Judge to Metuh: Why you must spend 7 years in jail

TRACKING______A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisah Metuh, yesterday bagged seven years imprisonment, after he was convicted on all the seven counts on corruption charges bothering on his activities preceding the 2015 presidential election which his party lost.

The trial Judge, Justice Okon Abang, in a judgement that lasted for about six hours, also convicted Metuh of fraudulent receipt of N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) in November 2014 and use of the money for political activities of the PDP and for his personal purposes.

He was equally convicted of transacting with a cash sum of $2 million without going through a financial institution.

The court also ordered him to forfeit the sum of N375 million and another N25 million to the Federal Government.

The court ordered his company, Destra Investment, which was charged along with him, to be wound up and all its accounts with the Diamond Bank closed and all the money therein be forfeited to the Federal Government.

The court consequently sentenced Metuh to seven years in count one, seven years in count two, five years in count three, seven years in count four, three years in count five, three years in count six and seven years in count seven.

The court found the former PDP spokesman guilty of unlawfully taking possession of N400 million from the account of the Office of the (ONSA), domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) without any justifiable purpose.

Justice Abang held that the money, being a proceed of unlawful activity of the former NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) was expended recklessly to fund the campaign of the PDP during the 2015 general election.

The court rejected the claim of Metuh that former President Goodluck Jonathan approved the release of the money to him for the execution of a national assignment bordering on security issue, adding that throughout the trial, the convict did not show any contract document his company entered with ONSA to justify the payment to him.

Although Metuh claimed that the money was released to him on the instruction of former President Jonathan, Justice Abang held that the convict abandoned his struggle to invite the former president to give evidence in his favour, while Dasuki, who was in court as his witness was of no help to him as he requested for time to refresh his memory but never showed up again.

The judge also agreed with EFCC counsel, Sylvanus, that the convict ought to have reasonably known that the N400 million was a proceed of fraud because there was no contract paper or procurement to justify the release of the money to him.

According to him, “The defendant in his claim named several PDP chieftains in attendance when the purported security contract was awarded, no single service chief, who are in control of security of the country, was in attendance.

“The ways and manners in which the N400 million was disbursed by the defendant did not leave anybody in doubt that the public money was recklessly used to fund the campaign of the then ruling party in the 2015 general election.

“It is a fact before this court that the defendant gave N25 million to Abba Dabo for media advocacy on 2015 election, N21.7 million to late Chief Tony Anenih, N5 million to Mrs. Kema Chikwe, a former Aviation minister, N31.5 million to Richard Ihedioha, N50 million to Kanayo Olisa Metuh and another N200 million to Daniel Ford International, while N50 million was also transferred to his wife’s personal account.

“The claim of the defendant that the N400 million was for national security assignment cannot stand in the face of the law in view of the fact that the money was deployed to the political activities of his party.”

The court also found Metuh guilty of concealment of $2 million cash, which origin was not established throughout the four-year trial of the charges against the convict.

The judge held that Metuh ran afoul of the law when he released $1 million to one Kabiru Ibrahim and collected naira equivalent of N183 million deposited into the Destra Investment account with Diamond Bank.

In invoking section 15(3) of Money Laundering and Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended) in 2012 to sentence Metuh, the judge held that the defendant deserves no mercy because of his arrogant and stubbornness throughout the trial.

The judge also lambasted Metuh for destroying page three of his confessional statement made to EFCC to cover up his admission that there was no contract paper for the purported security contract and no contractual relationship with the ONSA at the time the N400 million was released to him, through his family company.

It was, however, a tensed atmosphere as the officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service drove Metuh in a commando style away from the court