Mr Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, sentenced a former spokesperson of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr Olisa Metuh, to 7 years in prison for laundering N400 million.

Abang who delivered the judgement had earlier declared Mr Metuh guilty of the seven-count charge, which includes fraudulent receipt of N400 million from Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014 and use of the money for political activities of PDP and for his personal purposes.

The matter had been on for four years.

The judge also convicted Metuh for doing transactions with $2 million in cash without going through a financial institution.

He sentenced Metuh to seven years imprisonment for counts 1, 2, 4 and 7, five years imprisonment for count 3, and three years in respect of counts 5 and 6.

He, however, said the prison terms will run concurrently, meaning Metuh will spend a maximum seven years in jail unless his conviction is upturned by a higher court.

Abang also directed Metuh to pay a fine of N375 million to the Federal Government Nigeria.

He also ordered Destra Investments to pay N25 million to Federal Government of Nigeria.

The judge also ordered that the accounts of Destra (the second defendant) in Diamond Bank and Asset Resource Management be closed and their proceeds forfeited to the federal government.

He also ordered the winding up of Destra, Metuh’s company.

PT