BREAKING: Supreme Court Affirms Ex-Rep Farouk Lawan’s5 Years Jail For Otedola $.5m Bribe
The Supreme Court today Friday killed the appeal brought by a former Honourable Member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, against the judgement of a lower court that imprisoned him for bribery
Lawan was charged and found guilty in 2021 of demanding and collecting a $500,000 bribe for committee members probing Billionaire Businessman Femi Otedola over involvement in a power funds mismanagement.
Lawan was sentenced to prison in 2021 for accepting the bribe from businessman, Femi Otedola, Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, an action secretly captured in a viral video recording.
The former lawmaker’s appeal sought to set aside the February 24, 2022 judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which sentenced him to a five-year jail term.
The court discharged him on two of the three counts on the corruption charge brought against him by the Federal Government.
In today’s lead judgment read by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the apex court held that Lawan’s appeal was without merit and dismissed it subsequently.
Lawan was convicted and sentenced to prison in 2021 for accepting $500,000 bribe from businessman, Femi Otedola, Chairman, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited.
A three-member Appeal Court panel led by its president, Monica Dongban-Mensem, had unanimously overturned the former lawmaker’s conviction for two of the three offences he was earlier jailed for by the lower trial court in June 2021.
After his appeal against his conviction and sentencing by the lower High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Lawal also got a reduction of his jail term by the appellate court from seven to five years.
During the hearing of appeal at the Supreme Court, Lawan’s Counsel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joseph Daudu, had asked the court to allow his client’s appeal and set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
While adumbrating, Daudu noted that the Court of Appeal discharged on counts one and two, which attracted a maximum of seven years.
Daudu 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 him off the hook in relation to the third count.
However, counsel to the Federal Government, Bagudu Sanni, urged the court to affirm the judgement of the Court of Appeal and dismiss the appeal.
