A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, convicted and sentenced former National Publicity Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, to 39 years imprisonment for money laundering.
The court, in a judgment by Justice Okon Abang, found Metuh and his firm, Destra Investment Ltd, guilty on the entire seven-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against them.
Justice Abang held that the anti-graft agency successfully proved that the erstwhile PDP spokesman unlawfully received N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, prior to the 2015 presidential election, without contract approval or execution.
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EFCC had alleged that the N400 million, which was released to Metuh and his firm by the former NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) was part of about $2.1 billion earmarked for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency in the North-East.
Justice Abang held that the proof of evidence before the court showed that contrary to Metuh’s claim, the fund was used to enhance the political fortunes of PDP before the 2015 general election. He noted that from materials placed before the court, many PDP chieftains benefited from the N400 million largesse, adding that some of the beneficiaries included Chief Tony Anenih, who got N21.7 million, and former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Kema Chikwe, who got N5 million.
The trial judge held that Metuh lied to the court when he claimed that he was not aware that the fund was paid to him from the ONSA account with CBN since banks send alert to their customers by default.
Besides, the court wondered why Metuh failed to compel ex-President Jonathan to appear as a witness to corroborate his claim, noting that though he initially moved to summon the ex-President, he, however, abandoned the idea halfway without excuse.
The court further observed that though Dasuki was on November 1, 2017, subpoenaed to appear as a witness in the matter, the defense failed to confront him with the e-payment mandate from the ONSA to establish that it was based on Jonathan’s directive. The trial judge said it was hard for the court to believe that ex-President Jonathan would authorize N400 million on mere verbal approval.
He said: “Therefore, the only evidence to show the actual source of N400 million is the e-payment mandate and the statement of account showing an inflow of N400 million from the account of ONSA domiciled at CBN.” He held that since ONSA is not “a charitable organisation established to dish out funds,” Metuh, being aware of the inflow of the N400 million, took no step to confirm why the fund was paid to the account of his firm but went ahead to dissipate it.
The court found Metuh guilty of engaging in an illicit transaction that involved the exchange of $2million, in violation of extant financial regulations. It noted that Metuh, on two occasions, gave $1 million to one Miss Nneka Ararume at his residence, with the fund exchanged and transferred to his account by Bureau de Change operators.
The court held that the 1st defendant engaged in such a mode of transaction in a bid to conceal the origin of the funds. The plea Meanwhile, shortly after the defendants were convicted on all the seven counts in the charge, their counsel, Abel Ozioko and Tochukwu Onwugbufor, SAN, pleaded the trial judge to tamper justice with mercy.
The prosecution counsel, Mr. Tahir Sylvester, however, urged the court to allow itself to be guided by section 416 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. To pay N375m to FG In his sentence, Justice Abang handed Metuh seven years on counts 1, 2, 4 and 7 of the charge, five years on counts 3 and three years on counts 5 and 6.
He also ordered Metuh to pay a total sum of N375 million to the coffers of the Federal Government, while the firm was ordered to pay N25m with respect to both counts 5 and 6 of the charge. Justice Abang directed that the firm should be wound up with all funds standing to its credit forfeited to the government. He held that the sentence should run concurrently starting from the day of the judgment.
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