Otedola to testify against Lawan over subsidy bribe

Barring any last minute change, oil magnate and businessman, Femi Otedola, is set to testify as a prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Farouk Lawan, former chairman house committee on subsidy.

 

Lawan had been standing trial before Justice Angela Otaluka of an FCT High Court Lugbe. He was alleged to have asked for the sum of $3,000,000 for himself from Otedola, Chairman, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited on account of intention to remove the name of the Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the Report of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime.

 

A very reliable source had told BusinessDay over the weekend, that Otedola who was listed as one of the prosecution witnesses in the matter, would be making his own testimony before the trial court at the resumption of the matter on May 9, 2017 (Tuesday). Several other witnesses have already testified in the matter.

 

It will be recalled that, David Igbodo, Deputy Commissioner of Police (substantive), at the Nigerian Police Force headquarters in Abuja, had earlier revealed how the Goodluck Jonathan administration launched investigations into the alleged bribery allegations before the court.

 

Igbodo while being cross examined by counsel to Lawan, Mike Ozekhome SAN, said that a newspaper publication that reported the alleged bribery to the committee sparked up the investigation into the matter, having been referred to the Inspector General of Police by the Presidency.

 

According to him, the speaker was never invited to his office over the matter, nor did he volunteer his statement to them, nor was any statement obtained from him, same as the deputy speaker, as “it was not necessary, and I did not record a statement from him myself”, stating that he was not in the speaker’s office when a video of the allegations were shown to the defendant.

 

“That issue came up, it was even from the defendant himself, he said after the money was given to him and captured on video, this operation was done by the DSS, the DSS took the video to the speaker and played it to him, to show him what the defendant had done, and the defendant said he was called into the office and shown the video, it was thereafter that the defendant went to the EFCC chairman that, some people are trying to bribe him before calling a press conference”, he said.

 

Also, the witness said he did not interview or investigate staffs of Protea Hotel, Abuja but affirmed that Otedola was the person who allegedly gave $500,000 to the defendant in his house, in Asokoro even though he was not present when the alleged activity took place, however, he said what he told the court was based on findings of my investigation.

 

“The camera cannot count money, but the person who gave them out can count them, and the defendant has refused to produce the money up till today, I would not know”, if the camera pictured Otedola counting the money nor if he was captured counting the money before handing them over”, he added.

 

He further insisted that Boniface Emenalo, secretary to the committee received $120,000 and Lawan, $500,000 as contained in his statement, explaining that from investigation and interaction with all the parties involved, what was given in the house of Otedola, was $600,000 which was caught on video, but Emenalo had been given $20,000 before then which was not caught on video.

 

Boniface Emenalo had earlier in the trial, given a detailed account of how he collected $100,000 from Otedola for Lawan. While he was being led in evidence by Adegboyega Awomolo SAN.

He had told the court that the report of the committee was laid on April 18, 2016, the committee did not meet again after its report was laid, furthermore, he said the defendant (Lawan) had on April 24, 2012
raised a motion to amend the reports it had earlier laid before the house, the amendment according to him related to deletion of SynopsisEnterprises Limited and Zenon oil and gas limited, an amendment which was accepted by the house.

“I came across Femi Otedola during this assignment, not like I know him, on April 24, 2012, I received persistent calls from Mr Otedola in the morning and reported to Lawan and he asked him to play along with him and that he was with him the previous night.

“When Otedola called again, he asked me to come over to his house, gave me the discription, when I got there, he also confirmed that he was with my chairman the previous night. He gave me two bundles of Dollar bills in $100 denomination, each bundle was $50,000 making it$100,000 that were not converted.

“When I got back to the office, I wrote a memo forwarding the money to my chairman that same April 24, 2012 which he took from me”, he added.

During his cross examination, Ozekhome asked the witness how he became a witness in a matter he had earlier been arraigned alongside thedefendant, a question Awomolo objected to insisting that the choice to prosecute and who to make witness is the business of the prosecutorand not the witness and so, the witness is not suppose to answer a question that is not within his knowledge refering to Section 228 of
the evidence Act.

During further cross examination, the PW1 told the court that it surprised when he read in the newspapers that Otedola actually gave him $120,000. Stating further that Otedola’s three companies, namely; Zenon oil and gas, AP and Forte oil were involved in the subsidy report.

While Zenon was exonorated because it was not involved in fuel subsidy at the begining of hearing, however, in the cause of investigation, itwas discovered at the financial forensics of submissions made by companies that the Form M used by Zenon to procure foreign exchange was also used by AP to procure products and obtain subsidy, it was at this point that the committee resolved to refer the issue for furtherinvestigation by relevant government agencies.

The former lawmaker was rearraigned on a three count charge on February 2, 2016 by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC).