Court of Appeal delivers judgement on N400m case on Metuh, $2 billion on Dasuki

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, nullified the Federal High Court judgement that convicted and sentenced a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, to seven years imprisonment for money laundering.

It will be recalled that the trial court found Metuh and his firm guilty on the entire seven-count charge the EFCC preferred against them. Now, the appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of Justices, held that the judgement trial Justice Okon Abang delivered against him on February 25, was tainted with bias. It also said it was convinced that the accused and his firm, Destra Investment Limited, which was the 2nd Defendant, were denied fair hearing by the trial court.

In addition, the appellate court held that the law made it mandatory that anyone accused of an offence must be accorded a fair trial, saying “Judgement of the lower court cannot stand because of the taint of bias and it is accordingly annulled”. It also went on to void the conviction and sentence that was handed to Metuh and his firm, Destra Investment Limited, ordering that the case file should be remitted back to the Chief Judge of the high court to be reassigned to another judge for a re-trial.

Aside from upholding two appeals that were brought before it by Metuh and his firm, the appellate court also upheld a third appeal that was filed by the erstwhile National Security Adviser, NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki, retd. It held that trial Justice Abang acted wrongly when he made damaging remarks about Dasuki in the judgement, even though he was not a Defendant in the charge.

The appellate court noted that Dasuki was merely summoned to testify as a witness in the matter. It accordingly set-aside every aspect of the judgement where Dasuki’s name was negatively mentioned by the trial Judge.