A former Chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Petroleum Subsidy, Farouk Lawan has been sentenced to seven years in prison by a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory.

Lawan was on trial for obtaining a bribe from a businessman, Femi Otedola, in order to exonerate Zelon Petroleum and Gas Limited from the list of companies in the fuel subsidy scam.

He was alleged to have collected $500,000 of the $3m bribe requested.

Delivering the judgement on Tuesday, Justice Angela Otaluka said that Lawan failed to convince the court that his acceptance of the $500,000 bribe was to serve as evidence before the House Committee that the Chairman of Zelon Petroleum and Gas Limited tried to the committee.

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Otaluka stated further that the defendant demanded a balance of payment and made no complaint to any security agency or anti-corruption agencies.

The court sentenced Farouk Lawan to seven years in prison and ordered him to return the $500,000 bribe to the Federal Government.