Former LP campaign DG, Doyin Okupe is ill

The former campaign Director General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Doyin Okupe has been hospitalised for cancer. 

It was learnt that Okupe, who was the DG for the Peter Obi/Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed Campaign Council recently returned from Israel where he was being treated for prostate cancer. 

However, it was learnt his condition had not improved. 

“Okupe, the former Campaign DG to Peter Obi recently returned from Israel where he was undertaking treatment for prostate cancer. 

“Family members are worried that his condition has not improved since his return from Israel,” a source close to the Okupe family told SaharaReporters. 

In May 2020, Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, revealed the medication he took to recover from the coronavirus. 

Okupe and his wife had tested positive for the virus and were admitted into an isolation centre in Ogun State. They were discharged on May 12, 2020, after testing negative twice for the virus. 

In a post he shared after surviving the disease, Okupe revealed the drugs he took to recover from the virus. 

He said, “The medications I took for my covidy19 virus infections. 

“I had malaria while on admission. I was effectively treated with an anti-malaria. I also developed a cough after about a week and was effectively treated by large dose of Augmentine for 7 days. 

“I must say that there is no universal medical consensus on a specific treatment regime for covidy19. Also most of the drugs being used in different centres worldwide are not backed by any detailed or extensive research work anywhere in the world. 

“Most scientific works and studies currently going on have limited scientific acceptability either because the samples used are too scanty, sometimes as low as 40 to 60, or because controls do not exist. It will take another 4 to 6 months before the results of credible works are available. 

“However the humongous nature of the global emergency make it impossible for countries not to explore experimental drugs that show any possibility or potential to contain the virus. 

“In my own case I commenced treatment with the hydroxychloroquine regime 4 days to my isolation. This is because I read extensively on various options of treatment for COVID-19, and I followed the global debate on its pros and cons of the treatment. 

“With my medical background and local consultation with colleagues I already made up my mind that the chloroquine regime was so far the most promising. I ordered for the drugs just in case someone close or even I should unfortunately pick up the virus.” 

But Okupe was in December 2022 found guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd). 

He was subsequently sentenced to two years imprisonment by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja with an option of N500,000 fine on each of the 26 count charges for which he was found guilty. 

Justice Ojukwu held that Okupe violated the Money Laundering Act and gave him till 4:30 p.m. on that day to pay the fine option on all the charges he was found guilty of or be sent to the Kuje Correctional Centre. 

The amount was N13 million for the 26 counts. 

The convict’s wife, Omolola, and his son, Adesunkanmi had pleaded with Justice Ojukwu for leniency. 

In counts 34 to 59 upon which Okupe was convicted, he was accused of receiving various sums of money ranging from N10 million on different occasions between 2012 and 2015 when he was then-President Jonathan’s aide. 

According to him, the money was spent on running his office, paying staff members and laundering the image of the former President and his administration. 

Okupe, however, paid the N13 million fine before the deadline and was allowed to go home.