Justice Abang Stands Down Metuh’s Case Over Absence Of EFCC’s Lawyer
The hearing on the trial of a former spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Olisa Metuh’s has been stood down for 1 pm at the instance of the prosecution – the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
On Wednesday, February 22, when the case was called, counsel to EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir was absent.
Tahir had in a letter to the court requested for a stand down till 1 pm on the ground he is appearing in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.
He said he had other matters to attend to at the court.
However, counsel to Metuh Onyechi Ikpeazu and counsel to Destra limited, the second defendant, Tochukwu Onwugbufor opposed the application for stand down.
Ikpeazu said the counsel to EFCC opposed a similar application from him on Monday, February 20, when he requested for an adjournment to enable him attend to a matter in the same FCT High Court.
He said Tahir claimed that he (Ikpeazu) was trying to frustrate proceedings on Metuh’s trial.
He further asked the court to disregard Tahir’s application and continue with the proceedings or adjourn the matter to the following day.
Also opposing the application, counsel to the second defendant argued that the request was a contradiction to the prosecution’s stance on Monday.
Onwugbufor reminded the court that the prosecution counsel had on that day described Ikpeazu’s application as a ‘musical chair’, set up by the defence to truncate the trial.
He said the EFCC had argued that Ikpeazu’s application, “was a trap set for Your Lordship and the prosecution to make sure that Your Lordship ceases to handle this matter so that it is assigned De novo to another court, meaning, according to him that all the defence was doing by that application was to delay the trial of this case so that your lordship will ceases to handle the case. That was the standpoint of the prosecution counsel”
“If your lordship remembers, the prosecution counsel opposed that application by Dr. Ikpeazu on the ground that according to him, an FCT high is inferior to this court and therefore Dr. Ikpeazu cannot leave this court and attend the FCT High court.
“He is now making application on the same basis on which he opposed the application on Monday. He has gone to the FCT high court and asking Your Lordship, a superior court, according to his argument on Monday, to stand down to enable him attend the FCT High Court, which he submitted was an inferior court.
“We therefore submit that on the basis of his own argument and evaluation, the court should not grant his application,” Onwubufor said.
He further warned that his argument is a warning that matters should not be opposed in court frivolously because no condition is permanent.
Onwubufor said: “If a defendant or a counsel is sick and ask for an adjournment a counsel should not oppose that application because that counsel may be sick tomorrow and also apply for an adjournment. The stick with which he measures the others application will be the stick to measure his own application.”
“Ordinarily I would not have opposed this application but because of the measure which he meted out on the first defendant and his counsel on Monday, I am opposing it so that next time he will weight all the situation both future and the past before he opposes any application.”
The two defence counsels in their submissions urged the court to either continue hearing on an application for the temporary release of Metuh’s passport to enable him travel abroad for a spinal chord operation in Tahir’s absence or adjourn the matter to a later date.
However, in his ruling to the application and objections, Justice Okon Abang stood down the matter in favour of the prosecution.
