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By Chinelo Obogo and Chinwendu Obienyi
Labour Party (LP) has described the arrest of Doyin Okupe by the Department of State Services (DSS) as embarrassing and orchestrated.
The DSS, yesterday, arrested the former director general of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organisation at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The LP chieftain was billed to fly to London with Virgin Atlantic before he was apprehended.
Okupe had tweeted from his social media handle: “I was arrested and detained at the MMIA, Lagos this morning, 12th January on my way to UK for medicals; years after my passport had been withheld by the FHC Abuja. I just left the EFCC office where senior officers in Lagos and Abuja appologised to me for the error. Occupational hazard abi?” The party chief spokesman, Yunusa Tanko, in a statement said the arrest was unwarranted given the fact that it was public knowledge that Okupe met with the conditions of his release after his conviction over money laundering.
DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, in a statement, however, explained that Okupe was intercepted at the behest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He also said the LP chieftain has been handed over to the anti-graft agency.
“Doyin Okupe was intercepted by the DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this (Thursday) morning at the instance of the EFCC. He has long been handed over to the Commission which requested for the action. Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic,” the DSS spokesman said.
However, in a statement, EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said it acted in error.
“The Service acted on a watch-list request issued on July 18, 2016, over six years before his recent conviction on money laundering charges by the Federal High Court, Abuja. The Commission was in the process of formally lifting the watch-list before his interception and will expedite action in this regard.”
Okupe resigned as DG of Obi’s campaign after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja on December 19, 2022 found him guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, ruling that his action violated the Money Laundering Act.
