The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to revoke the bail being enjoyed by a former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, and send him to prison.
Metuh and his company, Destra Investments Limited, are being prosecuted on seven counts, including receiving fraudulently the sum of N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2014.
The charges also include the allegations that the ex-spokesperson for the PDP transacted with $2m cash which was said to be above the threshold of cash payment prescribed by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
Metuh, who was said to be on admission at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State, was earlier absent from court on Monday.
Following his absence from court again on Tuesday, EFCC’s lawyer, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, applied that Metuh be sent to jail and made to attend his trial from prison.
Tahir, while reacting to Metuh’s lawyer’s application for further adjournment on Tuesday, faulted the January 21, 2018 medical report of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State, sent to the court indicating that the defendant was on admission for treatment for an ailment.
The prosecutor argued that without the medical report backed by a verifying affidavit and without the document making any reference to the case pending in court, the report was nothing but a trash that should be consigned to the dustbin.
He urged the court to reject the request of the defence for an investigation into the authenticity of the letter, adding that a fresh application by Metuh to call 10 additional witnesses for his defence, was part of his plan to get the trial stalled.
He, therefore, said the steps taken by Metuh had undermined the administration of criminal justice deserving the revocation of the bail granted the defendant.
He said, “The court should decline the invitation to order investigation into the veracity of the letter. There is no basis for that. There is no basis to suggest that the court must believe this letter.”The letter is not attached to an affidavit. How will the prosecution investigate the document?
“There is no reference to the pending charge before this honourable charge. – Punch.
