By Abiola Olawale
The Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of AIT, Raypower and Faaji FM, Raymond Dokpesi (Jnr), has explained that the decision of the media company to ease out 10 Directors, including Dr. Oluwatosin Dokpesi, the wife of his late father, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, was taken in the interest of the company.
Dokpesi, who spoke with the press, stated that the Directors who were relieved of their duties had exceeded their tenure in executive positions.
According to him, the directors were meant to spend a maximum of two terms of five years.
He said: “I think the first thing to recognize is that it is not a personal decision to ask anyone to go.
“If I had it left to me and myself, 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,e, 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.”
He explained further: “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?
“And 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.”
The New Diplomat reports that DAAR Communications PLC had, in a statement, announced the retirement of some members of its Executive Management with effect from October 31, 2024.
The company stated that the decision was in compliance with the Code of Corporate Governance as well as the Company’s Internal Control Policies and Procedures Manual.
A statement signed by the Company Secretary, Miji Jonah, said the affected officials had spent over 10 years in such capacities..
Those affected were Senior High Chief Tony Akiotu, Dr. Oluwatosin Dokpesi, Dr. Ambrose Somide, Anthony Uyah, Paulyn Ugbodaga, Mary Lawrence-Dokpesi, Faith Ikems, Imoni Amarere, John Iwarue and Johnson Onime.
