-Suspends Subsidy Committee Chair Lawan
-Otedola’s Zenon Oil and Gas Re-Indicted
FOLLOWING Friday’s interruption of a two-week break to convene in Abuja, the Federal House of Representatives’ plenary session lived up to the anticipation of a showdown in the Lower House regarding
the unfolding events surrounding the oil subsidy probe in which the Chairman of the ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Mr. Farouk Lawan, is now alleged to have solicited and received part-payment in bribe moneys from one of the companies under investigation by the committee.
In this new twist, the lawmakers resolved to suspend Mr. Lawan, who is also the chairman of the Committee on Education, from his position as the head of the ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy. The embattled lawmaker meanwhile remains under detention of the police, after availing himself on Thursday evening to the Special Task Force of the police with oversight authorities to investigate the bribery allegations.
Following Friday’s suspension, Mr. Lawan’s position will now be filled by Mr. John Enoh, who chairs the House Committee on Appropriations. The Ethics Committee of the House has been given two weeks to investigate and file a report of its investigations before the House. Also under investigation is Boniface Emenalo, the clerk of the committee under Mr. Lawan’s purview who is expected to face disciplinary measures from the administrative arm of the House of Representatives.
The Hou
se also resolved to reinstate as indicted Zenon Oil and Gas along with Synopsis Energy, who both had earlier been removed from the list of indicted companies following the Farouk Lawan-led committee’s recommendation. The move by the House of Assembly clearly means that the House stands by the original report of the committee as passed. Observers are also interpreting the House’s latest decisions as moving to restore its image and independence from the Executive Arm of government.
“While we consider it preposterous and hasty to dismiss the current bribery allegations, pending the outcome of ongoing investigations, including our in-house investigation just instituted, we reject in totality insinuations being orchestrated in some media to the effect that the allegations have eroded the integrity of the resolutions of the House on the report and rendered same unworthy of implementation,” speaker Aminu Tambuwal said in his remarks on Friday, obviously concerned about the image of the House leadership as suspicions of the involvement of the House leadership in the bribery allegation grows.
The masked battle of wits continues between the executive and the legislative arms of government, who have been insinuating connivance by each other in the alleged bribery schemes. In the convening Friday’s emergency session which witnessed all 360 members in attendance, the Lower House joins the Executive in absolving itself of blame or connivance in the bribery saga which threatens to sweep a few public officials along in the gale of growing allegations and counter-allegations emerging in the mass media and behind the scenes. On Thursday, the president’s office had released a statement asking to be left out of the whole brouhaha, claiming it is not involved in any scheming.
The subsidy investigations was thrown back into the limelight when the owner of Zenon Oil and Gas, Mr. Femi Otedola revealed in an interview with a national newspaper recently that bribes were solicited from him personally by Farouk Lawan, who had earlier won mass praise from across the country for what was considered a dogged investigation and revelation on shortcomings in subsidy receipts for imported petroleum products.
Government sources later revealed that security agents reached out to Mr. Otedola to assist in staging a sting operation in which he would pay bribe money to Farouk Lawan, who allegedly later received up $620,000 notes in marked notes, as part payment of a $3 million bribery scheme.
Mr. Lawan initially denied receiving the money but later claimed to have received it as evidence of bribery from Mr. Otedola. Mr. Otedola has since given his statement with the police authorities while Mr. Lawan only made himself available to the police yesterday after the police Special Task Force issued a deadline for him to surrender himself for questioning.