I Need Overseas Medicals, Metuh Begs Court 

Citing his distressing health challenges, former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh on Wednesday approached the Federal High Court in Abuja with an application for the release of his International Passport to enable him seek further medical attention overseas.

In the application by his counsel, Emeka Etiaba (SAN), Chief Metuh prayed the court to grant him leave to travel abroad on health grounds.

Advancing reasons for the release of Metuh’s travel documents yesterday, his counsel, Etiaba told the court that the instant application was different from the two previous ones, which the court had heard and ruled on.

He drew the attention of the court to Exhibit three attached to the application, which is a letter dated February 14, 2018 addressed to Dr. Raymond Onwuelo by Mr. Andrean T. H. Kessy, a Neurological and Spinal Surgery Consultant in London, stating detailed health status of Metuh.

According to Etiaba, the surgery on Metuh will take about ten days and requires five weeks to heal, and added that, “Even when a defendant, in a trial as this, is due for a routine medical checkup, that ordinarily will grant an application such as this, but we have gone beyond that to show why the court should grant the application.

“We have asked the prosecution to make available health personnel to evaluate the heath status of the first defendant in this matter, to show our sincerity in our application for him to travel abroad on medical grounds”, Etiaba informed the court.

Making his submission, counsel to the second defendant, Destra Investments Limited, allegedly owned by Metuh, Tochukwu Onwugbufor (SAN) said the application deals with the exercise of the court’s discretion.

He said granting the application by the court will speed up the trial as Metuh will have no reason to be absent from court for his trial.

However, the prosecution counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, who opposed the application, said the defence failed to place sufficient materials before the court to enable it exercise its discretion on the matter.

Tahir said all the exhibits attached by the defence to support the affidavit are un-convincing and none qualifies as a medical report to warrant a critical look by the court to see the defendant’s complaints of ill-health.

He therefore urged the court to dismiss the application for lacking in merit and consider it as an abuse of court’s process. The matter continues Thursday for further hearing of the case of the first defendant.

The former PDP spokesman, currently facing a seven-count charge before the court, had earlier been granted a N400 million bail by the trial Judge, Justice Okon Abang.

According to Justice Abang, other bail conditions required Chief Metuh to provide two sureties with N200 million each. The court however held that the sureties must have properties in Maitama district of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

It also directed him to submit his international passport to the Registrar of the court as part of the conditions for his bail conditions.

Chief Metuh, facing trial alongside his firm, Destra Investment Limited is alleged to have received N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), prior to the 2015 presidential election.

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) told the court that the N400 million, released to the defendants by the erstwhile NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, (rtd),‎ ‎was part of the $2.1 billion earmarked for the purchase of arms to prosecute the war against insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country.

It stated that the fund was electronically wired from an account ONSA operated with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Metuh, via account No. 0040437573, which his firm operated with Diamond Bank Plc