Okon Abang, the judge who presided over the case of Olisa Metuh, says he was humiliated to the extent that he prayed that the case should be taken away from him but God did not answer the prayer.

Abang said this shortly before he sentenced the former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party to 39 years in prison for laundering public funds to sponsor campaign activities of his party.

Metuh had lost in his bid to make Abang recuse himself from the trial. He had said the judge who was his mate at the Nigerian Law School was hostile to him.

But at the court on Tuesday, Abang said he did his best for Metuh but he had to act without fear of favour. “I cannot in this forum state all the negative things I passed through in this matter. God has been so faithful to me in this matter. May His name be praised,” Abang said. “The convict and his counsel, especially Emeka Etiaba (SAN) and Ikpeazu (SAN), used every opportunity open to them to humiliate the court, writing hopeless, reckless and frivolous petitions against the court.” “They even took the matter to the international press.

The day the first convict fell down, it was aired on CNN just to have unmerited sympathy, portraying the court in bad light. “It was only God that used my immediate family to sustain me throughout the four years of hostility coming from the team of lawyers. “It was only a few weeks to the end of the proceedings that the convict and his team of lawyers began to defend him in court. .

Before then, they had thoroughly humiliated me just because I discharged my function without fear or favour. “I had nobody to speak for me except God that sustained me throughout this period of hostility meted to me by the first convict.” Like the biblical Jesus, Abang said he prayed that Metuh’s case should be taken away from him. .
. “Even during this period, I prayed that my employer should withdraw the file from me but God did not answer my prayers. I did not assign this case to this court, I did not in any way, direct the first convict to dissipate public funds,” he said.