Farouk Lawan
House
of Representatives on Wednesday said it sacked Mr. Farouk Lawan as
Chairman, Committee on Education because it did not want to tie down the
oversight duties of the committee.
Chairman, House Committee on Media and
Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, who spoke on the matter, said the
sacking was not a judgment that Lawan was guilty of his involvement in
the $620m bribery saga.
Mohammed noted that the Committee on
Education had many important agencies to supervise and could not
continue to function without a substantive chairman.
He added that it would be inappropriate
to allow Lawan to continue to preside over the duties of the committee
while the case was already before the law courts.
Mohammed said, “Lawan’s case is an interesting one because the House has been lampooned severely.
“As we speak, the matter is in court.
The question is how he will preside over the agencies now that the
issues involved have not been resolved.
“As a House, we are not passing a judgment on him, but we need to do our oversight duties.
“There are two people involved in this
$620m case, but only one person is being prosecuted. The law should be
no respecter of persons.
“As a House, we have to put this behind us and move on.”
The Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu
Tambuwal, had last Thursday announced the removal of Lawan and replaced
him with another lawmaker from Kano State, Mr. Aminu Suleiman.
The House had placed Lawan on suspension
since June last year, following the allegation by oil businessman, Mr.
Femi Otedola, that the lawmaker collected $620m bribe from him.
Lawan and his erstwhile secretary, Mr. Boniface Emenalor, are currently standing trial for the allegation.
The lawmaker headed the House ad-hoc committee, which investigated the fuel subsidy regime between January and April 2012.
The panel had uncovered how government
officials allegedly connived with fuel importers to defraud the nation
of N2.07 tn in the guise of funding subsidy.
However, as the House celebrated the finding, Otedola accused Lawan of demanding $620m bribe from him.
He claimed that the bribe, in Lawan’s explanation, was to clear two of his firms indicted by the ad-hoc committee.
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