Olayemi Esan
Former national publicity secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Olisa Metuh has undergone medical treatment for a protracted spinal chord ailment in a London hospital.
A family source confirmed to Newsmen that after a successful treatment the former opposition spokesperson will further undergo an “intensive physiotherapy to enable him move around without walking aid and much painkillers.”
The family source also stated that the PDP chieftain is expected back in the country within the coming weeks.
“Chief Metuh has been undergoing series of treatments. It has been very challenging but we thank God that there is a lot of improvement”, the source said.
According to him, the former opposition spokesman is “fast recuperating and has been scheduled for necessary physiotherapy to enable him move around without the help of walking aid or much painkillers as he has been doing in the last three years.
“With that, he should be back to the country in the coming weeks”, he added.
Metuh was flown out of the country last month for medical treatment, following the release of his international passport by the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Nkonye Maha, after the Appeal Court annulled his conviction on charges of money laundering by Justice Okon Abang, on the ground of bias.
Justice Okon Abang had during the trial, which the Appeal Court described as hostile, refused entreaties by Metuh for leave to travel abroad for treatment.
In granting Metuh leave for medical treatment, Justice Maha, who also granted him bail in the sum of N250 million and a surety who must be a responsible citizen and owner of a landed property within Abuja, ordered Metuh to return his international passport to the court within three days from the date of his return.
In annulling Metuh’s conviction, the Court of Appeal, in a judgment read by Justice Stephen Adah, held that the trial judge was biased and “showed in his comments, the influence of an abnormal desire and inclination to pursue a predetermined line of action against the appellant”.
The Appeal Court stressed that the trial judge showed in “excess, a person who has an axe to grind against the appellant and his team of lawyers” adding that he also showed “the whole world that much was into that judgment than was put in evidence before the judge”.
Metuh has been suffering from a spinal chord ailment for which doctors in Nigeria referred him for treatment in a London hospital.
