A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, has been released from Kuje custodial centre, Abuja, one wee
A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, has been released from Kuje custodial centre, Abuja, one week after the Court of Appeal upturned his conviction and ordered his retrial.
Olisa Metuh was released from custody on Thursday, 10 months after he was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraudulently receiving N400 million from the office of the then National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retired) on February 25, by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The spokesman, Federal Capital Territory Command of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Humphrey Chukwuedo, confirmed the development.
“I can confirm that Metuh has been released from custody, ” he stated.
Pictures on social media also showed the former PDP spokesman being led out of the facility by senior correctional officers.
The Court of Appeal last week Wednesday quashed his conviction on the basis of bias established against Justice Abang. The court also sent the case for retrial with instructions that it should be reassigned to a different judge.
A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Stephen Adah in a unanimous judgment held that the proceedings of the Federal High Court leading to the conviction of Metuh and his company, Destra Investment Limited, were tainted with bias and therefore must not be allowed to stand.
Metuh had in the course of his trial accused the judge of bias but his protests were dismissed by Abang who subsequently convicted him.
But the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it will approach the Supreme Court to set aside the December 16 decision of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, quashing Metuh’s conviction.
It noted that the court restricted itself to only two grounds of the appeal that dwelled on the alleged bias of the trial judge but failed to examine the merit of Abang’s judgment.
