Farouk Lawan refutes $600,000 bribe allegation

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Farouk Lawan has denied receiving an alleged bribe of $600,000 from any oil marketer, adding that neither did any member of his committee. A video recording is alleged to be making rounds on the internet, revealing how the lawmaker was given a sum of $600,000 by an oil marketer. The money is alleged to bribe the lawmaker so that the oil baron and his companies will be exonerated from complicity in the oil subsidy scam. Mr Lawan in a statement on Sunday night, refuted the allegation stating that “I wish to categorically deny that I or any member of the committee demanded and received any bribe from anybody in connection with the fuel subsidy probe and I believe this is evident from the thorough and in-depth manner the investigation was carried out and the all-encompassing recommendations produced therefrom as approved by the whole House.” The lawmaker presided over the ad-hoc committee’s investigation of the mismanagement of the fuel subsidy which lasted over 10 weeks. The committee’s report indicted a number people in the oil subsidy scam which is estimated at almost N2trillion.