By Olusegun Olanrewaju and Linus Aleke
Barely 24 hours after a Federal High Court convicted him of money laundering, the Director-General (D-G) of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Dr Doyin Okupe, yesterday resigned his appointment as head of the council.
Before his resignation, Okupe, a strong chieftain of the LP, was heading a loaded party team comprising six principal campaigners.
Other members of the campaign team are Nollywood actor and lawyer, Kenneth Okonkwo, a former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) (who co-ordinates the South-East); Nana Kazaure, a rights activist; Ndi Kato, another human rights activist; Yunusa Tanko, a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former secretariat member of Save Nigeria Group.
The rest are Dele Foritimi, a lawyer and political activist (who c-oversees the South-West), and Ime Ufot, a marketing and advertising professional, who is in charge of the South-South).
*The resignation
Okupe, a former presidential media aide to the ex-Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, had led several campaigns on behalf of the party for it to penetrate the nooks and crannies of the country.
In his resignation letter yesterday, the erstwhile D-G, in his letter to the presidential candidate of the LP, Peter Obi, said he would not allow his travail to rub off on the electoral trajectory of the ‘Obi-dients’, ahead of the 2023 elections.
The letter addressed to Obi, reads in part, “You will recall that I briefed you yesterday about my travails in seeking justice and clearing my name using the Nigerian legal system to pursue the same.
“I have invested too much in your campaign to allow my travails to become a source of distraction. In the circumstances, I have opted to step aside and plead that you appoint a new Campaign DG who can continue the assignment with zero distractions.”
Okupe was on Monday convicted for money laundering and sentenced to two years with an option of fine, for which he paid N13m as an option to walk away from being imprisoned.
A Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu found him guilty of contravening sections 16(1) & amp;(2) of the Money Laundering Act and accepting cash over the threshold allowed under the Act without going through a financial institution.
The outgone D-G was found guilty of receiving over N240m cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).
Justice Ojuwku, in a judgment, held that the action of the former presidential aide, who was the first defendant in the suit, filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), violated the Money Laundering Act.
Ruling that the Act provided that no individual or organisation shall receive any sum above N5m and N10m respectively without passing through a financial institution, the judge held that “there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution.”
According to Justice Ojukwu, the NSA was not a financial institution. He said 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.”
Meanwhile, Okupe has described his conviction by the Federal High Court, Abuja as the handiwork of his enemies.
Okupe, in a statement on his official Twitter account, said his enemies had tried in so many ways but kept failing.
“God is not man. The enemies have tried in so many ways but kept on failing…Victory is of God,” Okupe wrote.
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*It’s a systematic attack on us, Yunusa, spokesperson, Obi-Datti PCC
Meanwhile, the LP yesterday reacted to the resignation of the DG of its PCC.
The Chief Spokesperson of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Dr Tanko Yunusa, who spoke on Channels TV’s Politics Today, said Okupe’s decision to resign his position was personal.
Yunusa, however, raised alarm over coordinated attacks and intimidation of its members physically and in cyberspace, adding that it will soon submit the petition to the security agencies and the Nigerian Government, to look into the matter.
Yunusa said, “Dr Okupe decided on his own to make this pronouncement that you saw in the letter, but collectively, the Labour Party Campaign Council and the party leadership have not made any pronouncement, on this matter.
“Our Presidential Candidate said that nothing will deter him from continuing to stand for the Nigerian people, as well as continue to fight for the collective interests of Nigerians and ensure that Nigeria is back on track, this is our collective aspiration and we are not derailing from that.”
On the damage the court verdict had brought on the party, Yunusa said, “It may shock you to know that the ‘Obi-dient’ movement followers and our party members know that those who had held us down will not relent in their effort to manipulate the system, or attack us, or malign us or even kill us.
“We have prepared their minds for the challenges and they have made up their minds, as you can see from some of the things that we have been doing, even in the face of intimidation and attacks, we still come out stronger.”
Noting that the party sees the current setback as a strategy to de-market the party, the spokesperson of the campaign council noted the party is making a report to the Nigerian Police, the Nigeria military, and the Nigerian Government on the series of attacks on them both physically and on the cyberspace.
He, however, assured that the people are not going to be docile or wait until they are all eliminated in the process.
Nigeria, he said, belongs to all Nigerians and no level of intimidation will stop them from pursuing its aspirations.
“But we are warning that these people should refrain from attacking us, killing and maiming or shaming us. It is very important that Nigerian state takes a closer look at these attacks currently targeted at us, with the view to ensuring that those arrested are brought to book,” he added.
