Clerk to Farouk Lawan, when he served as the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Boniface Emenalo, has revealed how he collected $100,000 from billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola.
Speaking on Monday before a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Lugbe, Emenalo said the funds were part of the alleged $3m bribe promised to Farouk Lawan by Otedola.
Lawan is being prosecuted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission for receiving a bribe of $500,000 from Otedola in exchange for the removal of the name of his company from the list of firms indicted by the House committee over the abuse of the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.
Emenalo, who was initially charged alongside Lawan, subsequently had his name removed as defendant after the charges were amended.
Testifying as the first prosecution witness before Justice Angela Otakula, Emenalo said: “I came across Femi Otedola during this assignment on April 24, 2012. I received persistent calls from Mr. Otedola in the morning and reported to Lawan and he asked me to play along .with him, that he was with him (Otedola) the previous night.”
“When Otedola called again, he asked me to come over to his house. He gave me the description (of his house). When I got there, he also confirmed that he was with my chairman the previous night. He gave me two bundles of dollar bills in $100 denomination. Each bundle was $50,000 making it $100,000 that were not converted.”
“When I got back to the office, I wrote a memo forwarding the money to my chairman that same April 24, 2012, which he took from me.”
A copy of the memo was tendered before the court and the judge subsequently adjourned till April 12 and 13, 2016 for continuation of trial and cross-examination.
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