Okupe during a chat on Arise TV also claimed his trial and subsequently conviction were politically motivated
By Kehinde Okeowo
Former Director-General of Peter Obi’s Presidential Campaign Organization, Dr Doyin Okupe, has sent tongues wagging on social media, after claiming his conviction in 2022 was for money laundering and not corruption.
He made this known on Tuesday, while featuring on Arise TV, where he also said his trial and conviction were politically motivated.
TheNiche two years ago reported that Okupe was convicted by a Federal High Court in Abuja after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) slammed money laundering charges to the tune of N700 million on him.
The presiding judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, found him guilty of 26 out of a 59-count charges and sentenced him to two years in prison on each of the counts.
She, however, said the sentence would run concurrently and also gave him an option of fine.
Speaking on the conviction during the interview, Okupe, who was an aide to former president, Goodluck Jonathan, insisted he was never convicted of corruption as being insinuated in some quarters.
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He went on to say some elements in the presidency during the Buhari administration, used the anti-graft agency to punish him.
Okupe said, “I was never convicted of corruption. I was discharged from all 34 charges of corruption. I was discharged completely.
“What I was convicted of was money laundering which is not corruption. I was being funded under the directive of Mr President by the NSA.
“My trial was politically motivated. My arrest and prosecution by the EFCC was malicious. It was not even a prosecution but persecution.
“For you to convict someone of money laundering, there must be concealment but I have never concealed anything.
“Secondly, there must be a direct benefit to the person who collected the money but there was no direct benefit to me and I was able to prove that in the court.
“Some people inno the presidency wanted to punish me.”
However, after the clip of the interview surfaced on the Internet, some Nigerians who commented faulted him and argued that money laundering amounts to corruption.
