The duo were granted bail in the sum of N10 million and are to produce two sureties each in like sum. The court also directed them to deposit their international passports with the Registrar of the court and were ordered not to travel out of the territorial boundaries of this court without the court’s permission.
The trial judge, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi, noted that the offence upon which they were charged was ordinarily bailable and expressed the court’s willingness to exercise its discretion in the accused persons favour.
They were first arraigned on a seven count charge a week ago and were subsequently remanded in Kuje Prisons.
Counts 4 and 5 of the charge read:
“That you Hon. Farouk Lawan (M) while being a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of Ad-hoc committee on Monitoring of fuel subsidy regime sometimes in April 2012 or thereabout at Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duty corruptly obtained the sum of $500,000 (five hundred thousand dollars) for yourself from Mr. Femi Otedola Chairman Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd as an inducement to remove the name of Zenon petroleum gas ltd from the report of the House of Representatives Adihoc committee on Monitoring of fuel subsidy regime and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 17 (1) of the Corrupt practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 17 (1) of the same Act.”
“That you Mr. Emenalo Boniface (M) while being a public officer, an Assistant Director and Secretary of. the House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee on Monitoring ofFuel Subsidy Regime sometimes in April 2012 or thereabout at Abuja within the. Federal capital territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duty as Secretary…corruptly asked for the sum of $3,000,000 (three million US dollard) for yourself from Mr. Femi Otedola…and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 8 (1) (b) (ii) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 23 (3) of the same Act.”
In an affidavit deposed to by one Chidi Amaeze, the ICPC disclosed that investigation into the criminal case has since been concluded.
Businessman, Femi Otedola, had sometime last year alleged that upon pressure from Farouk to exonerate Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from culpability in the mismanagement of fuel subsidy funds, he doled out about $620,000 to the lawmaker.
He claimed that the “bribe-for-clearance” money was given to stave off pressure.
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