Farouk Lawan, the chairman
of the House of Representative ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy, yesterday
debunked allegations that he demanded and received bribe from an oil company
involved in the fuel subsidy scam. He said the allegations was an attempt to
stop the implementation of the report of the just concluded investigation. Well,
now the CEO of the oil company involved, Mr Femi Otedola of Zenon Oil, has come
out to say he actually did give Lawan $620, 000, which was part payment of the
$3million the Federal lawmaker had demanded from him to exonerate Zenon Oil. The
full report when you continue...
In an exclusive
interview with THISDAY, chairman, Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi
Otedola, who hitherto was suspected of being behind the $3 million bribery
scandal, blew the lid on what transpired and how chairman of the ad-hoc
committee, Hon. Farouk Lawan, and the secretary of the committee, Mr. Boniface
Emenalo, had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation masterminded by
the security agencies.
The amount was part payment for the $3 million,
which he alleged Lawan had demanded from him to exonerate Zenon Oil from the
ad-hoc committee’s report.
As the scandal unfolds, it was learnt that
operatives of the State Security Services have sent a video recording of the
incident to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further scrutiny
and action.
Otedola, who was opening up on the issue for the first time,
narrated how Lawan at the outset of the probe had approached him to get some
insight into the workings of the downstream oil and gas sector.
Otedola said
he obliged him and ensured that his managing directors of Forte Oil Plc and
Zenon Oil appeared at the subsidy probe during its public hearing after both
companies had been invited by the committee.
During the probe, he said the
committee was informed in no uncertain terms that Zenon does not and has never
made claims for subsidy payments from the federal government, as the company was
engaged solely in the importation of diesel, a product that is not
subsidised.
Zenon’s managing director, Mr. Kanmi Kareem Otaru, during the
probe had denied that the company had anything to do with the subsidy regime. He
told the committee, “For the avoidance of doubt Zenon never participated or
benefited from the subsidy scheme or Petroleum Support Fund
(PSF).”
According to him, going by the Act which established the PSF
scheme, “Zenon couldn’t participate in it because we don’t have a network of PMS
retail outlets which was one of the key criteria beneficiaries must meet and as
such we are not qualified to participate to draw from subsidy payments on PMS.
So we never collected as records will show.”
Irrespective of the
clarification made at the hearing, Otedola said Lawan still approached him a few
days before the report was to be tabled on April 18, 2012 before the House of
Representatives, demanding money so that Zenon’s name will be kept out of the
report.
“When this happened, I was very angry and reminded him that Zenon
has never participated in the subsidy scheme and that it would be criminal to
rope in the company for something it did not do.
“But Lawan responded,
stating that several other marketers were playing ball and had offered the
members of the committee large sums of money to ensure that their companies’
names were not published in the report,” he added.
Otedola, said
initially he balked at Lawan’s attempt to extort money from him and told the
legislator that he would not pay up, as Zenon had not committed any
crime.
“Then a day before the report was to be submitted, Lawan called again,
informing me that Zenon’s name had been included in the report.
“I, of
course, was very angry and asked him to desist from his course of action, but
Lawan insisted that I must pay up as other oil marketers had done before
me.”
Otedola said he could not believe his eyes the next day when the
report came out and Zenon’s name had been listed under the category of companies
that had bought foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but had
not imported petrol.
The amount ascribed to Zenon in the report was
$232,975,385.13. The report had recommended that Zenon and 14 other marketers
that had bought the foreign exchange be referred to the anti-corruption agencies
to determine what they used the monies for.
Otedola said at this point he
again called Lawan demanding that Zenon’s name be removed from the list, as
there was no way his company could have bought that volume of foreign exchange
without importing products.
“I reminded him that the amount ascribed to
Zenon was wrong as what the company bought was over $400 million for importation
of products through the banks – Zenith, UBA and GTB – and that under Sanusi (CBN
governor) there was no way anyone could have bought that quantity of foreign
exchange and not imported the products having filled the Form M.
“Sanusi
will simply clamp down on anyone who tries to pull that kind of stunt,” he
said.
In spite of this, Otedola said Lawan still demanded that the members of
the committee be given money in exchange for removing Zenon’s name from the
report before it is considered in plenary by the entire House.
Otedola said
he then asked how much would be required to make the committee happy, to which
Lawan responded $3 million.
“I screamed at him, demanding to know why he
was doing this to me. All he said was other marketers were paying up to keep
their names out of the report so I should do likewise,” he said.
Otedola
revealed that it was this point he decided to involve the security agencies to
catch Lawan and his committee with their hands in the till.
According to
him, “As a law-abiding citizen, I decided to involve the security agencies and
they advised me to play along, which prompted me to offer to pay part of the
money with the promise that I would pay the balance when my company’s name had
been removed from the report.”
The security agencies, he disclosed, gave him
serialised dollar bills for the sting job and there are call logs, video and
audio recordings in the possession of the agencies to confirm all that had
transpired between himself and Lawan.
He said on April 21, the Saturday
before the plenary, Lawan came in person to his residence and collected $250,000
in cash, as the first instalment, “then the next Monday night he came and
collected another $250,000.
“On Tuesday, at 9am, just before the House
commenced seating, Boniface came and collected another $120,000.”
Otedola
confirmed that during the sting, Lawan and Boniface collected a total of
$620,000 in three instalments as part of the $3 million demanded from him.
He
added that with the $620,000 that had been extorted by Lawan and the committee,
during the plenary, Zenon’s name was removed from the list of companies that had
bought foreign exchange but did not import products.
Otedola continued: “He
(Lawan) now asked for the balance of $2.5 million, but when I told him that I
had no money now that the money was in Lagos, he suggested that I should charter
a plane to fly the money from Lagos to Abuja.”
Otedola stressed that his
decision to get the law enforcement and security agencies involved stemmed from
the fact that he had not broken any law, maintaining that as a law-abiding
citizen, he was saddened by the fact that he was being blackmailed by of all
people, members of the legislature.
“If you have information that an armed
robber is come to raid your home, won’t you notify the police? So, that was the
purpose of the sting operation.
“Besides, my integrity is paramount to me. I
started selling petroleum products 14 years ago in drums and somebody who has
never run a petrol station is trying to blackmail and extort money from
me.
“If others (marketers) have paid money, maybe they are guilty. But I did
not do anything wrong, so why should they extort money from me? As a law-abiding
citizen, I had to involve the security agencies. Indeed, I’m very disappointed
because I have worked hard to build my business.”
Insisting that he had
nothing to hide or fear over what had happened, Otedola maintained if he was in
the wrong he would not have involved the security agencies in the first
instance.
In a reference to the strong denials made by Lawan since the
scandal became public, Otedola stated, “When he (Lawan) demanded the bribe, I
called the agencies. That is because I had nothing to hide. When the bribe was
paid, why did he not call and report it to the agencies if he had nothing
to.”
Meanwhile, THISDAY gathered that the videotape of the illicit
transaction had been sent to the EFCC to investigate the incident.
