Doyin Okupe, the director general of the Labour Party’s (LP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), was found guilty by the Federal High Court in Abuja of accepting more than N200 million in cash from Col. Sambo Dasuki, a former national security adviser (NSA).
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu’s ruling on Monday stated that Okupe’s behaviour, who is the first defendant in the lawsuit brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), violated the Money Laundering Act.
The judge found that “there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution,” despite the fact that the Act mandates that no person or organisation receive any sum over N5 million or N10 million without first going through a financial institution.
Justice Ojukwu asserts that the National Security Agency (NSA) is not a financial institution and that, even if the president had authorised the monies, he did not specify that they must be paid in cash to avoid money laundering.
As a result, the court determined that charges 34, 35, 36, and 59 against the first defendant, Dr. Okupe, were true.
The prosecution’s failure to prove that the NSA was guilty of money laundering, criminal breach of trust, and corruption prompted the judge to find the defendants not guilty in charges 1 through 33.
Okupe was accused of collecting various payments totaling N10 million on various times between 2012 and 2015 while serving as President Goodluck Jonathan’s SSA in charges 34 to 59, for which he was found guilty.
He claimed that the aforementioned amount was used to maintain the office, pay employees, and clean up the former president’s and his administration’s reputation.
The court, however, determined that accepting such sums in cash was against the Money Laundering Act.
