Metuh: Court Admits in Evidence Documents of Payments for Publicity

By Alex Enumah in Abuja
As the trial of former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, continued on Wednesday, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja trying him for alleged money laundering offences has admitted in evidence documents showing payments for advertorials in various media outlets made on the instruction of Metuh.
The document which comprises a breakdown of the payment of the sum of N31 million to different media outfits for advertorials in the name of PDP were tendered by the fifth Defence Witness, Richard Ihediwa.
Trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, in a bench ruling, held that since the documents were relevant to the case, they are admissible. He held that even though no submission was made as to how the witness came about the document, the fact that it contained relevant evidence makes it admissible.

He also ruled that being a legal document of account, it did not matter whether the witness was a maker or not, especially as he has knowledge of the inflow of account. The judge quoting from the evidence in chief of the witness recalled the witness said his responsibility was to handle and place advertorials and the payments for them.