I Gave Farouk Lawan $620,000 Bribe, Says Otedola

I Gave Farouk Lawan $620,000 Bribe, Says Otedola

 Not too long ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo branded Nigerian legislators thieves questioning the type of laws they will make. As expected, the lawmakers raised dust, kicked, made some noise and it was back to business as usual. However, if latest findings are anything to go by, the National Assembly is one deep pit of messy corruption. 

Farouq Lawan. Guilty? 

 This time around, it is very sensational and shocking because it involves a man perceived to be highly-principled, honest and incorruptible. He is FAROUK MUHAMMAD LAWAN, a member of the House of Representatives since 1999 (four terms so far). He represents the Bagwai/Shanono Federal Constituency of Kano State. He is the chairman of the committee on the fuel subsidy probe but now, he is enmeshed in a $3 million bribery scandal that has shook the nation. 


 In an exclusive interview with the ThisDay newspaper, Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd. and one of Nigeria's richest men has confirmed giving Lawan a hefty sum of $620,000 to bribe him so as not to implicate his own company in the probe. According to Otedola but unknown to Lawan, the whole thing was set up. He was videotaped collecting the bribe and the video has already been sent by the State Security Service (SSS) to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 

Billionaire diesel merchant, Femi Otedola

Hear Otedola: 

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.”

Well, the drama is still unfolding but it is very interesting to point out that Farouq Lawan was the leader of the Integrity Group that opposed former Speaker, OLUBUNMI PATRICIA ETTEH and ensured that she was sacked from her office over the N628 million scandal. In the meantime, Lawan has said that his image in the video was doctored that he was not the one. Do you believe him? Corruption everywhere! Yeye people! 

IYANIWURA