Lawan, Boniface arraigned, remanded in prison custody

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime, Hon. Farouk Lawan, and the Secretary of the committee, Emenalo Boniface, were on Friday morning arraigned before High Court 4 of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja for offences bordering on receiving gratification in the course of their duty.
The presiding judge, Justice M.N. Oniyangi, ordered their remand in prison custody until February 8, 2013 when their plea for bail would be taken.
Lawan and Boniface were accused of soliciting for a $3 million bribe from the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Femi Otedola, in the course of their duties in the monitoring of the fuel subsidy regime.
They were, however, able to collect $620,000 before security agencies moved in to arrest them.
The suit against Lawan and Boniface was filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Federal Ministry of Justice, O.O. Fatunde, on behalf of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke.
Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Count One of the seven count charges described the $3 million “as inducement to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime’s Report and did cause the House of Representatives to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the said list and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26 (1) © of The Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 8(1) of the same Act.”