Raymond Dokpesi: We arrested 71-year-old Nigerian over rape allegation – Met Police tells Neusroom

The Metropolitan Police of London has told Neusroom why it arrested a 71-year-old Nigerian who is suspected to be Raymond Dokpesi, the founder of DAAR Communications Limited, owners of Africa Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower FM.

There were reports on Sunday, January 8, 2023, claiming Dokpesi was arrested by the Metropolitan Police on his arrival at Heathrow Airport, London.

Although the reports did not state the reason for the arrest, a spokesperson of the Met Police told Neusroom in an email on Monday, January 9, 2022, that a 71-year-old Nigerian man was “arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of rape.”

“The arrest relates to an allegation of rape in August 2019,” the spokesperson added in the email send to Neusroom. “The man has been bailed, pending further enquiries, to a date in early April.”

Although the Met Police did not mention Dokpesi’s name, it added that enquiries into the circumstances continue.

Meanwhile, the management of AIT in a statement, on Monday confirming the incident at Heathrow Airport, said Dokpesi was only delayed at the airport on his arrival “via Frankfurt from Abuja on a Lufthansa airlines flight and was invited off the plane, before other passengers were disembarked.”

The statement did not reveal why he was arrested but added that Dokpesi, who is the Deputy Director-General, Technical and Systems of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, was “delayed at the airport for some hours before his passport was stamped and he was cleared by British Immigration officials for entry into the country”.

Dokpesi’s arrest is coming seven months after another Nigerian high profile politician Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and a doctor – Obina Obeta, were arrested in the UK over allegation of organ harvesting.

Ekweremadu, Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, his wife and a doctor are presently standing trial in the UK, after being accused of taking a 21-year-old man to the UK to have his kidney removed and donated to their daughter.