I never collected $600,000 bribe from oil baron —Farouk Lawan

Farouk Lawan
Kano), yesterday denied he had
received $600,000 bribe from an
oil marketer to influenced the
report, describing the allegation
as baseless and cheap blackmail.
He said after his committee
uncovered a N1 trillion fraud in
the subsidy implementation, it
should be expected that the
powerful cabal behind the high-
scale corruption in the oil sector
would not only fight back but
would fight dirty.
Lawan, in a statement, denied
ever meeting the unnamed oil
marketer at the Abuja airport
to receive the $600,000 first
instalment of what was said to
be a $3 million bribe, adding that
he had to leave the country
when pressures were coming
from high quarters to doctor
the report to suit certain
interest.
The statement reads in part: “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 thorough and
indepth manner the investigation
was
carried out and the all-
encompassing recommendations
produced there from as
approved by the whole House.
“The general public is hereby
reminded that during and after
the investigations, we have
severally raised alarm on
pressures on us from different
quarters. In particular, I wish to
refer to the front page
publication in the Leadership
Weekend newspaper of 28th,
April, 2012 captioned “Marketers
offered subsidy committee
plane-load of dollars” where we
alerted the public that a
marketer promised to fly in a jet
loaded
with US dollars which he
“intended to share to both the
House leadership and members
of the ad hoc committee to
influence the outcome of the
report.
“The clarification is necessary in
order to clear all the
insinuations being bandied about
and more importantly to enable
government concentrate on the
implementation of the report.
“The present mudslinging is not
unexpected in view of the
calibre of people whose actions
or inactions were found wanting
in the report. I am aware that in
their desperation to discredit
the report and divert the
attention of the public from the
real issues of large-scale fraud
in high places established in our
report, a video footage
displaying a caricature of my
person allegedly having a dealing
with a marketer reminiscent of
military era when dignitaries
were invited to the Villa to
watch video clip of phantom
coup involving Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo is already in circulation.
“I wish to assure all Nigerians
that the sanctity of our reports
remains unassailable and it will
be in the best interest of the
country if the relevant
authorities faithfully and
consciously implement the
resolutions of the House. No
amount of red-herring and
cheap blackmail will affect our
resolve to act in the best
interest of the country with all
the available information at our
disposal. No doubt, the last has
not been heard”.
In a brief interview, Lawan said
the committee informed the
House of all the attempts made
to reach out to the members
and all the issues were
discussed.
“You don’t fight corruption and
expect that these people will
just be silent. We anticipate they
were going to fight back and
fight dirty. There were several
threats on our lives when we
were doing the investigations. At
a point, I did not sleep in my
house for five days. And because
of the pressures from very high
quarters, I had to leave this
country. I believe the aim of the
persons peddling the latest news
is
to divert attention from the
report. This is not about me but
a way of diverting attention
from the findings in that report.
We were approached and we
made it known to the House.
That was why the Speaker made
allusions
to the fact that these
persons would fight back and
would fight dirty during the
presentation of that report”, he
said.
Lawan said he would speak
further on the matter as events
unfold.
Source: Dailytrust