The man at the center of a dirty bribery scandal rocking the House of Reps, Hon. Farouk Lawan, is doing everything possible to defend his action. He has claimed that he collected the bribe but with the intent to use same as evidence against the oil cabal.
However, the House of Reps leadership is not buying his story because, according to them, he waited until he was exposed before making such claim and did not inform any principal officer of the House until the security services blew the lid of the deal.
Also, more details are emerging as to what transpired.
The whole saga began after the SSS got a tip that the House Adhoc Committee probing the Fuel Subsidy regime had been receiving bribes from different quarters to influence their report and embarrass the Goodluck Jonathan-led government.
Investigations then commenced which established the truth of the matter.
At this point a plot was hatched to entrap the chief bribe taker, which was the head of the committee, Farouk Lawan.
A camera concealed in a pen was handed over to Femi Otedola, CEO of Zenon Oil, who had a meeting with Farouk Lawan and negotiated a $3 Million dollar bribe with Otedola and he (Farouk Lawan) went ahead to collect a down payment of $600,000.
Lawan then kept quiet and concealed receipt of the money from all and sundry and after the report was released he approached Otedola to collect the balance of his money.
However, when the scandal broke, Lawan in an attempt to turn the case against him approached members of the House's Committee on Narcotics and Financial Crimes to appeal to them to tender the money he collected on-camera as evidence of an attempt to bribe him, but the committee members refused to be used, claiming that they could only have agreed if he had come to them before the scandal blew open.
Meanwhile, Lawan's commitee members have expressed disappointment in the fact that he could collect such a huge sum without putting them in the picture.
You may wish to known that Hon. Farouk Lawan plans to contest for Kano State governor in 2015 and many believes he needs a financial war chest for the contest.
Hmm... could this be why Olusegun Obasanjo said there are thieves in the National Assembly?
