Lawangate: $620,000 bribe money has been spent - Police

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Published on Sunday, 22 July 2012 12:00

Written by Admin

“We are tired of seeing him everyday and he continued telling us he will bring the money. We know his gimmick because he believes that without the exhibit the police cannot prosecute him successfully but let us wait and see."

By promising to hand over the bribe money to the police, Lawan Farouk in effect

acknowledged having accepted bribe money as alleged. With that admission, he is no longer at liberty to not hand over the money to investigators under any circumstances. By having failed numerously to hand over the money to the police so far, contrary to his promises, Lawan has committed additional crimes -- evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. Based on that, the police are required by law to arrest him and a judge must either refuse him bail until he hands over the evidence (the bribe money) or his bail must be conditioned upon his immediately handing over the evidence he is withholding. 

The police cannot be serious with this investigation if this is all they are offering the Nigerian people whose legislator had abused his office by soliciting and accepting bribe. Abject incompetence, not just corruption, is the most debilitating malady that has crippled the Nigerian justice system. The level of incompetence in all elements involved in the judicial system is so palpable and disappointing that a complete overhauling of the system is long over due. 

It has to be only in Nigeria that a suspected criminal would refuse to produce an evidence of crime to which he has acknowledged being in possession of. Here, in the US, he would not see day light until he handed over the evidence. In the event that he refused to hand over the evidence after a reasonable period of incarceration, the prosecutor would put him on trial for obstruction of justice. 

I doubt that the police is seriously attempting to bring this crooked legislator to justice. The fact that they are still addressing him as "Honorable Lawan" defeats the purpose of his investigation. There is nothing honorable about a man who has acknowledge accepting bribe in order to pervert the course of a legislative inquiry and it is unethical for an investigation team to be this overtly deferential to a subject of their investigation.

I feel sorry for Nigeria.

Nebukadineze Adiele.

Lawangate:$620,000 bribe money has been spent - Police 

Indications emerged on Friday that the 620, 000 dollars subsidy bribe money collected by the former Chairman, House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Hon. Farouk Lawan, can no longer be recovered as the Police have concluded that the money has been spent. This is coming as sources close to Saturday Tribune revealed that final reports of the subsidy bribe investigation is being prepared with a view to meet Lawan’s lawyers who are believed ready for legal battle on the matter. 

The source said that conclusion was arrived at, following realisation by Hon. Lawan that his continued insistence that he would bring the money was a ploy to delay Police from concluding its investigation.

It was learnt that the Police authorities are now perfecting their legal front with a view to nipping in the bud, any loophole that Lawan’s lawyers may want to exploit during prosecution of the case.

“The only rope that is being held by Lawan, which was in his statement that he handed over the bribe money to Hon. Adams Jagaba, Chairman, House Committee of Financial Crimes, has been investigated and trashed out with all parties making their statements on that issue,” a source said.

“We are tired of seeing him everyday and he continued telling us he will bring the money. We know his gimmick because he believes that without the exhibit the police cannot prosecute him successfully but let us wait and see.”

“It will now be the turn of the courts to decide on the findings of the Police investigation. We have done a job that will be difficult to fault. We have overwhelming evidence even before now, just that we wanted to plug any probable loop hole,” the source told Saturday Tribune.

It will be recalled that oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola, had claimed that Hon. Lawan took 620,000 dollars bribe from him under pressure to enable him remove name of his company among those that benefitted illegally from fuel subsidy fund and that he had audio and visual evidences to proof his claims.This is as he claimed that operatives of State Security Service (SSS) were in the know of the incident.

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