Nigerian lawmaker jailed for graft freed

Nigerian police have released a prominent federal lawmaker held over allegations that he took a huge cash bribe from an oil baron to exclude his firm from an industry probe, a spokesman said yesterday. Spokesman Frank Mba said the lawmaker had been allowed to go on Saturday night on condition that he produced the alleged money to investigators. He did not give further details, but local media said Farouk Lawan, who led a parliamentary committee which uncovered a $6.8bn fraud in a state-run petrol subsidy programme, was asked to report to the police with the money today. Lawan had been detained for questioning since Thursday over the bribery allegation that had also prompted the House of Representatives to remove him as head of the oil subsidy probe. Lawmakers also voted to rescind an earlier decision that removed the name of Otedola’s firm, Zenon, from the list of companies named in the subsidy probe. The lawmaker’s ordeal marked a dramatic turn in the saga surrounding the fuel subsidy probe, which implicated high-profile businessmen and found that $6.8bn was lost from 2009 to 2011. Despite its vast reserves, Nigeria imports much of its fuel due to a lack of refining capacity, a situation also blamed on corruption and mismanagement. In order to keep prices low at the pump, the government pays subsidies to fuel importers. Many Nigerians, the majority of whom live on less than $2 per day, see low petrol prices as their only benefit from the nation’s oil wealth. The government sought to remove the subsidy in January but the decision resulted in mass protests and a week-long general strike that was called off when the subsidy was partially re-instituted.from gulf times.