JUDICIARY
Appeal Court Nullifies Metuh’s Conviction, orders Fresh Trial
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday nullified the conviction of a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh.
This was based on the grounds of bias allegedly exhibited by the trial judge who sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment for money laundering charges in February 2020.
The three-member panel led by Justice Stephen Adah ordered a retrial of the case.
Justice Adah who read the lead judgment ordered that the case file be sent back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and be reassigned to another judge for retrial.
He directed that the judge could be retried by any judge of the Federal High Court but not the former judge, Justice Okon Abang, whom the Court of Appeal adjudged to have by his utterances in his handling of the case exhibited “manifest bias” against Metuh and his team of lawyers.
Justice Adah held that from the records of the proceedings and the judgment produced by Metuh and his firm, “the trial judge has shown to the world by his utterances that he was bias against the appellants”.
He held that a judge ought to be an impartial arbiter, openminded and must not been seen to be harassing any of the lawyers to the parties.
He held that a judge “must not only do justice but must manifestly be seen to have done Justice”.
“The must be seen to be fair to all parties and any evil spin of bias will invalidate the integrity of the proceedings,” he held.
He said the bias exhibited to by the trial judge led to a breach of their right to fair trial “and cannot be allowed to stand in order not to set a dangerous precedent
He added, “The learned trial judge has unfortunately shown to the world that he was bias against the appellants. It is in this regard that we cannot ignore it.
“When bias is established the proceedings, as in this case are set aside. The judgment cannot stand and on the grounds of bias the judgment us annulled.” He held.
He ordered a retrial of the case by another judge of the Federal High Court apart from Justice Abang.
Justice Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja had on February 25, 2020 sentenced Metuh to seven years’ imprisonment after finding him and his firm, Destra Investment Limited, guilty of charges of money laundering involving the sum of N400m they received from the then National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.) in 2014 preparatory to the 2015 general elections.
The judge had also convicted and sentenced Metuh for transacting with $2m cash withouth going through a financial institution in violation of money laundering law.
Justice Abang also, in the judgment, indicted Dasuki for breach of trust and acts of corruption by his action of giving the sum of N400m to Metuh from the office of the NSA’s account without justification.
Metuh, his firm, and Dasuki, had filed separate appeals against the judgment, accusing the trial judge of bias and alleging a breach of their rights to fair hearing by the judge.
They quoted from the records of proceedings of the trial court, perceived bias comments of the judge criticising and members of his legal team for allegedly making life difficult for him because of his firm handling of the case.
Dasuki, is standing trial before another court in respect of the handling of the funds of the NSA office ahead of the 2015 general elections.
He stated in his own appeal that without being charged or given the opportunity to defend himself in the case before Justice Abang, more than 10 indicting comments were made against him by the judge.
Although Dasuki, appeared as a defence witness subpoenaed by Metuh in the course of the trial, the ex-NSA said his indictment by the judge was breach of his right to fair hearing.
Delivering judgment on Dasuki’s appeal, Justice Adah held that the ex-NSA, not being a defendant in the trial or given opportunity to defend himself the “damaging comments” made against him breached his right to fair hearing.
He dismissed the objection by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir, who argued that Dasuki had no right of appeal in the case as he was not a defendant on record at the trial.
The Court of Appeal held that section 241(b) of the Nigerian Constitution conferred the right of appeal on anyone to challenge any decision in civil or criminal case believed to have denied him or her any of the rights contained in Chapter 4 of the Constitution.
“He was never as an individual charged as an accused person, yet many damaging things were said about him. His appeal is justified,” Adah held.
” Even an accused person would be ordinarily presumed to be innocent, yet “in this case, the appellant was not charged and a lot of damaging things were found in this judgment against him”.
“The appeal is allowed”, Justice Adah held.
He also made an order nullifyng all indicting comments made against Dasuki in the judgment.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Metuh has been in prison since Feb. 25, 2020, when he was convicted and sentenced by the trial judge.(NAN)
The Court on Friday ruled in the Bank’s favour on all issues and granted all its prayers.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has secured a significant legal victory in its debt recovery proceedings against Stallion Group, following a court judgment which upheld the Bank’s position on all issues submitted for determination.
