[size=13pt]Reps to hold emergency session over bribery scandal[/size]
Federal lawmakers interrupt their recess to debate the corruption scandal that has engulfed a prominent member

The House of Representatives is to reconvene on Friday for an emergency session over the $620,000 bribery scandal that has rocked the lower chamber currently on a two-week recess.

The plenary will debate allegations that Farouk Lawan, the Chairman of the House adhoc committee on fuel subsidy management, received the huge sum as bribe from oil billionaire, Femi Otedola, to exonerate his firm, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, as one of the violators of government subsidy.

Otedola agreed paying the money, claiming that he was working with law enforcement agents who secretly videotaped the payment in April just before the House deliberated on the committee’s report that was widely applauded.

Lawan, on his part, claimed he accepted the money so as to expose Otedola’s graft tendencies. However, he had initially issued a statement denying the bribe; and had also reported the issue to the House leadership a month after the money was collected. Sources have said that only came after he realised he had been set up.

Lawmakers have said the episode is amongst the most embarrassing for the chamber that has seen many scandals.

The extraordinary session will hold on Friday June 15, 2012, the Clerk of the House, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, said in a message to lawmakers on Wednesday. “Honourable members are advised to take note and attend promptly please,” he said.

Otedola was quizzed by police investigators on Tuesday. Sources have said he may not be charged; instead, may provide a witness account against Lawan when the lawmaker is eventually charged.

Lawan is likely to be asked to resign his position from the committee pending investigation by the House and the law enforcement agencies.

The House has said in an earlier statement it will not defend the lawmaker is found culpable.

“While we await investigation into these weighty accusations, we wish to state without equivocation that this honourable House will never take sides with corruption and we will always stand on the side of the rule of law,” said Zakari Muhammed, the House spokesperson.




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Tired of reading about this issue without action but mouth

What shall it profit our lawmakers if they gain the whole world and loose their own soul?

boko harm...are you reading this, they will all be there

What have they done to deserve vacation sef. Mtweeh

manny4life: What shall it profit our lawmakers if they gain the whole world and loose their own soul?

Hu cares about a soul??
A soul isn't okay to make me reject $3m bribe..
I'll only reject cos its not right.

holiday? which work dem do?

Farouk Lawan its not easy to wash your hands out of this. You have to pack this big shit with your shit laden bare hands.

And dy stl hav d guts 2 cal dmsfs honourables.les i 4got wer is aji haram cm nd defend ur thef of an uncle.hoples hausas

prettyG: [size=13pt]Reps to hold emergency session over bribery scandal[/size]
Federal lawmakers interrupt their recess to debate the corruption scandal that has engulfed a prominent member

The House of Representatives is to reconvene on Friday for an emergency session over the $620,000 bribery scandal that has rocked the lower chamber currently on a two-week recess.

I don't understand why the reps need to convene on this. Don't we have a Police Force, and a court system in place to handle this? If there is digital evidence of the crime, then the Police should handle this. Reps should focus on ways of ensuring the Probe report is not make a joke by this, or any other issues down the road.

Both Farouk and Otedola should be in jail by now..

Even with video evidence, the office of the attorney general will not be able to get a judgement except we take the case to London..

What if they couldn't return their own share of the marked notes, what will follow suit? They will set up another panel of enquiry.

pdp is as shameless as a poor village dog. only under this pdp did nigerians hear a man confessing to rigging an election to the favour of another. i am talking about chris uba of anambra who told nigerians that he rigged chris ngige into power and obasanjo pushed ngige out and promoted chris uba to pdp board of trustees.
now an obasanjo projected/shameless otedola is out to prove that he bribed a man that is investigating his case.
the most unfortunate thing is that nigerians are busy blaming the bribe taker and from all indications, the man that gave the bribe will end up as our hero.
jonathan has reduced nigeria to a zoo where animals and their characters are on displays.
the party and the country is all about corruption and blood shield yet these fools are discussing 2015 yet jonathan and his vice are more interested in winning edo state than in saving the lives of innocent nigerians in the hands of boko haram.
unless we decide to go out against these godforsaken vampires, they will end up killing us one after the other and suck our bloods.

manny4life: What shall it profit our lawmakers if they gain the whole world and loose their own soul?

N.O.T.H.I.N.G!!!!!

It is GEJ and his govt's fault...his business-as-usual, my-friends-should-be-OK, laissez-faire attitude towards corruption is fuelling it's spread at an unbridled rate

Imanuelle:

Hu cares about a soul??
A soul isn't okay to make me reject $3m bribe..
I'll only reject cos its not right.

Think twice!!!

Mr. Farouk Lawan has chopped enough money that's hanging in his throat now, losing your soul don't mean dying, it may mean going to jail. His integrity has been smeared, what a damn shame?

jammyng: N.O.T.H.I.N.G!!!!!

I know right... NOTHING.

this is too much we need to do something to all these fuckers.
hahah!.!!!

They are always on recess and yet their allowances and salaries alone is 25 percent of the nation's expenditure.

