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| Otedola to testify against Farouk Lawan in $620,000 bribe case |
Nigerian Billionaire, Femi Otedola, has been scheduled to appear as a prosecution witness before an Abuja High Court in the ongoing corruption trial of Farouk Lawan.
He is being arraigned on a seven-count criminal charge bordering on obtaining $620,000 bribe money from Otedola, in order to doctor a report by his then committee.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission instituted the case against Lawan.
The Commission says Lawan collected $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he demanded from Otedola in exchange for the exclusion of the businessman’s company’s name from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for supposedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.
The chief judge, Justice Angela Otakula, on Tuesday adjourned the case till March 7 and 8 to allow the first prosecution witness, Boniface Emenalo, who was then secretary to the Lawan-led committee, to conclude his evidence.
Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, is expected to appear in court as the second prosecution witness on either of the two days, depending on how soon Emenalo resolves his own part.
Emenalo was initially charged along with Lawan with respect to the bribery charge. But at the preliminary hearing, he turned against the former lawmaker and has now become the key prosecution witness.
The case was re-assigned to Justice Adebukola Banjoko after Justice Oniyangi was raised to the position of a Justice of the Court of Appeal.
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