Olisa Metuh Reveals How President Tinubu Personally Tried to Persuade Him to Join APC

Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu personally sought to persuade him to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, Metuh said the president sent his Chief of Staff, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, to meet him as part of efforts to recruit him into the ruling party.

Metuh recounted:

“In the middle of my problem, he sent the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, to come and see me. He reached out to me; he comforted me. The president wanted to work with me. Even in 2015, when we lost the election, I didn’t bother. After he won the election, I went to see him. He called me to enter the party that he needed me. I refused because I stopped politics.”

The former PDP spokesman has faced legal challenges in the past, including imprisonment over his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of funds meant for countering Boko Haram insurgents in 2015, commonly referred to as the Dasukigate scandal.

Metuh was accused of receiving N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser under Sambo Dasuki, which prosecutors claimed was diverted from its intended purpose. He was convicted after failing to prove that the funds were not intended to support former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign.

Despite multiple appeals from the president, Metuh insisted he would not return to politics while maintaining his stance against joining the APC.