AIT boss, Raymond Dokpesi arrested at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport

Raymond Dokpesi, founder of DAAR Communications, owners of African Independent Television (AIT), has been arrested at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, on his return from medical treatment at the American Hospital, Dubai.

AIT announced the arrest, quoting an immigration officer as saying Dokpesi is on the Federal Government’s security watchlist, and that there were instructions from above to arrest him on arrival.

Chief Raymond Dokpesi told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, October 19, that he is not the launderer of the N2.1bn as alleged in an ongoing trial but the former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki, who paid the funds to him in 2015.

Dokpesi spoke through his lawyer, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN) while arguing their no-case submission which they filed after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) closed the case against him with the 14th prosecution witness in May 2018, Punch reports.

The EFCC had charged Dokpesi and Daar Investment with money laundering and procurement fraud involving the sum of N2.1bn which they allegedly received from the office of the national security adviser between January and March 2015. Dokpesi and Daar Investment (the parent company of AIT and Raypower FM) were said to have received the sum of N2.1bn from NSA office, while being headed by Dasuki as payment for a “purported contract on presidential media initiative”

The prosecution alleged that Dokpesi and his firm received the sum of N2.1bn from ONSA to prosecute the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s 2015 presidential media campaign.

The prosecution also alleged that the payment was in breach of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, Money Laundering (prohibition) act and the EFCC (establishment) act.