Embattled former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge refusal of the trial Justice, Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja to allow him to travel abroad for medical treatment.
Metuh, who is currently being tried for allegedly receiving N400million prior to the 2015 presidential election, had on March 14, applied to be allowed to seek medical attention in the United Kingdom, lamenting that he has lost sensation in his lower limbs.
Metuh said he was suffering from spinal cord related ailment.
His lawyer, Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN, told the court that Metuh’s health had deteriorated badly, a situation he said would require urgent medical attention from his doctors in London.
He tendered as an exhibit, a letter from one Dr. Adrian T. H. Kasey, a Neurosurgeon at Wellington Hospital in London, which he said emphasized the need for Metuh to be treated urgently.
The former PDP spokesman predicated his application on section 33(5) and 6(b) of the 1999 Constitution.
However, trial Justice Okon Abang turned down the request, insisting that the former PDP spokesman failed to persuade the court that he was indeed suffering from a life-threatening ailment as he claimed.
He said the trial court had become functus-officio to grant such request to the defendant who he said had yet to appeal previous rulings that were delivered against him on the same subject matter.
The court further barred Metuh from tendering any medical report before it, pending the conclusion of his trial.
However, in his appeal marked CA/A/451C/2018, Metuh said the trial judge “manifested obvious bias” against him by failing to exercise his discretion judicially and judiciously when he dismissed his application based on “imaginary facts”.
He told the appellate court that Justice Abang’s decision occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice against him.
Metuh is defending a seven-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against him and his firm, Destra Investment Limited.