The State Service Department has explained the reasons behind the re-arrest of former Labor Party Presidential Campaign Council Director General Doyin Okupe at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos State, citing the cooperation of the Crimes Commission Economic and Financial. as the mastermind of the interception.
El PUNZÓN, on Monday, December 19, 2022, reported that Okupe was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating the Money Laundering Law.
According to the EFCC that engineered the arrest, Okupe was charged in court for receiving N702 million in illegal payments from public funds intended to purchase weapons to fight the insurgency in 2019. The Federal High Court convicted him of the offence.
One of the charges read: “That you, Dr. Doyin Okupe, being the Principal Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan from July 2012 to May 2015 and being the Director General/CEO, and signatory to the Abrahams bank account Telecoms Limited, on October 3, 2014, at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, directly took possession or control of the sum of N35 million, transferred to the account of Abrahams Telecoms Ltd from the account of the Office of the Adviser of Homeland Security with the Central Bank of Nigeria, allegedly for special services when he reasonably should have known that said fund was part of the proceeds of illegal activity.”
Judge Ojukwu, in a ruling, held that Okupe, also a former media senior special assistant (SSA) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, was found guilty of contravening sections 16(1) and (2) of the Money Laundering Act. , for accepting cash payments without going through a financial institution, in excess of the threshold allowed by the Law.
Reacting to his new arrest on Thursday at Lagos airport, DSS public relations officer Dr Peter Afunanya said the former LP campaign manager was arrested after his attempt to leave the country for London.
“Doyin Okupe was intercepted by DSS at Murtala Mohammed International Airport Terminal 1, Lagos this morning at the behest of the EFCC,” Afunanya said in a text message sent to The PUNCH asking about his (Okupe) arrest.
“It was handed over to the commission that requested the action a long time ago. Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic.
However, one of Okupe’s lawyers, Tolu Babaleye, has reacted on Facebook regretting the arrest of his client.
Babalaye claimed that he was asked by DSS to provide court proceedings in which he paid the fine option following his conviction for money laundering by the Abuja Federal High Court.
“The reason, according to the source, is that he was asked to present evidence that the Abuja Federal High Court had released him from the case in which he was convicted and paid a publicly known fine and was allowed to return to house.
“When will this bullying end? Who is behind Dr. Okupe? As of today, the man has no case to answer, therefore I demand that the DSS release my client immediately since this is a violation of his freedom of movement, right to liberty and dignity as a human person. This is unfair as the man’s health is rapidly deteriorating,” he wrote on his Facebook.
