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Aftermath of court conviction, Okupe resigns as DG, Labour Party presidential Campaign Council
.Era of making promises without fulfilling them gone –LP candidate
.God will use you to deliver Nigeria, Prelate Mbang tells Peter Obi
Obiora Ifoh, Abuja
The Director General, Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organisation, Dr. Doyin Okupe has resigned his appointment following his conviction Monday by an Abuja Federal court over money laundering.
In a letter sent to Peter Obi, on Tuesday, Okupe said, “You will recall that I briefed you yesterday about my personal travails in seeking justice and clearing my name using the Nigerian Legal System to pursue same.
“I have invested too much in your campaign to allow my personal travails to become a source of distraction.
“In the circumstances, | have opted to step aside and plead that you appoint a new Campaign DG who can continue the assignment with zero distractions.”
Though Obi has said that the conviction of his DG would not demoralize him but Okupe has been conspicuously absent from the recent campaigns by the Labour Party.
Ruling on Monday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu found Okupe guilty of contravening sections 16(1)&(2) of the Money Laundering Act, for accepting cash payments without going through the financial institution, in excess of the threshold allowed under the Act.
The court ruled that Okupe received hundreds of millions in cash from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) while Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) was in office.
In 2019, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Okupe on a 59-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering and diversion of funds to the tune of N702 million.
He was charged alongside two companies – Value Trust Investment Ltd and Abrahams Telecoms Ltd.
Okupe was found guilty on counts 34, 35, 36, and 59.
Okupe was Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun Obasanjo and Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Also,
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi on Tuesday told the people of Akwa Ibom and indeed the rest of Nigerians that the era of unfulfilled promises is gone for good with him and Yusuf Ahmad Datti running the Presidency.
Obi told the jubilant organic crowd that came to listen to him that, “When I came here, I was told that the most important thing for the people of Akwa-Ibom is the Deep Sea Port and I promised that when I leave this place, I will go and see the Port so that when I start as the president, I will put it in place.
“That sea port was visited in 1983. Senators came here and said it was going to be a Deep sea port, next year will be 40 years. 40 years is what the children of Israel stayed in the wilderness. It is about to work after 40 years”.
The LP flag bearer noted that for the years the Federal Government has not done anything in Akwa-Ibom. All they come here to do is to make promises, promising that that era has come to an end.
“You cannot drive from here to Calabar or to Umuahia or drive from here to Aba. Everywhere is unsecured, nothing. It has been promise and fail. This is reality now, it will happen now. You know I won’t give fake promises.
“We want to make Nigeria to work again. A new Nigeria is possible with you. What is Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed going to do? I want you to listen to me.
“If you check the major parties and their presidential candidates, I am the youngest. Also Datti and I, put together, have the youngest average age compared with other candidates. So we are ready to work. If you add our educational qualification, we are far ahead of others. We have been successful in our businesses, we are entrepreneurs, we have created wealth and we are prepared to create more.
“Our first priority is to secure Nigeria. We will provide the security. We will unite Nigeria. It is only politicians that divide us, we do not have reason to be fighting each other. We are tired of the division. Everybody will come together, we will provide law and order.
Obi assured the people that under his Presidency, “There will be peace. Police will not be harrasing our youths again. We will make police to be friendly and not turning people to be suspects simply because you are not dressed well.
“Nigerian citizens cannot be suspects in their own country. We will retrain the police, the army and all other paramilitary to show love to the citizens.
On education sector, Obi said that he and Datti will make education work again. You can no longer go for a four year course and you end up spending 7 years. It can happen again. We will sit down with lecturers and discuss.
On Agriculture, the LP standard bearer said that, “Nigeria will feed itself because we have large arable land. For instance, Borno State has large land and it would be used for agriculture. Borno has landmass of over 70,000 square kilometres and Akwa-Ibom has only 7,000, so Borno is ten times Akwa Ibom. Why would they be fighting over resources in the Akwa-Ibom while they have untapped resources in Borno. We ensure that states become productive and develop their resources, use it and develop their states. We will make this country work again and you will be proud of this country.
