• As Court Grants Metuh N400m Bail

Two companies linked to Doyin Okupe, a former media aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, got at least N1.6 billion off the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, in three shady cyber security contracts, PREMIUM TIMES investigations have shown.

One of the contracts had instructions to hunt down unfriendly media websites with Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
It was a project conceived to shut down online media platforms perceived as friendly to Buhari or critical of Mr. Jonathan ahead of the 2015 election.
The other was a contract to intercept all optic fibre cables landing in Nigeria. The third was a passive mass and target GSM interception that had the ability to decrypt ciphers and operate undetected.

Mr. Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to Mr, Jonathan, has so far evaded scrutiny in the ongoing arms contracting scandal where the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is charged for allegedly mismanaging funds meant for the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria’s northeast region.
The government believes Mr. Dasuki’s actions led to the death of thousands of Nigerians and hundreds of Nigerian troops in the hands of Boko Haram fighters.
The contracts awarded Mr. Okupe’s close allies reinforces claims that the former NSA merely doled out cash and contracts to cronies and political associates and violated procurement regulations in the process.

In the three contracts investigated by PREMIUM TIMES, the NSA did not prioritize efficiency or due process and value for money in the awarding process. Rather, there was a pattern of hurried release of cash. In one instance, full contract sums were paid before delivery of products – and insiders claim product was never delivered.
In the three contracts, the NSA paid more than double the actual amounts of items purchased and relied on single source when it could have opened up the contract to competitive bidding.

On June 13, 2014, in the heat of the 2015 presidential elections campaigns, Romix Technologies Ltd, registered as an offshore and anonymous company in Cyprus, received N398 million – two million US dollars – payment from the Office of the National Security Adviser in Nigeria.
That was a part payment for a cyber-hooliganism contract that would later cost Nigeria $2.6 million.
The sum was wired to Romix technologies Ltd’s bank account account held with Luemi Private Bank in Zurich, Switzerland in June 2014.

The contract for which Romix Technologies was paid N398 million was merely explained as “supply and installation of cyber intelligence system software at the office of the National Security Adviser.”
The specific software was not stated. But PREMIUM TIMES investigations revealed that the true nature of the contract was to acquire tools to carry out Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on websites believed to be critical of Mr. Jonathan, ahead of the elections.

The actual purchase was a DDoS service called “The Systems” offered by Packets Technologies AD, an Israeli company operating out of Bulgaria.
Its job was simple – attack and bring down websites the NSA felt was not sympathetic to the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. This they did by flooding target website servers with malicious traffic.

In the meantime, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has granted the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Mr. Olisa Metuh, N400 million bail and two sureties.

Metuh, who was brought to court from Kuje Prison with handcuffs on Tuesday, had last week applied for bail  after claiming innocence of the N400 million fraud charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, in his ruling, said the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty and therefore deserves bail.

Abang also countered the allegations that the defendant tore his statement while under EFCC custody, and held that such allegation was yet to be ascertained.

Against this backdrop, the judge granted the PDP spokesman bail but with the most stringent conditions since the trials bordering on the $2.1 billion fund allegedly meant for the procurement of arms by the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), started.
He said: “I have again carefully considered the provision of section 162 of the Administration of Criminal Justice (ACJ) Act 2015, and the counter affidavit by the respondent.
“The court of law cannot act on speculation. The allegations against the applicant by the EFCC cannot be used to deny the defendant bail.”

Justice Abang went further to list the conditions for the bail including; a bail bond of N400 million, two sureties, who must be resident in Abuja and owners of a property in Maitama, Abuja, with statutory registration of occupancy.

“The certificate of occupancy (Cof O) must be verified by the Chief Judge of the FHC,” he noted.
The Justice also ordered that the EFCC must within 24 hours verify the property in writing to the court.
•    “The sureties must also deposit his three years tax clearance to the court, an affidavit of means and two passport photographs,” he added .

•    He directed that Metuh is to also deposit his travel documents with the court.
The judge however in his ruling refused to grant bail to Metuh based on self-recognition, saying this was part of effort by the court to balance arguments by both parties.

Before the ruling,  the defence counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), had argued against the allegations of his client tearing his statement.
Uche noted that the EFCC since making its allegation have failed to produce evidence of the torn statements before the court.
He also said the commission had in paragraph five of their pool of evidence noted that investigation into Metuh’s matter has been “substantially concluded.”

“My lord, it may be pertinent to note that the respondent made a very vague allegation that the defendant tore some pages of his statement,” Uche said.

Citing Section 162 of the ACJ Act, the lawyer said a respondent shall file a charge only when the investigation is concluded.
He, however, insisted that the charge brought before the court by the commission was a bailable offence.

The deference counsel  prayed the court to passionately consider the application. “My lord, even courts have given bail to Dasuki who is said to be the source of the money and even Dokpesi; people whose monetary allegations is more than his own.”
He further argued that his client is a well known Nigerian, being represented by very senior legal representatives and will not jump bail.

