FUEL SUBSIDY BRIBERY SAGA UNFOLDS................. 

THE allegation was dismissed as another outlandish claim from a  former President.

Members of the House of Representatives in particular took him on and told the nation in uncertain terms that they were no knaves as former President Olusegun Obasanjo had alleged.

Perhaps to take their anger home to the former President, the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, paid a courtesy visit to Obasanjo.

According to sources, a well restrained Obasanjo patiently listened to the Speaker convey the lawmakers’ reservations over the criminal label on them…and then opened the putrid can of worms on his august visitor.

The former President told Tambuwal that he appeared not privy to a bribery demand running into millions of dollars in relation to the then on-going probe of the fuel subsidy regime in the House.

It was a shell-shocked Tambuwal who swiftly scampered back to Abuja to confront Chairman, House Ad-Hoc Committee on the fuel subsidy probe, Farouk Lawan, with the allegation.

At first, Lawan reportedly denied the allegation but froze in shock when Tambuwal confronted him with the details of what transpired at the address where officials of Zenon Oil and Gas allegedly gave him $500,000 (about N96 million) in marked notes.

Meanwhile, the fuel subsidy bribe allegation got messier yesterday with Lawan detailing how Chairman of Zenon Oil and Gas, Femi Otedola, allegedly attempted to influence the committee.

Lawan, who made some documents available to reporters in Abuja, said the police were aware of Otedola’s offer and had begun investigation into it.

The committee chairman also said his own life has been under constant threat since the fuel probe began.

Otedola had in an interview with a national newspaper on Monday, said that Lawan and the Secretary of the Committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo, had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation masterminded by security agencies.

He said during the probe, Zenon boss told the committee that it had nothing to do with the subsidy regime because it was not importing petrol, which is being subsidized.

Source: Guardian