berem: hmm! madam kobo i can feel ur anger on this case.why u dey bother urself? this pple are just fooling us with their soap opera!

onatisi:
pls stop been a fool cant you see that both of them are thieves , lawan collected money ALONE with no witness with the excuse of wanting to use it against the person , why did he go alone why not with another person , why did he even agreed to take the money . the point is this lawan is a barawo and otedola is an ole

CHESSBOARD:

Moderator front Page we have the thief

Demdem: Obviously more questions than answers. The mere reason we all should be careful in judging

CHESSBOARD:

Have you been following this case, The real evidence is the video and audio tape. not the moola

CHESSBOARD: It is one thing to deny collecting a bribe. It sort of puts one in the clear, at least until proven guilty. But it is an entirely different thing to reiterate such statement later on saying you actually collected the bribe just to expose the ‘giver’ of the bribe.

Such is the nature of the controversy currently raging between the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee that probed the fuel subsidy regime, Hon. Farouk Lawan, and the Chairman of Zenon Oil and Gas, Mr. Femi Otedola.

In an earlier testimony, Hon. Lawan denied collecting a $620,000 fuel subsidy bribe from Mr. Otedola.

In response to news reports circulating on the alleged bribe, Hon. Lawan, initially issued a statement denying his involvement in the scam.

My attention has been drawn to several newspapers and internet stories alleging that a prominent member of the House Adhoc Committee on Petroleum subsidy demanded and received the sum of $600,000.00 as bribe from an oil marketer.

I wish to categorically deny that I or any member of the committee demanded and received any bribe from anybody in connection with the fuel subsidy probe and I believe this is evident from the thorough and in depth manner the investigation was carried out and the all-encompassing recommendations produced therefrom as approved by the whole House.

He went on to say that the allegations were in an attempt to discredit the Fuel Subsidy report and divert the attention of the public from the real issues of large scale.

Barely 24 hours later, he reversed his earlier statement and admitted that he collected $620,000 from Mr. Otedola to doctor the panel’s report. He told journalists that he collected the money after Otedola approached him, adding that he informed the police and his colleagues about it.

Otedola, on his part, has agreed offering the money to Lawan; adding that it was part of a sting operation initiated by security agencies after he had reported that the committee demanded $3 million from him not to list his companies as part of those indicted in the report.

Otedola had alleged that the lawmaker pressed him for a bribe to remove his firm from the list of companies indicted by his committee for oil subsidy fraud. He said the request compelled him to involve security agencies in a sting to catch Lawan.

The Otedola-security agents’ collaboration was said to have led to a video recording of Lawan receiving a $500,000 bribe with a promise to remove Otedola’s company’s name from the list. The Clerk of the Lawal-led panel, Boniface Emenalo, also received $100,000 as part of the $3m allegedly negotiated with Otedola by Lawan.

In the latest development, Mr. Otedola appeared before the Police Special Task Force in Abuja yesterday to brief investigators on his own side of the story. He reportedly spent about an hour answering questions from detectives in the Special Task force team headed by Commissioner of Police Ali Ahmadu.

The police had invited Lawan but the lawmaker did not honour the invitation to appear before the panel on Tuesday.

However, media reports claim that a police source has established that Mr. Lawan initiated the contact with Mr. Otedola and demanded a bribe in exchange for removing two of Otedola’s firms from adverse reports that would beam an investigative searchlight on the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in oil subsidy funds.

The police also confirmed that the SSS worked with Mr. Otedola to videotape the bribe and also snooped on several phone conversation between the Zenon executive and the legislator.

Police sources said that they believed Mr. Lawan contacted them to report that he was in possession of bribe money only after he realized that the currencies were marked.

Following Otedola’s statement, the Police authorities, have tagged Lawan as the ‘prime suspect’ in their investigations and are expected to make their move anytime soon.

Otedola said he can’t be accused of being a bribe giver because the money in question was handed to him in its entirety by the State Security Service (SSS).

