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| Metuh |
…says
ex-SGF, Lawal, top APC members warned me By Ikechukwu Nnochiri ABUJA – Former
National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa
Metuh, on Thursday, narrated before the Federal High Court in Abuja, why
President Muhammadu Buhari wants to jail him. Metuh Metuh, who is facing money
laundering charges alongside his firm, Destra Investment Limited, spoke on a
day he mounted the witness box to personally defend the seven-count charge the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against him.
Testifying
as the 15th Defence Witness, DW-15, the erstwhile PDP spokesman, said his trial
was a calculated attempt by the All Progressives Congress, APC, led government
to silence him from criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari’s dictatorial
tendencies. He told the court that top APC members had prior to the time the
EFCC arrested and subsequently charged him for fraud, tried to dissuade him
from attacking President Buhari in the media. Metuh told the court that some of
the APC members, met him on several occasions in Dubai, Switzerland and Paris
to discuss possible roles they could play to strengthen the PDP to wrestle
power from President Buhari.
He
said the top APC members, who he did not disclose their identities, equally
complained of President Buhari’s governance style, saying they had lost
confidence in his administration. Metuh said after he refused to soft-pedal on
his criticisms, he started receiving warnings to be cautious of possible
attack. “The then National Chairman of the APC, Oyegun, publicly warned me that
the APC was not happy with me and is not taking my criticisms lightly. “Also,
when President Buhari wants to engage in undemocratic practice, I will resist
such by taking press men to houses of Nigerians who were unlawfully held
hostage in their houses, to conduct live press conferences, and this put an
immediate stop to excesses of the DSS and other security agencies”, he told the
court. Metuh said the last straw that informed the charges against him came
after President Buhari made a broadcast on a live media chat.
“He
informed Nigerians that his government can arrest and detain Nigerians at will,
I immediately countered that he was becoming an unrepentant tyrant. “This
provoked another round of warning and threats and the then APC chairman oyegun
came out again to warn that the government will no longer take it kindly with
Olisa Metuh as PDP spokesman “The former Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Babachir Lawal, at the burial ceremony of the mother of the
governor of ebonyi state, in the presence of the government delegation he led,
including the Minister of Labour and then members of the National working
committee of the PDP, and some other elders of the party from the South East,
warned me personally that this government has decided to teach me a lesson.
“He
stated to the hearing of everybody that this government will use me to set an
example of how they can destroy the careers, finances and lives of Nigerians
that attempt to put a clog in the wheel of their administrative tenure “This
was the period I had just come out from Kuje prison. Upon my being introduced
by the labour Minister Ngige who told Babachir, ‘I hope you know this person,
Olisa Metuh’. “My lord, with the greatest sense of responsibility, Babchir
said, you are a very lucky man, we did not want you to come out of Kuje, to my
shock and amazement, he stated publicly to me that this government will jail
me”. Meanwhile, mid-way into Metuh’s Evidence in Chief, the EFCC, through its
lawyer, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, urged the court to call the defendant to order,
accusing him of delving into trivial and remote facts that were not connected
to the money laundering charge against him. “My lord we have waited patiently.
This court is a court of record.
The
court has been patient. The evidence given should be in conformity with the
charge against the defendant. “We invite your lordship to know that the charges
brought against the defendant bother on seven counts. He is alleged to have
diverted N400million, allegedly gotten from the office of the NSA, being the
proceeds of an unlawful act. “The other components of the charge deals with the
diversion of the sum of N2 million, US dollars. “These are basically the charge
for which the accused person stands trial. Going by the oral testimony of the
defendant so far, this should be the fourth day. “No attempt has been made to
discuss the issue for which he is in court,” Tahir submitted. Reacting to
EFCC’s position, Metuh’s lawyer, Dr. Onyeachi Ikpeazu, SAN, prayed the court to
consider the provisions of the constitution that made it obligatory for the
court to give fair hearing to all accused persons. Buhari’s men should follow
Fayose’s suit, says Olayinka.
In
a short ruling, trial Justice Okon Abang said he would determine the irrelevant
part of the evidence at the end of the matter. “It is my view that it is not
out of place for the objection of this nature to be raised. The position of the
SAN is also noted. “I cannot at this stage determine which evidence is relevant
and remote. It is like urging the court to determine a substantive issue at an
interlocutory application. “It will be at the end of the proceedings that the
court will determine whether the evidence is valid or not. If the evidence is
relevant, it will reflect in the judgment”, Justice Abang held. Metuh is facing
trial for allegedly receiving N400m from the Office of the National Security
Adviser, ONSA, prior to the 2015 presidential election, without executing any
contract.
The
anti-graft agency alleged that the fund was electronically wired from an
account that ONSA operated with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to Metuh, via
account no. 0040437573, which his firm operated with Diamond Bank Plc. It told
the court that the fund which was released to Metuh and his firm by detained
former NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd, was part of about $2.1billion earmarked
for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency in the North East. Besides, the
prosecution which had earlier closed its case after it called eight witnesses
that testfied before the court, equally alleged that Metuh was involved in an
illicit transaction that involved the exchange of $2million.
Source: Vanguard
Source: Vanguard
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