Former National Publicity Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, yesterday, narrated before the Federal High Court in Abuja why President Muhammadu Buhari wants to jail him.
Testifying as the 15th Defence Witness, DW-15, the erstwhile PDP spokesman, said his trial was a calculated attempt by All Progressives Congress, APC-led government to silence him from criticising President Buhari’s dictatorial tendencies.
He told the court that top APC members had prior to the time the EFCC arrested and subsequently charged him for fraud, tried to dissuade him from attacking President Buhari in the media.
Metuh told the court that some of the APC members met him on several occasions in Dubai, Switzerland and Paris to discuss possible roles they could play to strengthen the PDP to wrestle power from President Buhari.
He said the top APC members, who he did not disclose their identities, equally complained of President Buhari’s governance style, saying they had lost confidence in his administration.
Metuh said after he refused to soft-pedal on his criticisms, he started receiving warnings to be cautious of possible attack.
He said: “The then National Chairman of the APC, Oyegun, publicly warned me that the APC was not happy with me and is not taking my criticisms lightly.
“Also, when President Buhari wants to engage in undemocratic practice, I will resist such by taking pressmen to houses of Nigerians who were unlawfully held hostage in their houses, to conduct live press conferences, and this put an immediate stop to excesses of the DSS and other security agencies.”
Metuh said the last straw that informed the charges against him came after President Buhari made a broadcast on a live media chat.
“He informed Nigerians that his government can arrest and detain Nigerians at will, I immediately countered that he was becoming an unrepentant tyrant.”