Francis Ogwo
The Dokpesis have called a truce in their war of words with heath authorities over their recent treatment for COVID-19 at an isolation centre at Gwagwalada, in the Federal Capital Territory.
No fewer than seven members of the Raymond Dokpesi household were recently diagnosed as having the novel Coronavirus and taken to the isolation Centre.
However, after the mandatory 14 days isolation and treatment at the facility, the patriarch of the household and media mogul, High Chief Alegho Raymond Dokpesi, casted aspersions on the whole exercise, calling into question the entire government’s COVID -19 management system.
His comments, echoed by his son, Raymond Dokpesi Jr, who was first diagnosed with the virus, drew condemnation from a wide spectrum of the society, a reaction many believed, must have prompted the U-turn by the family.
In a memo to the management of his television station, Africa Independent Television (AIT), on Monday, Dokpesi called for an end to the crisis and media discredits.
In the memo, the founder of DAAR Communications, Raymond Dokpesi, directed the management of AIT, a subsidiary of his company to stop airing comments made by him and his son, Paul Dokpesi about the Coronavirus.
Dokpesi instructed the television station to “bring down” his comments about the disease from its official websites “for now.”
He had upon his discharge from the Gwagwalada isolation Centre in Abuja, last week, told the media that he could not differentiate between malaria and COVID-19 because all through his stay at the centre, he was placed on dosage of malaria drugs.
“I want to be properly educated. What’s the difference between malaria and COVID-19,” he said. “Every medication we were given were malaria drugs.”
He also lamented on the delay in the release of his COVID-19 test results. He said the delay is as a result of lack of test kits, breakdown of equipment in the laboratory, fatigue and overwork of the health workers.
Raymond Dokpesi Jnr had shared same views when he was declared free from the virus the next day.
He said he was only silent on the whole drama as he had not seen any documentary evidence of any test result. He then urged the NCDC to make available his test results and that of his family members.
The memo on this, said he is pleading with “very senior citizens and elders,” that he has agreed to “an immediate truce”, while adding that he had been urged to address a “private letter to the President and the PTF on their methods rather than cast aspersions on them thereby creating doubts in the mind of the public.”
It would be recalled that in 2016, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi was accused by the anti-corruption agency, EFCC of procurement fraud to the tune of N2.1 billion from the office of the National Security Adviser which was alleged to have been used for the presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015.
His son, Raymond Dokpesi Jnr, the Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, had criticised the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control for failing to give him the “documentary evidence” of his result when he tested positive for the Coronavirus.
“Whilst I can attest to my improvement in physical health and wellbeing, I regret to say that since my initial test to date, I have never seen any documentary evidence of any test result,” he added.
Observers say this move by the DAAR group would avert tension that would have arisen from the public on the COVID-19 management in the country, especially with the Centre, grappling with increasing cases and challenges in public enlightenment.
