A High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has this Tuesday sentenced the former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum Subsidy, Farouk Lawan to seven years in prison..

Lawan was found guilty of count one, two, and three of the charges preferred against him. The charges border on corruptly asking for and obtaining a bribe from a business mogul, Mr Femi Otedola, in order to exonerate his company namely Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the list of companies accused of being part of a fuel subsidy scam.

According to the ruling, for count one and two, the court sentenced him to seven years while for count three, he was sentenced to five years. The sentences are however to run concurrently.

The court also ordered that the defendant returns the sum of $500,000 to the Federal Government.

Count one stated that the former Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy regime corruptly asked the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Femi Otedola, for a bribe of $3 million as an inducement to remove the name of his company from the report of the said committee of the House of Representatives.

Count two stated that the defendant collected the sum of $500,000 as a bribe to exonerate Zenon Petroleum and Gas from the fuel subsidy probe report.

Justice Otaluka added that the defendant demanded a balance of payment, after receiving the first and second tranches of the payment, and as at the early hours of 24th April 2012 when the accused received the second tranche, no complaint had been made to any security agency or anti-corruption agency to support his claim that he accepted the money to show as evidence before the house.

The judge further said the defendant failed to convince the court that his acceptance of the said bribe was to serve as evidence before the House Committee that the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum wanted to bribe the Committee involved in the probe.

The court also ordered that the defendant returns the sum of $500,000 to the Federal Government.