Govt lawyers advise FG to try Lawan, Otedola

INVESTIGATIONS by The PUNCH have revealed that the Federal Government is in a dilemma about the probe of the Farouk Lawan-Femi Otedola $620,000 bribery scandal. The government, sources affirmed, had been undecided whether to prosecute only Lawan, the suspended chairman of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, who had confessed to receiving the bribe money or along with  Otedola, the Chairman of Zenon Oil and Gas, who claimed that he gave the bribe in a sting operation.
Our correspondents learnt that both Lawan and Otedola were recommended for prosecution by some legal minds in the Ministry of Justice. The ministry officials were said to have based their recommendation on the report of the Police Special Task Force that investigated the scandal.
A member of the Police Special Task Force, who pleaded anonymity, confided in one of our correspondents that that the report of the STF did not exonerate Otedola.

However, there were speculations that there had been pressure on the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), not to prosecute Otedola.
But Adoke said he had been no under any pressure not to prosecute Otedola.
“I am not under any pressure not to prosecute anyone. The file (on the scandal) has not got to me. It is with the Director of Public Prosecutions,” the minister told one of our correspondents on Tuesday.
 “The feelers we are getting from the government indicate that it is not ready to prosecute the businessman,” a top police officer said.
The source, however, said that the manner of the suting operation being claimed by Otedola was making it difficult for the government to exclude the businessman.