Victory For The Anti Corruption War As Olisa Metuh is a New Convert
Nelson Ekujumi
One cannot but commend the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration for its resoluteness, courage, determination, focus and commitment to winning the war against corruption which is a canker worm that has ravaged the body and soul of the Nigerian state for decades. One is also happy that despite the campaign of blackmail, calumny and mudslinging against the anti corruption war as being one sided, persecution, witch hunt, vendetta, stifling of opposition, etc from expected quarters of beneficiaries and associates of corruptly indicted persons, the government has remained focused with the results manifesting on a regular basis.
Just yesterday, news filtered in from the grapevine and has been confirmed by reportage in most of the newspaperstoday, that Mr. Olisa Metuh, the erstwhile PDP scribe who admitted to collecting N400 million naira of the diverted funds originally meant to fight insurgency from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd.) on the instruction of former President Goodluck Jonathan for a job which cannot be verified, has at last after acting a failed part of his moribund film in which he vowed not to refund a kobo of the people’s money which he collected illegally, went on hunger strike & when his system failed to sustain the hunger because it was alien to it, attempted to eat his confessional paper which he must have mistook for food, attempted intimidating the judiciary by alledging bias after the prosecution has closed its case, when it was his turn to open his defence and then his falling health, all with the purpose of stalling his trial, volunteered to refund the whole sum of money.
This is not to forget that while the whole drama of Olisa Metuh entertaining the Nigerian people and attempting to ridicule and intimidate the security agencies and judiciary lasted, seeing that there was no escape route or tactics that could truncate his trial for corruption, the family quickly waded in and promised to refund the money to save their son which was commendable, but too late in the day.
But the questions that we asked the family then and which they were and have been unable to provide answers are that, where were they when Olisa Metuh was ridiculing the whole country by his theatrics, didn’t they know that they should have called him to order earlier than now by wading in? Well that is a lesson or is it food for thought to families to learn to bring up their children in the proper and moral ways, lest the family name be subjected to public damage like the Metuhs are now undergoing of which history is already documenting it for posterity?
But be that as it may, we must commend the officers and men of the anti graft agency who have been consistent, professional and dogged in the exercise of their responsibility to the Nigerian people by winning a soul, a new convert into the camp of the war against corruption, we say, thanks all.
As Mr. Metuh has voluntarily offered to refund what he vowed that he will only refund over his dead body sometime ago, may we call on the anti corruption agencies to apart from collecting the money ensure that Metuh is prosecuted in line with the constitution for subjecting us all to this psychological trauma of his embarrassing drama, waste of tax payers money for prosecution and to serve as a deterrent to others that it is wrong and criminal to receive public money that is diverted for phony contracts.
Nelson Ekujumi writes from Lagos