$620,000 Bribe: Keyamo Threatens To Sue Lawan

With the failure of the National Assembly to take any action on the $620,000 bribery scandal, involving Representative Farouk Lawan, a Lagos based lawyer, Festus Keyamo has vowed to head for the court, if the police fail to arraign the embattled lawmaker.

Mr Keyamo, in a statement on Wednesday, advised the Nigerian Police Force not to wait for the consent of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), but to go ahead and charge the legislator to court.

“I have taken it upon myself as a responsible citizen to bring Farouk Lawan to justice. By this statement, I expect that he and his cohorts in the House of Representatives should be arraigned before a court of law within one week” the fiery lawyer warned.

Describing the delay in seeking prosecution by the security agency as “absurd dimension”,Keyamo decried the back and forth blame games being played by the Nigeria Police Force and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

“The public has been treated to all sorts of shameless and obvious attempts to drag the investigation into the murky water of politics instead of treating it purely as a crime” he stated.

Explaining why the police is empowered by law to seek prosecution without an authorization from the AGF, Mr Keyamo stated that, “the law presently as espoused by the Supreme Court in the case of FRN Vs. OSAHON (2006) 5 NWLR PT (Pt. 973) 361, says that the Police and other law-enforcement agencies can directly charge matters to court without the consent or fiat of the Attorney-general of the Federation or of any State.”

“The Attorney-General can only intervene by taking over to continue or discontinue the proceedings.”

“What, then, is the Police waiting for?” he asked, adding that “the real intention is to make the public forget about the matter and for us to move on with our lives. I will not forget.”

The House of Representatives made no mention of the bribery case at the resumed plenary session on Wednesday.

According to the lawyer, the bribe giver, Mr Femi Otedola “committed no offence at all.”

“A man, who reports an attempt at a crime to the authorities and plays along to catch the offender, commits no crime. Even laymen know this position of the law” he concluded.

It is over six months since the scandal broke regarding the collection of $620, 000 by Mr Lawan from oil mogul, Mr Femi Otedola for the purpose of doctoring his committee’s report relating to the fuel subsidy scam probe by the House of Representatives.