The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described as illegal the continued detention of its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The party said Metuh’s continued detention without charging him to court was an infringement on his liberty and fundamental rights.
A statement by the party’s National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon on Saturday, said the EFCC decision to rely on a “holding charge” allegedly gotten from a Magistrate to detain Metuh beyond the statutory period allowed by the law was against the constitution.
The statement said, “We draw the attention of all Nigerians and the international community to this illegal clamp-down on the opposition spokesman by the EFCC, using a purported holding charge said to have been derived from a magistrate court.
“Holding Charge which implies ‘arrest before investigation’ instead of ‘investigation before arrest’ is clearly an aberration and abuse of judicial process which has since been declared by several courts as illegal, null and void, and of no effect as it is totally in contradiction with section 35 (1), (4), (5a) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The PDP is particularly worried that Metuh, since his arrest on Tuesday, is being inhumanly kept in an underground cell where he is daily threatened by officials, who we gathered, have been mounting pressure on him to accept guilt of fictitious figures and implicate PDP leaders.
“The public is very much aware that the EFCC chairman has visited the Presidential villa at least twice since Metuh was arrested and detained by the commission, ostensibly to get further directives on the case.”
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