Dr Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, ha paid N13 million being the option of fine the court granted him to be freed after he was convicted for receiving over N200m cash from a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd).
He was earlier sentenced to two years imprisonment by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja with an option of N500, 000 fine on each of the 26 count charges for which he was found guilty.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Ojukwu held that Okupe, who is the first defendant in the suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission violated the Money Laundering Act.
She said he had up to 4.30 pm to pay the fine option totalling N13m on all the charges he was found guilty of or be sent to the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Justice Ojukwu, in sentencing Okupe, considered the pleadings for leniency from the convict’s wife, Omolola, and his son, Adesunkanmi.
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, the judge 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.
