In a unanimous judgment on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court, affirmed the 2022 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had upheld Lawan’s five-year sentence on count three of the three counts on which he was tried at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Supreme Court, in the lead judgment prepared by Justice John Okoro, but read by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, found that Lawan’s appeal was without merit and dismissed it.
Lawan was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, after he was found guilty of corruption and receiving $500,000 bribe from Otedola, while serving as the chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the fuel subsidy fraud in 2012.
Justice Angela Otaluka of the FCT High Court held that Lawan demanded $3m and received $500,000 from Otedola in 2012 to remove Zenon Oil and Gas, Otedola’s oil company, from the list of firms indicted for fraud in the fuel subsidy regime.
Dissatisfied with the judgment of the lower court, Lawan approached the appellate court, which reduced his jail term from seven to five years. Thereafter, the former Reps member, headed to the Supreme Court, urging the apex court to set aside the February 24, 2022 judgment of the appellate court.
The Appeal Court had reduced his jail term to five years from seven years but discharged him on two out of the three counts on the corruption charge.
In the lead judgment, read by Justice Abubakar on Friday, the apex court held that Lawan’s appeal was without merit and dismissed it.