Chairman of DAAR communications, Mr. Raymond Dokpesi is saying the US has revoked his visa after he was accused of looting Nigeria’s treasury.
Lai Mohammed, minister of information, had listed Dokpesi, among other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as those who looted public funds.
Dokpesi is currently standing trial for allegedly receiving N2.1 billion from the office of the national security adviser (ONSA).
On Monday, Dokpesi had 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, he 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He said the embassy told him it was withdrawn because the federal government included his name on a ‘looters list’ it (the government) purportedly submitted to it.
“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 N50 million as penalty for such. (SR)
Let him return the looted funds he admitted and FGN will remove his name on the list of treasury looters.