The Supreme Court has upheld the imprisonment of former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan over $.5 million fraud. It is not however clear whether the apex court judgment will affect his sentence from the original seven to five years as reduced by the Court of Appeal.
The lead judgement of the apex court panel read by Justice Tijani Abubakar on Friday dismissed Lawan’s appeal against the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which had in February 2022 reduced the term imposed by a high court from seven to five years.
Lawal, who was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, was arraigned in 2013 after he allegedly demanded a bribe of $3 million from billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, who accused him of receiving the sum of $500,000.
The bribe was said to help influence the removal of the name of his oil company from the list of indicted companies in the fuel subsidy scam of 2012.
Lawan was in June 2021, convicted on the three count charges preferred against him by the federal government with a sentence of five years each for the first two counts, and seven years for the last count, all to run concurrently.
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