Former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Hon. Farouk Lawan, yesterday told the Inspector- General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, that Otedola traced him to his Protea Hotel room in Apo to offer the bribe.

He said this is contrary to the ‘lies’ that the Chairman of Zenon Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Femi Otedola, fed the public that he (Lawan) went to Otedola’s house to collect the first $250,000 to clear his company of any wrongdoing in the subsidy scandal.

He said Otedola came to his hotel room where he was hiding to evade pressures from oil marketers under the guise of bringing documents about Zenon Oil showing that it was not part of the fuel subsidy scam.

He told the IGP yesterday that he collected the dollars to protect himself and for use as exhibit against Otedola.

He also told the Police that no security agency, whether State Security Service, SSS, or any other, was ever involved in the so-called sting operation against him, adding “a sting operation does not take the sting operator nearly two months before telling the press, rather than the police or other security agencies of his alleged sting operation.”

Giving what he called the unabridged and unedited account of how the Chairman of Zenon Oil, Otedola attempted to bribe him with the controversial $3m cash to clear his oil companies that were indicted by the committee, he claimed yesterday that he never solicited for any bribe from Otedola nor collected any money for the purpose of clearing Otedola’s companies.

He has already hired four respected Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, to battle the oil magnate over the bribery saga including Mr. Rickey Tarfa, Mr. Israel Olorundare, Chief. Mike Ozekhome and Sam Ologunorisa.

Lawan disclosed yesterday that, in a matter of days, he would not only prove that Otedola did not entrap him in any sting operation but that he was the one that trapped Otedola by serving as agent provocateur in order to establish bribery case against the oil magnate.

In fact, he dared, members of the SSS allegedly used by Otedola for the controversial sting operation or any other person for that matter, to produce for public inspection and viewing the video or film and call logs of the conversation between him and Otedola unedited and undistorted. He said it will be seen that the entire story sold to the public and the police by Otedola is nothing but an after thought, total fabrication and a diet of deliberate falsehood and half truths.

In two separate petitions by his lawyers to the IGP yesterday, Lawan is wondering why he is being harassed based on the allegation of Otedola when he committed no crime instead of the police to go after the alleged bribe giver who was reported a month before Otedola granted interview on the bribery to a national newspaper.

He also protested the degrading treatment meted out to him by the police during his invitation.

Otedola had alleged that it was Lawan that approached him for the $3m bribe to exonerate two of his companies including Zenon from those indicted in the just-concluded fuel subsidy probe.

The oil marketer, who claimed to have informed the law enforcement agencies, said he eventually agreed to offer $3m bribe with an initial deposit of $620,000 in three instalments

He said on April 21, the Saturday before the plenary, Lawan came in person to his residence and collected $250,000 in cash, as the first instalment, “then the next Monday night he came and collected another $250,000.

“On Tuesday, at 9a.m., just before the House commenced sitting, Boniface (committee secretary) came and collected another $120,000.”

Otedola confirmed that during the sting operation, Lawan and Boniface collected a total of $620,000 in three instalments as part of the $3m demanded from him.

He added that with the $620,000 that had been extorted by Lawan and the committee, during the plenary, Zenon’s name was removed from the list of companies that had bought foreign exchange but did not import products.

But reacting, Lawan said contrary to the story making the rounds, it was Otedola that came to his hotel room to offer the first instalment of the bribe which he claimed he collected to entrap him.

In one of the petitions written by Ozekhome on behalf of the embattled lawmaker and released to newsmen yesterday, he said: “It has become necessary to write this petition to situate the facts of this unfolding saga in their correct historical and contextual perspectives and to correct the funny, phony, insidious and invidious falsehood currently making the rounds in a section of the press to the effect that:

*That our client went to collect the sum of $500,000 in Mr. Femi Otedola’s house in Lagos. *That our client, in taking this ‘bribe’ kept some in his pocket, and the left over inside his cap.

*That our client demanded from Mr. Femi Otedola the sum of $3m to kill the bad report concerning his companies, Zenon Oil and AP ( now Forte Oil).

*That Zenon Oil was eventually deleted from the report because our client affirms that these are complete lies and fabrications.

*That Zenon Oil was eventually deleted from the committee’s report on the 24th of April 2012 because of the dollar bribe given to our client by Mr. Femi Otedola.

In the nine-page petition by Ozekhome, Lawan said he never solicited for the controversial $3m bribe to clear Otedola’s oil firms

The petition reads: “Contrary to the various false publications in the press, our client maintains that whilst the report of the Committee had been compiled, written and presented before the House and 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, he was surprised when Mr. Femi Otedola surfaced in the hotel on Saturday April 21, 2012 and called his room number.

“When our client let him in, he brought a bundle of documents for his oil companies, Zenon Oil, already indicted in the reports, did not participate in the fuel subsidy scam. Our client states that at this time, both Zenon Oil and AP Petroleum had been both indicted in the report based on available evidence. Mr. Femi Otedola claimed he was already aware of this indictment hence he decided to personally bring documents to convince our client that it was not the case.

“Our client collected the documents. As Mr. Otedola was about to leave, he handed over the sum of $250,000 to our client which he said was to ensure that his companies were removed from the list of indicted companies. This was in the evening of Monday, the 23rd of April, 2012, a few days before the report had actually been laid before the House on the 17th of April 2012. Our client informed us that he had collected the money to display as exhibit that the committee had been under severe pressure and subtle threat to compromise its report.

“Our client states that Mr. Otedola then called him severally and even pleaded with him to come to his house at Aso Drive, Abuja for more of the documents which he claimed he had forgotten to bring along to our client’s hotel room at Protea Hotel, Apo, Abuja. Our client said he played along by going to Otedola’s house in the early hours of the 22nd of April 2012 during which Mr. Otedoa handed over to him more documents and a further sum of $250,000. Our client states that Mr. Otedola further offered to give the sum of $3m.

“As soon as he had collected the total sum of $500,000, our client immediately wrote a letter at 3:47 a.m. on the 24th of April 2012 to the Chairman, House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes with letter titled: “Offer of Monetary Inducement by Femi Otedola to Influence Committee Report.” Our client attached the sum of $500,000 offered by Mr. Otedola to him with a promise to bring another $2.5m.”

He said Otedola was bombarding him with calls, some days up to 20 calls especially on the night of April 20 when he received over 30 calls from him.

He said he opted to collect the money to keep as exhibit because of the desperation, hostility and veiled threats in cajoling him over the Committee’s report.

He added that there was a night he received over 50 missed calls from Otedola as he deliberately kept away from his undue pressure.

Lawan said that he also reported the matter verbally to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on April 20, 2012 when there were over 30 calls.

He said the Otedola’s Zenon was removed from the list of the inducted companies because of the documents he brought which he never presented during the entire sittings of his committee.

The lawmaker said another company called Synopsis Company was also delisted following the discovery that it fell in the same category with Zenon’s.

He argued that if he had collected the said bribe from Otedola to clear his companies, the committee would not have indicted AP Petroleum Oil and Zenon Oil.

“Only Zenon Oil was delisted based on fresh available evidence later presented by Otedola. AP Petroleum Oil was indicted for round tripping and was never delisted,” he said.

He also said that he was really the complainant and not the accused as the public is being made to believe as he allegedly interacted, exchanged letters and made bribery allegations against Otedola well over a month before the said Otedola announced his so-called sting operation.

Nobody knows where this country is heading to

Korrection: Nobody knows where this country is heading to

we know were this country is heading to, the problem is everyone is at a loss as to how to check it.