By Lateef Adegbite
The Leadership of the Labour Party, LP,Ogun state Chapter , may have known that Doyin Okupe, a Senior Special Assistant , Media Affairs , to former President Goodluck Jonathan and now Director General, Labour party, LP, Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, for the 2023, general elections, may have known that he will not wriggle out of the problem with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, under the Chairmanship of Abdullaziz Bawa, that it had suspended him and 10 others from the party over allege ‘‘non-financial membership status, high-handedness and financial recklessness’’.
The action of the Ogun state Chapter of the party may have forced the party National Leadership through Yunusa Tanko, the spokesperson to speak out that some people within and outside the party are being used by the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, and the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to destabilize the party due to the growing popularity and acceptability of Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra state and the party Presidential Candidate for the 2023, general elections The party National Leadership had described the purported suspension handed down to the party PCC Director General by the Ogun state Chapter as ‘‘unfounded ‘’, stating that the Benue state born politician remains ‘‘the Director General of the LP PCC’’.
Indeed, the EFCC, appears to have settled the internal crisis between the Ogun state Chapter and the National Leadership of the LP, over the position of Okupe in the party with his conviction to 52 years imprisonment for breaching the Money Laundry Act by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on Monday, December 19, 2022.
In delivering the judgment on Okupe, the Director General, LP, PCC, at the Abuja Federal High Court, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, had said that he was found guilty of Contravening sections 16(1) &(2) of the Money Laundery Act. According to her, the Money Laundery Act, was very clear that ‘‘no individual Organistion shall receive above N5 million or N10 million cash without passing through the financial institution for documentary evidence.
She noted that Okupe was reported to have received N240 million in cash from the office of the Sambo Dasuki, a retired Army Colonel and National Security Adviser, NSA, during Jnathan’s Administration, .an indications that there was no documentary evidence that the money had passed through the banking process.
Okupe may have made Nigerians to understand that he did not use the money for his own pecuniary gains. He stated that former President Jonathan had approved the amount for setting up of an office at Asokoro Area of the FCT , ‘’saddled with the responsibility of ‘laundering his image and that of the Administration’’. He admitted that the money was actually released through the office of the then NSA but were used in ‘‘payment of staff salaries, daily running of the office and media activities’’.
The trial judge may have provided a soft landing for the LP Chieftain to pay a N13 million fine within a specified time on the Monday, December 19, 2022, that the very day the judgment was given. The LP Chieftains may have known that the rival APC and the PDP, may use it as a Campaign issue against the party if the party Director General , PCC, should be allowed to head to prison because of his inability to cough out N13 million within the hours given by the Court for the money to be paid to secure his release. Unconfirmed report said, Peter Obi, the party Presidential Candidate had paid the fine to save Okupe from going to jail.
This may have sent a message to the rival APC and the Opposition PDP, who waiting anxiously to see the door of the Kuje prison opened for Okupe to hit back at Obi, the LP, Presidential Candidate whose growing popularity , across the 36 states of the Federation was unimaginable.
Recall that the trial Judge had ordered that if Okupe, the LP, Chieftain failed to meet the payment of the N13 million option of fine within the time frame set for it, he should be taken ‘‘to Kuje Correctional Centre to serve his prison term’’.
Given that the wish of Okupe’s political enemies is for him to head to prison ahead of the 2023, general elections, have not worked out, this is time for the 11-man Committee that was said to have been constituted by the National Leadership on’‘party security, peace and conflict resolution’’, to go back to the draing board and do a thorough job to bring all the warring parties together.
Tanko, the party spokesperson may have known that reconciling the aggrieved members of the party was necessary in order to have a united front ahead of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections that he has appealed to the aggrieved members of the party, particular, Ogun state Chapter, who had accused Okupe of financial recklessness and Julius Abure, the National Chairman ,of a N40 million fraud ‘‘to cast aside all their grievances and key into the party internal peace policy milestone for the purpose of peaceful resolutions of all matters that may have arisen in the course of the party activities’’.
