0 Police discover huge wad of dollars at Farouk Lawan's house

An early morning search of the residence of Lawan on Friday by investigators has led to the recovery of huge sum of dollars. The suspended chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Mr. Farouk Lawan, is being detained over the $620,000 bribes he allegedly collected from the chairman of Zenon Oil

and Gas, Mr. Femi Otedola.

He is being interrogated by a team of the Police Special Task Force led by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ali Amodu.

Detectives from the Special Task Force, STF, investigating the $3illion bribe scandal conducted a one-hour search at his Apo residence.
Also, searched was the house of the Secretary of the Committee, Hon. Boniface Emenalo, who was alleged to have collected $120,000 as part of the bribe money.

Elombah.com has learnt that detectives, who searched Lawan and Emenalo’s houses in Abuja recovered the money believed to be part of bribes they received from Otedola.

“Lawan refused to surrender the dollars to investigators, so a search of his house was carried out this morning (Friday) and a huge amount of dollars was found at Lawan and Emenalo’s houses. That is the exhibit needed to build a watertight case and now we have it, things are falling in place,” a source stated.

Lawan, along with the clerk of the committee, Boniface Emenalo, reported at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, on Thursday, but were still being detained as at 7 pm on Friday.

One of the Police investigating the $620m bribe scandal also said that “In the secretly-taped State Security Service (SSS) video done inside Femi Otedola’s residence, Honorable Representative Farouk Lawan was clearly seen stuffing wads of dollar bills collected as bribe into his pocket. When his pocket was full, Farouk Lawan removed his cap and concealed the remaining wads of dollar bills inside it and then replaced the cap on his head. This was to avoid being seen by Otedola’s aides as having left the house with any bulging envelope.”

There were indications on Friday that the lawmaker would spend the weekend in detention as he was still being detained at the time of sending this report.

One of his lawyers, Mr. Samuel Ologunorisa (SAN), said that his counsel would head for court on Monday, if he was not released on Friday.

He said, “I am not aware that he has been released. The lead counsel (Mr. Isreal Olorundare, SAN) is with him as I am speaking to you.  Unfortunately,  today is weekend. If he   is not released today, by Monday we will go to court to enforce his rights.”

Checks indicated that Lawan, who was suspended from his chairmanship of two committees by his colleagues in the House on Friday, may be arraigned on Monday if he was not granted bail before then.

It was learnt that the lawmaker and Emenalo were cooperating with the police and there are strong indications that they might have volunteered information that could lead investigators to other oil marketers that also paid bribes to the committee members.

The Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, confirmed that Lawan was still being held in custody, adding that investigation was yet to be concluded.

“Lawan is still undergoing interrogation and he has not been released, but we are making efforts to ensure speedy conclusion of investigation and to ensure that justice is served to the satisfaction of everyone,” Mba stated.

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