The appeal by a former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, against the judgments of the lower court which imprisoned him has been rejected by the Supreme Court.
Justice Tijani Abubakar who read the lead judgement, affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal and dismissed Lawan’s appeal.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court had jailed Lawan to seven years imprisonment for receiving a $500,000 bribe while serving as the chairman of the House’s ad-hoc committee investigating the fuel subsidy fraud in 2012.
The trial judge, Angela Otaluka, held that Lawan demanded $3m and received $500,000 from Femi Otedola in 2012 to remove Otedola’s oil company, Zenon Oil and Gas, from the list of firms indicted for fraud in the fuel subsidy regime.
She found Lawan guilty of all three counts of corruption and bribery.
Lawan appealed against the ruling at the Appeal Court which reduced the jail term to five years.
Lawan went to the apex court urging it to set aside the judgments of the lower court, but lost out as the Supreme court upheld his sentence.