Uche also said the second prayer of the applicant was a consequential relief backed by the primary relief.
According to him, the relief was to protect any order made by the court and also avoid any form of ridicule to the orders of the court.
“My lord, the practice these days is when an accused person is brought before the court and granted bail, a fresh charge arises and re-arrested,” Uche said, urging the judge to give a directive that will protect the dignity of the court.

He also decried the state at which Metuh was brought into the court- being under handcuffs.
“My lord, the accused was brought here in handcuffs. The last time he was not brought in handcuffs, did he run?” Uche queried. He made the point that the country is not under military rule, adding that there was no need for such actions.

But the counsel to EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir, in his objection, said the application by the accused person lacks necessary materials.
Tahir said  the charges are offences punishable with a minimum of three years imprisonment. Citing the section 162 paragraph C of the ACJ Act, the Prosecuting Counsel, asked the court to take into cognizant the tendency that if granted bail, the applicant might jump bail.

He also reiterated that the applicant had torn and tried to chew a statement he had written to the commission before his arraignment.
Tahir said all the seven charges against Metuh were based on money laundering and related offences.

•    Objecting to the applicant’s prayer for a directive against the commission if court orders are flouted, Tahir said other offences maybe unearthed during the course of investigation.

•    He said granting Metuh bail would also amount to interference with ongoing investigation by the anti-graft agency.
•    Metuh who has been in detention since January 5, first in the EFCC custody and later in Kuje Prison, will also today know about the fate of his application before the court, where he sought to enforce his fundamental human rights and his release from detention.

•    He was charged alongside his company, Destra Investment Limited, after they were alleged to have collected the sum of N400 million from Dasuki.

•    The PDP has condemned the handcuffing its National Publicity Secretary, Metuh, even when the court is yet to hear his case, describing it as a brazen display of authoritarianism  by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government.
•    In a statement issued by its  National Secretary, Wale Oladipo,  the party said the development has  expectedly elicited widespread public outcry.

It said the act  clearly betrays an extra-judicial, top political witch-hunt policy of the APC, carefully designed to humiliate, embarrass and portray PDP leaders as common criminals and set the stage to cow and decimate opposition and perceived foes of the government.

“The question remains, if not to mortify, dehumanise and break our National Publicity Secretary, who has been very vocal against the APC administration, and of course to send a signal to others critical of the government, what else would have informed the decision to produce him in court in handcuffs, even when his case does not border on security threat?

“Is this an attempt to sway the court and ambush the judicial process against our National Publicity Secretary, all because of his stance against observed ineptitude and dictatorial tendencies of this administration?

“The PDP invites all Nigerians and the international community to note the emerging barefaced abuse of state power and violation of constitutional provisions regarding the arrest, detention and eventual arraignment of our spokesperson.

“Nigerians by now, should be extremely scared that our country is fast drifting into a police state where being in opposition or holding views divergent to that of the government makes one a criminal and an enemy of the state.

“For now, the target of the on-going lopsided war against corruption is the PDP and its leaders. All APC members, including those with known corruption issues are immune from investigation, arrest and prosecution.

The opposition party said it was more worrisome that institutions of government, especially security and corrective agencies have now fallen victims of dictatorial abuses.

“Our fear now is that in no time, ordinary citizens of Nigerians, who in the last 16 years have lived under the rule of law and constitutionally guaranteed personal liberty, would begin to suffer brutality and oppression.

“Under PDP administration, some Nigerians, including APC leader and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Ahmed Tinubu, were tried but never humiliated; now we see security operatives under this regime being used to crush and humiliate the opposition.

“Finally, while we study the bail conditions, we urge all PDP members to remain calm, united, focused and continue to pray for the nation and her people. We also urge the media to remain on the side of justice, fairness and rule of law and resist the pressure of being used as a tool to promote arbitrariness and abuse of process in the so-called fight against corruption,” PDP said.

Meanwhile the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it is marveled at  how  PDP continues to blame everyone but itself for its self-inflicted problems which has led to the sorry state the PDP finds itself.

In a statement signed by its National Secretary, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, the ruling party said PDP now sounds like a broken record with its daily conspiracy theories blaming external forces and unseen hands for its electoral misfortunes and on-going probe of some PDP leaders and the immediate-past PDP-led administration.

“The question begging for answers is: Why does the PDP choose to grope in the dark while reality stares it in the face? Did the PDP not know that it will one day pay for the impunity, recklessness and shocking mis-management of the country’s common wealth perpetuated under its watch for 16 years?

“For the record, the APC has no hand in the in-fighting and resultant implosion being witnessed in PDP’s hierarchy. Perhaps the wind of change has blown through the PDP camp and many PDP members realise the need to embrace and enforce change.

The APC reiterates that PDP members who are genuinely inspired by the APC-led administration are welcome to the APC fold. It is their right to abandon a sinking ship and join one that is smooth-sailing,” he said.

PREMIUM TIMES with additional report from THIS DAY