Arms Deal: N25m Given to Me Returned to EFCC- Witness

The former political adviser to the immediate past Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Abba Dabo, on Thursday informed the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, presided over by Justice Okon Abang, that he returned a sum to the tune of N25 million to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He also confirmed to the court that the said sum was given to him by the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, for the party’s media publicity works. The former political adviser was testifying as the seventh prosecution witness against Metuh, even as he added that the money was returned on his own volition on January 2016, due to media publications indicating that it was sourced from funds meant for the procurement of arms. Dabo maintained that the sum was paid to him through Metuh’s firm, Destra Investment Limited’s account, on December 16, 2014, five days after former President Goodluck Jonathan and Sambo emerged as the PDP’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates at the party’s nomination convention. He explained that he made the decision to return the money to the EFCC because he could not reach Metuh, who was then in the custody of the anti-graft agency. Dabo added that, “Unfortunately, there were reports in the media on this transaction with Chief Metuh linking it to controversial circumstances. I mean it was identified that Chief Metuh paid the N25m into my account through his company and that the source of the money was from the arms deal that was being discussed generally in the country. “As a result of that publication, we thought we needed to explain, and because it was paid to my personal account, in my name, I decided to make a refund, and I paid it to the EFCC, because I couldn’t reach Mr. Metuh that particular time. “The newspapers were awash with the story that linked the money given to me to the arms money that was said to have been diverted to other uses by the Office of the National Security Adviser. On my own volition, I decided that the best way out of the rigmarole was to pay back the amount. I paid it back to EFCC.” The anti-graft agency dragged Metuh and Destra Investments Limited to court on a seven counts of fraudulent collection of N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser on November 22, 2014 and money laundering involving a cash transaction to the tune of $2m.