A must watch video, watch how Farouk Lawani in a position of trust misled the House of Representatives into removing the names of Zenon Oil and Synposis, two companies belonging to businessman Femi Otedola from a list of oil marketing companies that shortchange the Nigerian Government.
Your guess is as good as ours, all this happened after ….
$3million bribery: Farouk Lawan request removal of Otedola’s company from fuel subsidy report.
Video Courtesy Channels TV
I’m going to have to disagree with a
lot of people on this issue. I’m
aware I’m going to stand alone on
my side of the fence but that’s
fine.
My stance is based on the
fact that at the risk of life & limb
Farouk Lawan gave Nigerians a
probe & a report the sort of which
we’ve never seen before.
To be able to articulate my stance,
I’d raise a number of issues &
questions designed to help people
assess Farouk Lawan’s culpability.
I’d also attempt to address the issue
of the report of the fuel subsidy
probe.
1. In late March/early April
Farouk Lawan raised alarm about
threats to his life & offers of
ridiculous sums of money as bribe.
He particularly mentioned that a
marketer offered him a plane full
of money. One of the major
ingredients of Femi Otedola’s
allegation is that money was to be
flown from Lagos to Abuja via a
private jet for Farouk Lawan. Isn’t
this funny? How does a man raise
an alarm as per a bribe then collect
said bribe? I find this curious.
2. Farouk Lawan alleges that he
reported this matter to the IGP in
April. He has presented memos to
show that he did so. How come the
IGP has not publicly confirmed or
denied this?
3. Farouk Lawan allegedly collected
money to exculpate Femi Otedola’s
companies from indictment.
People allegedly use the exclusion
of Zenon Oil as a basis for
reaching a conclusion of FL’s
culpability. But it is common
knowledge that Zenon does not
import PMS. Rather it imports
diesel only. So how can a probe
report indict a company for
activities in a line of business it
does not participate in?
Secondly, Forte Oil a company in
which Femi Otedola allegedly owns
interests was indicted by the FL
committee. Will a person who
collected money to subvert the cause
of justice indict the person who
gave him the money? Does it make
sense?
4. Where is the video that has FL
collecting money? Has it been
subjected to forensic scrutiny?
Why is it shrouded in so much
secrecy? What are the details of
the operation from which the video
emanates?
Why the discrepancy in the details
between what the SSS are saying &
what Femi Otedola is saying? How
come Femi Otedola reports that the
video was recorded using a video
recorder hidden in a pen but the SSS
says it was recorded using CCTV
cameras?
5. Let’s talk about the probe report.
It was submitted 2 months ago with
a deadline that it shld be
implemented within 3 months &
refunds of monies collected by oil
marketers to be done within 3
months.
2 months later no mrketer has
made a report. No one has been
arrested. No one has been invited to
EFCC to participate in
investigations. Yet FL has been
arrested, detained, interrogated &
suspended from the House barely 5
days after Femi Otedola’s
allegation went public. Isn’t this
just funny? Why the difference
in speed in respect to both issues?
Why arrest a person for $620,000
when people who stole
$8,000,000,000 are not even
questioned? This stinks.
As per the veracity of the report,
the AGF said a few weeks ago that
the recommendations contained
therein weren’t charges. Rather
they were basis for the EFCC to
conduct investigations from which
charges would be filed against any
companies found culpable by the
EFCC rather than those found
culpable by the report.
Why then should that change?
Why should this allegation of
impropriety change the position of
the AGF that the report would not
be evidence in court but the
investigations of the EFCC would
be used as evidence?
I make this stand particularly in
view of the fact that the AGF
made this statement after the
“bribe” had allegedly been given to
FL. As AGF, a very important
position in govt, it must be
presumed that he was aware of this
allegation before he made this
statement. How then can we say
the plan ought not to be followed
the way it was designed?
6. The bribe giver, Femi Otedola is
free & walking the streets. Yet
Lawan alone is arrested & detained.
The sum total of the answers I have
for these questions leads me to lend
more credence to FL’s version of
events as opposed to the allegations
of Femi Otedola. The facts as
given by the latter just don’t add
up. They simply don’t.
Finally, I end this by saying how
culpable we all are in the corruption
that pervades our land. We often
look for heroes who’d stand up for
us and take a stand against
corruption. Yet when they come, we
join the house of the corrupt to tear
them down. I dare say that with the
way the public has abandoned Mr
Lawan, it’d be eons before someone
stands up for us again.
Corruption and bribery is a very difficult thing to eredicate in Nigeria……..Everybody is culpable
I totally agree with Aleqs on this one, there is more to this than beholds the eyes. There is a bigger scam that will be unvieled in due course. A popular Yoruba adage says “gbogbo wa lo’le” meaning we are all involved.