A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday that he would subpoena as his defense witness former President Goodluck Jonathan.
His lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), told Justice Okon Abang that he had written Jonathan to that effect but that the former President did not reply.
Ikpeazu said his intention was to apply for subpoena to be issued on Jonathan after the detained former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, earlier summoned to testify as Metuh’s witness ended his testimony.
He said, “We have another witness on subpoena, and at the end of the evidence of this another witness, we will take a decision on whether or not the first defendant (Metuh) will testify.
“The other witness we want to subpoena is Goodluck Jonathan, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Responding to further questions from the judge, Ikpeazu said, “We wrote him a letter but he did not respond and our plan will be to apply for the subpoena after the first application (for subpoena to be issued on Dasuki).”
Although Ikpeazu said Dasuki was scheduled to be the next to testify for the defense, the ex-NSA was absent from court on Monday.
Dasuki’s lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), was however in court to oppose the request to compel the ex-NSA to testify as Metuh’s defense witness.
The court session is ongoing.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on September 29, ordered the Department of State Service to produce Dasuki before the court in Abuja to enable him to testify as Metuh’s witness.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by its three-man panel, the Court of Appeal ordered the trial judge, Justice Abang before whom Metuh is being prosecuted, to immediately sign the subpoena filed by the ex-PDP spokesperson and same be served on Dasuki, who has been the custody of the DSS since December 2015.
Justice Peter Ige, who prepared and read the lead judgment of the three-man panel of the appellate court,directed Justice Abang to indicate the date which the DSS must produce Dasuki in court and other subsequent dates when the ex-NSA’s court attendance would be required.
Other members of the panel, Justices Emmanuel Agim and Mohammed Mustapha, agreed with the lead judgment.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, had in January 2016, arraigned Metuh and his company, Destra Investments Limited, on seven counts of money laundering involving alleged cash transaction of $2m and fraudulent receipt of N400m meant for procurement of arms from the NSA office on November 22, 2014.
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