In a show of solidarity, House of Representatives members from Kano State visited their colleague, Farouk Lawan at the Kuje Prison.
The 24 members of the House of Representatives from Kano State are made up of 13 PDP, 8 ANPP, 2 CPC and one from ACN.
Lawan is the oldest serving lawmaker from Kano, having been elected in 1999 and re-elected 3 times.
He is accused of soliciting and collecting bribes in his capacity as the chairman of the ad-hoc committee on the investigation of monitoring of the fuel subsidy regime. He is standing trial with the secretary of the committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo.
They were charged to court by the Attorney General of the Federation on a four-count charge under the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences, ICPC, Act.
It was alleged that they conspired to corruptly obtain $3 million from the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas, Chief Femi Otedola, as inducement to remove the name of the company from the House Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime’s Report, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 26 (1) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and punishable under Section 8(1) of the same Act.
Emenalo too, was charged for failing to report the offer of inducement to other members of the committee to which he was a secretary and for demanding and collecting gratification of $120,000 from Otedola.
The men were last Thursday remanded in Kuje Prison, on the orders of Justice M.N Oniyangi who held that they be kept until February 8, 2013, when their trial would be heard.
Otedola has also filed a suit against Lawan and Speaker of the House, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal in a N250billion case of harassment and intimidation.