The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and five years sentence of former member of the House of Representatives Farouk Lawan, who was convicted by a high Court of the Federal Capital Territory for receiving a bribe of five hundred thousand dollars from a Nigerian businessman Femi Otedola.
In February 2013, Lawan was charged with the corruption allegation of accepting the money from the Nigerian billionaire.
In 2021, Lawan as chairman, house adhoc committee investigating oil subsidy, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for soliciting and accepting the bribe, but the court of Appeal Abuja in 2022 reduced the prison sentence to five years.
He filed an appeal against the judgment, but the Supreme Court in dismissed Farouk Lawan’s appeal for lacking in merit, and upheld the appellate court’s decision on the matter.
The appeal court had earlier discharged him on two out of the three counts he was accused of.
