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BREAKING: Court convicts Doyin Okupe of N702m money laundering
A federal high court in Abuja has convicted Doyin Okupe, the director general of the Labour Party presidential campaign for money laundering.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Okupe and his companies, Value Trust Investment Limited and Abrahams Telecoms Limited for N702 million in 2019.
The anti-graft agency slammed a 59-count charge including money laundering and diversion of funds.
Counsel to the Doyin Okupe, G.K Gadzama, SAN, led in evidence defence witness, Ehimare Edokwa Harold, an Assistant Manager at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Branch of Zenith Bank Nigeria limited, Lagos.
He also presented evidences before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu but the prosecutor counsel, Ibrahim Audu objected to the tendering of the documents, arguing that it was not certified by the bank.
At the resumed trial today, Ojukwu convicted Doyin Okupe but stood down proceedings till 1:45pm for Okupe to exercise his right under Section 310 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) to call witnesses to testify about his character, before the court could proceed to pronounce his sentence.
Justice Ojukwu, in a judgment, held that Okupe was found guilty of contravening Sections 16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act, for accepting cash payments without going through a financial institution, over the threshold allowed under the Act.
Okupe was said to have received N240 million in cash from the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Col. Sambo Dasuki.
