Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker, House of Representatives on Thursday wielded the big stick against the suspended Chairman of the House Adhoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, Hon. Farouk Lawan.
Lawan
Farouk, who was the Chairman, House Committee on Education, is standing trial for allegedly receiving a bribe from oil tycoon, Femi Otedola.
Dailypost was informed by an authoritative source within the lower chamber of the Legislature, that the Speaker has been “uncomfortable” by the scandal that is almost tarnishing the image of the House. According to him, “Some party stalwarts and highly placed persons in the society actually prevailed on the speaker to wait for the final judgement of the court before taking this action but he is disturbed by the reaction of the people.”
“Rather than continue to get insults on what he has no hands in, he decided to take the bull by the horn,” our source said.
Tambuwal also announced that Farouk is to be replaced by Hon. Aminu Suleiman (PDP, Kano) as the substantive chairman of the committee.
Until his appointment which is with immediate effect, Sulaiman was the Deputy Chairman of the committee on labour and productivity. Hon. Rose Okoh (PDP, Cross River), Deputy chairman of the Education committee had been operating in acting capacity until Thursday when this announcement came.
Tambuwal also appointed Deputy chairmen for six other committees.
Farouk Lawan was suspended at a special plenary of the House in June 2012 after billionaire oil marketer, Femi Otedola alleged that the former chairman collected a $620,000 bribe from him to facilitate the removal of his companies, Zenon oil and Synopsis international from the list of erring companies in the subsidy regime.
The House had temporarily stripped Lawan of his position as chairman committee on education as well as chairman of the subsidy probe committee, pending the outcome of the investigation of its committee on ethics and privileges.
With this development, Lawan who has been in the House since 1999 would remain a floor member. The ethics and privileges committee had concluded its assignment since last year but has not submitted its findings to the House.
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