The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday called two out of the 18 witnesses it lined up against the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, with respect to the charges of money laundering involving the sum of N400m which he allegedly collected from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014.
The trial commenced before a Federal High Court in Abuja after the presiding judge, Justice Okon Abang, overruled a request for an adjournment by Metuh’s lead counsel, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), who had sought time to enable him and his team to have access to some documents and prepare better for the defence.
The ruling by Justice Abang, dismissing the request for adjournment, paved the way for the prosecution to call its first witness, Nneka Ararume, an employee of Asset and Resource Management Company Limited, who narrated how Metuh gave her $2m cash at his house in Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja.
Ararume, who described his position at ARM as Wealth Manager, said she collected the cash from Metuh on December 2, 2014, with an instruction to invest the money on behalf of the PDP spokesperson’s company, Destra Investments Limited.
She said ARM had been managing Destra’s funds before she joined the financial services company in April, 2013.
Before the trial commenced on Monday, Ikpeazu had informed the court that his client had “laboured” unsuccessfully to meet the bail conditions imposed by the court on January 19, and had applied for the variation of the terms.
The court ruled that the application could not be heard on Monday since it was only served on the prosecution in the open court on Monday morning.
Ikpeazu asked for an adjournment of the case on the grounds that he was only served in court with the prosecution’s additional proof of evidence containing the statement of the EFCC witness who investigated the case.