Court adjourns money laundering trial of Jonathan’s former aide, Okupe

The money laundering trial of Dr Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to ex President Goodluck Jonathan has been adjourned till February 8 and 9, 2021.

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court Abuja, adjourned the matter on Monday, November 16.

Okupe is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside his two companies: Value Trust Investments and Abrahams Telecoms, on a 59-count charge, bordering on money laundering and criminal diversion of funds to the tune of N702 million.

The judge at the Monday sitting also granted an extension of the court order, permitting Okupe to travel to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, having been unable to do so since the order was given, due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

READ ALSO: N702M FRAUD: Court fixes date to hear Okupe’s application for foreign medical trip

Defence counsel, Akinlabi Akinbade, in making an oral application for the release of Okupe’s international passport informed the court that his client’s appointment with his UK doctor has been rescheduled to December 20, 2020, and promised to return Okupe’s passport to the court on or before January 21, 2021.

The defence also presented its third witness, Dele Oguntayo, a journalist, who described himself as publisher of the “Federalist Newspaper,” a tabloid established under Okupe’s office.

Led in his testimony by defence counsel, the witness said the newspaper was sold for N150 per copy but upon cross-examination by the second defence counsel, Tolu Babaleye, stated that it was rather distributed free to readers and that the N150 cost it bore was a mere dummy.

According to him, only nine editions of the newspaper were published by the time he left in 2014.

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