Labour Party chieftain, Doyin Okupe, arrested; blocked from travelling abroad

A chieftain of the Labour Party, Doyin Okupe, was on Thursday morning arrested and blocked from travelling to London, the spokesperson of the State Security Service, Peter Afunanya, has said.

In a one-paragraph statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Afunanya said Mr Okupe “was intercepted by the DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, this morning at the instance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)”.

He has long been handed over to the Commisson which requested for the action, the SSS spokesperson said, adding that Mr Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic Airline before he was stopped.

The Labour Party chieftain’s planned mission to London remained unclear. But the presidential candidate of his party, Peter Obi, is scheduled to speak at Chatham House on Monday, 16 January, to “discuss his vision for policy and governance reforms in Nigeria, including the priorities for tackling deep-rooted insecurity and corruption, and measures to promote social and political mobility for Nigerian citizens”.

It is unclear if the politician was travelling ahead of time to participate at the event.

Mr Okupe was on 19 December 2022 jailed for two years after the EFCC successfully prosecuted him for money laundering.

Delivering judgment on the matter, the judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, held that Mr Okupe was guilty of contravening sections 16(1) and (2) of the Money Laundering Act, for receiving cash payments without going through a bank, in excess of the threshold statutorily allowed.

The politician was found guilty on a total of 26 counts – from counts 34 to 59 of the charges.

The judge sentenced him to two years in prison on count 34 with an option of a fine of N500,000.

The court also sentenced him to two years imprisonment on counts 35 to 59 with an option of a fine of N500,000. The option of fine is to run consecutively on each count while the sentence is to run concurrently.

The judge refrained from making any custodial order but said the convict is the property of the state.

Mr Okupe paid the fine and was therefore not taken into custody.

After his conviction, he resigned his position as director general of the Labour Party presidential campaign.

Background

In January 2019, the EFCC arraigned Mr Okupe alongside two companies – Value Trust Investment Ltd and Abrahams Telecoms Ltd, over allegations of N702 million fraud.

He was charged with 59 counts bordering on “money laundering and criminal diversion of funds” to the tune of N702 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), which was headed by Sambo Dasuki.

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While closing its case, an EFCC witness, Shuaibu Salisu, a former director of Administration and Finance at the ONSA, said in 2012, he was directed to make a payment of N50 million to him.”

He further said he was also directed by the ONSA ”to be paying N10 million monthly to Okupe for over two years”, which he said was reduced to a monthly N5 million towards the end of 2014 due to paucity of funds.

Also, Mr Salisu recalled paying another N50 million in cash to Mr Okupe on the orders of Mr Dasuki, who equally faces charges at the Federal and FCT High Courts in Abuja.

Mr Salisu told the court that “sometime in 2012, Chief Okupe came to the Office of the National Security Adviser, and after their discussion, I was directed to make a payment of N50 million to him.”

According to him, “Okupe provided his account details, where I paid the amount into the bank account of Value Trust Investment.”