The Department of State Service (DSS) has explained the reason behind the rearrest of the former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe, at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos State, while on his way to the UK for medical check up.
The Service said Okupe’s rearrest was at the instance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, given their official cooperation on all criminal matters, given his recent conviction by the court in December, of Okupe.
Recall that, on Monday, December 19, 2022, Okupe was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for breaching the Money Laundering Act, a conviction that hasn’t been squashed.
Okupe was charged to court for receiving N702 million in illegal payment from public funds meant to procure arms to fight insurgency in 2019. He was subsequently convicted on the offence of money laundering by the Federal High Court in December, 2022.
According to one of the charges: “That you, Dr Doyin Okupe, being the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan from July 2012 to May 2015 and being the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, and a signatory to the bank account of Abrahams Telecoms Limited, on or October 3, 2014, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, directly took possession or control of the sum of N35million, transferred to the account of Abrahams Telecoms Ltd from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser with the Central Bank of Nigeria, purporting to be for special services when you reasonably ought to have known that the said fund formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity.”
In the judgment delivered by Justice Ojukwu, the court held that Okupe, who was at that time (the offence was committed) the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on media to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, was found guilty of contravening Sections 16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act, for accepting cash payments without going through a financial institution, in excess of the threshold allowed under the Act.
Clearing the air regarding Okupe’s rearrest on Thursday at the Lagos Airport, the Public Relations Officer for DSS, Dr Peter Afunanya, said Okupe was arrested at the airport, on the verge of boarding a flight to London.
“Doyin Okupe was intercepted by DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this morning at the instance of the EFCC,” Afunanya said to PUNCH, one of Nigeria’s major newspapers.
“He has long been handed over to the commission which requested the action. Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic.
Following Okupe’s arrest, one of the lawyers in his legal team, Tolu Babaleye, has lambasted his arrest, calling it harassement. The lawyer said, while referring to Okupe, that “the man has no case to answer, I hereby demand that the DSS should release my client immediately ..”
Babalaye said that the DSS requested from Okupe to provide court processes where he paid the fine option following his money laundering conviction by the Federal High Court, Abuja, and that such request or information isn’t enough to arrest anyone for.
“The reason according to the source is that he was asked to produce evidence that the Federal High Court Abuja has freed him from the case in which he was convicted and paid a fine to the knowledge of the whole world and was allowed to go home.
“When will this harassment stop? Who is after Dr Okupe? As of today, the man has no case to answer, I hereby demand that the DSS should release my client immediately as 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 fast failing,” he wrote.
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