The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, was driven off in a prison pick-up from the premises of the Federal High Court in Abuja, shortly after he was granted bail in the sum of N400m by the court on Tuesday.
Metuh, who was produced in court in handcuffs for the bail hearing, is, however, to remain in Kuje Prison, Abuja, till he perfects his bail conditions.
After the court delivered its ruling on his bail application on Tuesday, prison officials led him to a waiting green pick-up and locked him up at the rear cabin of the vehicle.
The vehicle, with number plate PS 682 AA, and with the inscription, Kuje Prison, FCT Command, Abuja, was driven off from the court premises at 4.10pm.
Justice Okon Abang, in a ruling shortly after Metuh’s bail application was argued on Tuesday, admitted the PDP spokesperson to bail in the sum of N400m with two sureties in the sum of N200m each.
The judge also ordered that the two sureties must own property in Maitama, Abuja, directing the sureties to deposit their passport photographs with the court registrar.
The judge also ruled that the sureties must produce the Certificates of Occupancy of the property, which must be verified by the Chief Registrar of the court and confirmed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The judge, who also ordered that Metuh must deposit his travelling documents with the court pending the period of his trial, also ordered the EFCC to verify the residences of the sureties, who must be resident in Abuja.
But the arraignment of Metuh in handcuffs on Tuesday drew severe criticism from the opposition PDP, which alleged that the manner of the suspect’s arraignment was one of the moves of the ruling All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to subjugate the opposition party.
The PDP described Metuh’s arraignment in handcuffs as a “brazen display of authoritarianism” by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
It said the development betrayed an extra-judicial, top political witch-hunt policy of
the APC, which it said was carefully designed to humiliate, embarrass and portray the PDP leaders as common criminals and set the stage to cow and decimate the opposition and perceived foes of the government.
The National Secretary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, stated this in a statement in Abuja.
Oladipo added, “The question remains, if not to mortify, dehumanise and break Metuh, who has been very vocal against the APC administration, and of course, to send a signal to others critical of the government, what else would have informed the decision to produce him in court in handcuffs, even when his case does not border on security threat?
“Is this an attempt to sway the court and ambush the judicial process against our National Publicity Secretary, all because of his stance against observed ineptitude and dictatorial tendencies of this administration?
“The PDP invites all Nigerians and the international community to note the emerging barefaced abuse of state power and violation of constitutional provisions regarding the arrest, detention and eventual arraignment of our spokesperson.”
Oladipo noted that Nigerians should, by now, be extremely scared that the country was fast drifting into what he called a police state, where being in opposition or holding views divergent to that of the government, makes one a criminal and an enemy of the state.
He alleged that for now, the target of the ongoing “lopsided war against corruption is the PDP and its leaders” while all the APC members, including those with allegedly known corruption issues, had been immune from investigation, arrest and prosecution.
The secretary added that, more worrisome was the fact that institutions of government, especially security and corrective agencies, had now fallen victims to dictatorial abuses.
He said, “Under the PDP administration, some Nigerians, including APC leader and former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, were tried but never humiliated; now we see security operatives under this regime being used to crush and humiliate the opposition.”
But the Nigeria Prisons Service said the handcuffing of Metuh was at the discretion of the prison officer, who supervised his court appearance.
The NPS spokesman, Francis Enobore, said the officer in charge of the escort that took Metuh to court was at liberty to determine if the inmate should be handcuffed based on security situation, the environment and intelligence report made available to him.
Enobore, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, stated that Metuh was not maltreated in any way, stressing that handcuffing an inmate was a standard procedure, which the prison warden could employ based on the situation at hand.
He said, “Handcuffing an inmate is at the discretion of the officer in-charge, depending on the security situation, the environment and intelligence report available to the officer. Sometimes they look at the atmosphere and take the necessary decision.
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