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Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by Nobody: 12:22pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
By Ike Abonyi and Gboyega Akinsanmi A team of lawyers hired by the suspended Chairman of House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Monitoring of the Fuel Subsidy Regime, Hon. Farouk Lawan, has demanded the public airing of a video tape said to contain the interaction between the embattled lawmaker and Zenon Oil and Gas Chairman, Mr. Femi Otedola. The lawyers, in two petitions dated June 22 to the acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, also demanded the Otedola’s arre, whom they accused of offering Lawan bribe to avoid his companies, including AP Plc (now Forte Oil Plc), from being indicted by the ad hoc committee report. But in a counter-move, Otedola and Zenon have dragged Lawan, the National Assembly and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal before an Abuja High Court in a N250 billion law suit for defamation. Lawan’s lawyers, however, said their client was ready to confront Otedola in the presence of the Inspector-General over his claim that Lawan pressurised him to give him money to remove the name of his company from the list of indicted oil marketers, which had procured foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria but failed to import petroleum products. The lawyers said Lawan remains innocent of any crime and is willing “to have a face-to-face confrontation with Mr. Otedola before you (the IG) in the course of investigation of this matter.” On the controversial video recording of the transaction between the two parties, the lawyers challenged the “SSS, the police, Mr. Otedola or any other person for that matter, to produce for public viewing the video or film and call logs of the conversation between Lawan and Mr. Otedola unedited and un-doctored.” Lawan’s legal team, comprising Mike Ozekhome, Rickey Tarfa, Israel Olorundare and Sam Ologunorisa, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), urged Abubakar to thoroughly investigate the bribery allegation levelled against their client by Otedola with a view to unravelling what they called the “funny, phony, insidious and invidious” development. Describing stories making the rounds about Lawan’s ordeal as phony, Ozekhome, who signed the first petition, said Lawan never visited Otedola’s house to collect $500,000 neither did he at any time hide the so-called bribe money “in his pocket, and the leftover inside his cap” as was alleged in a report. Tarfa, in a separate four-page petition, also raised issues concerning the infringement on Lawan’s rights during his 48-hour detention without trial while he was offered what he described as the “onerous conditions” for bail. Lawan’s lawyers urged the IG to investigate the “circumstances whereby the complainant in this instance was now being made the accused and being hounded into detention while the culprit is left to roam the streets and continue to grant interviews and make damaging comments against our client while the police look the other way.” Ozekhome said it was Otedola’s desperation to ensure that his company was not indicted in the report, that made him visit Lawan in his hotel room in Abuja and attempted to influence the report by offering him $250,000 on April 21. He said the money and another $250,000 that was handed over to Lawan at Otedola’s Aso Drive home on April 22 were deposited with Chairman of the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Hon. Adams Jagaba, on April 24. According to him, Lawan made a verbal report of the attempted bribe to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, on April 20 without any specific reference to Otedola, adding that Lamorde instructed the Director of Operations to be on “standby in case Mr. Otedola calls again.” The nine-page petition by Ozekhome titled, ‘Honourable Farouk Lawan and Mr. Femi Otedola: When the Complainant Becomes the Suspect’, reads in part: “The truth is that contrary to the various false publications in the press, which appear to have swung the mood of the public against our client, our client maintains that whilst the report of the committee had been compiled, written and presented before the House. “He was putting finishing touches to its formal debate in his hotel room at Protea Hotel, Apo, Abuja (to which he had relocated from his house to escape the unbearable pressure mounted on him by oil marketers, including Mr. Femi Otedola), but was surprised when Mr. Femi Otedola surfaced in the hotel on Saturday, 21, April, 2012 and called his room number.” Despite the lawyers’ petition to the IG, Otedola and his company, Zenon, have dragged Lawan (1st defendant) to an Abuja High Court for defamation over the $620,000 bribe, which the oil magnate claimed Lawan allegedly demanded from him. The plaintiffs also joined Tambuwal, Clerk of the National Assembly and the House of Representatives in the suit. They are demanding N250 billion as damages over what they said they have suffered due to the acts of the defendants. In a statement of claims filed by their lead counsel, Mr. Babajide Koku (SAN), the plaintiffs are demanding N250 billion as damages against the defendants as general damages for acts of intimidation, loss of goodwill and patronage,” which they said, was collectively occasioned by their acts. They are also demanding N150 billion against the defendants as exemplary damages for their oppressive and arbitrary action, which they claimed, has resulted in substantial losses that they claim to have suffered. They promised to contend at the trial that both the 2nd and 4th defendants conspired to relist the name of 1st plaintiff on the list of companies, stating that the relisting was with bias, given that the committee’s finding was arrived without proper verification of documents they submitted to aid their enquiry. They averred that the conspiracy by the 2nd and 4th defendants “to the name of the 1st plaintiff as one of the companies indicted by the ad-hoc committee is aimed at intimidating the plaintiffs to drop their complaints against 1st and 4th defendants.” According to them, by reason of the foregoing facts, they have suffered grave injuries to their reputation and business resulting in the substantial loss of goodwill and patronage of their business built over years. The plaintiffs also averred that the action and conduct of the defendants was oppressive and arbitrary, thereby resulting “in their suffering substantial loss to their reputation, goodwill and business image. “The plaintiffs shall at the trial rely on all call logs, audio-visual records of conversations and meetings held with the first defendant as proof of their case. “The first defendant persisted in making intimidating phone calls, harassing the plaintiffs to pay the balance of $2.38 million,” the statement said. source, Thisday online. |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by NaMe4: 12:46pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
Now we are talking! Oya, Otebaba, SSS over to you! |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by Rhino5dm: 1:01pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
Where is the tape? I want to see Facrook Lawan stuffing dollars into his cap. Is that too hard? |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by SkyBlue1: 1:08pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
It is very tempting, in fact I want to see the video and all the evidence. But if we are to do this properly then he should be arraigned in court, eveidence given there in front of the media and public attendees there, and the proper process followed to set a good precedence. And besides since when did somebody who allegedly confessed to taking the bribe, said he gave the money to a man who disowned him have any right to even try and claim a moral high ground? Who is he daring? It is only in Nigeria that a confessed crook still has this audacity I swear. He has already damaged his reputation and with very little help from anybody. By the way if police don't have the recordings of these confessions the IG should be made to answer. No more letting off crooks due to incompetency or complicity of the authorities. Still want to see the video though . . . . . LOL. |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by Kobojunkie: 3:29pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
Na-Me: You read my mind! |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by worm(f): 3:45pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
This is what we are talking about! Where are the videos and the call logs? We want to see them. SSS, police, Odetola Farouk is daring you to make public the video. |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by nuclearboy(m): 4:47pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
I said this from the very beginning - if truly these people have the stuff they have been insinuating, there was no need to go to the media - a court process would have been the way to go! But we'll see, won't we? Because whatever recording will have to be shown as unedited and true! |
Re: Lawan’s Lawyers Petition Police, Demand Public Airing Of Video. by Kobojunkie: 5:32pm On Jul 02, 2012 |
worm: This is what we are talking about! Abi!!! Dem suppose to don release the thing by now sef .. . . but I hope they do now so we all see this 'wonderful' video wey nobody don see |
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