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Court of Appeal in Abuja on Wednesday nullified the conviction and seven years jail term imposed on a former spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh.
Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja had on February, 2020 found Metuh, and his company, Destra Investment Ltd, guilty of illegally receiving public funds to the tune of N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser.
A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Stephen Adah in a unanimous judgment 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.
The appellant court held that the utterances of the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, in the course of the trial, established that he was biased against the convicts and therefore, ordered that trial be conducted afresh.
Justice Adah 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.
The former PDP spokesperson was also accused of transacting with the sum of $2 million without going through a financial institution, in violation of a provision of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
