Listen To The Audio Tapes Here, As Farouk Lawan Reacts To Second Audio Tape: “This Is Not My Voice”

Mallam Farouk Lawan last night said the second part of the audio tape on the alleged $620,000 bribe against him by Mr. Femi Otedola was animated.

He said the tape is laden with questionable pedigree.

He raised nine posers for Otedola on the audio tape.

Lawan, spoke through one of his counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) queried why the tape was not backed with visual.

In a statement through his counsel, Lawan demanded the audio-visual of the alleged bribery deal between him and Otedola.

The statement said: “Farouk Lawan has instructed us to vehemently denounce the so-called part two of the alleged conversation between Mr. Femi Otedola and Mallam Farouk Lawan played on Channels TV.

“It reminds one of Baba Sala’s “Alawada Keri Keri” histrionics and comedy. It is even more obfuscating and labyrinthine. In William Shakespeare’s   immortal words, “it is nothing but a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

“Lawan is portrayed in the said conversation as an unyielding, talkative, bellicose and eager person who was hurriedly urging Otedola not to tell anyone that the names of his companies will be removed from the indicted list, because if he went about telling people that, in an Oil Sector that is a small world where everyone knows the other, it would be difficult to remove his companies from the list of indicted ones. 

“Lawan is also said to have uttered that it is left to the Committee to know what to do as he will spring it as a surprise on the floor of the House! 

“Recall that in the so-called part one of the alleged conversation between the duo aired on Monday on Channels TV, Lawan was portrayed as an incoherent, stammering, unsure and sluggish speaker, who could hardly get out his carefully weighed words.

“This second part has more than ever before confirmed Lawan’s worst fears that the entire audio play back is a doctored, edited piece of animated voice that does not belong to him and which only forensic evidence can unravel.” 

“He believes that the motives behind the audio are invidious, insidious and that the entire audio playback of Monday and Tuesday is of dubious and questionable pedigree.”

He raised nine posers for Otedola on the audio tape.

The statement added: “The questions that agitate an unbiased mind from this unfolding piece of poorly scripted home comedy are:

•Why is this audio recording being played in bits and pieces, rather than enbloc and wholly?

•How come that an audio recording which ought to be played on Radio for a listening public is being aired on television for a viewing public, when no visual is involved howsoever?

•Where is the visual recording of the alleged bribe?

•How come a supposed part of the same conversation portray Lawan as a talkative, belligerent and unyielding character who barely allowed Mr Otedola to utter one word, while the first part supposedly shows him as a sluggish, tentative, stammering, and measured speaker, speaking only when prompted on by the same Otedola?

•If Lawan says it was left for the Committee to know what to do to help out, why will Otedola pay bribe to influence an issue Lawan had already concluded that his committee would know what to do about?

•If  Lawan did actually warn  Otedola not to tell other Oil Marketers so that the impression is not given that his Committee has been compromised as the audio tend to show, does this not in fact show, assuming the story were correct, that Lawan was actually saying to Otedola, “you know we have not been compromised”?

•Why has it taken Mr Otedola this long to make public his so, called “sting operation” well over two months after Lawan had notified the Police when he interacted with them in May, 2012?

•How come that neither Mr Lawan nor Mr Emenalo was arrested or swooped upon in a so called “sting operation” where money allegedly changed hands on four different occasions?

•What is the source of this audio tape that is being played installmentally and which ought ordinarily to emanate from Security Agencies, if indeed it was a “sting operation” by the SSS?

•Who is fooling whom?

The lawmaker said his friends and associates could not identify the voice in the audio as his. 

He said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Lawan categorically denies, disowns and denounces in its entirety, the audio voice as he insists that same is not his God-given voice. 

“He maintains that even his friends and associates could not identify it as his voice when they listened to the play back. He warns, finally, that those who live in glass houses should stop throwing stones.”

Listen to the audio tapes below:

Part 1

Part 2