Die cast for Olisa Metuh

It said Metuh ought to have known that the fund “directly represented the proceeds of an unlawful act” of the ex-NSA.

On the cash transactions of $2m, EFCC said it was above the statutory threshold of N5m for individuals and N10m for corporate bodies in violation of Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011. “The origin of the initial sum of $2m, which belongs to either of the defendants remained undocumented (which goes against the very essence of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act i.e. financing terrorism and disguising, concealment or laundering the origin of illicit funds.”

While ruling on the submission, Justice Abang agreed with EFCC that Metuh indeed has a case to answer. For one, the Judge ruled that EFCC has made a prima facie case of money against the PDP spokesperson on counts 1 to 4 of the charges which bordered on allegations that he received the sum on N400 million from the ONSA.

The Judge also ruled that a prima facie case has been proved against Metuh on count 5 and 6 which bordered on his receipt of $2 million from the office of NSA and money laundering.

Justice Abang noted that the PDP Publicity Secretary agreed that N400 million was transferred to the account of Destra Investments in Diamond Bank which he was the sole signatory to. He added that the defence counsel argued that his client could not have known that the funds was from corrupt dealings of former NSA, Sambo Dasuki.

The Judge said with the contention of the prosecution, it is incumbent of Metuh to prove that he did not know that the fund was from corrupt dealings of the office of the NSA. According to him, Metuh must tell the Court what he did when he discovered that N400 million has been transferred to his account.

The PDP Publicity Secretary, Justice Abang said would need to answer questions like: When he knew that the sum of N400 million has been transferred into the Diamond Bank account of his company, did he enquire from the bank the source of the money? If he enquired, what did the bank tell him? If he did not, did he report to the Police? If he did, what was the Police findings and if he did not, why? He added that Metuh will also have to explain why he went ahead to disburse the money to chieftains of his party when he did not know the source. “If he answered these questions, then his response will show whether he knew the funds were from the unlawful activities of the NSA,” said Justice Abang.

On the money laundering charge, the Judge said the defendant will have to prove to the court that contrary to the claims of the prosecution, he properly went through the banking system to exchange the $2 million to naira since the first prosecution who helped him to convert the funds to the local currency is a staff of Diamond Bank.

And in tune with the provisions of the Money Laundering Act, Justice Abang said tracing the sources of funds are also important.

Accordingly, he said Metuh will in his defence, tell the Court whether he actually gave the $2 million to the prosecution witnesses and as well as prove the source- whether the funds were legitimately or legally sourced. “The no case submission is dismissed. The defendant should enter his defence,” Justice Abang ruled while asking the spokesperson of former Nigeria ruling party to open his defence on 17 March.

Rather than use the opportunity to prove his innocence, the PDP spokesperson with the support of his lawyers had embarked on an elaborate scheme to delay or totally stopped the trial.

On 17 March when he was supposed to open his defence for example, it was discovered that his counsels had sent a petition to the Chief Justice of Federal High Court alleging bias against the Judge who Metuh said was his classmate at the Nigerian Law School.

He consequently asked that his case file should be transferred to another judge who will begin to hear the case afresh. He also asked the Judge to disqualify himself from hearing further hearing of the case.