Not so fast! That is what an Abuja court
this morning told the
disgraced former Chairman of
the House of Representatives'
Ad-Hoc Committee on
Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime, Lawan Farouk, and
its former Secretary, Boniface
Emenalo. The two men, accused of receiving the sum of $620,000 (about N97 million), from oil mogul and billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, in April 2012 as inducement to remove his Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the list of companies to be indicted by
the Ad-Hoc Committee, had mounted a legal campaign to get the court to dismiss the charges brought against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). In addition, Lawan and
Emenalo, both defendants in
suit FCT/HC/CR/76/2013, had in
their application dated March
28, also sought an order of the
court setting them free. The presiding judge, Justice
Mudashiru Oniyangi, had bad
news for them. He ruled that
they each have a case to
answer over the subsidy bribe
allegations. And yes, he assured them, the court does
have jurisdiction and is
competent to hear, try and
determine the matter. That was not all. On some
technicalities, the court
further ruled that the
prosecution not having
attached statements of
witnesses to the charge was no basis to discharge the
accused persons. "The position of the law is
clear, provision of Section
185(b) of the Criminal
Procedure Code, CPC, relied
upon by the accused persons
does not suggest that written statement of witnesses must
be attached to an application
to prefer charges, I therefore
hold that Section 185(b) of the
Criminal Procedure Code
requires an attachment of proof of evidence and not
written statement of
witnesses," he said. The court further established
that a prima facie case has
been made against both men,
requiring them to stand trial. "Once there is evidence from
the documents tendered
before the court that the
accused has questions to
answer in respect of the
charges, the accused should face his trial and prove his
innocence," the judge
maintained.
The matter was consequently
adjourned for hearing to June
19. Reacting to the court's
decision, Rickey Tarfa, counsel
to the accused persons, stated
that he would study the
certified copy of the ruling
and discuss with his clients to know the next line of action
to take. He indicated that they
may appeal the decision if the
occasion demands. Count one of the charge reads: “That you, Farouk Lawan (M) and Mr. Emenalo Boniface (M) sometime in April 2012 or thereabouts in Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duties as Chairman and Secretary (respectively) of House of Representatives Ad- Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime conspired between yourselves
and with each other to corruptly obtain the sum of $ 3,000,000 for yourselves from Mr. Femi Otedola, Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, as inducement to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from the House of Representatives AdHoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime’s Report and did cause the House to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from the said list and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 26(1)(c) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Act, 2000, and punishable under section 8(1) of the same Act.”
source: http://saharareporters.com/news-page/you-will-stand-trial-abuja-court-tells-former-house-reps-committee-chair-lawan-farouk