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Tag: Nigerian

  • US-based Nigerian nurse calls the police on her husband for bringing his mother into their house

    US-based Nigerian nurse calls the police on her husband for bringing his mother into their house

    A Nigerian nurse based in the US calls the police on her husband for bringing his mother from Nigeria into their house.

    A video making rounds on social media captured the moment a Nigerian woman refused to allow her mother-in-law into her room.


    While blocking the door, she called the police on her husband and made a false accusation about him and his mother jointly beating her up.

    The husband, however, had his phone recording the situation to avoid landing behind bars based on her words against his.


    She further confronted the mother-in-law on how she spoke ill to her birth mother through someone they know in common.

    Watch the video below …

  • Man mourns friend killed by kidnappers despite ransom payment

     

    A Nigerian, John Mademo, has expressed his sorrow over the passing of his friend who was killed by kidnappers after having paid the necessary ransom for his release.

    Mademo who made this known in a Facebook post disclosed that the deceased, Owo Monday, 36, was laid to rest on Monday, December 19, 2022, in Woleche-Ebo, Yaya Local Government Area of Cross River State.

    He said, “I was shocked when I heard that you were kidnapped and despite all efforts made to pay the ransom, they still went ahead to take your life.

    “Owolabi, as you were fondly called, your demise has created an indelible mark on my mind, but it is my earnest prayer that God should give me the fortitude to bear it.

    “Monday was an easygoing personality, very humble and humane. As your death touched every youth and the entire people of Woleche-Ebo and beyond, I believe it has already touched God and he will handle your matter.

    “And to the Kidnappers, you will never see peace in your lives, and the wrath of God is awaiting you on the last day,” he added.

    The flourishing kidnap-for-ransom enterprise, which has assumed an industrial dimension and the status of a sub-sector of the economy, is one of today’s Nigeria’s mysteries.

    According to a recently published report by SBM Intelligence titled “The Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry”, about N653.7 million was paid as ransom in Nigeria between July 2021 and June 2022. More than 500 incidents were recorded, and 3,420 people were abducted across the country, with 564 others killed in the violence associated with kidnapping in one year.

    In a similar incident, SaharaReporters had also reported a Nigerian man who did not mention his name recounted in a video how he escaped from being killed by suspected armed kidnappers who abducted him and other passengers in a commercial bus at the Lekki-Ikoyi axis of Lagos state in November 2022.

    Narrating his ordeal with bruises and blood on his nose and mouth, the man who said he has facilities in Ajah, Jakande, Elegosi, Marariwa or Banana Island that provide skate coaching services daily, said he had a lot of sessions and thereafter was tired.

    According to him, he decided to board a commercial bus but noted something unusual immediately after he entered the vehicle.

  • Nigerian Anti-Corruption Agency finds 20,000 ghost names tagged “D’banj’s List”

    Prominent Nigerian singer Oladapo Oyebanji, often known as D’banj, will continue to be detained by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), following the recent finding of 20,000 ghost names inserted into the N-Power Program.

    The anti-graft agency detained D’banj on Tuesday over fraud allegations involving the N-Power Programme.

    On June 8, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the programme to address the issues of youth unemployment and empowerment, and also promote social development.

    SaharaReporters earlier reported how top government officials introduced over 70,000 ghost workers into the N-Power Programme and fraudulently diverted billions of naira into their pockets.

    “70,000 names were infused into N-Power by officials of the Buhari regime in the last four years.

    “The fake list costs Nigeria N2.1 billion per year while original N-Power candidates are left unpaid,” a source had told the newspaper.

    In June 2021, SaharaReporters reported that 14,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme were owed for five months.

    N-Power is a youth empowerment scheme sponsored by the Nigerian Government under the Social Investment Program (SIP).

    Other programmes under the scheme include Home Grown School Feeding, Tradermoni, Marketmoni and the Conditional Cash Transfer in the 36 states of the country.

    SaharaReporters gathered that since the social investment programme of the government was moved to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, the minister, Sadiya Farouq, had been making attempts to stop some of the programmes under the scheme.

