DSS Nabs, Hands Over Okupe To EFCC …Commission Frees Ex-Obi’s DG …Promises To Remove Him From Watch List

The Department of State Services (DSS) has handed over the immediate past Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin Okupe, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
DSS operatives arrested Okupe, yesterday morning at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, while on his way to London, United Kingdom.
The former presidential spokesman was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic.
Spokesman for the DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya, confirmed the handing over of Okupe to the EFCC.
“Doyin Okupe was intercepted by DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this morning at the instance of the EFCC. He has long been handed over to the commission which requested the action,” Afunanya said.
One of Okupe’s lawyers, Tolu Babaleye, in a Facebook post said: “The reason according to the 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 a fine to the knowledge of the whole world and was allowed to go home.
“When will this harassment stop? Who is after 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 as a human person. This is unfair as the man’s health is fast failing.”
Okupe quit as director general of Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council after he was convicted by the court.
However, the immediate past Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Doyin Okupe, has left the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Okupe described the arrest as an error.
The former presidential aide in a tweet after his release, yesterday, stated that senior officers of the EFCC had apologised to him over the arrest.
He wrote: “I was arrested and detained at the MM international airport, Lagos this morning January 12 on my way to UK for medicals… I have just left the EFCC office where senior officers in Lagos, and Abuja apologised to me for the error. OCCUPATIONAL Hazard abi?”
Meanwhile, the embattled former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dr.Doyin Okupe, would be removed from the watch list, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said.
This comes on the heels of his arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, yesterday.
According to reports, Okupe had been on the EFCC watchlist for about six years since 2016.
“Okupe is one of the individuals, groups or organisations that required close surveillance for legal reasons.
“In his case, he has been on our watch list since 2016,” an EFCC source is quoted to have said.
Speaking on Okupe’s arrest by the DSS and his subsequent transfer to the EFFC, the anti-graft agency’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the EFCC would take immediate action to remove the former presidential aide from its watch list.
Uwujaren said, “Concerning the interception of DoyinOkupe, the DSS, today, January 12, informed the commission of the interception of Okupe, former presidential adviser, at the MurtalaMuhammed International Airport in Lagos.
“The service acted on a watch list request issued on July 18, 2016, over six years before his recent conviction on money laundering charges by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
“The commission was in the process of formally lifting the watch list before his interception, and will expedite action in this regard.”
The DSS cited its cooperation with the EFCC as the reason for Okupe’s re-arrest earlier yesterday.
Recall that Okupe was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for breaching the Money Laundering Act.
According to the EFCC that engineered the arrest, Okupe was charged to court for receiving N702million in illegal payment from public funds meant to procure arms to fight insurgency in 2019.
He was convicted of the offence by the Federal High Court.
One of the charges read, “That you, Dr DoyinOkupe, being the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan from July 2012 to May 2015 and being the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, and a signatory to the bank account of Abrahams Telecoms Limited, on or October 3, 2014, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, directly took possession or control of the sum of N35million.
“Transferred to the account of Abrahams Telecoms Ltd from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser with the Central Bank of Nigeria, purporting to be for special services when you reasonably ought to have known that the said fund formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity.”
Justice Ojukwu, in a judgement, held that Okupe, also the former Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on media to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan was found guilty of contravening Sections 16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act, for accepting cash payments without going through a financial institution, in excess of the threshold allowed under the Act.