Founder of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower FM radio network, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, is dead. He died at the age of 71.
Dokpesi, who pioneered independent broadcast radio and television stations in Nigeria and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), died at a hospital in Abuja.
In the last elections, he was Deputy Director-General of Technical and Systems of Atiku Abubakar’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).
Though there has been no formal announcement by the family, a source confirmed that Dokpesi had suffered a stroke shortly after the recent Ramadan fast and had been managing his health since then.
The source noted that the High Chief was eventually placed on therapy that necessitated daily work out at the gym but that during one of his routine gym exercises, he was electrocuted while using one of the gym equipment, leading to stroke and his eventual death.
In 2020, Raymond Dokpesi and members of his family were hospitalized at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital after they were diagnosed with COVID-19. They, however, survived the disease.