THERE was a mild drama at the premises of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, as men of the Nigeria Police stormed the premises of the court, where the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisah Metuh, is standing trial over his alleged involvement in the $ 2.1 billion arms purchase scandal.
The police were in court in wait to rearrest Metuh and take him back to the Kuje Prisons custody should the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, disqualifed himself from the trial, following allegation of bias by the PDP spokesman.
Metuh had, last week, accused the judge of bias, saying he would not get justice if his trial continued in his court.
Metuh, through his lawyers, further asked the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, to withdraw his trial from Justice Abang and reassign it to another judge.
The PDP spokesman is standing trial for allegedly obtaining the sum of N400 million from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasiki.
When the matter came up on Thursday, the defence counsel, Emeka Etiaba, informed the court that the defence team had filed a motion for stay of proceedings and another application for the judge to disqualify himself on ground that they would not get justice should he continued with the matter.
He also informed the court that his team had also appealed against the ruling of the court on the no-case submission filed by the defence.
Etiaba urged the court to take the application for motion for disqualification first as it touched on the jurisdiction of the court.
He admitted that the prosecution team were not served with the application seeking to disqualify the judge, saying that prosecution team rejected service on the flimsy excuse that the lawyer, who served them, was not a court bailiff.
Etiaba urged the court to adjourn the matter, saying the trial could not proceed because of the lead defence counsel, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu's absence.
He had earlier told the court that Ikpeazu was indisposed as a result of his ailment and that he needed time to recover to handle the case himself.
On his part, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs opposed the application for adjournment and expressed concern that the defence was not fair to him by not serving him with the motion to disqualify the judge after he had called eight witnesses and the defence made a no-case submission, which the court ruled against the defence.
Jacobs told the court that he needed time to reply to the motion seeking to disqualify the judge.
The judge, after listening to would take the application on jurisdiction and if it succeeded, he would disqualify himself, but if it failed, the defendant would be at liberty to open their case.
He also said he would proceed to take the application for stay of proceeding and if it succeeded, the court would wait for the ruling of the court of appeal, but if it failed, the defendant would open his case.
The judge, however, warned that the next adjourned date might be the last chance the court would give to the defendant to open their case.
He traced the history of the proceedings and noted that the matter had been adjourned three times on the instance of the defendant.
Justice Abang said the petition written against him to the Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta and his response to the petition, now formed part of the records of the court.
The EFCC, in its charge against Metuh, who was arraigned alongside his firm, Destra Investments Limited, alleged that he received N400 million, part of the money meant for the procurement of arms, from the Office of the NSA in November, 2014.
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