The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday demonstrated to the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) how the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, tore the statement he made to investigators.
The EFCC said the PDP chieftain tore the statement on realising that he had given too much information and had implicated ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and himself by admitting that the money he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) were approved by the former president.
Metuh is facing a three-count charge of destroying his statement and obstructing investigation.
At the resumed hearing on the matter yesterday, EFCC brought one of its lead investigators, Mr. Junaid S’aid, to testify before the Chief Judge of the High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello who is presiding over Metuh’s trial.
The witness who was led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, told the court that he is a member of a Special Task Force Team that received and investigated the petition that led to the arrest of the erstwhile National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd.
He said the petition which was filed from the office of the NSA in January this year, alleged that Metuh, through his company, Destra Investment Limited, received N400million from Dasuki.
The fund was said to have been electronically transferred from an account the Office of the NSA operated with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, into account no. 0040437573, which Metuh’s firm opened with Diamond Bank Plc. The witness told the court that investigation by his team revealed that the transfer was done without any contract approval.
S’aid said: “My Lord, when he concluded writing his statement, which was on four sheets of the EFCC statement form, I collected the statement and read over it, I then handed the statement over to my superiors Musa and Wetkas. When I was handing over the statement, the defendant said he was surprised that he had written that much and that he felt he had given too much information.
“Because of the comment, I was worried I gave him the statement sheets one after the other for endorsement. He endorsed the first and second sheet, but tore the third sheet. The third sheet was where the defendant (Metuh) disclosed that he received the money for PDP political activities, settled his personal needs and made reference to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“My lord, he suddenly tore the statement sheet into pieces. In great shock and surprise, I stood up I asked him why he did what he did. He said he did that because he was no longer willing to give the information on that statement sheet.
“I then requested the pieces of the statement, he declined and attempted to put them in his pocket, I then cautioned him and told him to respect himself. He insisted that he was going to dispose the torn sheet.
“I persuaded him to handover the torn sheet and brought one plain paper to him. He poured the pieces on the plain sheet. My colleagues were there looking at us in surprise as well. He further tore them into pieces, saying only in the movies would they be recovered.
“I poured the pieces in the commission’s transparent polythene bag as exhibit and made entry of the incident into the EFCC’s incident duty station diary as well as EFCC’s pocket notebook. Later, in the day he requested to make additional statement, which he made, wrote his name and signed but declined to make any other statement on the torn paper.’’
The EFCC’s incident duty station diary, EFCC’s pocket notebook and pieces of the torn statement were tendered and admitted as exhibits.
The witness, under cross examination by Metuh’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) admitted not including the issue of the torn sheet in his statement.
When Ikpeazu requested for the original copy of the statement, Tahir gave him a photocopy of the statement. He said that the defence should had served him with notice to produce the document.
Justice Bello therefore ordered the EFCC to provide the original copy of the witness statement.
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