Why did otedola or whatever he is called have to wait this long before making this pronouncment.
Why did farouk not report the bribery to the house immediately he took the money if he is straight.
Why did they have to wait untill all Nigerians have been fooled before coming out with thier differences.
Someone has just been shortchanged.
DIS-HONORABLE LEADERS AND BILLIONIERS.....NONSENSE
This country is just a movie. The actor never dies.
We are just spending our precious time and money watching these actors. Nothing will still happen , NO BI NIJA MAKE WE DE WATCH OUT FOR THE LAST FIGHT

Lawan is likely to be asked to resign his position from the committee pending investigation by the House and the law enforcement agencies.

just that! not even to resign as a lawmaker and pack his bag to jail!

Abeg this guy is a crook, PERIOD. The more you read it the more it becomes clearer.

How was he intending to "set up" Otedola? Where is his own video or audio evidence?
Who knew of his plan before he collected the bribe and what evidence is there to show this?
Considering he seems to have no evidence against Otedola (the notes were marked against him not the other way round since he is the bribe taker), what was the plan for "setting up" Otedola? No evidence, no alibi, no back up. Guy, you're a crook.

Anyway, not for us to judge, this case better be going to court. The house of rep is not the judiciary. What is even sweeter? Count that money and let us see if those marked notes are still complete or whether the thing has already changed hands with suya seller.

I just hope all of this won't be done at the expense of subsidy report (which might need to be redone considering the implications of this man's involvement).

wowo2: It is GEJ and his govt's fault...his business-as-usual, my-friends-should-be-OK, laissez-faire attitude towards corruption is fuelling it's spread at an unbridled rate

would you give GEJ one second to breathe pleassss and mention ONE past Nigerian leader who was really active in nailing down these theives. We as Nigerians are all culpable!
The statement in the red needs to be re-examined!

They will all die in shame, one by one.

Farouk says.."I took the money to expose Femi". Femi says.. " I gave the money to expose Farouk". Hmm. Naija political drama #OccupyNigeria

story story

"u be thief...i no b thief...u be robber....i no b robber...u b armyrobber...i no be armyrobber...argument argument..."

A lots of educated illiterate on this NL..or maybe simply retarded ...the same people who appointed farouk to fixout thieves set the thief after him.reason the thieves stands their ladder to power and they are not ready to forsake the ladder so it may lift them again
.

In an exclusive interview with THISDAY, chairman, Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi Otedola, who hitherto was suspected of being behind the $3 million bribery scandal, blew the lid on what transpired and how chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Hon. Farouk Lawan, and the secretary of the committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo, had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation masterminded by the security agencies.

The amount was part payment for the $3 million, which he alleged Lawan had demanded from him to exonerate Zenon Oil from the ad-hoc committee's report.

As the scandal unfolds, it was learnt that operatives of the State Security Services have sent a video recording of the incident to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further scrutiny and action.

Otedola, who was opening up on the issue for the first time, narrated how Lawan at the outset of the probe had approached him to get some insight into the workings of the downstream oil and gas sector.

Otedola said he obliged him and ensured that his managing directors of Forte Oil Plc and Zenon Oil appeared at the subsidy probe during its public hearing after both companies had been invited by the committee.

During the probe, he said the committee was informed in no uncertain terms that Zenon does not and has never made claims for subsidy payments from the federal government, as the company was engaged solely in the importation of diesel, a product that is not subsidised.

Zenon's managing director, Mr. Kanmi Kareem Otaru, during the probe had denied that the company had anything to do with the subsidy regime. He told the committee, "For the avoidance of doubt Zenon never participated or benefited from the subsidy scheme or Petroleum Support Fund (PSF)."

According to him, going by the Act which established the PSF scheme, "Zenon couldn't participate in it because we don't have a network of PMS retail outlets which was one of the key criteria beneficiaries must meet and as such we are not qualified to participate to draw from subsidy payments on PMS. So we never collected as records will show."

Irrespective of the clarification made at the hearing, Otedola said Lawan still approached him a few days before the report was to be tabled on April 18, 2012 before the House of Representatives, demanding money so that Zenon's name will be kept out of the report.

"When this happened, I was very angry and reminded him that Zenon has never participated in the subsidy scheme and that it would be criminal to rope in the company for something it did not do.

"But Lawan responded, stating that several other marketers were playing ball and had offered the members of the committee large sums of money to ensure that their companies' names were not published in the report," he added.

Otedola, said initially he balked at Lawan's attempt to extort money from him and told the legislator that he would not pay up, as Zenon had not committed any crime.

"Then a day before the report was to be submitted, Lawan called again, informing me that Zenon's name had been included in the report.

"I, of course, was very angry and asked him to desist from his course of action, but Lawan insisted that I must pay up as other oil marketers had done before me."

Otedola said he could not believe his eyes the next day when the report came out and Zenon's name had been listed under the category of companies that had bought foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but had not imported petrol.

