PDP SPEAKS CONCERNING OLISA METUH'S DETENTION BY THE EFCC.

PDP condemns detention without trial

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Criticizing the continued incarceration of its spokesperson, Chief Olisa Metuh, by the

EFCC without charging him to court, the PDP, yesterday, said the action clearly showed
the dictatorial character of the Buhari government.
According to the opposition party, the detention was a clear breach of Metuh’s
constitutionally guaranteed liberty and fundamental rights. It added that the action was
an indication that the administration has not hidden its disdain for rule of law and an
appetite to gag the opposition.
In a statement by the PDP National Legal Adviser, Barr. Victor Kwon, the party noted
that Nigeria was fast becoming a police state with government’s inherent constitutional
violations and infringement on rights of citizens, warning that if not checked, it would
pose grave danger to national stability and survival of democracy.
“Relying on a purported ‘holding charge’, said to have been derived from a magistrate,
to detain Chief Metuh beyond the statutory period allowed by the law is in total violation
of the Constitution and extant corresponding rulings by several trial and appellate courts
in the country,” Kwon stated.
“We draw the attention of all Nigerians and the international community to this illegal
clamp-down on the opposition spokesman by the EFCC, using a purported holding
charge said to have been derived from a magistrate court.
“Holding charge, which implies ‘arrest before investigation’ instead of ‘investigation
before arrest’, is clearly an aberration and abuse of judicial process which has since
been declared by several courts as illegal, null and void, and of no effect as it is totally
in contradiction with section 35 (1), (4), (5a) of the constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria.
“The PDP is particularly worried that Chief Metuh, since his arrest on Tuesday, is being
inhumanly kept in an underground cell where he is daily threatened by officials, who, we
gathered, have been mounting pressure on him to accept guilt of fictitious figures and
implicate PDP leaders.
“We invite the world to note that President Buhari’s election promise of fighting
corruption has now been turned into a man-hunt of PDP leaders, while known corrupt
APC leaders are being shielded by the system and rewarded with ministerial positions
and other government appointments.”