Farouk Lawan, Boniface Emenalo granted N10m bail

The erstwhile Chairman and Secretary of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy probe, Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo who were remanded in prison custody last week have been granted N10 million bail each. The Federal High Court on Friday in Abuja granted the lawmakers N10m bail each and also ban the lawmakers from any oversea travels The court presided over by Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi last week had ordered that the accused lawmakers be remanded for one week in Kuje Prisons, Abuja, pending the determination of their bail application on February 8.

“I have studied the submissions of counsel to parties in this matter and the court is disposed to admitting the accused persons to bail. “The bail sum is N10 million with two sureties. The bail is, however, free but it becomes effective upon the fulfillment of the stated conditions. “The accused persons are not expected to travel out of the country during the pendency of the trial and therefore, they are mandated to surrender their travel passports to the registrar of the court. “The court’s decision to admit the accused persons on bail is also predicated on the conviction that they would not jump justice. “In fact, the report available to the court says they are presently enjoying administrative bail and that they have always yielded to police invitation during the investigation,’’ he said. Lawan is charged with corruptly obtaining 500,000 dollars for himself from Mr Femi Otedola, the Chairman, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, as inducement to remove the company’s name from the committee’s report, among other charges. Similarly, Boniface, an assistant director and secretary of the committee, is alleged to have “corruptly asked for 3,000,000 dollars from Mr Femi Otedola’’. Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), the prosecution counsel said Farouk committed an offence contrary to Section 17 (1) of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000, punishable under section 17 (1) of the same Act.