 Okukpa's conviction will not demoralize me, says BtoB, as court finds DGOB Dati Presidential Campaign Council 13 million Naira for money laundering charges. And Air Force Battles, Zamfara Terrorists, 50 Bandits, Soldiers Killed, days after 28 persons were killed in Southern Kaduna. This is Plus Politics, my name is Sinyam Ghul, Aghaji. Welcome back. The Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obe, has said that the conviction of the campaign organization's director general, Dr. Doin Okukpa, over alleged money laundering would not break his resolve to be Nigeria's president. Obe said this during the interaction with journalist Inuyo at the Nigeria Union of Journalists of Acquire Bomb State Council Secretary on Monday. The Labour Party presidential candidate said he was undaunted by the conviction and will continue with his campaign and allow the due process of law to take its course. Okukpa was found guilty of receiving over 200 million Naira cash from a former national security adviser, Colonel Sambudasuki retired. He was there for sentence to two years by Justice Ojukku with an option of 500,000 Naira fine on each of the 26 counts for which he was found guilty. Joining us to discuss this is Mr. Abiodun Shoumi, a political analyst. It's good to have you join us today, Mr. Abiodun, welcome. Thank you for having me. Well, 67 days to the election and the drama gets more and more interesting, don't you think? Yes, it is. Getting more interesting. When you look at the whole situation, now things are evolving. We are beginning to see the only two in total perspective, particularly in relation to the Labour Party, which is not well known, like the other two leading political parties, the PDP and the APC. Many people have thought the Labour Party represents a new trend. Obviously, it is becoming the third force in Nigerian politics. It has a march in that way and there are a lot of hopes and expectations expected by Nigerians. Some Nigerians actually believe that the Labour Party will create a new Nigeria. When you look at all the events, the revelations coming out of the Labour Party, it's increasingly becoming clear that the dream of having a new party, the void of all the biases and the problems associated with the two older leading parties, seems to be a mirage. What do I mean by that in relation to the Labour Party? The party started on a very good note, only to end up with its national youth leader, again removed from the party for corruption. Then you would then have the Auguste term issue actually accused of the 20 million Naira meant for campaign. That was the first shocker for many people because as far as we are concerned, the slogan we don't pay shi shi has been sold to many people, including myself, but that was a shocker that also the Labour Party is paying 20 million Naira for rally, for people to attend rally. And if that was not bad enough, you now suddenly have the chapter accusing the national leadership of pollution doing a coup and that leads to the Auguste Labour Party chapter. Then we have the national public secretary, Dr Abhayomi Yara Bambi, coming up with new allegation, particularly that she is a court of appeal judgment that allowed certain things to happen in Naira. For me, that was two of times, I think it was not enough, we now have doing a coup and who is the chief operating officer of the campaign, charge the teaching of the campaign and who now being jailed or being convicted and sentenced to prison with a provision that he could send to prison by paying 500,000 in liu and at that stage, I now begin to wonder how many people are, is the dream scenario for Kukui, for getting himself involved in money laundering, which in any case, typifies Kukui, you then ask yourself, isn't it, does it mean that Pita will be did not carry out the utilitarian before appointing doing Kukui? Because all it simply needs to do is to Google stuff on doing Kukui, before his appointing. Does it mean that he knew that Kukui was undergoing trial and then appoints him as a friend, if he forgot to do due diligence, or whether he knowingly appointed of the question on a sense of judgment? I think he has depicted the process of judgment on this matter to so many people. He cannot hold to be responsible for the infractions committed by doing Kukui. At least, the fact that he was appointed while undergoing trial, it means to be at risk the embarrassment which the party has found itself in and we cannot escape the path of the blame for all. Okay. But how would you react to, okay, let me not use the word, how do you see the reaction of the Labour Party presidential candidate where he said that he is not daunted by whatever is happening. He will allow the law to take his course and then he will continue with his campaign the way he is doing it. So how would you rate that? What are your comments on that? Well, yeah, well, on his reaction to the conviction, that's another shocker in the sense that I would have said Obida has piled himself as a new mission willing to help, you know, reach out to a country to build a new Nigeria will immediately not behave like the other politicians. I had expected it to be to announce his replacement immediately to remove him as the campaign BG, even this embarrassment, but what he's saying is that the law to take his course, the law is taking his course, he has been convicted, he has paid fine in legal, that has not removed the conviction. It means today Obida has a BG of his campaign who is an S company, that is the meaning of what has happened. So what does Obida need to do before it can be replaced? Of course, I'm not oblivious of the fact that Obida is still referring to a possible appeal by saying that he will allow the law to take his course. I think that is totally unexpected and I don't think, I think that is condemnable. He does not show the signal or a pointer to the fact that Obida is the kind of a brand new politician. Mr. Showami, can you hear me? Yes. The report just reaching us now is that says that Doi Okope has actually resigned. We do not know whether he was made to resign or he resigned out of his own volition but he has resigned. Which means he is no longer the presidential campaign DG of Labour Party. So will your reaction or will whatever you feel about this whole issue change with that action? No. The reason is clear. He should have taken a stand in me and forget about giving his friend a soft landing. He should have sent a positive signal out to the people that when I make an error of judgment, I will correct it immediately. You do not need Okope to resign because what is called soft landing, even Okope soft landing on account of French is wrong, he should have started Okope himself. He appointed Okope and Okope committed serious infractions to the extent of being convicted then he should have started Okope. He should not have left it to doing Okope to resign because he pushed me. Ok. He should have appeared very strong and that would have played very well with the public like Okope other than aligning to resign which is like giving him a soft landing. Ok. Well, that very conviction we are talking about of Dr. Doin Okope. He was convicted of alleged money laundering in a way that for me was very funny. The case was in the morning. They said the decision will be taken about 1.30 that is after midday, the deadline was given within the same day to pay up or get locked up. Payment was made in the evening and everybody was home and dry. I