Dokpesi's cold London reception

• Published date: 14 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

When the founder of DAAR Communications, Raymond Dokpesi left the shores of Nigeria last week for the United Kingdom (UK) he could not have imagined that an arrest was in the offing.

After all he had been in London many times over in the past and this time around he was part of the entourage of his long-standing friend and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, whose Campaign Council he serves as Deputy Director-general (Technical and Systems).

As soon as the plane carrying him landed at Heathrow Airport from Frankfurt, agents of the London Metropolitan Police invited him off the plane ahead of other passengers.

News of his encounter with the police soon went viral.

He was later released but no official reason was given by the police for the arrest.

One national newspaper quoted the police as merely saying in an electronic mail that: 'On Sunday, 8 January, a 71-year-old man was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of rape. The arrest relates to an allegation of rape in August 2019. The man has...