OSAS EMMANUEL
Justice Ijeoma Ojuwku of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, sentenced Dr. Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Adviser (SSA), to President Goodluck Jonathan, to two years imprisonment on each of 26 counts charge.
The court, however, imposed N500,000 as an alternative fine on each of the 26 counts in which Okupe was found guilty.
Justice Ojukwu said while sentencing Okupe, that the sentences are to run concurrently, meaning that Okupe will serve two years imprisonment if he failed to pay N500,000 fine on any of the 26 counts in which he was found guilty.
Okupe was found guilty on a total of 26 counts that runs from 34 to 59 counts of charge for specifically receiving over N5 million cash threshold on separate dates totalling over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki.
The court freed Okupe on counts one to 34 of the charge that deal with money laundering, corruption and breach of public trust, involving an alleged sum of N240 million.
Justice Ojuwku, in a judgment delivered, held that the action of Okupe, who is the first defendant in the suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), violated the Money Laundering Act.
While stating that the Act provides 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.”
According to Justice Ojuwku, the NSA was not a financial institution, adding 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 held, “I find the first defendant, Dr Doyin Okupe guilty in count 34, 35, 36…… 59.”
The judge, however, found the defendants not guilty in counts 1 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 ranging from N10 million on different occasions from 2012 to 2015 when he was SSA to president Jonathan.
The said sum according to him were expended on running the office, payment of staffs 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, his lawyer Mr 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 is 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 will attest to the good character of Okupe.
Lawyers to the second and third defendants also lend their voices in the plea for mercy, adding that the convict was a mere victim of circumstances.
Although the request was opposed by prosecution lawyer, Mr Audu Ibrahim, the judge however stood down the matter to enable the defendant called his witnesses that attested to his good character . Former Anambra State Governor Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife and former Director General National Orientation Agency Idi Farouk attested to Okupe good conducts and pleaded for leniency.
Meanwhile, Labour Party Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, has said that the witch-hunting of persons in his campaign team, especially the conviction of his campaign Director General, Doyin Okupe, cannot break his resolve to be Nigeria’s president.
Interacting with journalists in Uyo at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council, Obi said he is undaunted by the conviction of Director-General, Mr. Doyin Okupe, over alleged money laundering.
“I am hearing about it(the conviction) just like you. I am still studying what is coming out of the courts and everything. I believe in the rule of law. It is not going to demoralise me.
“Today when I arrived Akwa Ibom somebody asked me why I haven’t been using my aircraft because it has been grounded and all that and I said to him that nothing demoralises me.
In my life I have never stayed where they dropped me otherwise I would have been where they dropped me before.This election if they like let them anything about people who are around me. I will get there.”
On the impression that he does not have political structure to win the presidential election, he said he was determined to dismantle the existing political structure in the country which encourages corruption and spreads poverty among Nigerians.
“The structure they have today is the structure we want to destroy. It is the structure of criminality. It is structure that produced 133million people living in poverty, it is the structure that produced 20 million out of school children. It is the structure that has made Nigeria surpass India in infant mortality. It is the structure that will destroy Nigeria and we want to destroy that structure,” he said.
The LP presidential candidate said if elected president he will work towards the realisation of the Ibaka Deep seaport in Akwa Ibom State.
Obi maintained that he intends to make Nigeria a country of production rather than a consumer nation.
