Dis Guy:

High chief is still using hotmail?

even all his staff are using hotmail
whatst he point of having a company website then?

Beats my imagination but am trying hard not to be too suprised at such a response when our federal government is doing the same and if not worse to Nigerians.

vintage Dokpesi for you, the man has no shame i remember contributing one naira back in the days the to help keep them out of murky waters. what a shame. the countdown at the top of the AIT screen is actually a countdown to bankruptcy

Dis Guy:

High chief is still using hotmail? 

even all his staff are using hotmail
whatst he point of having a company website then?

Goes to show the sorry state of the web development industry and the low level of adoption of basic professionalism when it comes to web technologies.

Sometimes you get to see web developers advertising their services using free email accounts without realizing that any free email account can be suspended or deleted at any time and without any notice if the provider wants to do so.[quote][/quote]

Arabambi1:

[b]Re: AIT Television on the brink of crumbling, Dokpesi Reacts

Written by Raymond Dokpesi , Dr.
Monday, 03 August 2009 22:05

I write to congratulate Sahara reporters for a very malicious and untruthful report. As journalists sometimes you get your stories very wrong but this profession provides for a right of reply. Contrary to your insinuations Daar Communications plc and AIT in particular is not at the verge of collapse. Visit Daar Communications Plc and you will definitely apologize for misleading your readers.

All your references to BGL and chief James Ibori are at best a figment of the imagination of the author of this article. The construction of the 15 buildings to house the equipment of both Raypower and AIT have been completed. As i write our engineers are installing the equipment for both radio and television across the fifteen states of the federation where these stations are located. It is absolutely untrue that Olorogun Williams Makinde is a nominee of Chief James Ibori or BGL.He was interviewed from a least of seven shortlisted applicants and he emerged in flying colours. The statement credited to him is also absolutely untrue. I challenge the author to provide the minutes of the board meeting that olorogun Makinde distanced himself. The author definitely does not know how we operate in Daar.

We are transparent and open enough to take him through the processes. Since you live in the united states of america i do not blame you for accusing me of making the AIT platform available to the ruling PDP alone. Nigerians and indeed all other political parties will fault your conclusion. Please ask them.
You alleged that a concerned Housewife sent me a text which you reproduced. For the avoidance of doubt NO CONCERNED HOUSEWIFE EVER SENT SUCH A MESSAGE!!! A man sent the message on the day of the traditional wedding of my son. The Company Secretary of Daar Communications,my security detail and an executive director of the company called the sender of the text to confirm the identity of the author. The state security service official replied the author and the matter is a subject of investigation now. What the author did not add is that they made demand of a huge sum of money and tendered apologies. We will send a corporate response later but you got your story wrong. I believe you will give our reply very wide publicity too. As for those who wrote different comments all i can say is that you have a right to your opinion but please join hands to make Nigeria better. It is very easy to criticize but sum the courage and come forward to improve an area of endeavor in our lives.

Unless we all make tremendous sacrifices for our country we cannot progress. Raymond Dokpesi has definitely played some role and we all should play our own.

God bless us all.
Raymond Dokpesi , Dr.
rayaleogho@hotmail.com[/b]

Is that email for real?

Kobojunkie:

Is that email for real?

all things are possible in naija

Kobojunkie:

Is that email for real?

His PA can create an email for him solely for this and other 'not too official' purposes. You didn't expect him to use his official email add, did you?

Its more of a confirmation that many of the allegations are true. AIT, i must confess is WACK; their audio (sound), graphics, presenters' errors while reading news, and much more, leaves one wondering how they'll perform during the coverage of the fifa under 17 world cup. Hope they will not shame nigeria more, despite all the acquisition of equipment and HD brouhaha.

Guys i delibrately stayed out of this thread for a while and allow Nairalanders to pass comments on falsehood, i don't know which AIT is owing 4 months salary because my sister who stays with me here in Lagos and is an editor with the organisation has not been owed a dime in her 23 months of working with the company she has indeed had two substantial increases to her salary and she found it amusing when i pointed out the Saharareporters story to her. My sister was previously CBS in America before relocating after her masters degree just over 2 years ago and i know she will not work for anyone without pay; as we type they have just concluded a recruitment exercise for presenters/newscasters and two of the new intakes came from Atlanta and London respectively and if anyone is subscribed to Daarsat, you should be seeing them on your screens soon.
I love Saharareporters gr8ly and they have had several scoops over the years but on this one i am sorry it is purely a hatchet job. Is Dokpesi my kind of businessman? probably not but he is threading places feeble men dare not and for this he should be helped.
The guy that said AIT is now a platform for PDP, either you dont watch the station or you domicile in foreign climes. Anyway it is good Dokpesi will know what some people think about him

I already wrote off my investment in the company as a bad one way before this new development.

na wao!