    Aside from announcing that beneficiaries would be laid off, she had also refused to release funds for the school feeding programme in some states.

    A source at the humanitarian ministry on Wednesday night told SaharaReporters that top government officials in President Buhari’s government have been using cronies to siphon funds under the social intervention programmes.

    A source had confided in SaharaReporters that ICPC would release D’banj on Wednesday night after failing to successfully link the musician to the fraudulent activities in the N-Power Programme.

    “D’banj will be released tonight by the ICPC. The agency is unable to link him concretely with fraudulent activities in N-Power,” a top source in the agency had told SaharaReporters.

    However, the source on Thursday said investigators discovered a fresh list containing over 20,000 ghost names, tagged “D’banj’s list.”

    He said the names were allegedly used to divert over N600 million monthly for over two years by government officials in connivance with the Nigerian musician.

    The source however added that D’banj refuted the allegation and denied any knowledge of the list.

    “Like I told you yesterday, D’banj was to be released last night but our (ICPC) Director of OperationS wasn’t available. So, his lawyers were asked to come back today,” he said.

    “But our investigators just discovered another 20,000 N-Power list, so he (D’banj) will remain in detention.

    “Today when his lawyers arrived for his release, they were told about this fresh list containing 20,000 names. This list was being used to divert N600 million monthly from Nigeria in the last two years by Buhari government officials. The list containing 20,000 names has been bleeding Nigeria N600 million monthly over the last two years.

    “It’s named the D-banj’s list. He actually denied the list when he was interrogated by our officials. That’s the reason he wasn’t released as planned.”

    Source: Sahara Reports

  • People mistake me for Nigerian but I enjoy the attention – Camidoh

    Ghanaian singer and sugarcane hitmaker, Camidoh has explained people label him as a Nigerian other than Ghana because of how he sounds, his style, and his vibe. However, Camidoh finds this mistaken identity as genuine love expressed by the people and he enjoys the attention that comes with it.

    “People still think I’m Nigerian. Some think I’m Kenyan, but I feel like it’s cool. It’s okay because, the fact that they even look at you or study you and think a certain thing about you, it feels like you have their attention. It feels like people love you and that is the only reason they speculate. So it’s fine.”

    The ‘Sugarcane’ hitmaker also spoke on his topic choice when making songs, he noted that some song topics aren’t his thing although people, including his mother, have asked him to make songs addressing social issues like galamsey, he prefers songs about life and love.

    According to him, he loves LOVE and life is equally beautiful when you picture it differently with all the good things therefore he likes to talk about those.

    “I feel like I make records about life situations and all of that. I remember making a song about how people make decisions. I make all those types of stuff. But developmental, I don’t think I will. I only make songs that I’m inspired to do. And I feel like God puts different agendas in the hearts of different people. So, when I’m blessed with a certain topic, I make it.” he said

    Camidoh is out with a new song, ‘Slow’, featuring Nigerian musician Magixx, available on all music platforms.

  • 5 rearrested after attempting to break out from police cells at Awutu Bereku

    Five suspects made up of three Nigerian nationals and 2 Ghanaians have been re-arrested after attempting to escape police custody.

    The escapees were in detention following their arrest for various offences such as stealing mobile phones, and air-conditioners among others.

    According to a Dailyguidenetwork.com report, the suspects made their move on Monday, November 21, 2022, at about 1 am with the help of a chisel and a hammer.

    Their attempt was in a bid to evade court arraignment within the week.

    The suspects succeeded in breaking the iron bars of the cell but saw their efforts thwarted by the officers on duty who became alarmed by the unusual noise emanating from the cells.

    The Awutu Bereku Police Command has since rounded up the suspects and transferred them to a different police station for safekeeping pending their trial.

  • Nigerian arrested for assaulting wife to death

    The suspect was arrested on Sunday, November 20, 2022, according to Ogun State Police Command in a statement issued on Monday, and signed by its spokesman, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi.

    A 45-year-old man, Segun Omotosho Ebenezer, has been arrested by the Nigeria Police Force for allegedly beating his wife, Bukola, 42 to death in Ogun State.

