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| Femi Otedola |
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| Farouk lawan |
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| OBJ |
Billionaire owner
of Zenon Oil and Gas limited and Chief Executive Officer of Forte Oil, Mr. Femi
Otedola is now in serious trouble.
The House of
Representatives have moved against him and has ordered discrete investigations
into all his business dealings in the country.
On Friday, June
15, 2012 at an emergency session of the House where the lower chamber debated
on the 3 million dollar bribe scandal currently the Chairman of Adhoc Committee
on Fuel Subsidy Regime, Honourable Farouk Lawan and the secretary of the
committee, Honourable Boniface Emenalo, the house unanimously passed a motion
that Femi Otedola's Zenon Oil be put
back in the list of petroleum products marketers who obtained forex, but did
not import petroleum products and be referred to either the Economic and
Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practice
Commission (ICPC) for proper investigation and possible prosecution.
The House of Reps
claimed that Femi Otedola's Zenon Oil collected 233million dollars forex for
petroleum product, but did not import even a litre.
Apart from that,
we gathered that some northern businessmen and politicians are already ganging
up against the soft spoken Epe, Lagos State born big boy for exposing the
clandestine “deal” between him and Farouk Lawan.
Femi Otedola had
alleged that Farouk Lawan approached him and demanded for 3million dollars
bribe in order to remove the name of Zenon Oil from the short listed oil
marketers who collected money from the government without delivering petroleum
products. Femi claimed in an exclusive interview published by a newspaper that
Farouk became persistent that he must pay the money because other marketers
were paying, and after disturbing him so much, he then decided to set Hon.
Farouk up with the help of some undercover agents of the State Security Service
(SSS) who recorded the transaction in a video.
Farouk Lawan was
said to have collected 500,000 dollars while the secretary of the committee
collected 120,000 dollars, making a total sum of 620,000 dollars bribe.
When Otedola made the
revelation, Hon. Farouk Lawan who is the leader of an anti-corrupt group in the
National Assembly, the Integrity Group denied that he had any dealings with
Otedola, but when the video came out, the Kano state born politician
capitulated and owned up that he actually collected the money, but to expose
Otedola as a bribe giver.
As watery as
Lawan's defence was, he claimed to have intimated the Inspector General of
Police, M.D Abubakar, who then ordered an investigation into it.
The uproar that
the bribe scandal threw up made the police swing into action by inviting the
bribe giver and bribe taker for questioning. Femi Otedola, honoured the
Nigerian Police invitation and went to give his own statement on Tuesday, June
12, 2012 while Farouk Lawan went on Thursday, June 14. As at the time of
writing this report, Hon. Farouk Lawan is still being detained by the Nigerian
Police.
At the emergency
session of the House presided over by speaker Aminu Tambuwal last Friday, Hon.
Farouk Lawan was still with the police and he was removed as the chairman of
the House of Reps Committee on Education and also kicked out as the chairman of
the Adhoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime.
But beyond what is
being bandied around by both parties, First Weekly Magazine investigation revealed
that before they fell apart, Femi Otedola visits Farouk Lawan's home on a
regular basis. We were told that it was even Femi Otedola that supplied
documents and information against other oil marketers that are his competitors
in the industry.
“Femi Otedola was
the person that Farouk Lawan was using to get damaging information and document
against other marketers.
“That was how the
probe panel was able to do a good job in the eyes of the public.
“All of them
collected money but Femi told Farouk to remove the name of his own company
because of the first hand information he was giving out, but Farouk told him he
must settle too. That was when they started having problems” one of Farouk's
friends told us.
We were further
informed that when Farouk Lawan became more persistent, Femi Otedola informed
former president Obasanjo about it, who then adviced that the exchange of bribe
should be recorded on video to nail Farouk Lawan.
But unknown to
Femi Otedola, Obasanjo's ultimate aim is to get at the entire leadership of the
House of Representatives, especially the speaker, Aminu Tambuwal.
We were told that
speaker Tambuwal is seen by the executive arm of government as too
confrontational and always tackles President Goodluck Jonathan, even at public
fora. An example of such was at the last democracy day lecture when Tambuwal
openly castigated Jonathan for not signing many of the bills passed by the
House. Tambuwal got a standing ovation at the event.
It would also be
recalled that the election of Tambuwal as the speaker of the House last year
against the leadership of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) altered the
zoning arrangements of the party. The speaker of the House of Rep was supposed
to be zoned to the South-West region of the country. But Tambuwal and his
caucus went into the election and defeated Hon. Adeola Mulikat who Obasanjo as
the Board of Trustee Chairman of the PDP then and other leaders of the party
were supporting.
Since that period,
Obasanjo had been waiting patiently to trap the speaker. “So Baba (Obasanjo) is
happy that Farouk Lawan is in the hot soup, and that there is no way the
speaker will not be part of it. There is tension in the House of Reps now
because some anti Tambuwal group are now gearing up to begin the campaign for
his removal as speaker. I can confirm that several meetings are going on”’ the
source said.
Meanwhile, sensing
that the bribe scandal will consume the leadership of the House, at the last
Friday's emergency session, the members of the House passed a vote of
confidence in Speaker Aminu Tambuwal. The motion was moved on Hon. Samson
Osagie (ACN, Edo State), seconded by Hon. Ekwunifi (Anambra State) and it was
carried overwhelmingly.
But political
watchers know that the vote of confidence on the speaker could change any moment.
Also, we learnt
that the most northern businessmen and politicians have tagged Femi Otedola as
a spy for Jonathan and would not want to have any dealings with him from now
on.
Statement
From Mr. Femi Otedola Following
The
House Of Representatives Deliberations
On
The Bribery Scandal
I have stated the
facts in my interview with Thisday newspaper and nothing but the facts. That
Farouk Lawan demanded $3 million from me and because I refused to oblige him he
included the name of Zenon amongst those who bought forex without importing
petroleum products. He did this without even asking Zenon to produce a single
documents of the forex transaction. He clearly wanted to extort money for an
offence I did not commit. That is why I went to report to the security
agencies. If I had anything to hide I wouldn’t have gone to the agencies. There
is an old adage that says “people who live in glass houses should not throw
stones”.
Moreover it is not
possible to purchase $232, 975,385.13 million from CBN without importing the
product. The total figure is not even $232, 975,385.13 million as alleged but
$372, 207, 990 million. They should go and amend the report to read $372, 207,
990 million which is the correct figure. It is not possible to purchase this
volume of forex from the CBN with first class banks such as Access bank, FCMB,
GTB, UBA and an international bank BNP Paribas which is one of the biggest and
most respected banks in the world.
If people at my
level who have worked hard to build their businesses can be blackmailed this
way all in a bid to extort money from them, I pity people that are just
starting out in business in this country. In all my business dealings I have
always been above board and the records are there to prove. As far as I know
Lawan could not have been working alone in this extortionist plot. A tree does
not make a forest. Let me also state for the records that we are not in any way
affiliated to the other company Synopsis enterprises Ltd also included in the
report. Actions of today by the house is laughable, a mere celebration of
corruption and a further indictment on their honorable member.
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