I read the text of the CEO to a "concerned wife' of his employee and i think that was pathetic.
A CEO that refuse to pay his worker and has the balls to send such text is a slowpoke.
The guy should be arrested for human slavery, he uses people for months and no salary/
I think the employees shd all have a deal to desert him like a day to the start of the world cup that he wanna broadcast.
He is a nuisance

what do you expect from a 'public' company where only one man calls the shots?

isuomo:

Guys i delibrately stayed out of this thread for a while and allow Nairalanders to pass comments on falsehood, i don't know which AIT is owing 4 months salary because my sister who stays with me here in Lagos and is an editor with the organisation has not been owed a dime in her 23 months of working with the company she has indeed had two substantial increases to her salary and she found it amusing when i pointed out the Saharareporters story to her. My sister was previously CBS in America before relocating after her masters degree just over 2 years ago and i know she will not work for anyone without pay; as we type they have just concluded a recruitment exercise for presenters/newscasters and two of the new intakes came from Atlanta and London respectively and if anyone is subscribed to Daarsat, you should be seeing them on your screens soon.
I love Saharareporters gr8ly and they have had several scoops over the years but on this one i am sorry it is purely a hatchet job. Is Dokpesi my kind of businessman? probably not but he is threading places feeble men dare not and for this he should be helped.
The guy that said AIT is now a platform for PDP, either you dont watch the station or you domicile in foreign climes. Anyway it is good Dokpesi will know what some people think about him

with all due respect, i doubt the authenticity of this write up.
I have also gotten first hand response from staff of AIT who confirmed that salary backlog is not a new thing there.
so who do you answer to that?
new intakes from Atlanta and london for AIT?
i seriously doubt it.
the fact that AIT is in trouble is old gist.
i dare Dokpesi to refute it in any of his responses to Sahara.
why did he ignore that issue?
he confirmed the text message?

I am not surprised that AIT is on the periphery of a big ditch. Dokpesi is an average undisciplined Nigeria Businessman. The Agenebode man spends money like water or as if it is going out of circulation. Any company head without financial discipline like him is bound to run the empire aground.
Dopesi is not alone, he has friends in this club of privileged but shamless people who defraud their compatrionts. There was the former Lagos Governor, a retired brigadier , and now an ambassador who brought his airline to the public to rake money. There was the Ibo kid who many years ago scooped money with his tech companys public offer. They all ended in disaster because from the onset, these people were never ready to deliver. Now, my problem is why Nigerians do not learn. As a consultant i advised many not to take these offers but they still went ahead to buy. You may not blame them, in other climes, these people will by now have their hands in chain. That is if controlling bodies like NSE and stock exchange commission are doing their jobs, No, they wont. Instead Madam Stock Exchange will be busy raising money for Obama, Ever seen a person carrying water to the sea with a spoon?

As for Dopesis reply to the woman, it is true to character but I am indeed ashamed of him.

George_D:

what do you expect from a 'public' company where only one man calls the shots?

Then, that is surely not a public company.

it's a 'public' company in private garb!

If AIT is being run down like this, whats the fate of TV broadcasting in Nigeria?

AIT is not the standard for comparison when we talk of private broadcasting in nigeria.
yes, they make the most noise but then that's all it is: only noise. there are other
better outfits out there that are better managed.

rayaleogho@hotmail.com

in as much as this sounds so ridiculous, it is the truth. The guy and all his staff and even their programs use hotmail and yahoo mailboxes.

[b]This is an update and it is a must read.[/b]

I was a member of staff of Daar Communications until 2008, when I resigned to join another broadcast outfit where clear policies, goals and professionalism— not favourtism— are in place.
A majority of the top management staff in Daar do not have first degrees. Many of them forged their certificates, yet they occupy top positions. The Executive Chairman (EC) does not have control over finances internally, hence he uses credit control to get or grab whatever he can, not knowing that credit controls are the worst criminals in the business. Outsiders see Daar as a successful company. This is far from the truth. It is a PLC cum one man's business where anything goes.

In Daar, discipline is zero. School certificate holders are made General Managers over university graduates with many years of experience. The Port Harcourt office is a clear example here. The only way out of this situation is for the EC to resign, and for seasoned professionals and business minded people to be placed to handle the affairs of the place professionally.

Secondly, interviews should be conducted for top officers in order to allow for competition for positions by outsiders. They did conduct one in the past, on which millions of naira was spent, but the advice of the consultants were ignored, leading to the hiring of the EC’s unqualified cronies.

In 2007, the EC forced the staff to accept fresh employment letters effective 2007. The staff, some of whom had worked for up to 15 years, had to forfeit their gratuities. They could not complain about that glaring example of man’s inhumanity to man. That same year, the EC made us to sell shares in the hardship without salaries with a promise that a certain percentage will be paid to us after the IPO. Up till now, no such incentive has been paid to the staff.

Prior to that, in 2000, he forced the staff to forfeit 5months salaries out of the 10 months they were owed, before the bail out by Ibori's 1billion naira to pay the bank loan. And now, I have learnt he has gone ahead to cut staff salaries again.