This latest corruption saga has drawn the attention away from the initial fuel subsidy probe. However, Nigerians and indeed, the international community are eagerly watching to see what would be the outcome of this.

http://www.bellanaija.com/2012/06/13/femi-otedola-vs-farouk-lawan-the-allegations-counter-allegations-of-the-620000-bribery-scandal/

Moderator front Page we have the thief

There goes Farouk Lawan so-called "Mr. Integrity". Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. The hunter has now become the hunted. Remember he's being hounding people left, right and center, now it's his turn. I laff in Greek!

fesse: We might be seeing all this drama from an ordinary point of view. Two things are involved;
1. Either they planted Farouk to shade away from probing the real culprits of the subsidy saga. or
2. Farouk is being used to nail some people.
Nigeria is a whole big drama that me and you that are not in the system hardly understand. This story will die a natural death like others since our judiciary is as corrupt as corruption itself. Well, time shall tell whats gonna come out of it. Farouk and Otedola are all guilty.

berem: hmm! madam kobo i can feel ur anger on this case.why u dey bother urself? this pple are just fooling us with their soap opera!

Onyemola: Do we really think Otedola’s action was as a result of his sincerity and being a patriotic Nigerian? or plans by the ‘Cabal’ to tarnish Lawan’s image to discredit the subsidy probe report? Unfortunately greedy Lawan fell into the trap.
There is no difference between Nigeria politicians/super rich businessmen and drug barons in Mexico. The most important thing to them is to protect their territory and crush whoever crosses their path. Let’s watch as events unfold!

twentycent: This is surely a Nigerian Thriller movie...oooops pls hold on let me go and get some chinchin and orobor pepsi...okay am back...let the movie continue cos am really watching, sitting on the fence and awaiting the end of the movie of which will decide who will go to jail amongst both men. But I will give up on Nigerian Judiciary if no one is prosecuted and convicted amongst these two men.

twentycent: This is surely a Nigerian Thriller movie...oooops pls hold on let me go and get some chinchin and orobor pepsi...okay am back...let the movie continue cos am really watching, sitting on the fence and awaiting the end of the movie of which will decide who will go to jail amongst both men. But I will give up on Nigerian Judiciary if no one is prosecuted and convicted amongst these two men.

woodcook: Ndi ofe-mmanu awogo ndi-ugwu na ala!

tchaik:

Na wah for you! Are you a lawyer? Do you know that the 'bribe Object' (cash etc) must be tendered as evd? Without the Dollar bills, it will be impossible to get a conviction! The video and voice calls na Moi-Moi!

oiseworld:

look my guy, you are wrong here. The sss was involved and the money were marked by the sss. If farouk fails to tender the complete marked money, he's in trouble. That counters his statement of wanting to tender the money as evidence. Do you spend evidence momey?

Germannig: How does marking the money help here assuming the money has disappeared and no longer available as evidence of bribery? Marking money is only useful if still available as evidence, no? The security men should have arrested the bribe taker to recover the marked money as soon as it was accepted. I think both Otedola and Lawan have more explanations to make.

doctokwus:
Apt.A sting operation(whc now seems to av a nigerian definition or variant,just like every other thing) when executed,usually d culprit(s) is immediately apprehended in order not to lose d evidence,get it tampered wt or allow d culprit get-a-away.But in dis distorted,abused,hazy& clearly full of questions version,it has taken 2whole mths for it to b brought to d open,surprisingly,not by d security agency said to have masterminded& financed d operation but by one of d subjects under serious suspicion of state fraud.This is classic,nigerian sting operation!

doctokwus:
Apt.A sting operation(whc now seems to av a nigerian definition or variant,just like every other thing) when executed,usually d culprit(s) is immediately apprehended in order not to lose d evidence,get it tampered wt or allow d culprit get-a-away.But in dis distorted,abused,hazy& clearly full of questions version,it has taken 2whole mths for it to b brought to d open,surprisingly,not by d security agency said to have masterminded& financed d operation but by one of d subjects under serious suspicion of state fraud.This is classic,nigerian sting operation!

Detongue: Lawan is a cheap tif

oiseworld: i am not really an otedola fan but, i admire his role in this stuff. As a major player and one of the fist five richest men in nigeria, he shows he's smart and intelligent. And somehow he actually deserves to be rich.
This are the kind of things/moves that we want to hear aboit our rich men. And not just big stomach,women, jack,..jack..... and no history

nevertheless, the probe should be conducted again and all guilty brought to book.

niddamugu:

Every rich man, so long as he's rich, is intelligent.

Ileke-IdI:
Where is Otedola now?

If this story is true, we need to find out how long he's been bribing and who else he has been bribing. Lawan might end up being not guilty, but that will not make Otedola's hand any cleaner.