, who is also an Assistant Director at the National Assembly.

The duo will plead guilty or not guilty to a seven-count charge slammed against them by the Federal Government.

Recently, Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, had written to the AGF, stating his readiness to commence action against the duo if the Federal Government was not willing to do so; a situation, which the AGF condemned.