PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
Dr Doyin Okupe, the Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, is to spend the next two years behind bars for a N200 million fraud.
Okupe was found guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, a violation of the Money Laundering Act.
Okupe, who committed the offences while he served as Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, was, therefore, sentenced to two years.
He was, however, given an option of N500, 000 fine on each of the 26-count charge slammed on him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for which he was found guilty.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who handed the verdict, said Okupe is guilty as charged for 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.
The judge held that Okupe, who is the first defendant, 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.
Ojukwu said she considered the pleas for leniency from the wife of the convict, Omolola Okupe, and his son, Adesunkanmi Okupe, and the allocutus by his counsel in tempering justice with mercy.
She stated 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.
“There is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution. Okupe is 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 Act.
“Consequently, the court finds the former SSA to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan guilty on counts 34, 35, 36 to 59 and acquitted him on 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.”
On counts 34 and 59, the judge said Okupe 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.
In his allocutus, Counsel to Okupe, Mr Francis Oronsaye, urged 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.
Citing Section 310 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the lawyer 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 sentencing him.
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