N400m fraud: Metuh files application to suspend trial
Former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has prayed the Federal High Court in Abuja to suspend hearing in his case, pending a decision of the Supreme Court on his no-case submission.
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Metuh is currently standing trial for allegedly receiving N400million from ex-National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
Onyeachi Ikpeazu (SAN), who is the counsel to Metuh, said the request for adjournment of the trial was in order.
Ikpeazu said the Supreme Court had started hearing the appeal and would deliver its ruling on June 9.
He said: “The present application is not an application for stay of proceedings or to adjourn the matter sine die.
“The only point which this court ought to decide at this sitting is whether the Federal High Court ought to defer to the Supreme Court in a situation where the Supreme Court has already started hearing the same matter.
“The law is settled, that at all times, a High Court will be acting in accordance with judicial procedure by refraining from any act that will foist a fait-accompli on the Supreme Court.
“As counsel, we all are expected to assist the court and not to put the court in a precarious position. It is also on record that we have asked the Supreme Court to take the application instantly.”
Tochukwu Onwugbufo (SAN), counsel to Destra Investment Limited, the second defendant, argued in support of the motion.
“A High Court cannot share jurisdiction with the Supreme Court. The application is not asking for indefinite adjournment, but an adjournment to a specific date occasioned by the decision of the Supreme Court,” Onwugbufo said.
But the prosecuting counsel, Mr Sylvanus Tahir, opposed the application saying it was a ploy to waste time.
He said: “We vehemently oppose this application, praying for an order to adjourn further proceedings to await the ruling of the application in the Supreme Court which will come in the distant future.”
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, adjourned the matter till May 2 to rule on the application for stay of proceedings.
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