[dropcap]I[/dropcap] went to see Chief Olisa Metuh, our National Publicity Secretary where he is being detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). I was in the company of a friend and fellow People’s Democratic Party (PDP) member.
We spent about 2 hours with him and he told us so many things about his ordeal in the hands of EFCC. I itemise below the things he said:
1. He was so excited to see me, he kept screaming “Deji”. He was in very high spirits. He was excited. We hugged. He looked tired and very grey.
2. I asked him how he was being treated and he just smiled and said, “Deji you know I am very strong. They can’t break me.”
3. He said: They have tried to blackmail and spoil my name. Just imagine all they have said about me. Telling lies against me.
4. First they said I was collecting N5 million naira monthly from office of National Security Advisor (NSA). “Imagine if you were my staff, how would you feel if you heard that?” He asked me.
5. “Imagine how all the news men and my staff working with me felt when they heard the lie that I was collecting N5 million Naira from Dasuki.”
6. “They would say, ‘This man is a wicked man o. So he was collecting money from Dasuki and other places and was always telling us there was no money’.”
7. Then they said I received N1.4 billion. That is another big lie. All what they wanted was for everybody to see me as a common thief and hate me.
8. Finally they came back to say I only got N400 million. I have made a statement that the former president asked me to do an assignment for him.
9. In my statement, I stated that former President Goodluck Jonathan gave me an assignment to do for him. He asked me for an account number, and I gave him my company account details.
10. I got N400 million in the account which I used for the job he asked me to do. I gave him a report on the job and he was satisfied.
11. I have a copy of the report I submitted to the former president. EfCC asked me who I shared the money with, and I told them it was none of their business.
12. I also told them that if they have any evidence against me, they should charge me to court. I have not called anyone’s name and I will never mention anybody’s name.
13. It is not a crime to carry out an assignment for a president successfully. I have no regrets.
14. “They asked me for a copy of my report to the former president. I asked them, ‘Are you the court?'”
15. “I stated in my statement that it is a lie that I was collecting N5 million monthly from Dasuki or anyone in Jonathan’s government,” he told me.
15. “I also stated that they should investigate me thoroughly. If I have ever received any kobo from a parastatal or agency of the government, then I would plead guilty,” Metuh said.
16. Metuh commended us for the great job of #BayelsaDecides and thanked us for ignoring all the distractions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government during the elections. We laughed.
17. He said: “Imagine the EFCC boss sent my lawyer to me to ask me to return some of the money from the N400 million. Unbelievable!”
18. He said: “Deji, this government is not interested in democracy or civil liberties at all. You are guilty of a crime, once they say so.”
19. Metuh said that the Buhari government has nothing to offer Nigerians and Nigeria hence they engage in media trials to distract the people. “They is why they are playing this Telemundo for Nigerians,” he said.
20. He also mentioned that the PDP has been telling Buhari and his government that they cannot borrow to fund the 2016 budget. The had to bring the IMF boss from abroad to tell them the same thing.
21. He said, “What we told them about restrictions on forex is what they have finally agreed to do now. They have no ideas or clue about governance.”
22. He also said, “They don’t believe in democracy or the notion of ‘innocent before proven guilty’. They want to silence every critic.”
Deji Adeyanju is director of Social Media of the People’s Democratic Party. He is also a former aide at the Presidency. He tweets from @adeyanjudeji.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