The amount ascribed to Zenon in the report was $232,975,385.13. The report had recommended that Zenon and 14 other marketers that had bought the foreign exchange be referred to the anti-corruption agencies to determine what they used the monies for.

Otedola said at this point he again called Lawan demanding that Zenon's name be removed from the list, as there was no way his company could have bought that volume of foreign exchange without importing products.

"I reminded him that the amount ascribed to Zenon was wrong as what the company bought was over $400 million for importation of products through the banks – Zenith, UBA and GTB – and that under Sanusi (CBN governor) there was no way anyone could have bought that quantity of foreign exchange and not imported the products having filled the Form M.

"Sanusi will simply clamp down on anyone who tries to pull that kind of stunt," he said.

In spite of this, Otedola said Lawan still demanded that the members of the committee be given money in exchange for removing Zenon's name from the report before it is considered in plenary by the entire House.

Otedola said he then asked how much would be required to make the committee happy, to which Lawan responded $3 million.

"I screamed at him, demanding to know why he was doing this to me. All he said was other marketers were paying up to keep their names out of the report so I should do likewise," he said.

Otedola revealed that it was this point he decided to involve the security agencies to catch Lawan and his committee with their hands in the till.

According to him, "As a law-abiding citizen, I decided to involve the security agencies and they advised me to play along, which prompted me to offer to pay part of the money with the promise that I would pay the balance when my company's name had been removed from the report."

The security agencies, he disclosed, gave him serialised dollar bills for the sting job and there are call logs, video and audio recordings in the possession of the agencies to confirm all that had transpired between himself and Lawan.

He said on April 21, the Saturday before the plenary, Lawan came in person to his residence and collected $250,000 in cash, as the first instalment, "then the next Monday night he came and collected another $250,000.

"On Tuesday, at 9am, just before the House commenced seating, Boniface came and collected another $120,000."

Otedola confirmed that during the sting, Lawan and Boniface collected a total of $620,000 in three instalments as part of the $3 million demanded from him.

He added that with the $620,000 that had been extorted by Lawan and the committee, during the plenary, Zenon's name was removed from the list of companies that had bought foreign exchange but did not import products.

Otedola continued: "He (Lawan) now asked for the balance of $2.5 million, but when I told him that I had no money now that the money was in Lagos, he suggested that I should charter a plane to fly the money from Lagos to Abuja."

Otedola stressed that his decision to get the law enforcement and security agencies involved stemmed from the fact that he had not broken any law, maintaining that as a law-abiding citizen, he was saddened by the fact that he was being blackmailed by of all people, members of the legislature.

"If you have information that an armed robber is come to raid your home, won't you notify the police? So, that was the purpose of the sting operation.

"Besides, my integrity is paramount to me. I started selling petroleum products 14 years ago in drums and somebody who has never run a petrol station is trying to blackmail and extort money from me.

"If others (marketers) have paid money, maybe they are guilty. But I did not do anything wrong, so why should they extort money from me? As a law-abiding citizen, I had to involve the security agencies. Indeed, I'm very disappointed because I have worked hard to build my business."

Insisting that he had nothing to hide or fear over what had happened, Otedola maintained if he was in the wrong he would not have involved the security agencies in the first instance.

In a reference to the strong denials made by Lawan since the scandal became public, Otedola stated, "When he (Lawan) demanded the bribe, I called the agencies. That is because I had nothing to hide. When the bribe was paid, why did he not call and report it to the agencies if he had nothing to."

Meanwhile, THISDAY gathered that the videotape of the illicit transaction had been sent to the EFCC to investigate the incident.

- Culled from Thisday

Obj has told all of us that the house is packed full of thieves, arm robbers and bribe collectors. I wonder why boko haram cannot bomb these evil doers.

Toks2008:



"But Lawan responded, stating that several other marketers were playing ball and had offered the members of the committee large sums of money to ensure that their companies' names were not published in the report," he added.



- Culled from Thisday

I keep saying that probe needs to be redone! Although more nails seem to be going into the coffin of that scrawny looking Lawan, I am not utterly convinced with Otedola's side of things. The thing get k leg small.

Kobojunkie:

I don't understand why the reps need to convene on this. Don't we have a Police Force, and a court system in place to handle this? If there is digital evidence of the crime, then the Police should handle this. Reps should focus on ways of ensuring the Probe report is not make a joke by this, or any other issues down the road.

they have 2 set up more commitees of enquiry for more dollars to further exchange hands of course. Who no like Dollars self?

It's unfortunate that Nigerians do not understand the turns and twists of this drama. The truth is that once you fight this guys, they will come after you. Hon? Faruk lawan (a man i respect so much) should have known this. Those that are still hoping for something to come out of the subsidy probe should hope for something else. Subsidy probe is dead and burried. My candid advice for those politicians in abuja stealing us blind, is that if you are living in a grass house, don't throw stones. Nwanne m faruk, diwe oooh.........Chuks writes from Enugu,Nigeria.