By Adetokunbo FAKEYE
Nigeria – The Supreme Court today, Friday 26th January, 2024 affirmed the five-year jail term imposed on a former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan by the Court of Appeal.
Lawan was earlier convicted and sentenced in 2021 for accepting a $500,000 bribe from Femi Otedola, Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd in 2012, while serving as the chairman of the House’s ad-hoc committee investigating the fuel subsidy fraud in 2012 to remove Otedola’s oil company, Zenon Oil and Gas, from the list of firms indicted for fraud in the fuel subsidy regime.
Not satisfied, Lawan approached the appellate court where his jail term was reduced from seven to five years.
Not agreed with the appellate court, he appealed again to apex court urging the court to set aside the judgments of the lower court.
However, in a unanimous decision today, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court agreed with the 2022 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had affirmed Lawan’s five-year sentence on count three of the three counts brought against him at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, delivered the lead judgment prepared by Justice John Okoro, in which the apex court found Lawan’s appeal to be without merit and dismissed it accordingly.
