Doyin Okupe Jail term: Politician reacts after paying fine instead

Dr. Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has broken his silence after a court convicted him of money laundering charges.

He took to his Twitter account on Monday evening to declare that his enemies keep failing.

He wrote, “God is not man. The enemies have tried in so many ways but keep failing…Victory is of God.”

Earlier yesterday Okupe in a tweet also said “lies, fabrication and disinformation are their tools. But in the end they will fail and be shamed. Doyin Okupe has not chopped any shishi neither has he shifted base by 1mm!!! We are moving forward till God delivers us all from perpetual raiders of this lost but glorious ark. Naija.”

The presiding judge while stating that the Money Laundering Act provided that no individual or organisation shall receive any sum above N5m and N10m respectively without passing through a financial institution, held that, “there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution” and that Okupe was not a financial institution, and that, even if the president was said to have authorised the funds, he did not say that the money must be paid in cash.

Consequently, the court found Okupe guilty in counts 34, 35, 36 to 59 and sets him free from counts 1 to 33 because the prosecution failed to establish the charge of money laundering and criminal breach of trust and corruption against the NSA.

In counts 34 to 59 upon which Okupe was convicted, he was accused of receiving various sums of money ranging from N10m on different occasions from 2012 to 2015 when he was Jonathan’s aide.

The said sum, he said, was spent on running his office, payment of staff members and image laundering of the former President and his administration. But, the court, however, held that receiving such amounts in cash violated the Money Laundering Act.