The immediate past Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe, has been released after he was arrested by the Department of State Services this Thursday morning at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
The former Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, was arrested by the DSS on the request of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission.
The DSS handed him to the EFCC after arresting him.
Okupe’s lawyer, Tolu Babaleye who disclosed the arrest in a post on Facebook said that Okupe was on his way to London when he was arrested.
According to him, the DSS requested him to provide court processes where he paid the fine option following his recent money laundering conviction by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The post read, “The reason according to source is that he was asked to produce evidence that the Federal High Court Abuja has freed him from the case in which he was convicted and paid fine to the knowledge of the whole world and was allowed to go home.
“When will this harassment stop? Who is after Dr. Okupe? As of today, the man has no case to answer, I hereby demand that the DSS should release my client immediately as this is a violation of his freedom of movement, right to liberty and dignity of human person. This is unfair as the man’s health is fast failing.”
The spokesman for the DSS, Peter Afunanya, speaking on why Okupe was arrested said in a statement, “Doyin Okupe was intercepted by the DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this morning at the instance of the EFCC. He has long been handed over to the Commission which requested the action. Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlan.”
However, the former Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council DG has since been released.
Speaking in his arrest, Okupe claimed that the arrest was erroneous and should not have happened.
He said that his passport had long been withheld by the Federal High Court Abuja even before finding him guilty of violating sections of the Money Laundering Act that attracted two and a half years imprisonment.
He, meanwhile, said that officers of the EFCC in Lagos and Abuja had apologised for the error in his arrest.
In a post on his Twitter handle, Okupe wrote, “I was arrested and detained at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this morning, January 12, on my way to the UK for medicals, years after my passport was withheld by the FHC, Abuja.
“I just left the EFCC office where the senior and younger officers in Lagos and Abuja apologised to me for the error.”
 | ReplyForward |
