By Bonaventure Melah, in Abuja
The Director General of the Labour Party presidential campaign council, Dr. Doyin Okupe has been forced to resign his position.
NationWide had in an exclusive story Monday night reported that the LP presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi was shopping for Okupe’s replacement, few hours after he was convicted and sentenced to two years and half imprisonment for money laundering.
Many NIgerians had called us all through last night and today to say that the story was cooked up and therefore not true.
But this Tuesday evening, Okupe was forced to resign through a letter addressed to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
See details of NationWide report last night. You can also click on our mast head to read the original story.
A few hours after Doyin Okupe, the Director General of the Labour Party presidential campaign council, was convicted and sentenced to prison over money laundering,, Mr. Peter Obi, the party’s flag-bearer, has commenced the search for Okupe’s replacement.
A top leader of the Labour Party disclosed this to NationWide in Abuja today, while responding to a question by our correspondent on what the party would do as a result of Okupe’s court conviction.
The LP official who pleaded not to be mentioned because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi has been briefed on the matter and is already making consultations on finding a replacement.
“The Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi have been briefed on the outcome of the case.
“Although we believe the action is politically motivated, coming at this time, the party cannot have a presidential campaign DG who is a convict, especially on grounds of fraud or money laundering.
“Even though we are aware that the DG of a campaign council does not fall within the appointments covered by law on such matters, out party cannot keep Okuoe on the position and this purely on moral grounds and public policy rather than law,” the official said.
Okupe was on Monday, sentenced to two and half years in prison for breaching the Money Laundering Act.
He was found guilty by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja
Justice 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.
Okupe was found guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from a former 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 count charge 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, and the allocutus by his counsel.
While stating that the Money Laundering Act provided that no individual or organisation shall receive any sum above N5 million and N10 million respectively without passing through a financial institution, the judge held that, “there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution” and that Okupe was not a financial institution, and that, even if the president was said to have authorised the funds, he did not say that the money must be paid in cash in violation of the money laundering.
Consequently, the court found the former SSA to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan guilty in counts 34, 35, 36 to 59 and set him free from counts one to 33 on the grounds that the prosecution failed to establish the charge of money laundering and criminal breach of trust and corruption against the NSA.
In counts 34 to 59, upon which Okupe was convicted, he was accused of receiving various sums of money ranging from N10 million on different occasions from 2012 to 2015 when he was SSA to Jonathan.
The said sum according to him were expended on running the office, payment of staff members and image laundering of the former president and his administration. But, the court however held that receiving such amounts in cash violated the Money Laundering Act.
Shortly after his conviction, Okupe’s counsel, Francis Oronsaye, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy on the grounds that the defendant was a first time offender, a family man who is also advanced in age and having health challenges that he was currently treating in Nigeria and outside the country.
Oronsaye, citing Section 310 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, urged the court to stand down the matter to enable him call witnesses that would attest to the good character of Okupe, a request the court granted and Okupe’s wife and son pleaded for mercy in the sentencing of the former SSA, a request which the court granted, and the wife and one of his child were called.
They both told the court that Okupe was a loving and caring father, whose love and care extended to people who were not his biological children, adding that Okupe was a great man with integrity and good character.
The counsel for the second and third defendants also lended their voices in the plea for mercy, adding that the convict was a mere victim of circumstance.