The founder of DAAR Communications Limited, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has been reportedly arrested by the Police in the United Kingdom.
A THISDAY report this Monday morning, January 9, 2023, quoted an unnamed source as confirming the development, disclosing that the former Chairman of DAAR Communications was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London.
The reasons for the arrest of the media mogul was unknown as at press time.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dokpesi is a close ally of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a key figure in the latter’s attempt to become Nigeria’s next President on the PDP platform. Atiku was in London as at the time of Dokpesi’s arrest. It is not clear if they travelled together or separately.
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had in 2015, dragged Dokpesi to court and had accused him and his company of illegally receiving funds considered as proceeds of crimes from a former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and went further to file a no-case submission after the prosecution closed its case in November 2018 after calling 14 witnesses.
However, the trial judge, Justice John Tsoho, rejected the no-case submission and ordered Dokpesi and his firm to enter their defence.
Not satisfied, the defendants then approached the Court of Appeal, with a request to nullify the decision and free him from the charges on the grounds that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against them.
But the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had discharged Dokpesi, from the N2.1 billion fraud charges brought against him by the EFCC.
Discussion about this post