Nigerian court sentences Peter Obi's campaign chief Doyin Okupe for money laundering

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, jailed Doyin Okupe, for two years with an option of fine.

The court jailed Mr Okupe, who is the director-general of Peter Obi's Labour (LP) presidential campaign council, for money laundering offences.

He was also a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Delivering the judgment on Monday, 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.

Mr Okupe was found guilty on a total of 26 counts - from counts 34 to 59 of the charges.

The judge sentenced Mr Okupe 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.

Ms Ojukwu gave Mr Okupe till 4:30 p.m. before being taken into custody.

Background

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

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."