Nigeria’s lower legislative body, the House of Representatives today suspended embattled lawmaker, Farouk Lawan as chairman of the Fuel Subsidy Probe Committee over his role in an alleged bribery scandal.
The House members also ordered that the activities and involvements of the Committee’s Secretary, Hon. Boniface Emenalo be probed and investigated.
The House members who came back from an on-going legislative recess to make the emergency moves Friday, also passed a Vote of Confidence on its Speaker, Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, assuring him of his full support towards House leadership.
House Speaker, Hon. Tambuwal told fellow lawmakers after the votes while urging Nigerians to offer support and trust in the House leadership saying ”We shall never compromise our stand against corruption. May I also ask the executive to match words with action in the implementation of this report.
Hon. Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo are both under public spotlight in an alleged $620, 000 bribery scandal which was given to them by businessman and Chairman of Zenon Oil, Femi Otedola.
While the businessman publicly admitted giving the money as part of a sting operation in a move to indict the lawmaker, he (Farouk) disagreed saying he only accepted the cash offer in order to gather enough evidence against Femi Otedola and his Zenon Oil Company in the Fuel Subsidy probe report.
Meanwhile, The House of Representatives also ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other security and anti-graft agencies to investigate the alleged role of Femi Otedola’s company, Zenon and Synopsis for their alleged role in the fraudulent diversion of $232,975,385.13 and $51,449,977.7 subsidy funds respectively.
Hon. Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo are currently being detained at the Force Headquarters in Abuja as part of an ongoing investigations.
However,news was gathered from reliable Police sources that the lawmakers who arrived at the Force HQ’s with no fewer than ten lawyers did not leave the premise on Thursday, while still being held till the early hours of Friday.
It is not immediately clear if both lawmakers have been released as the Nigerian Police is yet to release a statement on their appearance and detention at the Police HQ.
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