Daar Communications denies that Dokpesi's London ordeal had anything to do with rape

DAAR Communications has denied reports that the recent arrest of its chairman Chief Raymond Dokpesi by the London Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Airport was as a result of his association with a rape case.

Over the weekend, Chief Dokpesi, 71, the founder of Daar Communications, the parent company of Africa Independent Television (AIT), was briefly detained  at Heathrow Airport. He is a leading member of Nigeria's main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and in 2017, contested for the party's national chairmanship, losing out to Uche Secondus.

On Sunday, one London police source said: "On Sunday, January 8, a 71-year-old man was arrested at Heathrow Airport over suspicion of rape. The arrest relates to an allegation of rape in August 2019.

“The man has been bailed, pending further enquiries, to a date in early April. Enquiries into the circumstances continue."

However, a Daar Communications spokesman denied the incident had anything to do with rape, saying: “Rape, it’s not possible. I am not in the UK and don’t have information on why Dokpesi was held and released but if it was a rape case, will they release him?

"It is the most unfair allegation against him. Where did the rape occur? Is it in Nigeria or UK? If Nigeria didn’t fight, is it the UK that will fight him over rape? Those who are brandishing that false allegation should be able to say where the alleged rape took place. Those brandishing that nonsense are not fair to that man.

“Rape, at what age? Something that he didn’t do at a younger age, is it at over 70 years that he would do that?”

Chief Dokpesi had arrived in London via Frankfurt from Abuja on a Lufthansa Airlines flight but was invited off the plane before other passengers disembarked. He was delayed for some hours before his passport was subsequently stamped and he was cleared by British immigration officials.