Fuel Subsidy Probe: Femi Otedola, Farouk Lawan, Adams Jagaban Enmeshed In $3million Bribery Scandal
BY EDITOR · 9 JUNE 2012 · NO COMMENTS
CRIME, EXCLUSIVE ·

The last may not have been heard about the N2.7 trillion looted from the Nigerian treasury under the cover of subsidizing fuel consumption by the citizenry and the subsequent probe panel set up by the House of Representatives to probe the scam as ireports-ng.com has unveiled the actors behind a $3million bribery scam engineered to doctor the panel’s report before and after it was submitted on the floor of the House.

Behind the latest bribery ring in the country is the Chairman of African Petroleum, AP, Mr Femi Otedola, Chairman of the fuel subsidy probe panel, Hon.Farouk Lawan and Chairman of the House committee on Drugs and Financial Crimes, Hon.Jagaban Adams Jagaban.

Though a few of Nigerian newspapers had scratched the scam on the surface in their tilted reports today, findings by ireports-ng.com however revealed that soon after the conclusion of the televised public hearing by the Farouk Lawan-led House panel, Otedola who is said to be a close friend of Lawan had approached him to assist to doctor the report of the committee so that his companies, AP and Zenon Oil would not be indicted in their report.

A deal of $3million was said to have been struck while Otedola promised to make available a deposit of $500,000 and the balance provided after the dust has settled.

Not suspecting that he was being recorded by Otedola with pen camera, Farouk was said to have thereafter gone to his friend’s house in Abuja to collect the first payment of $500,000. Upon return from Otedola’s house with the slush fund, Lawan was said to have called his partner in crime, Hon Jagaban Adams Jagaban who is the House committee chairman overseeing the activities of the nation’s anti-graft police, the EFCC and confided in him. The latter prevailed on him to let him take custody of the money, a request that was obliged.

Again, Otedola was said to have gone ahead to invite the clerk of the probe panel,one Boniface Emenalor and handed him $100,000 to also help in the task of doctoring the report. The clerk was said to have briefed Lawan upon return from Otedola and handed his own bribe which was in turn deposited with Jagaban.

ireports-ng.com gathered that while the entire deal was going on, no other member of the probe panel was taken into confidence by the trio of Lawan, Jagaban and Emenalor. As such,the report was submitted with the full indictment of Otedola intact. He was indicted for using his companies to collect foreign currencies from the CBN under the guise of fuel import but diverted same, a pure money laundering criminal offense.

With a total of $600,000 slush fund all kept with the cashier of the syndicate, Hon.Jagaban, they all kept mute for weeks after the conclusion of their assignment, possibly waiting for the appropriate time to share the loot if there is no trouble coming.

When information however leaked this week that Otedola, a very close confidant of President Goodluck Jonathan and ruling PDP’s major financier, had recorded his deal with Lawan on video and handed same over to the president, the Lawan’s ring came out of it’s shel for the first time last Wednesday to throw the slush money on the floor of the House. The PDP leadership was also said to have stepped in to avoid a situation where the scandal will affect the image of its government since all actors in the scandal are PDP members. It was viewed that it will be scandal too many for the PDP government.

The move was rejected by the House leadership and for the first time, other members of the committee and other colleaques got wind of the development. Lawan and Jagaban’s defense now, it was learnt was that they were playing along with Otedola in the bribery scheme.

According to a member of the committee who spoke with our reporter in Abuja,”even if we have to believe their story that President Jonathan used Otedola to set them up and as such they were deliberately playing along, why did they not bring up the matter since we rounded up our assignment several weeks ago? Why do they want to put the money on the floor of the House without briefing us, members of the probe committee? Why did Farouk have to go to Otedola’s House when we all have agreed at the committee level that no member must hold any meeting with any oil marketer?”

Indeed, these and many more are the questions Farouk Lawan and Jagaban Adams Jagaban will need to answer satisfactorily to other members and Nigerians before their set up story can hold water.

Already, the presidency has directed the EFCC to give Lawan, Jagaban and their accomplices in the House the Hembe dose. Another member of the House, Hembe who was the chairman House committee on the capital market was recently enmeshed in a similar scandal. Attempt by his committee to conduct a public hearing probe into the near collapse of the capital market was aborted when the DG of Security and Exchange Commission,Aruma Eteh accused Hembe and his deputy of conducting the probe to witchunt her for not offering them bribe. Hembe and his deputy were later charged before court for obtaining about $4000 as estacode for a trip they didn’t go, thus technically killing the main issue of fraud in SEC.

A lawyer who spoke with ireports-ng.com on the latest development said” it is obvious that the Lawan group had walked into the trap of their enemy and they will surely be devoured because it’s all a power game and I expect them to know better. Now that EFCC has been brought in, the subsidy probe report itself is no longer relevant, they will now be the focus of trial as against those their report indicted. That is Nigeria for you”

Link:
http://ireports-ng.com/2012/06/09/fuel-subsidy-probe-femi-otedola-farouk-lawan-adams-jagaban-enmeshed-in-3million-bribery-scandal/