don't know how would you rate that judgment, that whole matter. It came up that day, maybe the investigation has been going on, the case has been going on but it came up that day they had some rest till midday after midday after that the conviction came and they still gave time till 4.30 or thereabouts for him to pay up otherwise he goes to jail and he was able to pay and just leave like that. How does that tell us about either the justice system or everything around this case, the political scenario that is playing out here? Yes. For anyone that knows how the Nigerian court worked at the time when Okope was convicted he said he had a parallel knowledge that he would be convicted and be given a soft landing. There is no way you can get convicted in the afternoon and then you can perfect the bill almost immediately with a view of not going to prison. Our system does not work like that. I agree the way it has worked for doing it for good but that is not how it is working currently except you already have an advantage of what the Nigerian would be and what you need to do. Why is it amazing that the Okope could come up within a few hours, couple of hours to escape the same if it tells you, it stresses the question only about those who move into Labour Party when it will be moved into Labour Party, the same ruling class who have a mandate moving into Labour Party simply to take over the leadership of the party. It does not give any Labour Party who represent a new trend in our country. The idea of going into Labour Party is about power, turn of our country. There is nothing Labour would do that PDP or APC would not do, that's basically what it is. Now there are some conspiracy theories I would like to call them that have come up. Some have said that okay maybe he was guilty but why wait to this point at the heat of electioneering before you come up with what a lot of people have seen as a history judgement even though it may not be that but the timing seems to a lot of people to be wrong. Do you think apart from the fact that a crime may have been committed there are also some political undertones as well as some people are thinking? I have read about some of those comments people trying to allude to a kind of political undertones. We have heard issues like why is it now? Why are they trying now? Why is it that it's being convicted now? Now to me what is very clear is that the will of justice is very slow in Nigeria. That is totally unacceptable. But the fact of the matter is a crime is a crime. You can get tried at any point in time, tried at any point in time. Whether it has a political undertone or not, I'm not sure of that. Because what I know is that he has been on that trial. He was at any court when he was a PDP member and that is the point. Who he should have taken account of the fact that he was on that going trial at a point in time. He had the fact that he didn't pay the membership fees of the Labour Party. But from the local pay chapter, it's one of the allegations against him. That he was on the party, he didn't pay the other dues when he was being. So when you look at that situation, nobody can put an undertone to the condition. I don't think so. It was slow and eventually catch of fire case in the PDP. We remember the political. It's yet to be concluded to you now, acceptable. That is why we need to reform a judicial system. The cases like this should not take more than a year to liquidate. But unfortunately it has dragged on for so long. But I don't think there's any police. But in fairness, we have often said that you are not guilty until proven otherwise. And at the time of trial, we couldn't really say that you could call someone a criminal just because he was on the going trial. And especially in light of the fact that just recently, after this Kujep prison break, we also know that there were very high profile prisoners, as it were, inside that Kujep prison. One of them was a former governor. And he has been freed after even saving some time in prison. He has been freed. And they say all allegations have been dropped. So what if this is the same case that will happen to a coup? After a while, even after paying the 13 million, which is also like serving a jail term, he is now freed. So will you still blame the person who thought maybe there is some element of truth in what he's saying and he's denying or otherwise of committing this crime? Okay. There are two elements to it. The first element is somebody on the father you're facing trial does not mean you are guilty of any offending. And the law assumes that you are still innocent. Okay. That could apply when a coup was appointed as a campaign digital. He was yet to be convicted. Well, the truth of the matter is, whoever is making that appointment should realize that should he get convicted. He will be guilty of poor judgement. Anyone, you know, having gone through criminal trials has no business, you know, occupying such a high profile office. You know, you need, you can, we have so many people can do the job. Don't forget the case of Professor Adinike Grinch, then Minister for Health, who was accused over the five million era Ghana and she had to step aside as a serving minister. She was eventually found innocent by the court. That should be a standard practice where once you're facing criminal charges, you say, you know, aside and clear yourself first. If eventually an appeal is cleared, also that would wipe off the blemish on his reputation currently. But until the court of appeals or a superior court who becomes convicted is an ex-convict today. Okay. Well, ex-convict, that means the IGP also in my thinking is an ex-convict as well. Maybe we are misinterpreting the laws because he was supposed to go to jail, but he stayed outside, made whatever he moves he was supposed to make, and then they obtained that judgment and said he was no longer supposed to go to jail. I don't know how that works. But that's not what my problem right now, because our time is up, but I'd like to pick your brain on something that happened today or yesterday as well. We woke up to the news that the governor of the central bank of Nigeria missed arrest just by a thin thread. DSS says that he's a terrorism financer, but a financier rather. But according to reports, they could neither present concrete evidence nor pass through the right channels, including consulting the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria before seeking the arrest of the chief of about the most sensitive institution. What would be your take on this case? Very briefly now, because our time is up, please. Yes. I read, I encountered a video and a press complaint addressed on that. And for me, we need to look for more evidence to substantiate the allegations. It's not just enough for us to actually reject it. Except some of this process through the criminal justice system, where you clearly establish evidence, it then becomes almost impossible to form judgments on the basis of allegation. Okay. Well, I'd like to thank you at this point, Mr. Xiaomi, even though you still have more to say, but this is how we have to drop it on this segment of the show. Thank you for being on the show. We'll go on a short break and return with something else. Mr. Xiaomi, thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. When we return, we will be looking at the recent attacks in southern Kaduna and Zamfara and the efforts made by the government to mitigate this. Just stay with us.