Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh, has disclosed how President Bola Tinubu begged him to join the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Metuh recalled that Tinubu sent his Chief of Staff, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila to reach out to him as part of efforts to make him join the APC.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Metuh said the president had on several occasions urged him to join the APC and work for him but he turned him down in the past.
He said: “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.
“It took me a long time to get involved in politics. I’ve been called several times. The president wanted to work with me. Even in 2015, when we lost the election, I didn’t bother. He reached out to me again.
“When I left politics in 2022, he called me to come into his party. I refused. 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.”
Metuh was tried and jailed over his involvement in the diversion of funds meant to fight Boko Haram insurgents in 2015.
His alleged involvement in Dasukigate led to his imprisonment.
Metuh was accused of receiving N400 million from the Office of the then National Security Adviser, ONSA under Sambo Dasuki leadership.
Metuh was convicted over his inability to prove that the money he allegedly collected through his companies were meant to prosecute former President Goodluck Jonathan’s election.