In a surprise judgement by the presiding Justices of the Court of Appeal on Wednesday in Abuja, the earlier conviction of the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh has been quashed.
The Federal High Court presided by Justice Okon Abang has sentenced Metuh to seven years imprisonment having been found guilty of money laundering to the tune of N400 million.
But a three-man panel led by Justice Stephen Adah in a unanimous judgment, delivered on Wednesday, 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.
Justice Adah averred that the High Court’s utterances at the time of delivering judgement that sent the former PDP spokesman to prison evoked bias, hence, it must not be allowed to stand.
He, however, ordered a ‘de novo’ trial of the case.
He directed that the case file be sent back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another judge other than Justice Abang.
Justice Abang had in his judgment delivered on February 25, 2020, sentenced Metuh to seven years’ imprisonment for fraudulently receiving N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser then being headed by Col Sambo Dasuki.
Meanwhile, Col. Sambo Dasuki who was severally mentioned in Metuh’s case had since regained his freedom having spent over four years in prison.
