SAN FRANCISCO, January 27, (THEWILL) – Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja has relaxed the conditions for sureties that must be presented by the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh, before he can be released on bail, but stressed that other conditions for bail must be met before Metuh can be released from prison.
While citing the ruling of the court which granted Metuh bail, the judge directed the accused person to go on appeal against the ruling of the court if he was not satisfied, pointing out that “the court cannot be expected to sit on appeal over its decision.”
Abang however declared that the decision of the court to grant Metuh bail was not to keep him in custody.
He varied the condition requiring the accused person to have two sureties who must have landed property at Maitama, Abuja, expanding it to include all parts of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The defence counsel, Emeka Etiaba had prayed the court to vary the conditions of Metuh’s bail on six grounds. One of the grounds was that the order requiring the provision of two sureties who must have landed property at Maitama, Abuja, be varied to include all parts of Abuja.
But counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Tahir Sylvanus said: “The prosecution is fundamentally opposed to the application of the first defendant for variation of bail.”
Responding, the defence counsel argued that the prosecution had no right to oppose the application since it did not file a counter-affidavit and asked the court to exercise its discretion and vary the conditions of the accused person’s bail.
However, the judge after ruling that the court would not overturn its own judgment varied one condition of bail for Metuh.
As the trial continued on Wednesday, the EFCC called its fourth witness, Eno-Mfon Effiong, to give her testimony in relation to the N400m money laundering suit against the PDP spokesman.
The Customer Relationship Manager at Diamond Bank PLC informed the court that she managed the account of Destra Investment Limited since February 10, 2014 when it was opened.
The PDP spokesman is said to be the owner of Destra Investment Limited.
Effiong then revealed that on 24 Nov 2014 the sum of 400m was paid into the account owned by the embattled spokesman from the Office the National Security Adviser, ONSA.
She told the court that prior to the payment into the account there was “over N6m in the account and that Destra operated five accounts.
Etiaba however objected to some of the documents presented to the court by the prosecution witness, saying that the letter tendered before the court was not related to the statement of the witness.
He further argued that the witness is not the maker of the documents presented as such cannot testify in the matter. He then prayed the court to on this ground “discountenance the documents tendered and the witness.”
The defence counsel urged the court to “discountenance” some of the documents as it falls short of requirement of Section 84 of the evidence Act.
Responding to the defence lawyer’s objection, the prosecution urged the court to dismiss the objection for lack of merit and misleading the court. This was upheld by trial judge.
