Convicted former Senior Special Assistant on Media to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, might have stepped down as campaign Director – General of Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council to avoid bringing further distraction to Obi following the present circumstance.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on Monday convicted Okupe, for violating the Money Laundering Act.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu presiding over the case found Okupe guilty of contravening sections 16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act.
The court also found him guilty of accepting cash in excess of the threshold allowed under the Act without going through a financial institution.
Okupe is the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council of the Labour Party(LP) on which platform, former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, is running for President in 2023.
The court, in a judgement that was delivered by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu held that evidence before it established that Okupe had in the discharge of his official duties, accepted cash payments that were above the statutory threshold, without recourse to a financial institution.
It was alleged that Okupe received funds from the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, while Col. Sambo Dasuki, retired, was in charge.
Justice Ojukwu held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, successfully established its case against Okupe, but it stood the matter down to enable the Defendant to enter his plea of allocutus (clemency) as provided for in section 310 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015.
This is to allow Okupe to exercise his right under Section 310 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act to call witnesses to testify about his character.
When the court reconvened and heard his allocutus, he was slammed with two – year jail term with option of cumulative N13 milllion fine.
Before 7pm yesterday, he met the condition given him by the court.
The court is expected to pronounce its sentence shortly.
In a letter purported to have emanated from the embattled Okupe, who was recently stripped of his membership of Labour Party in Ogun State, which was addressed to Peter Obi, he announced his resolve to step aside and urged the LP presidential candidate to appoint someone else.
