Alleged bribery: You have case to answer, court tells Farouk Lawan

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that a former member of the House of Representatives, ‎Mr. Farouk Lawan, had a case to answer in respect of the $500,000 bribery charges preferred against him by the Federal Government.

A three-man panel of the court unanimously affirmed the October 17, 2019 ruling of Justice Angela Otaluka of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who had dismissed the no-case submission filed by the defendant.

Justice Peter Ige, who delivered the lead judgment of the Court of Appeal on Tuesday affirmed the FCT High Court’s ruling and dismissed the appeal filed by Lawan against the lower court’s decision.

Justice Ige resolved all the four issues raised in the appeal against the appellant and in favour of the respondent, which is the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation which is prosecuting the case at the FCT High Court.

He held that contrary to the appellant’s claim, there was no miscarriage of justice occasioned against Lawan by Justice Otaluka’s ruling ordering him to enter his defence in the trial.

Justice Ige ruled that the appeal lacked merit and ordered the defendant to return to the FCT High Court to open his defence.

The prosecution in the charges pending at the FCT High Court accused Lawan, as the then Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on investigation into fuel subsidy regime in 2012, of accepting $500,000 as a bribe for the removal of  Mr. Femi Otedola’s company’s name, Zenon Petroleum, and Gas Ltd, from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for alleged fraud in the subsidy scheme. Punch