Olisa Metuh, Justice Abang Were Classmates

Judge of the Federal High Court, Okon Abang's claim that he and the embattled spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, may not be classmates, is false afterall.

Justice Abang emphatically said “I am not aware that the first defendant was my classmate, he said he is my classmate.”

Fact is both Metuh and Abang were called to the Bar on the same day and were both members of the Nigerian Law School class of 1988.

Mr. Metuh’s call-to-bar certificate showed that he was called to the Nigerian Bar on November 3, 1988.
The profile of Justice Abang, as posted on the website of the Federal High Court indicated that he was called to the bar on November 3, 1988.
As at 1988, there was only one law school in Nigeria, located in Victoria Island, Lagos. All lawyers seeking to practice law in Nigeria at that time attended the school.
The controversy over whether the judge and Mr. Metuh were classmates did not come up suddenly in open court. A petition was sent to the Chief Judge, through which that claim was made.
The petition was brought to the judge’s attention.
Legal practitioners said that Justice Abang should have made enquiries to determine if indeed Mr. Metuh was his classmate before raising the matter in open court.

Justice Abang had, during a hearing of the case between Mr. Metuh and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, rejected claims by Mr. Metuh’s lawyers that he and the PDP spokesman were classmates at the Nigerian Law School.
A counsel to Mr. Metuh, Emeka Etiaba, had written to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, demanding that the corruption case be withdrawn from Mr. Abang and assigned to another judge.
In the petition, Mr. Etiaba said Mr. Metuh feared he might not get justice from Mr. Abang, being a former classmate and based on what he knew as the judge’s position on the matter and himself.
The lawyer said the PDP spokesperson informed his legal team that sometime late last year, when he met the judge at an occasion at the Le Meridian Hotel, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, “he was baffled at Justice Abang’s views and when eventually the charge against him was assigned to his court this January, (a few weeks later), he got worried because he feared that he may not get justice in his court.”
 
The case was adjourned to March 23, 2016.