Okupe: Travails of An Ex-Presidental Spokesperson

Emameh Gabriel chronicles the developments that culminated in the sentencing by an high court sitting in Abuja of a former Presidential spokesperson and a staunch member of the Labour Party, Dr Doyin Okupe, to two-years imprisonment

Dear Peter, You will recall that I briefed you yesterday about my personal travails in seeking justice and clearing my name using the Nigerian Legal System to pursue same.

“I have invested too much in your campaign to allow my personal travails to become a source of distraction. In the circumstances, I have opted to step aside and plead that you appoint a new Campaign DG who can continue the assignment with zero distractions”.

These were the words of Dr. Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan and Director General of Obi-Datti Campaign Council, a day after he was sentenced by a Federal High Court, Abuja, to two years imprisonment or payment of N2million fine for money laundering related offences.

Okupe became one of the latest casualties of a Court gavel after a trial that lasted for almost four years amid battle to survive the storm that greeted him in Labour Party.

His ordeals were a combination of his past, cumulatively prompted by lack of tact to handle adversities in an unfamiliar territory.

Okupe left his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where it was alleged that he had lost relevance. He was part of those who defected with Peter Obi to Labour Party in April this year when the momentum for a Third Force movement electrified the streets of Nigeria.

He came into Labour Party, his newly found political family which has metamorphosed into a fertile ground for his new political adventure, with a mindset to re-establish himself and become a voice in the scheme of things.

In Labour Party, Okupe spoke passionately of a new Nigeria of his dream; a Nigeria led by Nigerians and by a new set of leaders who will run the country in line with the tenets of a democratic society; a society where corruption will no longer have a place and a society where equity, justice and fairness reign supreme.

All this while, he had avoided the media for reasons best known to him but occasionally, Okupe passed his messages through his social media handles.

He had early in October when he announced himself as the Director-General of the Campaign Council, boasted that the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has the capacity to defeat other candidates in the coming election.

He noted that the Obidient Movement which currently drives the Presidential run of the Labour Party, transcends ethnicity and religious bias.

Okupe explained that if presidential candidates were to be pre-qualified, both the candidates of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party would have since been disqualified.

Okupe predicted that PDP’s internal crisis will continue to fester because its candidate, Atiku Abubakar emerged after “a skewed party primary” which jettisoned the time-tested respect for zoning and rotation of power as enshrined in its very constitution.

For the APC, the campaign DG noted that the party shot itself in the foot with its same faith ticket which he described as a clear indication that the party lacks respect for Nigeria’s religious diversity.

It was on this same day Okupe’s troubles in Labour Party began. He was greeted by nemesis; a sworn enemy who had now vowed to take a pound of flesh from him. And from nowhere, he was ambushed.

The then National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi,  now on suspension, did not only fault the composition of the campaign council, he said  Okupe had no power to announce himself the DG of the council.

This was the root of the battle of wit and vendetta that ensued till Okupe was suspended by the Ogun State chapter of the party and his subsequent conviction by a Federal High Court for money laundering.

Abayomi had also in an earlier interview with THISDAY after the inauguration, described Okupe as an usurper who has turned himself to the defacto national chairman of the party.

Although the party had in a later date after making some adjustments to accommodate concerns raised by some of its members, endorsed the campaign council list with Okupe still as its DG, a new chapter of crisis ensued.

Arabambi who has distanced himself from the activities of Labour Party since the inauguration of its PCC, disclosed to THISDAY that his grouse was with Okupe, who he accused of importing corruption into Labour Party.

He also raised the alarm that his life had been under threat since he challenged Okupe to refund the N50 million former president Goodluck Jonathan allegedly gave to Labour Party during the 2015 presidential election.

“This is my 13 years in Labour Party. People cannot just come into the party and in four months they will be telling us that they know more than us in the party.”

While Okupe was yet to find his foot on the ground against an unexpected war launched on him by the Arabambi-led group in the party even after getting the backing of the party’s national headquarters, he was hit by a suspension on 1st December by the Ogun State chapter of the party for allegedly failing to perform his duty as a member of the party.

Okupe who was dismissed alongside Abayomi Collins, Abel Olaleye, Jagun Lookman, Olori Oluwabukola Soyoye, Gbadebo Fesomade, (former State Treasurer), and  Abdulmalik Olaleye (former State Youth Leader) and others, was said to have failed to perform his financial obligations to the party for six months as dictated by Labour Party’s constitution, hence his membership was forfeited.

His suspension was part of the resolutions reached at the end of a meeting held at the party’s secretariat in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital where they called for the emergence of a new director general of Northern extraction to reflect the national character and political balance.