In a sweeping decision, delivered by by Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos on Friday, the Court granted all the reliefs sought by UBA, affirming the validity of the appointment of a Receiver/Manager, the enforceability of the mortgage security and the liability of the guarantors.
The Court observed that the Defendants did not dispute the existence of their indebtedness to the Bank but challenged the amount claimed. It further held that the reconciliation of accounts between the parties did not extinguish or negate the underlying indebtedness.
In a major affirmation of UBA’s enforcement rights, the Court upheld the appointment of the Receiver/Manager and confirmed his entitlement to take possession of the mortgaged property and seek appropriate protective orders.
The Court also dismissed objections raised by the 12th Defendant, holding that it had failed to establish any proprietary rights over the mortgaged property. Consequently, its consent was not required for the creation of the mortgage, and its objections were rejected.
Significantly, the Court restrained the Defendants from diverting receivables due to them from government agencies, thereby reinforcing the Bank’s ability to protect its recovery interests.
The judgment also affirmed the liability of the guarantors, strengthening UBA’s legal position in pursuing recovery of the outstanding obligations.
The decision represents a comprehensive victory for UBA, with the Court resolving all issues in the Bank’s favour and granting all the reliefs sought.
The ruling is particularly significant for the enforcement of creditors’ rights in Nigeria, underscoring the legal validity of properly constituted security arrangements and the authority of duly appointed receivers to enforce creditors’ interests.
It also reinforces the principle that disputes over the precise amount of an outstanding debt do not, by themselves, invalidate the underlying indebtedness or prevent creditors from exercising their lawful recovery rights.
The judgment marks a major milestone in UBA’s efforts to recover its exposure to Stallion Group and safeguard the interests of the Bank and its stakeholders.
The Department of State Services (DSS), on Thursday, tendered a generated copy of the message posted by Omoyele Sowore on his social media handles where he allegedly defamed President Bola Tinubu as evidence at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The DSS also played the video evidence of President Tinubu’s speech made on Aug.
26, 2025, during his state’s visit to Brazil, before Justice Mohammed Umar in establishing its cyberstalking charge against Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters.Both the message and the video recording in a flash drive were admitted in evidence and marked as exhibits by Justice Umar after counsel for the defendant, Marshal Abubakar, reserved his objection and until final written addresses stage.
The development occurred when the security agency’s 1st prosecution witness (PW-1) and an operative of the service, Cyril Nosike, was being led in evidence by its lawyer, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sowore is being prosecuted for referring to the president as “criminal” in his X and Meta handles.
In the amended charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025 and filed on Dec. 5, Sowore is named as sole defendant.
Although Sowore, X Incorp (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) Incorp were listed in the earlier charge as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively, in the amended charge, the names of 2nd and 3rd defendants were dropped.
Testifying, Nosike said he works at the Cyberspace Monitoring Centre of the service.
According to my duty is to monitor the cyberspace 24 hours, night and day.
“I am here to give evidence in support of the charges filed against the defendant,” he said.
Narrating how he came across Sowore’s post, he said: “On the 26th of August, 2025, in the course of my duty at the Cyberspace Monitoring Centre, I detected and monitored a post by the defendant through his X handle.
“The post was referenced as such: ‘This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to say that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What an audacity to lie shamelessly.’”
The witness explained that the X handle; “@officialABAT” is the official X handle of the President and Commander-In-Chief of Nigeria.
He said after he came across the president’s video, he downloaded it and saved it in a flash drive and marked the flash drive as “XYZ.”
He said he equally had a certificate of compliance of to back this in compliance with the Evidence Act.
The judge admitted the flash drive as Exhibit “A” and the certificate of compliance as Exhibit “B” after Abubakar said he would respond in appropriate time.
The video recording was then played for some minutes.
The video showed President Tinubu speaking about the achievements of his administration and encouraged the Brazilians to invest in Nigeria because there was now a conducive business environment, where there is no more corruption.
