By Emeka Nze and Bode Olagoke,
Abuja
Embattled former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has expressed readiness to refund the N400 million he was alleged to have received from the Office of National Security Adviser under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Metuh is currently facing trial over alleged criminal breach of trust and money laundering brought against him at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
His health has been suspect in the last few days, a development that made him plead with the court to allow him travel abroad for urgent medical attention.
But the request was turned down by the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, who Metuh had earlier asked without success, to disqualify self from the case.
But worried over his health condition, Metuh’s family cried out that his continued detention would endanger his life as he was in need of “urgent surgery” to correct his spinal cord problem.
A statement issued yesterday by Gilbert Metuh, on behalf of the family, pleaded with the federal government to accept their offer to return the fund.
The statement reads: “As we speak to you, the offer to refund the money to the federal government is still open and the government is yet to accept the offer. It is, therefore, clear to
us that the intention is not the recovery of funds, but a clear persecution of our son.
“Nigerians are aware that of all the people who have been facing the predicament of having worked for either the PDP or the previous federal government, our son has been the only one that was brought to court in handcuffs, paraded as a common criminal and treated without any dignity whatsoever.
“May we also point out that, since his arrest and even up to about a week ago, our son has made several overtures to the arresting authority for him to refund the money since they now claim in court that it came from government coffers. All efforts have been unsuccessful.
“It is instructive that out of over 300 names listed as having received money from the ONSA, all those who offered to refund money were not arraigned in court. “Our son is the only one whose offer to refund money was rejected and has been arraigned in court and his case given accelerated hearing. On each trial date the hostility in the courtroom is palpable.
“Our son was diagnosed with a spinal cord problem in 2004. He has consistently managed it over this period.
However, due to the treatments he received while in custody, the situation got aggravated. In the course of his trial, the situation deteriorated, especially after he fell at a meeting in the party office for which he was rushed to the National Hospital and was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit.
“Notwithstanding the grave medical condition, he still kept his court date the very next morning in spite of medical advice by the doctors. On another such occasion, he vomited in court and had to be rushed back to the hospital where he is lying critically ill.
“Our concern now is that our son should not be sentenced to a life in a wheel chair, especially as we believe that the paramount interest of the authorities should rather be more on the recovery of funds. In this case, our son, has, from the onset, shown his willingness to refund the money rather than dragging in other party members involved in the said assignment.”
“It is absurd that the main reason given by the court for refusing the application is that there are several teaching hospitals in Nigeria that can handle such critical spinal problems, especially as this dramatic claim by the trial judge has no medical basis whatsoever.
“This is clearly one of the tactics being used by the court in an attempt to whip up public sentiments against our son in this courtroom media trial, more so when it is judicial notice that even public officers are allowed to travel abroad on ordinary medical check-up and at public expense.
“Our request is on the basis of a life-threatening ailment and will be undertaken with our own private resources.
The essence of a criminal trial is to achieve justice and no justice can be achieved if someone dies in the process. We feel more convinced that this is a political
vendetta considering the fact of his efforts to pay back the money if it came from government coffers, not minding that the money has been expended as directed by the former President,” Metuh further claimed.
