$620,000 bribe scam: Lawan asks court to quash charges

Farouk Lawa

A member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, on Wednesday asked an Abuja High Court to quash a seven-count criminal charge brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, over allegations that he demanded and received the sum of $620,000 as bribe from a businessman, Femi Otedola.

Lawan was alleged to have committed the crime while he served as  Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime.

The trial proper was scheduled to commence on Wednesday but counsel for Lawan and his co-accused, Mr. Boniface Emenalo, Chief Rickey Terfa,  argued that the court must first hear and determine the application to quash the charges.

Terfa noted that the application to quash the charges also challenged the jurisdiction of the court to conduct the trial.

The defence counsel argued that the court should not have granted ICPC’s application for leave to prefer the charges because the prosecution failed to provide materials which were required for the judge to grant the application.

Arguing that the foundation of the case was faulty, Terfa asked the court to discharge the accused persons since no prima facie case had been established against them.

According to him, the prosecutor failed to comply with the provisions of section 155 (1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code which required that statements of witnesses be attached to the application to prefer charges.

But the prosecution counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, asked the court to dismiss the application, which he described as a tactic to waste the time of the court.

Awomolo maintained that the Supreme Court had held, in many cases, that the purpose of seeking for leave of courts to prefer charges was to ensure that frivolous criminal charges were not filed and not to allow the accused persons to see the details of the charges against them.

He argued that the charges remained valid adding that non-attachment of witnesses’ statements did not undermine the legality of the charges.

Lawan and Emenalo had pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were arraigned on January 31, 2013.

Source: http://www.punchng.com/news/620000-bribe-scam-lawan-asks-court-to-quash-charges/