OIL magnate and owner of Zenon Oil and Gas, Mr. Femi Otedola, joined other Nigerians in reacting to the developments in the House of Representatives on Friday, where the lawmakers had reinstated Mr. Otedola’s company among the list of companies with a case to answer according to the original results of the investigations carried by an ad-hoc committee on subsidy previously headed by Rep. Farouk Lawan.
Mr. Lawan’s position as chairman of the committee was interrupted by a suspension order on Friday, per a resolution by the members of the Lower House. Mr. Lawan is facing investigations both by the House Committee on Ethics and by a police Special Task Force empowered to look into corruption in the government’s subsidy regime.
In a Friday statement made available to the press, Mr. Otedola made clear that he remains firm on recent revelations that he made to a national newspaper, in which he alleged that Representative Farouk Lawan had solicited and received up to $620,000 from him as part payment out of a $3 million bribe money to influence the decision of the Lawan-led committee in favor of his company, Zenon Oil and Gas.
According to Otedola, he had reported Mr. Lawan to relevant authorities after the latter approached him soliciting bribe money, which he claims he rebuffed because he didn’t believe that he had anything to hide.
“Farouk Lawan demanded $3 million from me and because I refused to oblige him he included the name of Zenon amongst those who bought forex without importing petroleum products. He did this without even asking Zenon to produce a single documents of the forex transaction.”
“He clearly wanted to extort money for an offence I did not commit,” said Otedola in his press statement, a copy of which was made available to sharpedgenews.com on Friday evening. “That is why I went to report to the security agencies. If I had anything to hide I wouldn’t have gone to the agencies. There is an old adage that says “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
Besides stating that it was impossible to purchase foreign exchange from the nation’s Central Bank and fail to import the produce for which such purchase was made, the Zenon boss also went a step further to alleged that the figures in foreign exchange which the House said his company purchased were inaccurate.
“The total figure is not even $232, 975,385.13 million as alleged but $372, 207, 990 million. They should go and amend the report to read $372, 207, 990 million which is the correct figure.”
“It is not possible to purchase this volume of forex from the CBN with first class banks such as Access bank, FCMB, GTB, UBA and an international bank BNP Paribas which is one of the biggest and most respected banks in the world.”
Apparently reacting to the relisting of his company among the list of companies found wanting in the oil subsidy investigation saga, Mr. Otedola lamented what he described as “blackmail” to extort money from him despite that he strives to be above board in all he does.
“If people at my level who have worked hard to build their businesses can be blackmailed this way all in a bid to extort money from them, I pity people that are just starting out in business in this country. In all my business dealings I have always been above board and the records are there to prove,” he said.
The oil tycoon closed his statement by stating that Rep. Lawan could not have been alone in the alleged bribery scheme, saying that it takes more than a tree to make a forest. He trashed Friday’s events in House of Representatives as a celebration of corruption that further indicts the former chairman of the subsidy committee.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lawan remains in detention and it is likely that he would be there for the rest of the weekend. He surrendered himself for questioning on Thursday, a few days after the Special Task Force on Fuel Subsidy had threatened to declare him wanted if he the veteran lawmaker did not show up.
Mr. Lawan’s troubles began this week after Mr. Otedola revealed that the lawmaker sought and received bribe money from him. Although Mr. Lawan denied that he solicited or received any such monies, he later surprised observers by admitting that he indeed received the money from Mr. Otedola, but that he only did so to have proof that Mr. Otedola had tried bribing him.
As the accusations peaked in the last few days, President Jonathan’s office had to release a statement denying any involvement in the bribery saga. On the same Thursday, the House released a statement ordering its members to convene in Abuja for an emergency plenary session, ostensibly to attend to matters arising on the development. The session on Friday prompted Mr. Otedola to issue his latest statement on the matter.