Africa Independent Television

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Censorship

On May 14, 2006, in the midst of the controversy over the so-called "Third Term Agenda", plainclothes policemen from the State Security Service raided the Abuja offices of Daar Communications, Ltd. (owner of AIT and Ray Power FM), the Founder and Chief Executive High Chief Dr Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi was however not on site. The SSS ordered the broadcasters to immediately cease broadcasting a 30-minute documentary which traced failed attempts by previous Nigerian heads of state (including the present president) to lengthen their tenures in the Office of President, and confiscated the master tape of the documentary.

edition charges

Exactly one month later, on June 14, SSS operatives raided the studios again and arrested Gbenga Aruleba, host of the popular "Focus Nigeria" program. It is believed that he was arrested because of an interview which he had handled with former Senator Joseph Waku on his program the previous night; Waku had harshly chastised the Obasanjo administration over the Third Term Agenda and other issues during the interview. The operatives also demanded the master tape of the interview, but it couldn't be given to them by the Abuja offices as the recording for the broadcast was done in Lagos. He was later released, then re-arrested along with Rotimi Durojaiye (aviation correspondent for the [http://www.independentngonline.com/index.php/ Daily Independent] , who had written a report on June 12 on the questionable manner in which Obasanjo had acquired a new presidential jet, and then later criticized the president over it on his own radio talk show) on apparently trumped-up charges of sedition. They were eventually granted bail on June 29 by the Federal Supreme Court, which had ruled that sedition was a colonial-era offence which had little validity in present-day Nigeria. Gbenga aruleba an indigine of Ekiti State Of Nigeria is an astute supporter of good governance and till this moment there is no information about whether he belongs to any political party or group but he remain an icon to reckon with when it comes to information about the national polity in Nigeria especially, every first fifteen minutes of his programme called Focus Nigeria,coming up every weekday between 9.00am and 10.00am Nigerian time or 8.00GMT and 9.00GMT.AfricaDaar Communications Limited has now become Daar communications PLC, and Has decided to raise fund through capital market in Nigeria. The company intends to roll out a multichannel pay tv of about forty channels according to the chairman of the company, chief DR. Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi PhD. the sale of its public offer is between February 25th 2008 and march 31 2008 at the rate of five naira per share (i.e 1/23US$)throughout Nigeria.The station is planning to bring up twelve new stations across the country in the interval of twelve months.The technical powers of this television station rest on these three Directors:Tony Chukwuemeka Uyah, Yinka Abdunollah Yousuph and Lekan Atofojomo these are Executive Director Engineering services,Director Engr. Serv. Satellite and Director Engr.Serv.Transmitters respectively.

External links

* [http://www.aittv.com Official Site]
* [http://www.independentngonline.com/?c=128&a=4536 "Controversy Over Age, Cost of Presidential Jet" by Rotimi Durojaiye] - the article which led to Durojaiye's arrest along with Aruleba