My image in N96m bribe video doctored – Farouk Lawan

CHAIRMAN of the House of  Representatives Committee on the probe of fuel subsidy mismanagement, Mr. Farouk Lawan, said on Sunday that the video purportedly showing him receiving a bribe from an oil marketer was  doctored.

The Lawan committee, which discovered that subsidy thieves had stolen N1.7trn from government coffers as a direct consequence of malpractices in the oil sector, had been embroiled in bribery scandal since last week.

A video recording of  the bribe deal between the oil marketer and the lawmaker is believed to be in the possession of the State Security Service.

However, Lawan said that the  allegation that he collected $600,000 from the  oil marketer to influence the report of the House probe panel was a ploy to divert attention from the recommendations of the committee.

The Rep at a press briefing in Abuja on Sunday said, “I 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 that this is evident from the thorough and in-depth manner the investigation was carried out.

“The present mudslinging is not unexpected in view of the calibre of people whose actions and inactions were found wanting in the report.

“I am aware that in their desperation to discredit the report and divert attention of the public from the real issues of large scale fraud in high places established in the report, a video footage displaying a caricature of my person allegedly having a dealing with a marketer, reminiscent of the military era when dignitaries were invited to the villa to watch a video clip of a phantom coup involving Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is already in circulation.”

The Sunday briefing was Lawan’s first reaction to the alleged scam.

He recalled that he had cried out during the probe that there were pressures on the committee and that he alerted the public that a marketer “promised to fly in a jet loaded with dollars, which he intended to share among the House leadership and members of the ad hoc committee.”

“I did not go to Nnamdi Azikwe Airport or any other place to collect money from anybody. The allegation is diversionary,” he added.

But a source at the House on Sunday also told one of our correspondents that Lawan had confessed to his colleagues in the chamber that he indeed collected the said amount from a businessman but that he intended to tender same as a bribery evidence.

PUNCH