Jonathan approved Metuh’s disbursement of N400m, says witness

Mr Richard Ihediwa, a witness in the ongoing trial of former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisah Metuh, said on Thursday that the N400 million Metuh got was disbursed as directed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ihediwa, led in evidence by Mr Emeka Etiaba (SAN), counsel to Metuh, told the Abuja High Court that Jonathan gave the directive on how the amount was to be spent.
He said that N21 million was paid to Chief Tony Anenih, former Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, for a property acquired for use by PDP as its media intervention centre.
He added that although the property, located in Asokoro area of Abuja, did not belong to Anenih, he assisted the PDP media team headed by the accused, in securing it.
“The amount covered the cost of hiring the structure, utility vehicles as well as security gadgets at the centre,’’ he said.
The witness also told the court that various sums were paid to some groups coordinated by some government functionaries, including the late Oronto Douglas and Mallam Abbah Dabo.
He said he was not very certain about the amount released to late Douglas, but added that N25 million was released to Dabo as mobilisation for advocacy groups, in line with the directive.
Ihediwa said the former president also approved various amounts for some other groups and Metuh disbursed the funds to them accordingly.
He said because of the tension and high level of insecurity across the six geo-political regions of the country then, there was the need for government to mobilise various advocacy groups to stabilise the system.
Meanwhile, Justice Okon Abang has reserved ruling for November 15 on applications filed by the defence counsel.