Six things people may not know about the late private TV pioneer in Nigeria, Raymond Dokpesi

The Founder of DAAR Communications, the owner of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower FM, Raymond Dokpesi, is dead.

The Edo State-born media entrepreneur died in the early hours of Monday in an Abuja hospital after suffering complications from a stroke.

The 71-year-old was one of the key supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the last general election.

On a parting note, Ripples Nigeria compiled a few remarkable things about the late Dokpesi.

· Dokpesi pioneered the private television network in Nigeria with the establishment of AIT in 1996.

· The deceased established the first privately owned radio station in Nigeria, Raypower, following the deregulation of the broadcasting industry in 1994. He also pioneered the first satellite TV in the country. These feats earned him the name Ted Turner of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: PDP Chieftain, Dokpesi, released after detention at Heathrow Airport

· Dokpesi was a graduate of Marine Engineering from the University of Benin and earned his Doctorate degree in the same field at the University of Gdansk, Poland.

· He established African Ocean Lines, the first indigenous shipping line in Nigeria, and helped in the formulation of the Nigerian Shipping Policy Act (decree) of 1986.

· Dokpesi also had his hands in politics and featured prominently in the presidential campaign teams of the late former governor of the old Gongola State, Bamanga Tukur, the late former minister of finance, Adamu Ciroma, ex-Rivers State governor, Peter Odili, and lately, Atiku.

· He was a COVID-19 survivor in 2020.

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