Okupe given two years in jail with the option of a fine after being found guilty of money laundering

FORMER presidential adviser and the current director-general of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council Dr Doyin Okupe, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by an Abuja high court for breaching the Money Laundering Act.

This morning, Dr Okupe was found guilty by a federal high court in Abuja presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu. Dr Okupe was found guilty of receiving over N200m ($448,460) in cash from a former national security adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki, which contravenes Section 16 of the Money Laundering Act as the amount is in excess of the threshold allowed without going through a financial institution.

Dr Okupe was subsequently sentenced to two years by Justice Ojuwku with an option of a N500, 000 fine on each of the 26 count charges for which he was found guilty. Delivering her judgment, the judge held that Dr Okupe, who is the first defendant in the suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, violated the Money Laundering Act, and had up to 4.30pm to pay the fine option, totalling the sum of N13m on all the charges he was found guilty of, or be sent the Kuje Correctional Centre.

Justice Ojukwu, in sentencing Dr Okupe, considered the pleadings for leniency from the wife of the convict, Omolola Okupe and that of his son, Adesunkanmi Okupe and the allocutus by his counsel. Nigeria's Money Laundering Act provides that no individual or organisation shall receive any sum above N5m and N10m respectively without passing through a financial institution.

Justice Ojukwu ruled that there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution and that Dr Okupe was not a financial institution,. She added that even if the president was said to have authorised the funds, he did not say that the money must be paid in cash in violation of the Money Laundering Act.

Consequently, the court found Dr Okupe, a former senior special assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan guilty in counts 34, 35, 36 to 59 and set him free from counts one to 33. He was convicted of receiving various sums of money on different occasions from 2012 to 2015 when he was in office.

He claimed the money was expended on running the office, payment of staff members and image laundering of the former president and his administration. Shortly after his conviction, Dr Okupe’s counsel, Francis Oronsaye, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy on the grounds that the defendant was a first time offender, a family man who is also advanced in age and has health challenges.