Following
the conviction and subsequent sentencing to two and half years imprisonment, the
Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin
Okupe, has paid N13 million fine to meet his bail conditions for his money
laundering conviction. Okupe was convicted of the offence on Monday by a
Federal High Court in Abuja.
Presiding
over the case on Monday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu found Okupe guilty of contravening
sections 16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act and accepting cash in excess
of the threshold allowed under the Act without going through a financial
institution.
But
the Peter Obi Support Network has knocked the All Progressives Congress and the
Peoples Democratic Party over the conviction of Dr Doyin Okupe, who is the
Campaign Director of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter
Obi, by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja for breaching the money
laundering act.
Okupe was found guilty of receiving over N200 million cash
from a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.). He was therefore sentenced to two years by
Justice Ojuwku with an option of N500, 000 fine on each of the 26 counts for
which he was found guilty.
Delivering
her judgment, the judge held that Okupe, who is the first defendant in the suit
filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, violated the Money
Laundering Act, and had up to 4:30 pm on Monday to pay the fine option,
totalling the sum of N13 million on all the charges he was found guilty of or
be sent the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Justice
Ojukwu, in sentencing Okupe, considered the pleadings for leniency from the
wife of the convict, Omolola Okupe, and that of his son, Adesunkanmi Okupe.
But confirming the payment of the fine on
Monday night, a source said, “He (Okupe) paid, they returned with the bank
papers around 4.25pm. The court processed it, and everybody signed, including
the EFCC lawyer.”
The
group said the conviction of Okupe has provided some corrupt politicians,
currently angling for Nigeria’s top job, a new opportunity to try dismantling
Peter Obi’s ironclad reputation as one of Nigeria’s most credible, honest and
incorruptible politicians.
According to them, Okupe is not Obi and it is
not right that Obi should be dragged into someone else’s legal misfortune.
In a statement on Monday by the Director of
Media, POSN, Mr Onwuasoanya Jones, said members of the PDP and its Siamese
twins in APC had scoured every file and fact, tore shelves open and searched at
cemeteries and dug every trail in every financial institution they can access
just to find any little dirt they can stick on Peter Obi’s integrity. The group
said but at every turn, the APC and PDP are left disappointed.
The
statement read, “Even though no politician is without sins, Peter Obi has lived
above reproach and operated his businesses and plied his politics with the fear
of God and respect for the people.
“As expected, today’s court judgment has
provided the APC and PDP media personnel with valuable materials to try to
bring Peter Obi to the level of their variously discredited and severally
indicted masters and presidential candidates.
“No
matter how any PDP or APC operative pretends about it, they all agree that
Peter Obi is in a class of his own. So, anything that would make it seem that
“he is not very different from all of them” would be maximally exploited by
them.
“But, while they may smile and celebrate for
having got something to tag on with, we must logically assess the judgment of
the High Court convicting Doyin Okupe and be able to understand if he is truly
the criminal these servants of thieves would want us to believe he is.
“Almost
everyone in the top echelon of the PDP and APC presidential campaign
organisations is being investigated and standing trial for one serious
financial crime that when you compare them with the offence for which Okupe was
convicted you would know that it is just like comparing murderers on trial with
someone who is convicted of a slight traffic offence.
“Doyin’s offence was not that he diverted
funds meant for any project or that he stole money given to him to carry out
any assignment for the Federal Government. Doyin was convicted of the same
crime, almost every businessman in Nigeria commits every day.
“Whenever carry out a transaction that is
above 150,000 naira in cash, you are apparently guilty of money laundering,
because, by CBN’s cashless policy which was introduced by Sanusi Lamido as CBN
governor, you shouldn’t have to carry any money that is more than 150,000
Naira. But, we all do that, all the time.
“That’s the exact reason Doyin was convicted.
His offence was for collecting more than the specified amount of money in cash,
instead of having it pass through the banks.
“This is why I do not agree with those who
paint an image of Doyin as a common thief or one of the corrupt politicians. As
long as this particular conviction is concerned, Doyin is merely an offender
and not a criminal. He is just like someone who breached traffic lights and is
fined for that.
“So,
unlike those supporting Tinubu and those singing the praises of Atiku, Doyin is
not a thief, they and their principals, are those whom we should be afraid to
allow anywhere close to our commonwealth.
“Also, Doyin Okupe is not Peter Obi. Yes, he
is one of Peter Obi’s closest political allies, as long as this project for a
New Nigeria in 2023, is concerned, but this does not make it right that Obi
should be dragged into the legal misfortune that recently befell Doyin.
“However, I will conclude by saying that if it
is deemed wise by the top echelon of Labour Party’s PCC for Doyin to step
aside, then, so be it.”
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