Supreme Court Dismisses Lawan Farouk’s Appeal Over $3m Fraud, Confirms 5-Year Jail Term

Embattled lawmaker, Hon. Farouk Lawan, the former chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy investigation, had his hopes of securing his release sunk when the Supreme Court denied his appeal, which sought to overturn his five-year prison sentence.

Lawan, who had represented Kano State’s Bagwai/Shanono Federal Constituency, was found guilty of extorting $3 million from Chief Femi Otedola, the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd., to clear his company’s record in the fuel subsidy investigation that the House of Representatives had started in 2012. The former lawmaker has been in prison custody since 2021.

On June 22, 2021, Justice Angela Otaluka of a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Apo sentenced the former legislator to seven years in prison.

Lawan had claimed, among other things, that the trial court had denied him the opportunity to enter an allocutus (plea for leniency) before the court’s 5-year prison term.

But the verdict that found Lawan guilty of bribery and sentenced him to five years in prison has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Lawan’s appeal as being without merit.

Justice Inyang Okoro wrote the lead judgment that was read by Justice Tijjani Abubakar.

In the verdict, the Supreme Court said it was “crystal clear that failure of the trial court to call for allocution, did not vitiate the sentence passed on the Appellant.”

Not satisfied with the decision, Lawan filed a 6-ground of appeal to challenge his conviction. He submitted that the ICPC failed to adduce credible evidence establishing a prima facie criminal case against him.

In its judgment on February 24, 2022, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal affirmed the High Court’s judgment.

But in a unanimous decision by a 3-man panel, the Court of Appeal reduced Lawan’s jail term from 7 to 5 years, after it discharged and acquitted him of two of the charges that led to his conviction.