National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, is once more breathing the air of freedom; in fact, he slept in his house last night following his release from Kuje Prisons, Abuja, having met his bail conditions on Thursday afternoon.
The news of Metuh’s release was broken by his party, which tweeted yesterday evening from its official Twitter handle: “BREAKING: Chief Olisa Metuh has regained his freedom.”
The tweet was accompanied with a photo of a free Chief Metuh being congratulated by PDP chiefs, friends and family members.
A Federal High Court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja had on Wednesday varied the bail conditions given to Metuh, allowing him to provide sureties with property anywhere in the FCT instead of only in Maitama District of the Nigerian capital. The judge, however, retained the sum of bail which he put at N300 million.
Justice Okon Abang signed Metuh’s release warrant, upon being satisfied with the verification of the details of the two sureties provided by the accused and the title documents of the property owned by the sureties.
The verification exercise was done by the Chief Registrar of the court with the involvement of the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, whom the judge directed must verify the residential addresses of the two sureties.
Metuh is accused of receiving the sum of N400 million from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), without a contract, contrary to the Money Laundering Act. He is also accused of converting the said money to funds for PDP political activities.
The PDP Spokesman is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which arrested him at from his Abuja home on January 5.
•Photo shows Olisa Metuh being congratulated by PDP chiefs and well wishers after release from Kuje Prison . . . yesterday evening.
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