The Supreme Court has refused to grant Farouk Lawan’s appeal to set aside the order of February 24, 2022, of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which sentenced him to a five-year jail term.
Justice Tijani Abubakar while reading the judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro held that the appeal filed by Lawan lacked merits and as such affirmed the sentencing of the appellate court.
Lawan who is currently serving jail term had approached the court of appeal through his lawyer Joseph Daudu to reduce Lawan’s initial maximum jail term from seven to five years, which the appellate court granted.
The appellate court also discharged him on two out of the three counts on the corruption charge brought against him by the Federal Government.
At the Supreme Court, Daudu had argued that if the Court of Appeal could discharge his client on the two counts, which he claimed, have the same ingredients as the third count, the Supreme Court should equally let off the hook in relation to the third count.
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Counsel for the Federal Government, Bagudu Sanni, urged the court to affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal and dismiss the appeal.
Lawan who was chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the fuel subsidy fraud in 2012, was convicted by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on June 22, 2021, on a three-count charge of soliciting a bribe, agreeing to accept a bribe, and actually accepting a $500,000 bribe from businessman, Femi Otedola.
The trial judge, Angela Otaluka, held that Lawan demanded 3 million dollars and received $500,000 from Femi Otedola 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.
Otaluka also held that Lawan was guilty of all three counts of corruption and bribery
(Editor: Anoyoyo Ogiagboviogie)
