The founder of DAAR Communications, Raymond Dokpesi, has said the United States has revoked his visa after he was accused of looting Nigeria’s treasury.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had listed Dokpesi, among other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as those who looted public funds.
The media mogul is currently standing trial for allegedly receiving N2.1 billion from the office of the national security adviser (ONSA).
On Monday, Dokpesi dragged Mohammed to the FCT High Court over the publication, seeking payment of N5billion damages for “defamation of character.”
He had earlier written the minister, threatening the lawsuit if his name is not retracted from the list.
In the suit filed by Mike Ozekhome, Dokpesi’s counsel, the PDP chieftain said the US Embassy in Nigeria notified him of the withdrawal of his visa on March 16.
He said the embassy told him it was withdrawn because the federal government included his name on a ‘looters list’ it (the government) purportedly submitted to it.
TheCable is yet to confirm if the federal government forwarded the list to the embassy as Mohammed was yet to respond to enquiries when this report was filed.
“The defendants’ defamatory publications are malicious and calculated to overreach and prejudice my fair trial and for purposes of stampeding and cowing the court to convict me at all cost by agreeing with the defendants’ skewed position,” Dokpesi said in the suit.
The PDP chieftain asked the court to compel Mohammed to publish a retraction and an apology to him in various media platforms.
He also prayed for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants — including Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation — or their agents from further making “any defamatory publication” against him, requesting N50million as penalty for such.
No date has been fixed for hearing on the suit.
Source: www.thisdaylive.com
