A three-term member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Adams Jagaba, on Wednesday denied any connection with the alleged bribe which the then Chairman of the House’s Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Mr. Farouk Lawan, was said to have received from billionaire businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, in 2012.
Jagaba denied among others, claims, all of which were credited to Lawan that a certain sum of $620,000 from the bribe allegedly received from Otedola was reported and handed over to him with a covering letter by the ex-chairman of the House’s ad-hoc committee on petroleum subsidy.
The lawmaker representing Kachia/Kagarko Federal Constituency of Kaduna State in the House of Representatives, also said Lawan never visited him (Jagaba) at about 3am on April 24, 2012 as claimed.
The 57-year-old Jagaba, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1999 and subsequently in 2011 and in 2015, refuted the numerous claims credited to Lawan before Justice Angela Otakula of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Lugbe, Abuja, on Tuesday.
Jagaban had appeared before the court as the fourth prosecution witness in Lawan’s ongoing trial.
The Federal Government is prosecuting Lawan before the court on three counts of a corrupt collection of $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he allegedly requested from Otedola.
Lawan was accused of accepting the bribe in exchange for the removal of Otedola’s company’s name, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, from the list of firms indicted by the House committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.
