16th November, 2020
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court Abuja, on Monday, adjourned the trial of former presidential aide, Doyin Okupe till 8 February, 2021.
Okupe served as special senior assistant on media during the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Okupe is now on trial by EFCC on a a 59-count charge of money laundering and criminal diversion of funds to the tune of N702 million.
His two companies, Value Trust Investments and Abrahams Telecoms are also being prosecuted, as well.
The judge at today’s sitting renewed the order, permitting Okupe to travel to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, having been unable to do so, due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Defence counsel, Akinlabi Akinbade, informed the court that his client’s appointment with his UK doctor has been rescheduled to December 20, 2020.
He thus made an oral application for the release of Okupe’s international passport.
Akinbade promised to return the 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, he said it was 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.