The former Director-General (DG) of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Dr Doyin Okupe, that was earlier on Thursday arrested by the Directorate of the State Service (DSS), purportedly on the order of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, said he has been released after it was discovered that the DSS effected such his arrest in error.
Dr Okupe, on his verified Twitter handle @doyinokupe, however, disclosed that the EFCC senior officials apologised to him ‘for the error’.
According to him, he was arrested on his way to the United Kingdom for medicals.
He wrote, “I was arrested & detained @ the MMIA, Lagos this morning, 12th Jan on my way to UK for medicals; years after my passport had been withheld by the FHC Abuja.
I just left the EFCC office where Snr Officers in Lagos & Abuja appologised to me for the error. OCCUPATIONAL HAZZARD abi?”
LEADERSHIP reports that operatives of the DSS arrested Okupe at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, on his way to London, the United Kingdom, on Thursday morning and handed him over to the EFCC.
DSS spokesperson, Dr Peter Afunanya, who confirmed the arrest, had said “Doyin Okupe was intercepted by the DSS at Terminal 1 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos this morning at the instance of the EFCC.
But, reacting to the incident, the EFFC said: “The Department of State Services, DSS, today, January 12, informed the Commission of the interception of Dr. Doyin Okupe, former presidential adviser, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
“The Service acted on a Watch-list request issued on July 18, 2016, over six years before his recent conviction on money laundering charges by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
“The Commission was in the process of formally lifting the watch-list before his interception and will expedite action in this regard.”
