Doyin Okupe, the director general of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, has resigned.
His decision is to enable him pursue his corruption case in the ourt.
He conveyed his decision in a letter to his principal, the Presidential Candidate of the party, Mr. Peter Obi.
Recall that Okupe, on Monday, December 19, 2022, was found guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice Ojukwu held that the action of Okupe, who is the first defendant in the suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, violated the Money Laundering Act.
While stating that the Act provides that no individual or organization shall receive any sum above N5 million and N10 million respectively without passing through a financial institution, the judge held that “there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution”.
The court consequently held that the first defendant, Dr Okupe was guilty in counts 34, 35, 36, and 59.
Reacting to the judgement earlier through its Media Officer, Diran Onifade, the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), confirmed that Okupe had paid N13m fine handed to him by the court.
He said as the party that respects the rule of law, its officials will obey court judgments promptly.
Onifade, however, said appealing the judgment is a personal decision Okupe and that the PCC cannot influence that.
Meanwhile, there have been speculations that the Labour Party may consider a replacement for Okupe as the Director-General of its 2023 Presidential Campaign Council.
A party source, on Monday, confirmed that talks were ongoing to replace Okupe.
According to report, the decision will be jointly taken by all concerned including Okupe himself.
Although the source declined to mention possible replacements, there are feelers that a former presidential aide, Akin Oshuntokun and the serving deputy campaign manager, Isaac Balami have been tipped to replace Okupe.