Nosike said when he saw Sowore’s post, he made a screenshot of it, including the reaction and a certificate of compliance to back it.
The judge equally admitted these in evidence and marked them as Exhibits “C” and “C1” after the defendant’s lawyer reserved his objection.
When the DSS lawyer asked the witness what his office did seeing the post, he said: “Seeing the reactions from this post, the DSS wrote a letter officially to the owners of X and Facebook, which is Meta, through their email addresses.
“We also have the screenshot of the letter and certificate of compliance
“The letter was for them to take down the post considering that the statement on that post was generating lots of tension.”
The screenshot of the letter was marked at Exhibit “D” by the judge.
The witness further told the court that tye DSS also wrote a letter to Sowore through his lawyers and that they also acknowledged the receipt of the letter.
According to him, the letter was a demand to retract that post.
Justice Umar admitted it in evidence and marked it as Exhibit “E” after Abubakar reserved his objection.
The witness said after Sowore received the letter, despite being a classified information, “he went ahead to post this on his X and Meta platforms.”
According to him, as expected, the letter also garnered reactions from Nigerians and the content of the reactions of that letter were far-reaching and painted the service in bad light.
The officer said he made a screenshot of the post and had a certificate of compliance in support and it was admitted as Exhibit “F.”
The witness told the court that Sowore’s inciting posts made their work, as security agencies, complicated.
“We have officers and men who have sworn on oath to put themselves on the line for the security and stability of this country.
“Such inciting posts that generate tension, make our work more difficult and we take such issues very seriously,” Nosike said.
When Abubakar was directed to cross-examine the witness, he prayed the court to allow him study the evidence of the witness.
He, therefore, sought an adjournment to February but DSS counsel objected.
Kehinde argued that Section 396(3) of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, stipulates day-to-day trial after arraignment.
He said there was no basis for Abubakar’s plea for adjournment.
Justice Umar subsequently adjourned the matter until Jan. 27 for cross-examination of the PW-1 and continuation of hearing.
Gov. Douye Diri of Bayelsa says the judiciary remains the hope of the common man in the society, charging officers in the temple of justice to always strive to be upright.Diri said this on Friday in Yenagoa at a Thanksgiving/Valedictory Court Section for the commencement of the 2025/2026 Legal Year in the state.
The governor said: “It has become an annual ritual but we all know that the bible says seek ye first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be added on to thee. “Today we are handing over this new legal year to God for His protection to the judiciary. I believe you are going to do beyond our expectations with God on your side.“In this country today without exception, I appeal to us Nigerians, Bayelsa people to allow the judiciary to be used by God, to be allowed to work to the best of their ability and conscience to deliver incorruptible and sound judgement.”Diri said that the trust of the public lies with the judiciary which demands justice for all manner of people, irrespective of the class in the society.The governor urged the judiciary especially the judges to always stand tall on what is right, as they are highly autonomous as an arm of the government.On her part, Justice Matilda Ayemieye, the Chief Judge of Bayelsa, commended the Bayelsa government for the support in various ways to ensure that the judiciary is autonomous.She said that the judiciary enjoys cordial working relationship with the Nigeria Bar Association, the Legislature and the Executive.The chief judge said that the new legal year allows them to assess the previous year, adding that it is a day of accountability towards the people they serve and to strengthen the rule of law.Ayemieye said that the Bayelsa judiciary aspires to be one of the best judiciary as they have earned respect among other judiciary in the country.Also, Mr Biriyai Dambo (SAN) the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, expressed happiness over the commencement of the new legal year.He said that they are committed to service delivery in Bayelsa and commended the bar and the bench for their hard work to ensure that justice is served in Bayelsa.The Commissioner said that for the past years the judicial system had changed and that the welfare of the judiciary and that of the Ministry Justice is one of the priorities of Diri’s administration which has paid in full all monies owed law officers.“This current administration has boosted the morale of law officers, as they have contributed to the justice delivery in Bayelsa state.“This current administration has equally assisted the NBA Yenagoa and Sagbama branches respectively. My office is wide open to enhance the justice system in Bayelsa state,” he said. (NAN)
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