By our reporter| The conviction of Farouk Lawan, former lawmaker, over the $3 million bribery charges preferred against him by the federal government was on Thursday affirmed by the court of appeal Abuja.
Lawan, the chairman of the house of representatives ad hoc committee probing the multi-billion naira petrol subsidy fraud in 2012, was arraigned on three counts of bribery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for allegedly collecting a $500,000 bribe from Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon oil.
A federal capital territory high court in Abuja presided over by Justice Angela Otaluka on June 22, 2021, convicted the accused on all three counts and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment.
But the court of appeal on Thursday discharged and acquitted the former lawmaker on two out of the three counts on which he was convicted.
Faruk’s jail term was also reduced to five years from seven years as the court affirmed his conviction on the only remaining offence which the lower court punished with five years jail term.
Dismissing the first two counts, a three-member panel led by Monica Dongban-Mensem, appeal court president, held that the prosecution failed to prove that Lawan demanded and agreed to accept $3 milllion from Otedola to exonerate the company from the list of firms indicted for petrol subsidy fraud in 2012.
The court, however, affirmed the decision of the lower court that Lawan, indeed, accepted a $500,000 bribe from Otedola.
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