How ex-Rep collected $100,000 bribe from Femi Otedola

An Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) witness, Boniface Emenalo has revealed to the court, how former House of Reps member, Farouk Lawan collected $100,000 bribe from billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola.

Farouk Lawan was the chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, while Emenalo served as his clerk.

Punch reports that the witness, who testified at the Federal High Court in Lugbe, before Justice Angela Otakula said “I came across Femi Otedola during this assignment on April 24, 2012. I received persistent calls from Mr. Otedola in the morning and reported to Lawan and he asked him to play along with him and that he was with him the previous night.

“When Otedola called again, he asked me to come over to his house, gave me the description. When I got there, he also confirmed that he was with my chairman the previous night. He gave me two bundles of dollar bills in $100 denomination. Each bundle was $50,000 making it $100,000 that were not converted.

“When I got back to the office, I wrote a memo forwarding the money to my chairman that same April 24, 2012 which he took from me.”

Farouk Lawan was charged with corruption in February 2013, for allegedly soliciting for a bribe of $3m from Femi Otedola.

READ: FG reopens ex-lawmaker's alleged bribery trial on Tuesday

Lawan reportedly collected $500,000 as part of the deal to remove Zenon Oil, Otedola’s company from the list of companies that allegedly defaulted in the subsidy arrangement.

Zeno Oil was however removed from the list of defaulters by the lawmakers.