A Court of Appeal in Abuja has nullified the conviction and seven-year jail term imposed on a former spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party Olisa Metuh.
A three-man panel led by Justice Stephen Adah delivered a unanimous judgment on Wednesday.
The court ruled that the proceedings of the Federal High Court leading to the conviction of Metuh and his company, Destra Investment Limited, were tainted with bias, and therefore must not be allowed to stand.
Delivering the lead judgement, Justice Adah held that the utterances of the trial judge Justice Okon Abang, in the course of the trial, established that he was biased against the convicts.
He, therefore, ordered that trial be conducted afresh.
The appellate court ordered that the case file be sent back to the chief judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another judge other than Justice Abang.
Metuh was on February 25, 2020, imprisoned for fraudulently receiving N400 million from a former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki.
