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BREAKING: Dokpesi’s family at war! Battle over AIT goes to court!
Echoes of war drums are currently reverberating in the home of Remond Dokpesi, the late media baron, who holds the singular record of introducing indigenous private broadcasting in Nigeria, as the children are currently battling over the conglomerate he left behind – one of the ugly phenomena great men suffer at death.
At the centre of the current imbroglio, a supposed outcome of years-old resentments brewing within the family, which have now blown into the open, is the Daar Communication (DCL) Plc, the group that birthed both the Raypower Radio and the African Independent Television (AIT), Nigeria’s first indigenous radio and television stations, respectively.
Court papers have started flying around in a legal war of an internecine dimension, which started over the management of the media concern, with the position of Raymond Paul Dokpesi, its current Chairman and the first son of the late media guru, businessman and politician, who died on May 29, 2023 while exercising in his Abuja home, at issue.
Other children of the deceased, who also had interest in shipping and once contested for the chairmanship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are demanding the ousting of their eldest brother, entrusted with the running of the institution by his father on the ground of tenure limitation.
Relying on the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020, Peter Dokpesi, another son and younger brother, on behalf of the others, is asking an Abuja Federal High Court, through an originating summons, to stop Paul, from acting as Chairman of DCL, for having exceeded the limit of tenure allowed in law.
The younger Dokpesi, is also relying on the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance (CoCG), 2020 and the Listing of Rules of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), as it regards the management of the conglomerate, to ensure good corporate governance in making their demands.
Specifically, he told the court in his affidavit that the 10-year tenure of the elder Dokpesi as the DIL boss, allowed by law, expired in 2024, having been appointed in 2014, but in spite of the legal provisions, he had since refused to quit as Chairman.
For this reason, he also begged that he be stopped from parading himself in that capacity and be barred either by himself, his agents, privies and representatives from further operating and or accessing any of the bank accounts of the conglomerate pending the hearing of the matter.
He wants the court to also grant an order of interlocutory injunction from the regulatory agencies from recognizing or dealing with the Chairman, in any business of statutory transactions for and on behalf of DIL or DIHL, pending the determination of the matter and to order a meeting to be convened for the sole purpose of removing him from the position and the appointment of new directors under its supervision.
He alleged that the senior Dokpesi, had maintained an overriding influence inside both DAAR Communications and DAAR Investment Holdings Limited (DIHL), which was injurious to law and that his continued control of the Secretary of DIHL and continued occupation of DIL, impaired independence, breached good corporate governance.
He stated: “That the 1st Defendant/Respondent’s oppressive behaviour and conduct is targeted at totally and completely deploying all the resources of the 2nd Defendant/Respondent to further entrench himself in the saddle at the detriment of the 2nd Defendant/Respondent and DIHL deliberately and that it is in the interest of justice to grant this application to protect the interest of the 2nd defendant as public company and to restore good corporate governance.
In the petition filed by Ferdinand Oshoke Obih, the junior Dokpesi, asked the court to order:
- Immediately investigate the fraudulent, alteration of the Company’s shareholding on the electronic portal
- Reject the information contained in the Registration Status Report.
Issue a directive that the Company’s Registrar of Members be rectified to reflect the true value, verifiable and historically accurate shareholding as contained in the manual file, specifically the CAC 2A, dated 28th January 2008,
- Restore and maintain the manual file record as record of the Company’s shareholding until such a time as valid, legally supported changes is filed with the Commission.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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