By Adesina Soyooye
At last, former Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, has been vindicated.
A three-man Panel of Judges of the Court of Appeal , unanimously set him free, nullified the proceedings of the lower court, quashed the seven year jail term he was serving, and ordered a fresh retrial of the case.
Metuh had been sentenced to jail by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court. He was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for alleged money laundering, alongside his company, Destra Investment Ltd.
But delivering judgement on Metuh’s appeal on Wednesday, Justice Stephen Adah, who delivered the lead judgement said that Justice Abang’s judgement was null and void, as the proceedings of the Federal High Court, was tainted, filled with bias, and would not be allowed to stand.
Justice Adah was of the view that the utterances of Justice Abang proved that he was clearly biased against the convicts.
Adah, therefore, ordered that the trial be conducted afresh.
Abang had, on February 25, 2020, sentenced Metuh to seven years imprisonment for, allegedly, fraudulently receiving the sum of N400m from the office of the former National Security Adviser, under President Goodluck Jonathan, Col. Sambo Dasuki.
At the launch of a book in his honour in Abuja on Monday, Jonathan had lamented that many of his associates, friends and cabinet members were being persecuted in order to give a false image of him.
