The Supreme Court has upheld the five years jail term of former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan that requested the court to set aside the judgement of the Appeal Court.
The lead judgement of the apex court panel read by Justice Tijani Abubakar on Friday dismissed Lawan’s appeal against the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
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It would be recall that in February 2022, the Appeal Court reduced the seven years term imposed on Lawan by a High Court to five years.
Not satisfied with the verdict, Lawan filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the judgement of the Appeal Court.
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Lawal, who was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, was arraigned in 2013 after he allegedly demanded a bribe of $3 million from billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, who accused him of receiving the sum of $500,000.
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The bribe was said to help influence the removal of the name of his oil company from the list of indicted companies in the fuel subsidy scam of 2012.
Lawan was in June 2021, convicted on the three count charges preferred against him by the federal government with a sentence of five years each for the first two counts, and seven years for the last count, all to run concurrently.
