Instead of much awaited reprieve, the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, on Thursday got roped in another legal tangle.
Metuh, who is standing trial for alleged pocketing of about N400 million from the $2.1 billion arms procurement funds wason Thursday accused of attempted destruction of evidence.
In yet a different fresh charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Metuh appeared before the Court, presided over by Justice Ishaq Bello, facing a fresh two-count charge bordering on alleged attempt to destroy a confessional statement he made to the anti-graft commission.
The fresh charges was slammed barely 48 hours after court granted the embattled PDP spokesperson bail on the N400million graft charges. Metuh, who was again brought to the court premises in handcuffs, a treatment which has caused a lot of outrage in many quarters, was accused of destruction of a statement he had given at the commission, to prevent it from being produced and making mischief- an offence EFCC claimed was punishable under section 327 of the Penal Code Act.
However, as the matter was brought up for hearing, EFCC Counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, reportedly asked for more time to allow his team present witnesses and evidence in support of the allegations against the politician, after Metuh had pleaded not guilty to the two-count charges.
But Bello, the chief judge of the FCT High Court, who ordered that the EFCC must produce three witnesses during the next sitting, without fail, wondered why the commission would bring a case that was already being heard in another court before him, to which the commission’s lawyer clarified, saying the two cases were not the same.
The judge then ordered that Metuh be remanded in prison pending a return on January 25, for argument on the bail application, by which time a date for the hearing of the substantive suit would also have been determined.
By Olisemeka Obeche