TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused a “section” of the media of being unfair in its reports on Olisa Metuh, its spokesman, who has been in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since January 5.

According to the party, Metuh voluntarily admitted that he received N400m from former president, Goodluck Jonathan, but he was being falsely portrayed as having received money from Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser.

“The attention of the office of the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, has been drawn to desperation to use a section of the media to spur public sentiments against the PDP spokesman, who has been in the EFCC custody since last Tuesday,” it said in a statement issued by Richard Ihediwa, special assistant to the PDP spokesman, on Tuesday.

“Chief Metuh believes that the continued false reports in the media, the latest being the publication claiming that he told investigators that he would “rather starve than refund any money”, is part of the blackmail and scheme to pitch him against the public.

“The grand design to sway the public and derail the course of proper investigation started with misleading and malicious reports that Chief Metuh made away with N1.4bn arms deal cash and had been receiving a monthly N4m stipend from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). When this deliberate falsehood could not be sustained, it was adjusted to him receiving N400m from ONSA.

“This office wishes to state categorically that Chief Metuh has fully cooperated with investigators within his constitutionally guaranteed rights. In exercise of his rights, he has since given his statement to the EFCC wherein he submitted that he received the sum of N400m from the former President for an assignment, which he executed to the satisfaction of the former President.

“In further exercise of his rights, Chief Metuh has also indicated his readiness to make public the nature of this assignment, but only in an open court in line with the laws of the land, and where his statement would not be distorted by anybody.

“Chief Metuh therefore believes that his continued incarceration and failure to charge him to court are deliberately intended to prevent him from telling his own story in the open court for all Nigerians to know.

“We wish to state that contrary to the impression that the issue of N400m was a product of investigation, it was actually a product of Chief Metuh’s voluntary statement.

“Chief Metuh had since informed that sometime in December 2015, the ONSA published an invitation to companies they believed executed contracts for it for a chat.

“Upon ONSA invitation via a text message, Chief Metuh, regardless of the fact that he did not execute any contract for the Office, appeared before the ONSA panel, wherein he presented his company’s statement of account showing that the sum of N400m paid on the instruction of the ex-President for an assignment was traceable to the ONSA account.

“Recall that Chief Metuh, even before visiting ONS,A had at a media briefing acknowledged the receipt of N400m from the ex-President for the exercise of the said assignment.

“Following the developments, Chief Metuh, as a responsible citizen cancelled his intended travels for the Yuletide and issued a statement wherein he noted his readiness for any invitation and investigation by the EFCC or any other agency of government for that matter.

“We are therefore worried at the continued media persecution where a citizen is being charged, sentenced and jailed in the court of the media instead of being charged to the law court as required by the law.

“This office urges Nigerians not to lose sight of the sequence and inconsistencies in the investigation and publications regarding Chief Metuh’s case. We believe that in this case, the law must not be suspended but applied in its full measure by charging and allowing Chief Metuh to state his case in the open court instead of this continued media persecution against him.”