A former National Publicity Secretary
of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, is on admission at the National
Hospital Abuja, his lawyer, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), told a Federal High
Court in Abuja on Tuesday.
Ikpeazu said Metuh was rushed to the
hospital after he collapsed while rising to sing in his church in Abuja on
Sunday.
The lawyer told the trial judge,
Justice Okon Abang this, while giving reasons for the absence of Metuh from
court, where the ex-spokesperson for the PDP, is being prosecuted along with
his company, Destra Investment Limited, for offences relating to separate
transactions of N400m and $2m.
The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission is prosecuting Metuh and Destra Investment Limited on seven counts,
including fraud involving N400m which he allegedly received from the Office of
the National Security Adviser in 2014 without any justification.
The fund was said to have been released
to Metuh and his firm by the immediate past National Security Adviser, Col.
Sambo Dasuki (retd), from about $2.1bn allegedly earmarked by the then
President Goodluk Jonathan Administration for the purchase of arms to fight
insurgency in the North East.
Other counts involve alleged money
laundering involving cash transaction with $2m, which was said to be above
limit of cash payments allowed by law.
At the resumed hearing of the case on
Tuesday, when Metuh was scheduled to call his seventh defence witness, his
lawyer, Ikpeazu, sought an adjournment of the trial till Wednesday to
enable his client to obtain a medical report on his health condition.
Ikpeazu said, “The first defendant is
absent because he is sick. He was rushed to the National Hospital in Abuja on
Sundayafter he collapsed while trying to stand up from his seat to sing in his
church.”
The lawyer said the ex-spokesperson for
the PDP was later on Sunday taken from the National Hospital to an
Indian hospital in Karu, Abuja, and later back to the National Hospital, where
he was until the Tuesday’s proceedings still admitted in the
hospital’s Ward A4.
He however said, due to ongoing tests
being carried out on his client, the hospital had not been able to issue a
medical report which he could present in court.
In response, prosecuting counsel, Mr.
Sylvanus Tahir, said in the absence of a medical report disclosing Metuh’s health
status, the court should disregard the submission of the defence lawyer and go
ahead with the proceedings in the absence of the accused person.
-Punch
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