Metuh to return N400m ‘in support of anti-graft war’

Former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Olisa Metuh has said that his proposal to refund the sum of N400 million to the federal government is to show support for the anti-corruption war,.

Metuh said this in a statement through his counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) yesterday, adding that the gesture is a testament to his “sincerity, integrity and honesty in this matter.”

Metuh and his company Destra Investments was in January arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before an Abuja Federal High Court on seven count charges of receiving the sum of N400 million arms funds from the former NSA, Sambo Dasuki in December 2014.

Ikpeazu explained that “as at the time the money was released to him after his presentation to the ex-President (Goodluck Jonathan), our client had no knowledge of the source, a fact that is now obvious from the evidence of the prosecution and defence witnesses.”

He said when the matter was first mentioned to Metuh when he was invited to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in December 2015, he requested to know the source of the money and expressed his readiness to make refunds if it was from government coffers.

The EFCC had in January said that Metuh vowed to starve rather than to return the N400m traced to him, but few weeks back, Metuh’s family speaking through his brother, Gilbert Metu, the PDP chieftain was open to returning the said money.