A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Apo, today ordered a former member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Farouk Lawan, to open his defence in his ongoing trial over fuel subsidy bribery allegation levelled against him.
Justice Angela Otaluka gave the order while ruling on the no-case submission filed by Lawan, through his counsel, Dr Mike Ozekhome SAN.
Lawan, who was the chairman of House Adhoc Committee on Petroleum Subsidy Regime in the seventh House of Representatives, was charged before the court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), on behalf of the Federal Government.
ICPC alleged that the former lawmaker demanded the sum of $3million for himself from the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Femi Otedola, in the course of investigating the fuel subsidy regime.
He was further alleged to have collected $620,000 out of the amount with a view to removing Otedola’s companies’ names from the list of firms indicted by the ad hoc committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the offence.
Details later —-
and then