The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, on Monday denied collecting $10 million bribe from oil companies to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill, which has been assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
An online newspaper had reported that $10 million was paid in cash to the leadership of the National Assembly.
It said this was to help expedite passage of the Bill despite widespread opposition to a clause that granted only three per cent of upstream oil companies operating income to host communities.
However, speaking to State House Correspondents after meeting with President Buhari, Lawan dismissed the allegations.
The Senate President said he took exception to those kinds of unwarranted, unprovable false and fake information being fed to the Nigerian public.
According to him: “And that we have established ourselves as an administration, people who say anything or everything about the President about the administration about members of National Assembly, they call us names.
“And this is part of the intangible dividends of democracy.
“But we are determined to ensure that the space is wide open for everybody to say whatever he wants to say.
“But I will advice that don’t say things that are bad because people are inhabited.
“And recently somebody said $10 million was given to the Speaker (Femi Gbajabiamila) and the Senate president to give to members of the National Assembly to pass 3% or what do you call it?
“I want to take this opportunity to take exception to those kinds of unwarranted, unprovable false and fake information being fed to the Nigerian public.
“And the danger people will face with this is you cause unnecessary damage to the reputation of people.
“I had an occasion to take someone to court because of this kind of empty vessel about three months ago.
“But Nigerians are better judges and lawyers.”
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