Peter Afunanya, the Public Relations Officer of the Department of State Service has given reasons behind the rearrest of the immediate past Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe, at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos State.
He said the rearrest of the convicted politician was a product of the cooperation with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission saying the DSS only acted on a request by the EFCC.
According to the EFCC that engineered the arrest, Okupe was charged to court for receiving N702 million 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.
Reacting to his rearrest on Thursday at the Lagos Airport, the Public Relations Officer for DSS, Dr Peter Afunanya, said the former LP campaign DG was arrested after his attempt to leave the country for London.
“Doyin Okupe was intercepted by DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this morning at the instance of the EFCC,” Afunanya said in a text message sent to The PUNCH enquiring about his (Okupe) arrest.
“He has long been handed over to the commission which requested the action. Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic.
However, one of Okupe lawyers, Tolu Babaleye, has reacted on Facebook bemoaning the arrest of his client.
Babalaye claimed 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 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 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 as a human person. This is unfair as the man’s health is fast failing,” he wrote.
Justice Ojukwu, in a judgment, on December 19, 2022 sentenced Okupe to two and a half years imprisonment for breaching the Money Laundering Act.
The court 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.
