Ismail Abdulazeez Mantu Reporting
Former Nigerian federal legislator Farouk Lawan has been released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for soliciting and accepting a $500,000 bribe
Lawan, who served as chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating fuel subsidy fraud in 2012, was convicted of attempting to extort a $3 million bribe from billionaire oil tycoon Femi Otedola.
The case began in 2012 when Lawan’s committee implicated Otedola’s company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd., in the fuel subsidy scam. Lawan then demanded a $3 million bribe from Otedola to have his company removed from the list . Otedola cooperated with the State Security Service to gather evidence, recording a sting operation where he gave Lawan $500,000.
Lawan was initially sentenced to seven years in prison in 2021 but appealed, reducing his sentence to five years. The Supreme Court upheld the five-year sentence in January 2024. Lawan’s release marks the end of a nearly decade-long legal saga surrounding the fuel subsidy scandal that rocked Nigeria’s oil industry.