A federal high court in Abuja has sentenced Doyin Okupe,
director-general of the Peter Obi presidential campaign council, to two years
imprisonment for breaching the money laundering act.
In a judgment delivered on Monday, Okupe was found guilty of
26 out of a 59-count charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Ijeoma Ojukwu, the presiding judge, sentenced Okupe to two
years in prison on each of the counts.
However, the sentence is to run concurrently.
Additionally, the judge said the convict is at liberty to
pay a N500,000 fine on each of the counts — totalling N13 million.
The EFCC had arraigned Okupe in 2019 on a 59-count charge
bordering on alleged money laundering and diversion of funds to the tune of
N702 million.
He was arraigned alongside two companies – Value Trust
Investment Ltd and Abrahams Telecoms Ltd.
Okupe was said to have received cash from the office of the
national security adviser (NSA) while Sambo Dasuki, the NSA at the time, was in
office.
Ojukwu found Okupe guilty of contravening sections
16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act by accepting cash payments in excess
of the threshold allowed under the Act, without going through a financial
institution.
The judge said the NSA is not a financial institution and
although the former president allegedly authorised the funds, he did not
specify a cash payment in violation of the Money Laundering Act.
“I find the first defendant, Dr. Doyin Okupe, guilty on
counts 34, 35, 36, to 59,” the court ruled.
The judge, however, found the defendants not guilty on
counts one to 33 on the grounds that the prosecution failed to establish the
charge of money laundering, criminal breach of trust, and corruption against
the NSA.
Testifying shortly after the conviction in accordance with
section 310 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), Omolola —
Okupe’s wife — and Adesunkanmi — his son — begged the court to temper justice
with mercy.
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