The Department of State Services, DSS, has arrested a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Doyin Okupe, at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos.
DSS spokesman, Mr. Peter Afunnanya, who disclosed this in a statement Thursday, said Okupe, who was in his way to London via Virgin Atlantic, was intercepted at the instance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, and had since been handed over to the anti-graft agency.
TheFact Daily reports that Okupe, who was the director-general of the campaign of the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, resigned in December after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja on December 19, 2022 found him guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, ruling that his action violated the Money Laundering Act.
The court held that Okupe was guilty in counts 34, 35, 36, and 59 and sentenced him to two years imprisonment with an option of a fine, which he paid, in the sum of 13m naira.
Meanwhile, one of Okupe’s lawyers, Tolu Babaleye, who also disclosed his client’s arrest on Facebook, claims that the DSS asked him to provide court processes where he paid the fine option following his money laundering conviction by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
“The reason according to source is that he was asked to produce evidence that the Federal High Court Abuja has freed him from the case in which he was convicted and paid fine to the knowledge of the whole world and was allowed to go home.
“When will this harassment stop? Who is after Dr. Okupe? As of today, the man has no case to answer, I hereby demand that the DSS should release my client immediately as this is a violation of his freedom of movement, right to liberty and dignity of human person. This is unfair as the man’s health is fast failing,” Babaleye stated.
