Headlines
N400m Fraud: We’ll Appeal Judgment, Metuh’s Lawyer Vows
The former spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, will appeal his conviction and sentencing handed by the Federal High Court in Abuja Tuesday, his lawyer said.
Mr Metuh was convicted for corruption and sentenced to seven years in jail for illicitly receiving N400 million public funds. Prosecutors charged him with money laundering.
The anti-graft agency, EFCC, had accused Mr Metuh of receiving N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The money was paid in the run-up to the 2015 general elections when the PDP was still in power, and formed a part of about $2.1 billion allegedly plundered after being earmarked for defence procurement.
In his judgement, the judge also convicted Mr Metuh for transacting with the cash sum of $2 million without going through a financial institution.
He sentenced Mr Metuh to seven years imprisonment for counts 1, 2, 4 and 7, five years imprisonment in respect of count 3, and three years in respect of counts 5 and 6.
He, however, said the terms shall run concurrently.
Justice Abang also directed Mr Metuh to pay a fine of N375 million to the Federal Government. He also ordered Destra Investments to pay N25m to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The judge also ordered that the accounts of Destra (second defendant) in Diamond Bank and Asset Resource Management to be closed and their proceeds forfeited to the Federal Government.
He also ordered the winding up of Mr Metuh’s company, Destra.
Reacting to the judgement, Mr Metuh’s lawyer, Abel Ozioko, said, “For me, this is a good example of bad judgement.”
“We have our appeal in our hands,” Mr Ozioko added.
Mr Metuh’s lawyer further said he still has confidence in the law court and “We are heading upstairs to the three wise men to know whether he is right or wrong.”
On his part, the lawyer to the second defendant (Metuh’s company) Tochukwu Onwugbufor, said they were disappointed in the judgement.
Mr Onwugbufor said, why they are disappointed is because they thought their defence tool would be utilised in the course of the judgment.
“We thought our defence tool would be useful during the judgement but incidentally the consideration was vested in the evidence of the prosecution,” he said.
According to the senior lawyer, “The judge relied on many evidence of the prosecution to convict the accused, without reference to the evidence of the accused person.
“And we think on that basis, the judgement is unacceptable to us and we intend to go for appeal,” Mr Onwugbufor said.
Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the political adviser to President Bola Tinubu, has resigned his appointment.
Reports say the former spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) tendered his resignation about two weeks ago.
Further reports quoting presidency sources did not, however, provide details of the reasons for his decision, but only stated that it was on personal grounds.
Baba-Ahmed was appointed in September 2023 as Special Adviser on Political Matters in the Office of Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Over the past 17 months, he had represented the presidency at several public fora, including a recent national conference themed: “Strengthening Nigeria’s Democracy: Pathway to Good Governance and Political Integrity”, which held from January 28 and 29, 2025 in Abuja.
The Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja recognising Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP).
In a unanimous judgment, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have pronounced Abure National Chairman of the Labour Party, after finding out earlier that the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.
The apex court held that the issue of leadership was an internal affair of a party, over which courts lacks jurisdiction.
The court further allowed the appeal filed by Senator Nenadi Usman and one other, and held that it is meritorious.
It also proceeded to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by the Abure group of the Labour Party for being unmeritorious.
In January, the Court of Appeal in Abuja reiterated that Abure remained the chairman of the LP.
A three-member panel of the appellate court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Hamma Barka, held that its judgment of November 13, 2024, which recognises Abure as national chairman, subsists and has not been set aside by any court.
Justice Barka made the declaration while delivering judgment in two separate appeals filed by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman and the caretaker committee and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The appellate court in the two separate appeals held that it did not delve into the issue of the leadership of the Labour Party because such issues are not justiciable.
It said that anything done outside jurisdiction amounts to a nullity. Hence, the judgment of the Federal High Court delivered on October 8, 2024, by Justice Emeka Nwite is of no effect because it was delivered without jurisdiction.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied being partisan in handling the failed recall of the lawmaker representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to Chairman of INEC Mahmood Yakubu, who was on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained how the Commission handled the process.
“In the case of the Kogi Central District, we received a petition and a cover letter and of course what Nigerians were saying was that we were taking sides,” Oyekanmi said on the programme.
“But what happened was that in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines and what we just did was to ask them to supply their address, it has nothing to do with the petition.
“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address. So, there was no hanky-panky in what we did.”
Earlier on Thursday, INEC rejected the petition to recall Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying that it has not met the requirements.
The electoral commission said the petition to recall Senator Natasha did not meet constitutional requirements.
Senator Natasha was suspended for breaching Senate rules, prompting some of her constituents to initiate her recall. They claimed the move was to ensure their constituency did not lack representation following the suspension of the 45-year-old senator.
Asked whether there could be a repeat of the recall process, the INEC spokesperson said the law did not specify if the process could be repeated and how many times.
“The law just talks about the threshold, the threshold meaning that if you want to recall, you must have, in addition to your petition, 50 per cent plus one signatures. The law did not specify how many times you can undertake that,” he said.
The lawmaker has made headlines in recent months after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, a claim the Akwa Ibom lawmaker has equally denied.
She was, thereafter, suspended by the Red Chamber for violation of its rule of conduct.
