A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has been set free from Kuje Correctional Centre.
Metuh was spotted outside the premises of the prison facility on Christmas eve, following recent high-profile prison discharges.
Recall that ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) and activist, Omoyele were released in the same manner exactly on this day last year.
This comes after an Appeal Court had quashed the conviction of the PDP chieftain and his company, Destra Investment Limited.
Mr Metuh was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja on a seven-count charge of illegally receiving monies to the tune of N400million from the Office of the NSA under Dasuki.
On February 25, Justice Abang convicted and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the court, Mr MetUh approached the appellate court with an application to side aside the ruling of the lower court, alleging among others, that the trial Judge was biased and failed to accord him fair hearing.
Delivering judgement on the appeal on December 17, Justice Stephen Adah, who led a panel of three justices, agreed with the appellant that the trial judge was biased and nullified the judgement.
The appeal court ordered a retrial of the substantive case.
However, after a review of the ruling, the EFCC said it has decided to approach the Supreme Court to set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the appellate court erred by restricting itself to only two grounds ( 12 and 14) of the appeal that dwell on the alleged bias of the trial judge but failed to examine the merit of the judgement of Justice Abang.
“The anti-graft agency believes that the alleged remarks by the trial judge were not sufficient to nullify the judgment which was based on material evidence and submissions of witnesses called by the prosecution,” s statement by EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said.
“The EFCC believes that, as an intermediate Court, the Court of Appeal erred in ordering a retrial without considering the merit of the judgement of the lower court.”
Metuh was first arrested on January 5, 2016.
