Former President Goodluck Jonathan was has been ordered to appear before a federal high court in Abuja to testify as a witness in defence of a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, according to a report in Punch ng.
A court official informed the Newspaper that Metuh’s legal team filed the draft subpoena before Justice Okon Abang shortly after the Monday’s proceedings.
According to the official, the judge signed the subpoena after retiring to his chambers at the end of Monday’s proceedings.
Jonathan’s court appearance on Wednesday would, however, be dependent on whether or not he would be served with the subpoena signed by the judge between Monday and today (Tuesday).
A source familiar with the case informed the publication, “I can authoritatively tell you that Metuh’s legal team filed the subpoena before the judge on Monday and the judge signed the subpoena promptly after the proceedings on Monday.
“The judge indicated in the subpoena that the former President should appear in court on Wednesday.
“But whether or not the former President would appear in court on Wednesday would be dependent on if the court bailiff will be able to serve him at his home in Abuja between Monday and the end of Tuesday.”
Metuh’s lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), told Justice Abang that he had written formally to Jonathan notifying him of his intention to have him testify in court but that the former President did not reply to his letter.
The SAN said he intended to apply for a subpoena to be issued on Jonathan after the detained former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki earlier summoned to testify as Metuh’s witness would have ended his testimony.
He said, “We have another witness on subpoena, and at the end of the evidence of this another witness, we will take a decision on whether or not the first defendant (Metuh) will testify.
“The other witness we want to subpoena is Goodluck Jonathan, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Responding to further questions from the judge, Ikpeazu said, “We wrote him a letter but he did not respond and our plan will be to apply for the subpoena after the first application (for subpoena to be issued on Dasuki).”
Although Ikpeazu said Dasuki was scheduled to be the next to testify for the defense, the ex-NSA was absent from court on Monday.
Justice Abang said on Monday that Dasuki was scheduled to appear in court on October 25 (Wednesday).
Source Punch ng