Metuh petitions Judge to hands off trial (Updated)

Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court says the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Olisa Metuh has petitioned for his case to be transferred to another judge.

He said on Thursday that Metuh, through his lawyers asked the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, to withdraw his trial from Justice Abang’s court and re-assign it to another judge.

The judge disclosed this while writing a bench ruling on an application for adjournment by one of the defence counsel, Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN) to enable Metuh open his defence on another date.

After entertaining submissions on the application for adjournment and midway into the writing of his ruling, Justice Abang, while reading from his record, asked Adedipe and the lead prosecuting counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, to respond to the petition written against him by another lawyer in the defence team.

He said, “Learned counsel for the prosecution and learned counsel for the defence, I want to ask you a question and I want you to respond if you are aware or not.

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“Are you aware that after the prosecution had called eight witness cross-examined and re-examined and ruling has been delivered on the no-case submission by the defendants, dismissing the no-case submission, one of the counsel, Mr. Emeka Etiaba (SAN), wrote a petition to the honourable Chief Judge of this court asking for the transfer of this case, principally on the reasons that the court gave ruling on interlocutory ‎ruling that would prejudice the defene, and that the court also refused to release the ruling and the records of the proceedings to them, and that the first accused person was my classmate in the law school? I didn’t know the first accused was my classmate, it was he (Etiaba) that said so. Are you aware of the petition?”

Responding, the EFCC prosecuting counsel, Tahir, said he was not aware of it.

He said, “Speaking for the prosecution my lord, I categorically state without any equivocation that until this hour and minute, I am not aware that such petition has been written by one of the counsel for the defendants.”

On his part, Adedipe said, “Any letter written by any member of the defence counsel is a decision of the defence team.

But Justice Abang has insisted that he would go on with the trial pending when the National Judicial Council took a decision on the petition.

He said, “I want to say on this that I have a circular by my employer, the National Judicial Council, that where there is a petition in a matter seeking the transfer of the case to another judge, that judge handling the case shall continue to preside over the matter until decision is taken by authority the petition was addressed to.

“On account of this circular, I shall continue to preside over this matter until the honourable Chief Judge of this court takes a decision on Emeka Etiaba’s petition‎.”

 

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