A week ago, the House of Representatives resolved to investigate the escape of an executive of a cryptocurrency company, Binance, from detention in Nigeria. But a few days after, a $140m bribery allegation emerged against the House. PHILIP NYAM reports

This is certainly not the best of times for the House of Representatives as for the umpteenth time allegations of bribery against lawmakers in the Green Chamber have emerged. Since 1999, almost all the assemblies have had issues with either ministries, departments and agencies or individuals levelling allegations of bribery against some members of the legislature.

Though most of these allegations have never been proven and even some discovered to be untrue, but a former member of the House, Farouk Lawan is presently serving a five-year jail term for bribery. Early this year, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Lawan against the judgments of the lower court, which imprisoned him.

A Federal Capital Territory High Court sentenced Lawan to seven years imprisonment for receiving a $500,000 bribe while serving as the chairman of the House’s ad-hoc committee investigating the fuel subsidy fraud in 2012. The trial judge, Angela Otaluka, held that Lawan demanded $3m and received $500,000 from Femi Otedola in 2012 to remove Otedola’s oil company, Zenon Oil and Gas, from the list of firms indicted for fraud in the fuel subsidy regime.

She also held that Lawan was guilty of all three counts of corruption and bribery. Not satisfied, Lawan approached the appellate court where his jail term was reduced from seven to five years. He approached the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside the judgments of the lower courts. But in his lead judgment, Justice Tijani Abubakar held the decision of the appeal court and dismissed the appeal.

In 2018 oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola, accused Lawan of demanding a $500,000 bribe from him to remove his company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the list of oil companies allegedly involved in fuel subsidy fraud. In a sting operation, Otedola working with the Department of State Service (DSS) handed the money to Lawan leaving a balance of $2.5m, which was to be paid later.

So far, Farouk Lawan remains the only member of the House to have been successfully prosecuted, found guilty and jailed for bribery. In 2014, an Abuja appeal court threw out a case instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against a former chairman of the House of Representatives committee on Capital Markets, Herman Hembe, for allegedly converting to personal use, the $4,095 (about N600,000).

It would be recalled that the then director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SEC, Ms. Arumah Oteh, in a bid to fight accusations of reckless expenditure of public funds, had also alleged that the Hembe was out to smear her reputation because she refused to give a N39 million bribe he demanded from her.

The money was given to him by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, as travelling allowance for a conference in the Dominican Republic in October 2011. Hembe was charged along with his deputy, Chris Azubogu, for the alleged illegal conversion.

However, in dismissing the case, the presiding judge, Justice Joseph TineTur, accused the EFCC of persecuting the accused, saying that the proof of evidence and the evidence given by the witnesses called by commission did not establish a prima facie case against Hembe.

Binance motion and bribery allegation

On May 8, the House resolved to investigate the escape of the head of the African region of cryptocurrency exchange company, Binance, Nadeem Anjarwalla, from the custody of the National Security Adviser, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. The lower chamber mandated its Committees on Financial Crimes, National Security and Intelligence, and Interior to investigate and ensure compliance and report to the House in two weeks.

The decision was taken following the adoption of a motion sponsored by the member representing Aguata Federal Constituency, Anambra State, Hon. Dominic Okafor. Okafor, who is the chairman of the Nigeria-Norway Relations and deputy chairman of the House Committee on Delegated Legislation never knew that his name would also be mentioned in connection with bribery a day after sponsoring the motion.

While leading debate on the motion, Okafor noted that the federal government arrested and detained Anjarwalla on February 26 for alleged complicity in money laundering and terrorism financing. According to him, “The two Binance executives were billed to appear in court on April 4, 2024, to answer to the alleged crimes against Nigeria before the security breach occurred, which led to the escape of one of the company’s executives in a very scandalous dimension.

“Persons suspected to have committed such atrocious crimes against the state of Nigeria with already overburdened security challenges were kept in a guest house in Abuja instead of lawful custody of the Department of State Service or any other approved custodial facility.

“The escape of the Binance executive from the Office of the National Security Adviser using a ‘smuggled passport’ is, to say the least, most disappointing, embarrassing and disturbing as it portrays the porosity of the security architecture of the country to the world.

“That weeks after the unfortunate escape and inability of the security forces to re-arrest Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Kenyan Police arrested him on April 22, 2024, as the International Criminal Police Organisation moved to extradite him to Nigeria soon to face the allegation levelled against the company.”

Reps deny allegations

Shortly after passing the resolution to investigate the disappearance of the Binance executive, the House denied demanding or collecting bribes from the cryptocurrency platform. Binance had accused some unknown persons in Nigeria of demanding huge payments in digital currency to make their “problems in the country go away”.

But raising a “Point of Privilege,” at the plenary, Kama Nkemkanma (LP, Ebonyi) said the House never met with Binance executives or their agents. In his words: “This house can never allow itself to be talked down,” he said, adding that if not addressed, the allegation is capable of “bringing the House into disrepute” and urged the lawmakers not to take it lightly.

In his ruling, Speaker Abbas who presided over the plenary, urged the Clerk of the House to “Take note”. The speaker said “We need to use whatever media available to us to refute this allegation. Nothing like that has ever happened. No committee of the house has ever engaged this man”.

Okafor’s defence:

A few days after the House denied knowing anything about the Binance bribery allegations, Hon. Dominic Okafor, who sponsored the motion for the probe of the escape of the Binance executive from detention in Nigeria was faced with the herculean task of defending himself against media reports that he collected a bribe of $140 from Binance.

The lawmaker, who said he was still consulting his legal team on the next step to take regarding the news report, insisted that the publication was an attempt to smear his name. Okafor said he knew nothing of such a transaction.

“I am here this afternoon to talk about the false information that has been going viral on the social media since after the sponsorship of my motion on Wednesday 8 May, which is a motion of urgent national importance which I talked about the need to investigate the escape from custody of one of the executives of Binance, Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla..

“Shortly after I moved that motion which was well received and a lot of people were calling to commend me. Shortly after that I started getting calls from my friends all over the world saying I collected bribe from this very company. I got worried and after that did a letter to Premium Times, the media company that originated the story.

“I did a letter to them, which I copied the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Clerk, Inspector General of Police, EFCC and DSS. I asked them to retrieve the information within 24 hours if not, I will take legal action against them. “That is why I am here to exonerate myself from such accusations aimed at tarnishing my image which I have earned over the years.

“I am coming from the private sector. I have been a member of Rotary International for over 25 years for those of you who know what Rotary means and what they stand for. And someone wants to tarnish that image and integrity I have built over the years. “I never knew anything about such transactions. Rather I moved a motion of national importance, something I feel because of my interest in the country Nigeria and for any personal interest.

“The motion I moved has to do with investigation to find out how Nadeem Anjarwalla escaped from the custody of national security and has nothing to do with bribery or no bribery. It is still a mystery to me. I wouldn’t know how it emanated. “This thing happened yesterday.

So we are looking at all the circumstances, so we look at the right legal action to take. “For the online media man that accused me of collecting $140 million I don’t think that is something we would sweep under the carpet. I am discussing with my legal team to know the right action to take.” The days ahead would reveal whether the House may also take a decision on the $140 million bribery allegation.