Real reason Buhari wants me jailed –Metuh

Former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, testifying before the Federal High Court in Abuja over his N400m fraud trial on Thursday, claimed President Muhammadu Buhari wants him jailed because of his criticism of his government.

Metuh said that the last straw that informed the charges against him was when he accused Buhari of being an unrepentant tyrant, a statement he said he made in response to President Buhari’s claim, during a live media chat that his government can ‘arrest and detain Nigerians at will’.

The embattled former PDP spokesman was testifying as the 15th Defence Witness (DW-15). He insisted that his trial was a calculated attempt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government to silence him from criticizing Buhari’s dictatorial tendencies.

According to Metuh, before he was arrested and charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), top APC members made several efforts to dissuade him from attacking Buhari in the media.

Some of them he said, 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.

The APC members, who’s identities to kept himself, also complained of President Buhari’s governance style and how they had lost confidence in his administration.

Metuh, following his refusal to stop criticising Buhari’s government, said he was bombarded with warnings, including threats of being attacked.

He said, “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 that what he said that informed the charges against him was when President Buhari made a broadcast on a live media chat and ‘informed Nigerians that his government can arrest and detain Nigerians at will.’

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“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”.

Mid-way into Metuh’s Evidence in Chief, EFCC lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir, apparent uncomfortable with his long narrative prayed the court to call the defendant to order. He accused him of delving into trivial and remote facts that were not connected to the money laundering charge against him.

But Metuh’s lawyer, Dr. Onyeachi Ikpeazu (SAN), responding urged the court to consider the provisions of the constitution that made it obligatory for the court to give fair hearing to all accused persons.

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In his ruling after hearing the argument of both sides, the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang said: “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.”

EFCC is prosecuting Metuh over the allegation that he received N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), prior to the 2015 presidential election, without executing any contract.

It said the fund was ‎was part of about $2.1 billion earmarked for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency in the North East, which former NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd, allegedly shared with some people.

 

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