Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Abuja on Friday threatened to deal with any official of the EFCC found to have authored the statement wherein proceedings of the court in the on-going trial of former PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh were allegedly distorted.



This ruling is against the backdrop of a complained raised on Friday by Metuh’s counsel, Barr. Emeka Etiaba, who presented a printout of a statement issued by the Media and Publicity of the EFCC, which was subsequently carried by some section of the media.



Etiaba told the court that the agency has been issuing press statements on court proceedings despite the fact that it is a party in the case stating that such was not acceptable leading the judge to rule that anybody found to be responsible for the statement will “experience a twist in his body chemistry”.



When the matter came up, counsel to EFCC, Sylvnaus Tahir agreed that there were distortions in the said news item but noted that it did not emanate from the EFCC but from a prominent online platform, only for Etiaba to present to the court a print out of the statement from the EFCC site with the caption “Court Bars Metuh From Further Adjournments” and bearing the agency’s copyright caution and website address.



He said the action of the EFCC “rather than help the fight against corruption ends up ridiculing it. What this trend is actually does is to prepare the mind of the reader to believe that nothing but conviction can come out of the trial. At the end of the trial, if the judge does not convict, there is public uproar and allegations of bribery against the judge.



According to Etiaba, “I am aware that such a scenario happened before Justice kolawole. He ordered the EFCC to render apology and refrain from such. Our prayer is that the court should invite the author of this press release to appear before the court to disclose the source of his information and if he is unable nothing less than apology will suffice.



“So I urge the court to invite the head of EFCC media and Publicity, Wilson Uwajuren to come to court to explain the source of his information and if he cannot he should apologize. If he comes here and say he is not the author, then we look elsewhere. It is not for counsel to deny a fact that is not within his knowledge”, he said.





Commenting, counsel to the second defendant, Tochukwu Onwugbufor said it was the duty of the court to protect itself “by making sure that its records are not scandalized. The effect is that if such continues, other parties may tend to take the same vein to reply to them on issues before the court. The court therefore has a duty to give instruction against such practice. Such publication sends wrong signal to members of the public in the sense that they cannot appreciate exactly what is the proceeding of the court” he said.



“The perception of the public tends to believe such publication which does not form part of the records of the court and when the court passes a judgment contrary to their perception, the impression is that and perhaps justifiably that the judge has been compromised. That is what you hear everywhere when in fact the publication is not doesn’t really reflect the record of the court” Onwugbufor added.



Ruling, Justice Abang said he agrees that the court must stand firm to protect its integrity. “It is my humble view that it is a serious matter for any person to misrepresent the proceedings of the court. If it is established that that person intentionally misrepresented proceedings of the court there will be a twist in the body chemistry of that person because it is contemptuous”.



He therefore ruled that since Mr. Wislon Uwajuren was not present in court, the complainant should follow the procedure of compelling his appearance, while assuring that he will deal with the matter accordingly.