A High Court in Abuja has sentenced the former Chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Petroleum Subsidy, Farouk Lawan to seven years in prison.

The court gave the verdict on Tuesday at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Lawan was accused of demanding $3 million from Femi Otedola to remove Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited (Otedola’s company) from the list of oil companies allegedly involved in the fuel subsidy fraud in 2012.

Lawan, who was arraigned on seven counts of bribery by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), was alleged to have collected $500,000 bribe from Otedola.

According to The Cable news, Otedola, while giving evidence as the fifth prosecution witness, said the defendant had demanded $3 million from him with a threat to indict his company.

The businessman said he proceeded to report the issue to the DSS and was given $500,000 in marked notes. Also, the DSS had planted a camera in Otedola’s house.

On count one, Lawan had argued that the prosecution had failed to produce the call log between himself and Otedola in which he demanded the bribe. Lawan had also submitted that he collected the money from Otedola to prove that the oil mogul had offered to bribe the committee so as to have Zenon removed from the list of indicted companies.

But Angela Otaluka, the presiding judge, while delivering judgment in the case on Tuesday, held that “it is the duty of the defendant to produce materials upon which he places his defence”.

She went further to state that the defendant failed to call one honourable Ribadu or any member of the house committee to buttress his claim of collecting the money to implicate Otedola.

Otaluka noted that the evidence tendered by the defence “were not accorded any credibility and not worthy of belief” for being inconsistent.

She sentenced Lawan to seven years imprisonment on count one, seven years on count two, and five years on count three.