Further clarifications got here on Thursday afternoon as for the purpose for the arrest of presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying that the Department of State Services (DSS) acted on a 2016 watch listing request, to stop him from travelling outdoors the nation.
Okupe, who resigned final month as the Director General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council (LP-PCC), who was picked up by the Nigerian secret police, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Thursday morning, has since confirmed his launch, which he stated got here with an apology from the anti-graft company.
In furtherance of the data, the EFCC stated it was in the course of of formally lifting the watch listing on Okupe, who was really on his way to London on medical grounds, earlier than his interception by the secret police on Thursday morning, including that it would now expedite motion and take away the Labour Party (LP) chieftain from its watch listing.
The veteran politician, who was the spokesman of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) one of the two registered political events that contested the June 12, 1993 election, and the spokesman of former President Goodluck Jonathan, stated as a result of his passport was confiscated on the orders of a courtroom, over his corruption case, which began in 2016, he had not been ready to journey overseas for the function.
He was ultimately let off the hook, after bagging a two-year jail sentence by Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for receiving N200million from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, in contravention of the Money Laundering Act, having paid a whopping N13.5million fantastic as an alternative.
Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, stated in an announcement on Thursday: “The Department of State Services, DSS, today, January 12, informed the Commission of the interception of Dr. Doyin Okupe, former presidential adviser, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. 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.”
Against the backdrop of the outcries by Tolu Babaleye, Lawyer, Okupe’s lawyer, who condemned what he referred to as “harassment,” the DSS, clarified the purpose for the operation, saying the former presidential aide, who was stopped from catching a London flight by way of Virgin Atlantic, was arrested at the occasion of EFCC.
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