By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, Mr Raymond Dokpesi (Jnr), has explained that the firm removed his stepmother, Mrs Tosin Dokpesi, and nine others as directors, saying the action was long overdue.
In an interview with The Sun, he disclosed that they should have stepped down from the position before his father’s death on May 29, 2023, because they had spent more than 10 years on the post, but the action was suspended because of “political turbulence.”
A few days ago, DAAR Communications, owners of AIT, Raypower and Faaji FM, confirmed that the affected directors would leave the media organisation on October 1, 2024.
The directors include Mr Tony Akiotu, Mr Ambrose Somide, Mr Anthony Uyah, Ms Paulyn Ugbodaga, Mrs Mary Lawrence-Dokpesi, Ms Faith Ikems, Mr Imoni Amarere, Mr John Iwarue and Mr Johnson Onime.
Speaking on the matter, Mr Dokpesi said, “I think the first thing to recognise is that it is not a personal decision to ask anyone to go.
“If I had it left to me, I would want to harness the experiences, the relationships and the skills that the existing management has for a little bit longer.
“But the reality of the matter is that we are a publicly listed company.
“We are the only publicly listed media company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (Nigerian Exchange ) and that means we are also bound by the Securities and Exchange Commission rules and the code of corporate governance is mandatory for all publicly listed companies.
“So, that means our responsibilities to our shareholders transcend personal choices or personal opinions.
“We have persons who are leaving the organisation after 27 years; we have people who are leaving after 22 years.
“The vast majority of this time, they have spent in executive management positions and yet, the code of corporate governance and our internal documents state we should only do a maximum of two terms of five years.
“So, their retirement is, in fact, long overdue.
“It was a decision which ought to have been made, even as far back as five, six, seven years ago.
“But as of that time, my dad was still alive, very present and very active and also, we were going through different political turbulence as far as our organisation is concerned.
“Nobody needs to be reminded of the history of the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration with reference to the treatment of AIT and our founder in particular.
“Notwithstanding, whatever you want to say about the incumbent administration, I think, to some large extent, they have shown their capacity for accommodation of all shades of opinions from public broadcasters.
“We don’t feel the heat and the intimidation of governments as we did a couple of years ago and the time is opportune and right as well for us to review where exactly we want to go, going forward from here.
“For me, and I think also for the vast majority of members of our board, the decision comes down to simply determining: Do we want to continue on our existing trajectory or do we want to do something differently?
“If we are looking at doing something differently, it means we have to subject ourselves to abide by the terms and conditions of extant laws and regulations to give the investing public confidence into our organisation and the administration and also to be able to attract the kinds of funds and investments we need to grow and expand beyond our existing programmes.”
