Doyin Okupe, a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), was taken into custody by the Department of State Services (DSS) at Lagos’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport on Thursday morning.
Okupe was scheduled to take a flight to London on Virgin Atlantic before the secret police detained him.
In a statement released on Thursday, DSS spokesperson Peter Afunanya stated that he had been detained at the request of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Afunanya stated that the LP leader had been handed over to the anti-graft agency.
“Doyin Okupe was intercepted by the DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this (Thursday) 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,” the DSS spokesman said.
Okupe was the director-general of the campaign of the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi.
He resigned in December after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja on December 19, 2022 declared him guilty of accepting over N200 million payment from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, saying that his acts breached the Money Laundering Act.
The court decided that Okupe was guilty in counts 34, 35, 36, and 59 and sentenced him to two years imprisonment with an option of a fine.
Okupe, an associate of Obi right from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) until the duo joined the LP this year, later paid a N13m fine.
Following the resignation of Okupe, a longtime assistant to then-President Goodluck Jonathan named Akin Osuntokun was elected to be Obi’s campaign director general.
