The
$620,000 bribery scandal involving a federal legislator, Farouk Lawan
and businessman, Femi Otedola, has entered a new phase with Otedola
asking a court to order Lawan and three others to pay him N250bn in
damages.
The suit coincides with
petitions to the Inspector-General of Police by Lawan’s lawyers
demanding a face-to-face confrontation between the lawmaker and the
businessman.
The amount, Otedola
says, will compensate him for the loss of patronage he has suffered as a
result of an alleged intimidation by the National Assembly.
Listed as defendants in
the suit number FCT /3839/2012 and filed on June 28, 2012 at the Abuja
High Court, are Lawan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Aminu Tambuwal; the National Assembly and its Clerk.
There had been a raging
scandal in which Otedola, who is the Chairman of Zenon Oil and Gas
Limited, claimed that he paid $620,000 as bribe to Lawan, the suspended
Chairman of the House Ad hoc Committee that probed the management of
fuel subsidy regime in the country.
While Otedola said that
he paid the bribe under pressure, Lawan claimed that he obtained the
bribe in order to expose the businessman.
The businessman’s
company which had been removed from the list of subsidy thieves on the
request of Lawan has, however, been re-listed by the House following the
outbreak of the bribery scandal.
Otedola, who is suing
along with Zenon as the first plaintiff, said in his 28-paragraph
statement of claim that the re-listing of Zenon on the list of indicted
companies was an act of conspiracy.
He claimed that the
alleged conspiracy by both Tambuwal and the National Assembly was
calculated to embarrass him and his company.
In his statement of
claim, Otedola states, “Notwithstanding the on-going Police
investigations and the first defendant’s admission of receiving money
from the second plaintiff, the second and fourth defendants conspired to
relist the name of the first plaintiff to the list of indicted
companies, to embarrass the plaintiffs and their corporate and business
image.
“The plaintiffs shall
contend at trial that the conspiracy by the second and fourth defendants
(Tambuwal and the National Assembly respectively) to re-list the name
of the first plaintiff on the list of companies indicted by the ad-hoc
committee is without basis given that the committee’s finding was
arrived at without proper verification of documents submitted by the
plaintiffs to aid their enquiry.”
Otedola narrated how
Lawan allegedly demanded $3m bribe in the course of the committee’s
investigation and how he made several other intimidating calls that
Zenon would be included on the list of indicted companies if he failed
to comply.
He said the lawmaker did
not relent in his demand for the bribe despite telling him that there
was no basis for Zenon to be indicted by the committee.
He added that he later took to the advice of some unnamed security agencies which asked him to play along with Lawan.
He states further, “In
the course of carrying out his assignment, the first defendant (Lawan)
as head of the ad hoc committee set up by the second and third
defendants contacted the second plaintiff (Otedola) and informed him
that the first plaintiff ( Zenon) was going to be indicted by the ad hoc
committee for purchasing foreign exchange from the Central Bank of
Nigeria without importing petroleum products unless the plaintiff parted
with a bribe of $3m.
“The first defendant
continued to make harassing phone calls to the second plaintiff
calculated at intimidating the plaintiffs to meet the unlawful demand of
the first defendant for bribe
“The second plaintiff
faced with the first defendant’s unrelenting barrage of intimidating
calls became distressed and contacted the security agencies to report
the first defendant’s conduct
“The plaintiffs were
advised by the security agencies to play along and hand over marked
notes to the first defendant and his cohorts for the purpose of
gathering evidence of their nefarious activities.”
In the purported sting
operation, Otedola states that out of the $620,000 bribe, $500,000 was
taken personally by Lawan on April 24, and that $120,000 was handed over
to the clerk of the committee, Boniface Emenalo.
He also says that he
would produce “all call logs and audio-visual records of conversation
and/or meetings” held with Lawan to prove his case.
He states, “On April 24, 2012, the sum of $500,00 was handed over to the first defendant by the second plaintiff.
“At the request of the first defendant, a further sum of $120, 000 was handed over to Boniface Emenalo by the second defendant.
“On the morning of the
April 24, 2012, the first defendant persisted in making intimidating
phone calls to the plaintiffs harassing them to pay up the balance of
$2.380m.
“As a result of the
distress caused to the plaintiffs by the first defendant’s persistent
calls, the plaintiffs reported the matter to the police which invited
the first defendant and the plaintiffs for investigations.”
Otedola, dissatisfied
with the reappearance of Zenon on the list of indicted companies, has
therefore made the claims against the defendants “jointly and
severally”,
“The sum of N100 billion
against the defendants as general damages for the acts of intimidation;
loss of goodwill and patronage, occasioned by the acts of the
defendants; and a separate “sum of N150 billion against the defendants
as exemplary damages for their oppressive and arbitrary action.”
He states, “The action
and conduct of the defendants were oppressive and arbitrary and thereby
also resulting to the plaintiffs suffering substantial loss to their
reputation, goodwill and business.”
Hearing date has not been fixed for the case and it has not been assigned to any judge.
In a reaction on Sunday, the House said that it was ready for Otedola and would assemble a legal team to meet him in court.
However, it clarified that no court summons had been served on it as at Sunday (yesterday).
The Chairman, House
Committee on Media, Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, noted that as a
Nigerian, Otedola was free to express his views or take action on any
issues he strongly disapproves of.
“He is free to go to court; he is a Nigerian. We are ready for him and he will hear from us when we receive accourt summons.
“However, as we speak, I
am not aware of any court action taken against the House. This is
weekend; but he will hear from us when we get the summons”, Mohammed
added.
Otedola and lawan should be killed physically or spiritually for bringing pains to nigerians,and secondly this crop of senators are all criminals.yaw let me use these medium to tell u dat nigerian youths are so much aware of the level of courruption in this country now and very soon we will start going to their houses one after the oder to kill dem and their families.
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