Peter Obi Undaunted by His Campaign DG, Doyin Okupe’s Prison Sentence
Peter Obi Not Demoralized by His Campaign DG, Doyin Okupe’s Prison Sentence
…says targeting people around him won’t stop his march to presidency
The Labour Party Presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi, has reacted to the conviction of his Campaign Organisation’s Director-General, Dr. Doyin Okupe, over money laundering by declaring that the development would not demoralize him in his resolve to emerge as Nigeria’s President next year. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Abuja had on Monday 19th December sentenced Okupe to two years in prison over illegal financial payments he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Okupe served as a Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the President between 2012 and 2015.
Responding to the conviction of his leading supporter, Okupe, Obi said during an evening interaction with journalists in Uyo at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council Secretariat on Monday night that he was undaunted by the conviction and would continue with his campaign and allow the due process of law to take its course.
He said: “I am hearing about it (the conviction) just like you. I am still studying what is coming out of the Court and everything. I believe in the rule of law. It is not going to demoralise me.
“Today, when I arrived Akwa Ibom somebody asked me why I haven’t been using my aircraft because it has been grounded and all that, and I said to him that nothing demoralises me.
“In my life, I have never stayed where they dropped me, otherwise, I would have been where they dropped me before. This election, if they like, let them do anything about people who are around me. I will get there,” Obi stated.
Speaking on the impression that he does not have political structure to win the presidential election, he said he was determined to dismantle the existing political structure in the country which encouraged corruption and spread poverty among Nigerian people.
The LP candidate said that the structure some other political parties “have today is the structure we want to destroy. It is the structure of criminality. It is structure that produced 133 million people living in poverty. It is the structure that produced 20 million out of school children. It is the structure that has made Nigeria to surpass India in infant mortality. It is the structure that will destroy Nigeria and we want to destroy that structure,” he declared.
Obi added that his priority would be how to secure a United Nigeria and pull people out of poverty.
According to him, if elected president of the country come 2023, he would work towards the realisation of the Ibaka Deep Seaport in Akwa Ibom State, stressing that “my problem is how to create a future and make Nigeria a productive and not a consuming nation.” Obi is in Akwa Ibom State in continuation of his campaign tour of the country.