Addressing the rally also, the National Chairman of Labour Party, Bar Julius Abure appreciated the people of Akwa Ibom for coming out en-masse to welcome and support our presidential candidate who is their inlaw.
“Today you have shown that Akwa-Ibom state is for Labour Party. There is no gain saying the fact that Nigeria is in disarray. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is being mismanaged. There is no gainsaying the fact that the challenges we have in the country, ranging from insecurity, to hunger, to poverty, to mismanagement of the economy, is as a result of failed leadership over the years.
But the LP chair noted that democracy has his best features, of giving the citizens the opportunity to vote and sack those who have not done well. Our people say every day is for the thief, one day is for the owner.
“ 2023 is the time for us to separate the goats from the sheep. And I know that Akwa-Ibom people, knowing that you are from the South South, you will do the needful.
The National Chairman charged the Akwa Ibomites to come in enmass in February to vote for their in law Peter Obi and Labour Party.
“They have been deceiving us over the years, they bring different excuses, they will bring money, if they bring money collect it and put it in your pocket. So whatever tricks they come with, let us defeat them this time and teach them a lasting lesson.
We can no longer be fooled. And the only way we can prove it is for us to vote Peter Obi, vote competence, vote capacity, vote pedigree, and vote dignity.
However, The former Prelate of the Methodist Church, His Eminence Sunday Mbang, has described the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi as the man God will use to deliver Nigeria.
Mbang spoke on Tuesday while receiving Obi who paid him a courtesy call at his home in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital.
The 86-year-old clergy who bemoaned the state of the nation noted that the country has never been this bad since he was born.
“I think ever since I was born in Nigeria, this country this time had been the worst. I was watching Arise TV this morning. And they said within few years, this government has already brought many people into poverty, but this 2022, about 5 million Nigerians have gone into poverty.
“Now, unfortunately, the administration is now taking the largest loan I know in the world. When Obasanjo came here, he decided to wipe off all the loan. Now, we are indebted to the world, only God knows who will pay for it.”
The former Prelate said he was happy when he heard Obi was coming into national politics .“I don’t know whether God will choose you or not. But I strongly believe God has a reason for bringing you into politics. And I know that it is God’s wish that all these recycling of people we already know, God would not allow them.”
He said that he strongly believes, “If God wants the change in this country, you will be the one that God will choose. I’m not saying that I have ordained you to be but the God I worship and I worship him sincerely. I know that the God I worship would not allow Nigeria to continue to suffer, and I know he will do what is best for her.
“All this Wayo they have done in the past, I’m telling you, I believe strongly that anybody who wants to Wayo Nigeria in this election, God will deal with him in a way he will live to regret and I say this in the name of the Father, and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.
“This country must get a free breath of fresh air and do what is right. Father, what I’m telling you, if Peter Obi is the one you have chosen to change Nigeria, let it be so, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Thank you.”
The LP Presidential flag bearer who went with the leadership of his party to seek blessing pleaded with the revered cleric to “Please continue to pray for Nigeria. Your Eminence, Don’t keep quiet, if you do, it is no longer you. God didn’t make you to keep quiet. Things are not moving well in Nigeria.”
Obi recalled how Mbang as the incumbent Prelate of the Methodist Church went to Obasanjo to tell him to allow me be the governor because I won the election.“ I was in court I won the election and everybody here knew I won the election. Your eminence went to President Olusegun Obasanjo to say, “they say this man won the election, let him be governor.”
Obi told the former Prelate that what we are going through today in this country with insecurity and other malaise are all a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years.
The LP candidate said that while Obasanjo left office with no debt as noted by the great cleric, “Today, we are owing over $100 billion dollars, without anything to show for it. When we have somebody who had cleared over $30 billion in 2007. 15 years after we are owing three times more than.”
Obi is in Akwa Ibom as part of his nationwide campaign tour of the country.
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