The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of having a hand in Tuesday’s arrest of the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Special Assistant to the National Publicity Secretary, Richard Ihediwa, a copy of which was obtained by The Herald.
According to the statement, Metuh was picked up at his Abuja residence by operatives of the anti-graft body, who did not state why he was being whisked away.
Furthermore, the statement claimed that Metuh was being harassed for being a mouthpiece of the opposition and for performing his statutory duty of holding the government of the day accountable for its actions.
The statement read: Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrived the Abuja home of the spokesman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh this morning, inviting him to follow them to the commission’s headquarters.
Upon enquiry on the reasons for the invitation, the officials stated that he has some issues to clear with the commission. They also said he was not being arrested but friendly invited. The operatives, four in number, came in a White unmarked Toyota Hiace bus.
As at the time of issuing this statement, Chief Metuh is still being kept at the commission’s headquarters and his lawyers were making frantic efforts to reach him.
While details of why Chief Metuh was invited is yet to be made pubic by the commission, it could be recalled that severally, Chief Metuh, as the mouthpiece of the opposition party had alerted in various press conferences and statements that he has been under threat and that the ruling party and the government have been very uncomfortable with his stance.
The latest being the outburst and threats by the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun in reaction to Chief Metuh’s criticisms of President Buhari’s widely criticized response on government’s disobedience of court orders, during the last Wednesday’s Presidential Media chat.
The Office of the National Publicity Secretary will keep the public updated on any development on the issue.