Spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Olisa Metuh gave a N77 million media campaign job to a Lagos-based public relations firm, it was learnt yesterday.
Metuh last night left the Kuje Prisons for home after meeting the bail conditions.
Managing Director of the firm – CMC Connect – Yomi Badejo-Okusanya and a bureau de change operator, Kabiru Ibrahim, testified yesterday in Metuh’s trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Badejo-Okusanya, the fifth prosecution witness, gave evidence how he was recruited by Metuh to develop and execute campaigns for ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Metuh is on trial for allegedly using the N400 million he purportedly received from the Office NSA in November 2014 to fund the party’s presidential campaign for the 2015 general election.
He was arraigned, with his company, Destra Investment Limited, on January 15, on a seven-count.
Metuh was accused of fraudulently receiving N400 million from the NSA Office in November, 2014, and laundering $2 million through a phoney investment transaction.
Badejo-Okusanya told the court that his firm was engaged to provide a media campaign and “image management” job for the PDP and Jonathan.
The witness said he was paid N77.5 million through Metuh’s firm, Destra Investments Limited, in December 2014 and that he started executing the job towards the end of the month.
He said he was paid before he attended a meeting with Jonathan, ex-Vice President Namadi Sambo, former Senate President David Mark and top government functionaries of the PDP-led government, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Badejo-Okusanya, who was led in evidence by prosecution lawyer Sylvanus Tahir said after the meeting with Jonathan and other top officials, Metuh called him the next day to inform him Jonathan was impressed with his presentation.
He said his relationship with the PDP started under ex-Chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo.
“My company, CMC Connect, had done some work for the PDP under Dr. Nwodo, who was repositioning the PDP as a vehicle for national transformation. A substantial part of that work required communication which is what we deal in.
“The work, which started in 2010, stopped abruptly when Dr. Nwodo resigned as chairman.
“We had some outstanding not paid then, so when Metuh became spokesman for the party, we met with him.
He said he liked the work we did then, but that unfortunately, the party had no money to pay us to continue.
Metuh promised that he would compensate us and that whenever opportunity arose he would call us. That should be in 2012.
“In November, 2014, he called, asking me where I was. He said I should come to Abuja for a meeting and I obliged. On arrival at Abuja, I went to his house and he drove me to the Presidential Villa where we met a meeting in progress. The meeting was presided over by former President Jonathan, his Vice President, Chairman of the party, Muazu, Senate President David Mark, the presidential communication team, comprising Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati, Prof. Alkali and others. The meeting was on how to go about the last election.
“In the course of the meeting, Metuh introduced me as a communication consultant and that I had worked for the party before. He asked me to speak.
“I proceeded to speak very frankly, to Mr. President. Without going into details, I said I felt I should point out to him the critical things he had to do to get the election right.
“The President asked me a couple of questions and I remember telling him that there was a disconnect between his government and the people. He seemed to take everything in good faith and asked us (including Chief Metuh) to go.
“The next evening, Chief Metuh called me. He said it seemed we have made an impression on the President, that he had asked him to coordinate the initial campaign plan for the presidential and general election for PDP.
“So we set about with the plan and I was meeting him (Metuh) severally on the ideas we had about how we can position the party in the minds of Nigerians.
“Throughout November, 2014, we were unable to do anything meaningful because, according to Chief Metuh, funds were unavailable to prosecute the ideas we had.
“I remember him telling me severally that contrary to what most people felt the party wasn’t awash with money and he shared with me some of the constraints he had in his work,” the witness said.
Badejo-Okusanya said his firm commenced execution of the project in December after it received N77.5 million in two tranches with N7.5 million transferred to CMC Connect’s account on December 1, 2014 and the balance of N70 million on December 15, 2014.
The witness added: “The first part of the work was to get Nigerians to appreciate the roles of the military in the fight against Boko Haram, in general, insurgency.
“This was leading up to the Armed Forces Remembrance Day and we had insertions in newspapers, such as This Day, The Guardian, Punch, Vanguard, Daily Trust, Leadership and Sun.
“Thereafter, this was leading up to the Christmas season, so we had a campaign on TV stations wishing Nigerians Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We had it on Channels, AIT, Silverbird and NTA.
“We had placements on those stations. We did some of them directly and some we engaged the services of media brokers.
“The reason for this was that, at that time, there was a lot of demand for airtime from various political parties.
“So, to get the prime time, we needed to go through the media muscle to secure the spots we wanted – the actual time.
“We did that during the Christmas and New Year season. We also wrote materials, which we titled: ‘FACTS Speak’. The essence of this was to draw attention to some achievements of the PDP.
“We also did a series of other materials which ran into January, 2015. We had daily media trail to PDP, which was one of the services that will tell them whatever appeared in the media, concerning the party.”
The court admitted documents containing evidence of publication of the materials in the newspapers, and certificates of broadcast in the electronic media, invoices and cheque vouchers relating to the media jobs.
The witness, under cross-examination by Metuh’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), confirmed that he was given the job due to his proficiency in “image positioning management” and his relationship with the PDP.
When asked to confirm that Metuh acted for Jonathan when he (Metuh) told him (witness) that the President was impressed with his presentation, Okusanya-Badejo said: “That was what he told me”.
The witness said there was nothing unusual about the job he did for the PDP.
The sixth prosecution witness, Ibrahim, gave evidence how he was engaged by an employee of a financial service firm, Arms and Resource Management Limited, Nneka Ararume, to convert $1 million, which the prosecution alleged was provided in cash by Metuh, to naira.
Justice Okon Abang fixed February 4 for the continuation of trial.
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