The Federal High Court on Friday in Abuja granted Farouk Lawan, the former Chairman, House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime, bail.
Lawan, a serving lawmaker from Kano State, is standing trial for allegedly receiving 3.5 million dollars (about N625 million) bribe.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi held that Section 35 (5) of the 1999 Constitution considers the accused innocent in such matter until proven guilty.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the second accused, Emenalo Boniface, was also granted bail.
The prosecution had alleged that Boniface, an assistant director, who acted as the Secretary of the Committee, received 120,000 dollars (about N18 million) from the deal.
``I have studied the submissions of counsel to parties in this matter and the court is disposed to admitting the accused persons to bail.
``The bail sum is N10 million with two sureties. The bail is, however, free but it becomes effective upon the fulfillment of the stated conditions.
``The accused persons are not expected to travel out of the country during the pendency of the trial and therefore, they are mandated to surrender their travel passports to the registrar of the court.
``The court’s decision to admit the accused persons on bail is also predicated on the conviction that they would not jump justice.
``In fact, the report available to the court says they are presently enjoying administrative bail and that they have always yielded to police invitation during the investigation,’’ he said.
Lawan is charged with corruptly obtaining 500,000 dollars for himself from Mr Femi Otedola, the Chairman, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, as inducement to remove the company’s name from the committee’s report, among other charges.
Similarly, Boniface, an assistant director and secretary of the committee, is alleged to have ``corruptly asked for 3,000,000 dollars from Mr Femi Otedola’’.
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