The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has announced that Dr. Doyin Okupe, the embattled former director-general of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, will be taken off the radar.
This follows the Department of State Services’, DSS, Thursday arrest of Okupe at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
Okupe had reportedly been on the EFCC watchlist since 2016 for nearly six years.
Okupe is said to be one of the individuals, groups or organizations that required close surveillance for legal reasons by the anti-graft agency, and has been on the commission’s watchlist since 2016,” according to an EFCC source.
Commenting on Okupe’s arrest by the DSS and his subsequent transfer to the EFFC, the anti-graft agency’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the EFCC would take immediate action to remove the former presidential aide from its watchlist.
Uwujaren said, “Concerning the interception of Doyin Okupe, the DSS, today, January 12, informed the Commission of the interception of Dr. Okupe, former presidential adviser, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
“The Service acted on a watchlist 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.”
FirstNews reported Okupe saying after he was released that his arrest was done in error, adding that the EFCC apologised to him for the mistake.