PDP Spokesperson, Olisa Metuh Bought N500m Bouse, Gave Kema Chikwe N5m – Witness

A detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Junaid Sa’id, told a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday that the $2m allegedly laundered by the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, was part of the N10bn which the immediate past National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), released for the party’s presidential convention in 2014.

The then President Goodluck Jonathan was adopted as the party’s sole candidate at the said convention. Metuh and his company, Destra Investments Limited, are being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly receiving N400m in a fraudulent manner from the ONSA in November, 2014 and also on charges of money laundering of cash transaction involving $2m.

The EFCC had called as its first prosecution witness, Nneka Ararume, a former employee of Asset and Resource Management Company Limited, who narrated how Metuh handed her the $2m in $100 bills at his house in the Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja.

Sa’id testified as the eighth prosecution witness on Tuesday.

Under cross-examination by lead defence counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), Sa’id informed the court that Dasuki had withdrawn a sum of N10bn from the Central Bank of Nigeria and converted same to $47m.

He said the money was then given to aides of former President Jonathan for sharing to some PDP members. Apart from the N400m paid directly to Metuh’s firm’s account from the ONSA’s account with the CBN, Sa’id testified that Metuh got the sum of $2m from the N10bn released by Dasuki.

The witness said under cross-examination, “In the course of investigation, it was revealed that the former NSA had withdrawn about N10bn from the CBN and converted same into dollars which amounted to around $47m.

“He gave the money to the then Aide de Camp to the then President and his Special Adviser, Domestic, to the then President, to share to some PDP party members for the PDP presidential convention.

“The $2m given by the 1st defendant to Nneka Ararume (first prosecution witness) was strongly linked to that disbursement of the $47m, which was converted in November, 2014 and shared out to some PDP members for its presidential convention.