Bribery scandal not a House matter – Reps

The House of Representatives on Wednesday declined further comments on the $620,000 bribe offered Mr. Farouk Lawan by oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola. Lawan chaired the ad-hoc committee of the House, which investigated the fuel subsidy regime last April. The Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told The PUNCH that the bribery allegation was not a House matter. Mohammed said, “We don’t have further comments to make on that issue as a House. “It is not a House matter; those seeking for information should go outside the House because it is not in the House.” Only on Tuesday, the Chairman, House Committee on Drugs/Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Mr. Adams Jagaba, whom Lawan claimed to have handed the $620,000, said he neither saw nor received the money. The Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, had written Jagaba, asking him to respond to a request from the Office of
the Inspector-General of Police demanding that the House should retrieve the $620,000 from Jagaba’s committee. Jagaba, in response to Tambuwal, denied that the money was ever in his possession. The communication between Tambuwal and Jagaba took place on Tuesday. It was learnt that the Speaker had already communicated Jagaba’s response to the head of the Police Special Task Force investigating the bribery allegation, Mr. Ali Amadu. A source in the National Assembly said, “The speaker has forwarded a reply to the police. “His response is consistent with the position of the House that there is no bribe money kept with any committee or member of the House. “This should lay this issue to rest on the part of the House. “Security agencies who are investigating the allegation should direct their inquiries to the appropriate quarters, not the House.” The source, who pleaded not to be named, urged the police to return to Lawan to ask more questions on where he kept the bribe money. The source added, “The money is not with the House; the person he claimed he gave the money had disowned him. “So, where is the money? It is not the House that will answer the question but Lawan.”