The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is interrogating the owner of popular Nigerian independent television station, African Independent Television (AIT), Mr. Raymond Dokpesi, over the looting of Rivers State by Peter Odili between 1999 and 2007.
Dokpesi was interrogated for several hours on Friday before he was granted "administrative bail" by the agency.
Today, he returned to face further interrogation over what an EFCC source told SaharaReporters was a N3 billion "gift" traced to his account from investigations of corruption against the former governor. "He was briefly 'detained and released' today", a source at the EFCC told SaharaReporters in Abuja. In his remarks at the 10th year anniversary of the AIT, Dokpesi had identified two corrupt former governors, James Ibori and Peter Odili, as the source of support for his television enterprise as it went through turbulent times. The Economic EFCC had indicted the two former governors as being responsible for massive looting of their state resources during their tenure.
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While Mr. Ibori faces charges of corruption before a Federal High Court in Kaduna, Peter Odili has successfully blocked any attempt to investigate his past by obtaining a permanent court injunction restraining the EFCC from arresting and prosecuting him for corruption.
Odili lavishly celebrated his 60th birthday recently in Abuja in spite of the outstanding corruption allegations made against him.
A diplomat from one of the European Union (EU) nations described it as “an obscene party” in Abuja to celebrate his 60th birthday. The diplomat, who anonymously confided that the EU was disappointed that the EFCC had not appealed the “ridiculous injunction,” also noted that Umaru Yar’Adua’s coziness with indicted governors “has left the impression that he is at best half-hearted in his commitment to fight corruption.” The diplomat pointed to Ibori’s leverage in the Yar’Adua administration as another disturbing sign. “Chief Ibori is wanted in London for money laundering, but all indications are that he’s hitched to Yar’Adua.”
To ensure that the media doesn't allude to his corrupt ways of life, Odili also sued the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for libel in a UK court for an unspecified amount of damages.
In addition to Dokpesi, the flamboyant publisher of Lagos-based THISDAY newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, has been invited for interrogation over the looting of Rivers state, but he is reported to be evading investigators. Sources told SaharaReporters that following the invitation sent to Mr. Obaigbena to appear before the commission over the ongoing investigation of Odili's looting of Rivers State, he quietly skipped town to avoid providing answers in his suspected involvement in creaming off N400 million from Rivers State coffers.
Last July, he told the New York Times that ThisDay’s parent company earned $100 million in revenue in 2007, and that he earned $10 million in real estate and stock. Among many homes, Obaigbena maintains a penthouse suite at the Ritz Carlton in Washington DC.
Last year, SaharaReporters reported that Obaigbena received huge bribes from the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) officials so as to use his newspaper to change the outcomes of the flawed April 2007 general elections in Nigeria. He is also suspected to have received huge funds from state governors to grant them bogus ratings and awards of "excellence". A source who works closely with the publisher recently told SaharaReporters that Obaigbena shakes down several state governors by promising to guarantee them positive press coverage and the bestowal of good ratings.
Meanwhile, skeptics said the interrogation of AIT's Dokpesi remains another attempt by the Farida Waziri-led EFCC to fool the Nigerian public in the light of the various stages of collapse that have attended the cases of former governors earlier charged by the commission to court for corruption.
Since making a public statement to the effect that files of corrupt former governors were missing, a number of the indicted governors, notably Orji Kalu, Chimaroke Nnamani and Saminu Turaki, have gone to court to file new motions requesting that the cases against them be dismissed.
SaharaReporters also learnt that but for the arrest of his mistress in Paris last week, James Ibori was set, once again, to be appointed a minister. The President of the Court of Appeal is reported to have agreed to grant Ibori a reprieve by allowing his appeals to sail through and quashing his trial in Kaduna.
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