Billionaire Femi Otedola said he is still amazed at the failure of the Department of State Services (DSS), to arrest former House of Representatives member Farouk Lawan while receiving $500,000 bribe from him in a sting operation.
Lawan is charged with bribery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) for demanding and accepting bribe from Otedola to remove his companies from the list of oil companies allegedly involved in the fuel subsidy fraud.
At yesterday’s proceedings, Otedola sat in the witness box during which he was cross-examined by Lawan’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
The businessman said he gave Lawan the $500,000 in two tranches of $250,000 each.
When reminded by Ozekhome that the best time “to catch a thief is when the operation is ongoing”, Otedola said he does not know why the DSS failed to arrest Lawan at that moment.
He also said the DSS gave him the money after he wrote a petition, complaining among others that Lawan demanded $3 million as bribe from him to remove his oil company from the list of the firms indicted by Lawan’s panel for subsidy scam.
