DSS Sends Doyin Okupe To EFCC Custody

The Department of State Services, DSS, on Thursday confirmed the arrest of the immediate past Director General of the Labour party presidential Campaign, council, Mr. Doyin Okupe.

Okupe’s lawyer, Tolu Babaleye, announced his client’s arrest earlier, accusing the DSS of asking him to show details of the 13 million naira fine the Federal High Court Abuja ordered him to pay after his conviction for receiving millions in cash from the office of the National Security Adviser (between 2015 to 219) without going through a financial institution.

However, the DSS Spokesperson, Dr Peter Afunanya, said Okupe’s arrest was based on a request from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

“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 for the action. Okupe was billed to fly to London via Virgin Atlantic,” Afunanya stated in short message received by this website.

Recall that Okupe’s conviction by the court was based on the charges instituted against him by the EFCC, the current detaining authority.

But THE WHISTLER reported Babaleye saying after Okupe’s conviction that “appeal had already been filed against the conviction and sentence as we are of a strong opinion that the law under which Dr. Okupe was found guilty does not apply to him.”

On Thursday, he called for his client’s immediate release.

By Babaleye’s admission that an appeal has been entered, it means the legal battle regarding Okupe’s conviction by the trial court is still on.