“Article 9(3) iii of our Party’s Constitution states as follows: ‘only members who pay their monthly membership dues at rates prescribed shall be deemed to be bonafide members of the party. Arrears of dues of up to six months shall lead to forfeiture of membership,” the State Chairman of the party Michael Ashade said.

“Despite repeated demands from various meetings I had with Dr. Doyin Okupe in respect of his mandatory constitutional requirements to fulfill membership status, he has failed woefully in this regard with some others to flagrantly disobey the Constitution of Labour party.

“In line with article 19(3) of the Labour Party constitutional provision, we declare that Dr. Doyin Okupe, having failed in the payment of his membership dues for the last six months of joining the party, has forfeited his membership of the party and no longer fit and competent to continue to act as the DG of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

“We hereby notify our National Chairman, Julius Abure and Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, that it’s expedient to obey the Constitution of the party by immediately appointing another DG for the PCC and that should come from the North to reflect Federal Characters and political balance.”

He said their action has become imperative in order to enforce discipline and internal democracy as he accused Okupe of polarising the Labour Party in the South-West state.

Although the decision of the Ogun State chapter of the party was jettisoned by the National Working Committee of the party, it was against the backdrop of the crisis that after its last NWC meeting that the party constituted a peace and reconciliation committee to resolve all the internal crisis that has dogged the party in recent times.

The Chief Spokesman of the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Dr  Yunusa Tanko, at a press briefing in Abuja, told newsmen that the National Executive Committee (NEC) constituted the peace committee rather than a disciplinary committee to resolve all issues before next year’s general election.

He said the committee is expected to start receiving complaints from  aggrieved party members immediately to enable it conclude its assignment within the shortest possible time.

According to Tanko: “The LP is one big family and the fastest growing political party in Africa and as such minor internal conflicts and misunderstanding such as witnessed in recent past cannot be ruled out.

“The purpose of this committee therefore is to ensure the peaceful resolutions of all the grievances and further strengthen and promote the unity of our great party towards achieving the goals and tasks ahead of 2023”.

Hardly had the committee started its job, than Okupe was convicted on a 26 count charge of money laundering and was subsequently jailed for two years with an option of fine.

Delivering the judgment penultimate week, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, held that Okupe was guilty of contravening sections 16(1) and (2) of the Money Laundering Act, for receiving cash payments without going through a bank, in excess of the threshold statutorily allowed.

He was found guilty on a total of 26 counts, from counts 34 to 59 of the charges. He was therefore sentenced to two years in prison on count 34 with an option of a fine of N500,000.

The option of fine is to run consecutively on each count while the sentence is also to run concurrently.

While Obi has so far accepted Okupe’s resignation from Labour Party campaign council, the Pat Utomi-led BigTent, an affiliation of Labour Party, disclosed that Okupe was prevailed upon to resign his position within 48 hours.

The Director General of BigTent, Ibrahim Abdulkareem, last week at the launch of the ‘Clean-Up Nigeria’ campaign in Abuja, explained that the move to clean up Nigeria has started with Labour Party.

He said: “It is not about doing things the old way to achieve the same results. If you are cleaning yourself, you have to start from spiritual cleaning, environment, physical and do a lot of positive things to set up that society you call your own. If you look at Kigali, Rwanda as an example, it’s today one of the cleanest city in Africa and most advancing at this moment.

He said campaign was beyond the street march adding that it was meant to prepare the minds of the citizens against the tendency of indulging in criminality and other social vices.

His words: “This is the cleaning we are talking about. Today, we come out to symbolise what we are preaching. Obi will also lead the clean up Nigeria and you will see it in all the local governments in Nigeria, telling Nigerians what to do and what to achieve in their environments

“When we come to political thinking, we have to clear the people minds on what we need to do. We can’t sit in a country where one person will be having 248 houses in Abuja alone, according to ICPC.

On what efforts  the party put in place to address the allegation of corruptions level against its principal officials in recent weeks BigTent DG said: “We have already started. The DG has resigned. We are bringing in a new campaign DG. It has never happened. We know what we did. People from the opposition even called me and said look, your DG is not going and I said to them, just wait within 48 hours. We went into action and then he listened.

“One thing he (Okupe) said was that, I am going to be an example of that new Nigeria that everybody dreams of. I am going to step aside and I will be part of the movement but I will step aside so that we will show Nigerians that it’s not going to business as usual.

“If you are doing the wrong thing, you have to excuse yourself. In the OBIdient movement, I am not saying we are perfect but we are trying to clean up Nigeria, even within ourselves”