$500,000 bribe charge: Supreme Court affirms ex-lawmaker Lawan’s five-year jail term

The nation’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the five-year sentence slammed on a former House of Representatives member, Farouk Lawan, by the Court of Appeal for demanding and accepting $500,000 bribe while in the lower chamber.

Persecondnews recalls that Lawan had demanded and accepted a $500,000 bribe from Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, billionaire Femi Otedola and was in 2021, convicted and sentenced to a five-year imprisonment.

Lawan had appealed the February 24, 2022 judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja.

The court sentenced him to five years and discharged him on two out of the three counts on the corruption charge brought against him by the Federal Government.

The apex court, in a lead judgment delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, held that Lawan’s appeal lacked merit and summarily dismissed it.

The five-member panel unanimously affirmed the 2022 judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld Lawan’s conviction on only count three of the three-count charge for which he was prosecuted at a Federal High Court, Abuja.