From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A lawyer and defence witness in the trial of Chief Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Anthony Okeke, yesterday disclosed that theimageofformer President Goodluck Jonathan was bat- tered by the then opposition All Progressives Congress’ “smear campaign”.
Okeke, former Acting National Publicity Secretary of the PDP explained that in view of that, the former president’s image needed to be clarified and laundered.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Metuh and his company, Destra Invest- ments Limited, on charges including fraudulent collection of N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014 and using same for PDP’s presidential campaign.
They are also being tried on charges of money laundering involving alleged cash transaction of $2 million.
In his evidence, Okeke who is the fourth witness said the opposition party effectively damaged Jonathan’s image
so much that a number of consultants were needed to change public perception about him ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
According to him, the opposition “cleverly” tagged Jonathan as an ineffective and unserious president.
He stated that it was not surprising for him to learn that the sum of N400 million was authorised by the then president for the countering of the opposition’s campaign.
Led in evidence by Metuh’ lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu and later cross-examined by Destra’s lawyer, Tochukwu Nwugbufor, Okeke said he was not surprised that the President promised to bring money for the election.
“In my own estimation, before his nomination and after his nomination there were issues that needed to be clari- fied.
“The opposition at the time had mounted a massive smear campaign against the President. They cleverly tagged him clueless and went to town giving the impression that he was an ineffective and unserious President. That smear campaign needed to be countered. The party needed a lot of consultants and media outfits to counter it,” he told the court.
In his evidence under cross-examina- tion by Nwugbufor, the witness said no fund was passed to him when he took the office of acting National Publicity Secretary of the party on June 20, 2013 and did not pass any to Metuh by the time he (Okeke) handed over to Metuh in September of the same year.
The prosecution counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, did not cross-examine the witness.
After Okeke was discharged from the witness box, the defence called the fifth witness, Mr. Richard Ihediwa.
Ihediwa a journalist, was narrating how he was appointed by Metuh as his Special Assistant in January 2013, before the judge suspended his testimony to hear an application by the PDP spokes- person seeking the court’s order permit- ting him to travel to the United Kingdom on health grounds.
He also asked that his travel documents currently under the custody of the court be released to him to enable him travel for foreign treatment.
The court fixed tomorrow to rule on the application.
