A former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, has again gained freedom after serving a five-year jail term.
The former lawmaker was released on Tuesday morning from the Kuje Correctional Facility.
Recall that in June 2021, a Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court in Abuja sentenced Mr Lawan to seven years’ imprisonment for receiving $500,000 and demanding a bribe from oil magnate Femi Otedola while serving as the chairman House of Representatives ad-hoc committee probing subsidy fraud in 2012.
The presiding judge, Angela Otaluka, found the four-term lawmaker guilty of all three counts of corruption and bribery filed against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC.
Delivering judgement in the case, Ms Otaluka said Mr Lawan demanded $3 million and received $500,000 from Mr Femi Otedola.
The judge ruled that the lawmaker took the bribe to remove Mr Otedola’s oil company, Zenon Oil and Gas, from the list of firms indicted for fraud in the fuel subsidy regime.
“The prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant (Mr Lawan) demanded and received the sum of $500,000 from Mr Femi Otedola in order to exonerate his oil firm from an investigation by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy probe,” the judge said.
However, the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence from seven to five years.
The appellate court also exonerated him of two out of the three counts he was convicted of by the trial court.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Mr Lawan approached the Supreme Court to overturn the judgements of the trial and appellate courts.
In January, the Supreme Court affirmed five years of jail term slapped on him by the lower courts.
