The court of appeal sitting in Abuja has nullified the
seven-year jail sentence handed down to Olisa Metuh, former spokesman of the
Peoples Democratic Party.
In its ruling on Thursday, the court held that Okon Abang,
judge of a federal high court in Abuja, exhibited bias in the case of the
former PDP spokesman.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had
arraigned Metuh on seven counts of money laundering for allegedly receiving
N400 million from the office of the national security adviser.
On February 25, 2020, the trial court pronounced him guilty
on all counts of money laundering and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
Aggrieved by the court’s decision, Metuh through his counsel
filed an appeal in March 2020.
As part of the 10 issues raised by the appellant for
determination by the appellate court, Metuh argued that he was not given a fair
trial.
He submitted that the trial judge was biased, considering
some of the remarks made during the trial.
He prayed the court to upturn the judgment of the lower
court.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, a three-man panel of
justice agreed that the trial judge showed influence of bias against the
appellant .
Stephen Adah who read the court’s decision, said: “The
narrative of the trial judge suggest someone who didn’t enjoy trying the
appellant and counsel because he said they were picking on him.
“He was struggling with the case and even wished that he
should be recused out of the case. The influence from this narrative is
indisputably to say the least that a trial judge was angered only in his mind
that he was wrongly influenced and showed bias against the appellant in this
case as this is what manifests from all the outburst, he has infused in his
judgment.
“Learned trial judge showed in his comments, the influence
of an abnormal desire all inclination to pursue a predetermined line of action
against the appellant.
“This no doubt is an influence of bias against the
appellant. There is no way the learned trial judge can be seen to be detached
from the malice against the appellant in the case as alleged.
“The duty of a trial judge is to be completely neutral in
the case before him. A judge must not only be impartial; he must be seen to be
impartial to both sides.
“His duty is to sit and determine the issues raised by
parties and to conduct an examination into the parties. He is not an umpire
just yet. His job is to find out the truth and do justice according to law.
“Appellants has been able to convince us in this court from
the records shown and from all the utterances of the judge that there is
likelihood of bias signifying that he was no freeman while the trial was going
on.
“If this is allowed, it will set a dangerous president and
that is never allowed by our constitution. Trial that was conducted in a
hostile atmosphere without any regard to the constitutional right of the person
accused can never be upheld.
“The learned trial judge unfortunately has shown the whole
world that much was into that judgment than what was put in evidence before the
judge.
“It was in this respect that we cannot ignore it. This court
in its duty, set that decision aside. Judgment of the lower court delivered on
25th of February 2020 cannot stand because of the evidence of bias. It is
accordingly annulled.”
The appellate court also nullified the judgment of the trial
court against Destra Investment Limited.
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Nigeria s a country is a scam ,convicted metuh then what hapend to obanikoro that gave him the money ,naija na scamas log as am concerned
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