We’ll revisit Farouk Lawan $620,000 bribery scandal -Reps

Posted by admin House, Legislature Saturday, January 26th, 2013

Following Festus Keyamo’s call that Farouk Lawan of the infamous
$620,000 cash for clearance scandal be brought to book, the
house of Representatives says it would not sweep the matter the
under the carpet.

Keyamo, a fiery Lagos Lawyer sensing that the case may be killed
as usual, had announced in a statement issued on Wednesday that
“I have taken it upon myself as a responsible citizen to bring Farouk
Lawan to justice. By this statement, I expect that he and his cohorts
in the House of Representatives should be arraigned before a court
of law within one week.”

In a swift reaction to Keyamo’s much publicized statement, the
Chairman House a committee on media and public affairs, Hon
Zakari Mohammed told journalists in Abuja that the issue would be
reopened shortly.

“The assurances we have from the leadership is that every issue
will be looked at according to its merit. So let’s just keep our cold.
For the Lagos lawyer, that’s the beauty of democracy, in Nigeria
you can go to any court in the land, but at the same time rushing to
condemn us with slightest opportunity will do no one any good. We
want to strengthen the institution and we want to assure you that
this matter will put behind us very very shortly. We will not sweep
Farouk Lawan under the carpet, we will treat them base on merit.
We want to strengthen the institution.” He said

Recall that Farouk Lawan, a high ranking member of the House of
Representatives from Kano state was arrested on Thursday June
14, 2012 by police over allegation by Mr Femi Otedola that he
(Lawan) demanded $3 million bribe from him in order for the
subsidy probe committee headed by Farouk to clear Otedola’s
Zenon petroleum and Gas Ltd.

Mr Otedola claimed he reported to the Economic and Financial
crime commission (EFCC) and the police when the lawmaker
demanded the bribe from him and the police asked him to play
along by providing a marked $620,000 cash offered to the
lawmaker.

In the wake of the crisis, the house ordered its committee on ethics
to investigate the matter but since then it has kept mute on the
scam.
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