‘It is not going to demoralise me’, Peter Obi reacts to Doyin Okupe’s conviction for money laundering

The 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said the conviction of his Campaign Organisation’s Director-General, Dr Doyin Okupe, over alleged money laundering would not demoralise or break his resolve to be Nigeria’s President.

NewsWireNGR earlier reported that the former Senior Special Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday (December 19, 2022), was found guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA). Col. Sambo Dasuki by Justice Ijeoma Ojuwku of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

Justice Ojukwu had ordered that the 26 counts, which attracted 2-year jail-term each, would run concurrently, meaning, the convict would only spend two years in prison.

The judge, however, gave an option of N500, 000 in each of the counts, amounting to N13 million, which must be paid before 4:30pm (the close of work) Monday.

Reacting to the development, during interaction with journalists in Uyo at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council Secretariat on Monday said he was undaunted by the conviction and would continue with his campaign and allow the due process of law to take its course.

“I am hearing about it (the conviction) just like you. I am still studying what is coming out of the Court and everything. I believe in the rule of law. It is not going to demoralise me.

“Today, when I arrived Akwa Ibom somebody asked me why I haven’t been using my aircraft because it has been grounded and all that, and I said to him that nothing demoralises me.

“In my life, I have never stayed where they dropped me, otherwise, I would have been where they dropped me before. This election, if they like, let them do anything about people who are around me. I will get there,” Obi said.

On the impression that he does not have political structure to win the presidential election, he said he was determined to dismantle the existing political structure in the country which encouraged corruption and spread poverty among Nigerians.

“The structure they have today is the structure we want to destroy. It is the structure of criminality. It is structure that produced 133 million people living in poverty,

“It is the structure that produced 20 million out of school children. It is the structure that has made Nigeria surpass India in infant mortality. It is the structure that will destroy Nigeria and we want to destroy that structure,” he said.

The LP presidential candidate added that his priority would be how to secure a United Nigeria and pull people out of poverty.

He that said if elected president of the  country come 2023, he would work towards the realisation of the Ibaka Deep Seaport in Akwa Ibom.

He said, “my problem is how to create a future and make Nigeria a productive and not a consuming nation.”

Meanwhile, as at about 6 pm, a court record showed that Okupe, had paid the money N500, 000 in each of the counts, amounting to N13 million.