…we’ll appeal quickly, says defence counsel
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday sentenced a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, to seven years imprisonment on corruption charges regarding his activities preceding the 2015 presidential election which his party lost.
Justice Okon Abang delivering judgment at the proceedings which lasted over six hours, convicted Metuh on all the seven counts, including the fraudulent receipt of N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014 and use of the money for political activities of the PDP and for his personal purposes.
The court also convicted Metuh for transacting with cash sum of $2m without going through a financial institution.
The judge agreed with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) successfully proved that the transaction violated the anti-money laundering law which pegs the maximum cash transaction an individual undertake outside a financial institution at N5m.
He imposed sentenced Metuh to seven years imprisonment for counts 1, 2, 4 and 7, five years imprisonment in respect of count 3, and three years in respect of counts 5 and 6.
He however ruled that the sentences shall run concurrently which implied that he would only spend the highest number of years of jail term, which is seven, in prison.
The judge also directed Metuh to pay a fine of N375m to the Federal Government.
He also ordered Destra Investments to pay N25m to the Federal Government.
He ordered the accounts of Destra in Diamond Bank and Asset Resource Management to be closed and their proceeds forfeited to the Federal Government.
The judge also ordered the winding up of Destra.
Metuh, after the judgement, was taken to the Nigerian Correctional Service to begin his prison terms pending the hearing of an appeal when it is eventually filed.
Meanwhile, Counsel to Olisa Metuh has said that an appeal would be filed quickly to review the judgement.
Abel Ozioko, while briefing journalists after the judgement, said the judge was carrying out an experiment on his client.
“The judge confessed that an issue like this is novel; in other words, he was carrying out an experiment.
“For me, this is a good example of bad judgement, and we have our appeal in our hands, I still have confidence in the law court and we are heading upstairs to the three wise men to know whether he is right or wrong,” he maintained.
