‘N400m fraud’: Court fixes June 22 for Olisa Metuh’s retrial

A federal high court in Abuja has fixed June 22 for the arraignment of Olisa Metuh, former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had, in 2016, arraigned Metuh on seven counts of money laundering bordering on him allegedly receiving N400 million from the office of the national security adviser.

Okon Abang, a federal high court judge, had on February 25, 2020, pronounced Metuh guilty on all counts of money laundering and sentenced him to seven years in prison.

Dissatisfied with the court’s decision, Metuh, through his counsel, filed an appeal in March, 2020.

As part of the 10 issues raised for determination by the appellate court, Metuh argued that he was not given a fair trial.

He submitted that the trial judge was biased, citing some of the remarks made during the trial.

Delivering judgment on December 16, 2020, a three-member panel of justices agreed that the trial judge showed bias against the appellant.

Consequently, he was released from prison on December 24, 2020.

In line with the court of appeal order, Metuh’s case file was re-assigned to Emeka Nwite for the defendant to take a fresh plea.