The Obi-Ezeani family in Nnewi, Anambra State has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release or charge their son, Chief Olisa Metuh, to court.
A senior member the family, Chief Gilbert Metuh, in a statement on Friday decried the continued detention of their son by the EFCC without informing the family of his alleged offence.
“We note with grave concern the continued incarceration of our son and spokesperson of the opposition party, PDP since his arrest on January 5 by the EFCC.
“The charges for which Metuh is being detained for more than 48 hours have not been formally made known to the family and the general public.
“We have noted some sensational publications in a section of the media claiming that our son collected N1.4 billion from the arms deal impasse and collected N4 million monthly from the Office of the former National Security Adviser,’’ he said.
Metuh said that the family had confronted their son with the allegations and he assured them that the allegations were false.
“However, he acknowledged that in the course of his duties as the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, the then leader of the party and president of the country directed him to carry out some urgent national assignment relating to his office.
“The family therefore views the publications bandying the figures of N1.4 billion and the alleged collection of N4 million from the office of the NSA as a deliberate blackmail aimed at inflaming public sentiments against our son.
“Our biggest concern for now is the health and safety of our son, who even before his arrest alerted the nation about various threats to his life, a stance that is not unconnected with his position as the spokesperson of the PDP.
“Our position is more so as he has refused to eat following fears of intentions to poison him in detention.
“In view of the above, we demand that the EFCC immediately release our son from detention or charge him to court,’’ he said.
Also, Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the EFCC to arraign Metuh if the commission was sure of evidences of fraud against him, saying; “the EFCC appears to be operating a system in which an accused person is first arrested, detained endlessly while the anti-corruption agency goes about looking for evidence.”
Fayose, who maintained his support for a genuine fight against corruption, challenged the EFCC to also act on petitions submitted to it against All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains and President Buhari’s election sponsors.
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose cautioned that nothing untoward must happen to Metuh, adding that the APC’s desperation to decimate and silence the opposition has dragged the Buhari-led government in the mud of lawlessness.
The governor said: “In saner climes, you don’t arrest people for alleged fraud and start to look for evidence to prosecute them. Rather, before you arrest anyone for fraud, anti-corruption agencies must have established a prima facie case and arresting the suspect will only be to enable for his or her arraignment in court.
“However, what we are witnessing in Nigeria today is a situation whereby the EFCC will arrest PDP leaders, humiliate them by subjecting them to media trial, detain them for weeks in the process of trying to force them to make statements during which the commission will be looking for evidence.
“For instance, in the case of Metuh, we are being told that the EFCC is insisting that he must write statements and one begins to wonder if it has now become mandatory for an accused to write statements in law enforcement agent’s custody. Shouldn’t the EFCC have simply charged Metuh to court based on its own evidence? Or is Metuh’s statement the evidence the EFCC requires to prosecute him?
“The international community, especially the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), European Union (EU) and others are put on notice on this condemnable act of arresting and detaining opposition leaders by agents of the Buhari-led government before fishing for evidence.”
While challenging the President Buhari to extend his anti-corruption crusade to those who sponsored his election, Governor Fayose said; any anti-corruption effort that targets only members of the opposition and those with axe to grind with the government of the day can never succeed.
“If President Buhari did not wait for any petition to move against PDP chieftains, asking people to come forward with allegations of corruption against APC chieftains, especially those who sponsored President Buhari’s election is clearly hypocritical.
“Most importantly, that the EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu even said the commission do not have any petition against APC chieftains when indeed there are loads of petitions against ministers serving in Buhari’s government and other notable APC chieftains goes to show the hypocrisy of the fight against corruption.
“It is even more hypocritical and anti-democratic for the President to have turned himself to the accuser, prosecutor and judge, carrying on as if those he accused of corruption have already been convicted,” the governor said.
In his reaction, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, described Metuh’s continued detention as `unhealthy’ for the country’s democracy.
This is contained in a statement by Ekweremadu’s Special Adviser (Media), Mr Uche Anichukwu, on Friday in Abuja.
Ekweremadu decried what he termed the “trampling of the opposition and total disregard for the rule of law in the guise of anti-corruption war.”
He reaffirmed the PDP’s support for a genuine anti-graft crusade.
He, however, decried a situation where such crusade became a calculated attempt to decimate and silence the opposition, while members of the ruling party with serious corruption allegations went about their businesses.
The deputy senate president expressed fear that Nigeria was fast descending into `authoritarianism’.
“The continued detention of the PDP mouthpiece was an attempt to gag the opposition and, therefore, unhealthy for democracy.
“An anti-graft trap that catches only members of the opposition and those with axe to grind with the government of the day is compromised,” he said.
He called on the citizenry to denounce and resist the prevailing situation where people were held in custody against the directives of the courts and laws of the land.
Ekweremadu pointed out that there would be no justice without the rule of law.