How can a mis-managed company like DAAR pay dividends to its shareholders? The company should be saved from the EC and his top management staff who are even more corrupt than the EC himself.

About BGL, Messrs Achebe, Hilary were seconded from BGL to DAAR between 2001-2004 to head the Finance department. That preceded the coming of William Makinde in 2005 to head Finance and Administration.

In 2007 over N50million was spent to buy only 14 posh vehicles for top directors, including the EC, through inflated prices. This was despite the fact that at the time, staff was being owed seven months in salaries.

Today, DAAR lacks sound operational vehicles; huge sum of money is spent on transportation for reporters. In Daar, staff welfare is next to nothing, and station managers pocket huge sums of money with impunity. In fact, a good number of the top management staff can afford to pay the salaries of the entire staff on their own as a result of the fraud they are themselves involved in. An example is the credit control head. One of the richest men in DAAR, the head of credit control, a man under forty, is in the process of completing work on his second massive hotel in the same Alagbado axis. He owns over seven posh cars.

It is obvious that if Daar is to be saved, the SEC and NSE should embark on the rescue job before it's too late. The question is whether the SEC, as it comes under the control of an equally questionable character, “billionaire” Aliko Dangote, can be of any use in this direction.

http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3396:-dokpesis-daar-communications-corrupt-incompetent-collapsing&catid=116:sr-readers-letters&Itemid=393

that man is not serious. so, so empty boast!

If he actually said that, then I am so sorry to say it, but that has just marked the
begining of his total downfall

4 months and no pay?

@Kobojunkie - sadly that is true, and has gone on for so long in Nigeria. Many years ago, i worked for ThisDay Newspapers. I remember, I was not paid for 3.5 months. There were people there at the time who went 6 months without pay!
Nothing has changed in some quarters in Nigeria since then, I'm afraid.

[quote author]
It is only wild Animals in the bush that will say they didn't know from day 1 that AIT was a scam. Why do you think Kehinde Ogunbe and Dayo Adeneye could go there and get their own piece of the private cake with no complaints.

Or have you people forgotten that at one point AIT started begging Nigerians to contribute money for it in order to stay alive?
Why do you think members of staff of AIT keep dying here and there?

The IPO Raymond put out fetched him a lot of money and he pocketed most of it claiming that he had to recoup some of the investment he had put into the company. Is that what he wrote to share holders in the brochure that he would use the money for?

AIT is one of the few companies that I know is being run like a government parastatal.

AIT is a complete sham. DAARSAT is an even bigger fraud.
[quote][/quote]

People are indeed forgetful. WHy anyone would buy AIT shares just beats me.

Em2va:

If he actually said that, then I am so sorry to say it, but that has just marked the
begining of his total downfall

He has just cursed himself, cos all the curses he sent the woman are surely rolling back to the sender and he is finished

I do nt in any way doubt this story. What do u expect frm a man whose personal life lives a lot 2 be desired. Shey he's married to kenny ogungbe's sister. As well as this tosin dt Jst celebrated her bday. On top of dt him stil dey chase. Tufiakwa.
As 4 AIT, it has always been a wack station. Frm wen they put dt their clock 4 screen, to dis countdown nw. Totally shit, Daarsat is d worst. A scam in disguise. Dnt say i didn't warn u!

I have two opposing sides to this story. First, I quite agree that AIT TV may be running into financial crisis. For instance, the Movistar (AIT's movie channel on Sky (channel 330) suddenly went off air following months of calling for subscriptions. I was about making subscription when it went off air. My enquiries from Sky suggests that AIT has financial problems as it could not pay for its channel on SKY. However, I do not agree the story of owning staff for 4 months. I don't believe that Dr. Raymond Dokpesi will send such a text message to the wife of a staff. Not the Dr. Raymond Dokpesi I know personally. The text message part of the story seems off the mark to me.

Preference:

Not the Dr. Raymond Dokpesi I know personally. The text message part of the story seems off the mark to me.

How are my sure you are not part of all these mess.

I need not be a part of anything to voice my opinion and I need no proof of my opinion to you either. Those of us subscribed before the AIT Movistar suddenly went off air might not be able to get a refund back, just as it happened in the case of Setanta. So why would I be a part of anything here. But we must exercise independent judgement on any issue, not whip up sentiments. My independent judgement is informed by my knowing the man to some extent and commonsense. Im not defending the man, but it make little sense that Raymond Dokpesi will be engaging the wife of a staffer in a war of words and even curses. I think you need to prove to the readers in this forum that Raymond indeed actually send the text message!

Preference:

I think you need to prove to the readers in this forum that Raymond indeed actually send the text message!

Which other proof could this guy possibly be looking for again? Didn't you read the post? For somebody whom you agreed stoop so low to steal money from peole in the name of subsciption, what on earth can he not do? I don't know this dokpesi guy but from what i have gathered from this thread, he is capable of doing worse things.

many things happen in nigeria that don't require 'proof'