Chairman of the house committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Mr. Adams Jagaba has denied receiving the sum of 500, 000 dollars from embattled former chairman of the ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy, Mr. Farouk Lawan. Bringing a new twist to the ongoing $620, 000 bribery allegation brought against Mr. Lawan.
Jagaba, was speaking after a closed-door meeting with the house Ethics committee which is investigating the matter, where he presented his own testimony.
Jabaga, however, maintained that he will never be involved in any act that runs contrary to national interest.
While stating that he first saw the letter purportedly written by Lawan on the pages of a newspaper and later at the Police headquarters, the lawmaker analysed the letter and pointed out the errors contained in it.
Jagaba said it was an attempt to destroy his reputation.
He said: “Farouk Lawan alleged that he wrote a letter to me attaching $500,000. That is callously untrue and in fact, calculated to smear my hard-earned reputation, a reputation I painstakingly built since 1999.
“I never received any letter, or money, or any other exhibit from Farouk Lawan.
“I saw for the first time the purported letter on a page of the Leadership Newspaper, page 6 of June 14, 2012; and the closest copy which I saw and touched, was the copy he presented to the Police Special Task Force investigating the bribery scandal, when I went there on July 10.
“I was invited by the Police STF while in South Africa attending the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (Africa Region) Summit.
“When I returned to Nigeria, I went to the Police Force Headquarters on July 10 at about 11:00 am to give my own side of the story on the bribery scandal investigation and I spent precisely two hours with them.”