    The suspect was arrested on Sunday, November 20, 2022, according to Ogun State Police Command in a statement issued on Monday, and signed by its spokesman, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi.

    His arrest, according to the statement followed a complaint lodged at Kemta Divisional Headquarters on November 14, 2022, by the elder sister of the deceased, who reported that the deceased was beaten and seriously injured by her husband over a minor disagreement.

    Oyeyemi stated that the deceased was subsequently rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba Abeokuta, by the suspect for medical attention, but that she died while receiving treatment.

    “Unknown to the husband, the deceased had sent a voice note to her family members informing them that her husband has used a padlock to hit her on the head while beating her, and that if she died, they should be aware that it was her husband that killed her.

     

    “As soon as the voice note was played to his hearing, the husband took to his heels having realised that his evil deed had been exposed,” Oyeyemi said.

    The police spokesman noted that following the report and the recording evidence, the Divisional Police Officer of Kemta Division, CSP Adeniyi Adekunle, detailed his detectives to go after the husband and fish him out.

    “He was subsequently traced to Akinseku village, Abeokuta where he has been hibernating, and was promptly apprehended.”

    The statement further said, “Preliminary investigation has revealed that their incessant quarrel was because the deceased built a private school in the name of herself and the husband, but the husband who is a carpenter had wanted to take control of the school which the deceased wife who was an NCE graduate refused.

    “This is the reason why the suspect has been beating the deceased, until that fateful day when he used an iron padlock to hit her on the head, which eventually led to her untimely death.”

    Oyeyemi, however, noted that the police commissioner, CP Lanre Bankole, had directed that the suspect should be transferred to the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and diligent prosecution.

     

    Source:  Sahara reports

  • Nigerian First Lady, Aisha Buhari rushed to hospital

    The Office of the First Lady did not respond to inquiries at the time of filing the report.

    Nigeria’s First Lady Aisha Buhari has been rushed to an Abuja hospital after suffering a leg fracture at the weekend.

    According to DAILY NIGERIAN, sources said Aisha “fell down and suffered a leg fracture” but details of the incident leading to the injury were sketchy at the time of filing of the report. The name of the hospital where she was taken to was also not disclosed.

    According to the report, the first lady was expected to host a wedding reception in honour of Bilkisu Rimi, the daughter of Nigerian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohammed Rimi, on Sunday night at the Presidential Villa.

    The Office of the First Lady did not respond to inquiries at the time of filing the report.

    In October, Aisha tendered an apology to Nigerians over the performance of her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress in government.

    Aisha, however, carefully failed to admit that her husband’s administration had been a failure.

    Aisha made the apology during an exclusive interview with BBC Pidgin, saying that her reason for apologising to Nigerians was because Buhari’s administration might have not performed to the satisfaction and expectations of Nigerians.

    In the interview monitored by SaharaReporters, the First Lady said Nigerians had high expectations from the Buhari government but it was possible that the government fell short of the expectations, hence, her apologies.

    She said, “The expectation on us was too high. People were expecting so much from us, and maybe after seven years, we haven’t done to their expectations. Only God knows what is in somebody’s mind or as a human being, you cannot say that you are right or we have done what we should do.

    “The government has really tried. The administration has done its best but maybe it is still not the best for others. To them, they have done their best, only God knows, so we must apologise to them, to Nigerians; whether we have made up their expectations or not.”

     

    Source: Sahara Report

  • Man cancels wedding with fiancee and relocates to UK after saying 32k cedis is not enough for their wedding

    A Nigerian man has reportedly cancelled his wedding and relocated abroad alone after his fiancée insisted that N1 million which is equivalent to ¢32k is too small for their wedding.

    According to Twitter user who shared the story online, the couple were planning to relocate to the UK together after their wedding and the man was footing all the bills as the lady and her family were struggling financially — “Heard a gist of this guy that told his babe that he only has ?1M to spend on their wedding.According to him,he upped the budget to 1M cos the lady’s family were having a bad time financially….”

    He further disclosed that the man had a lesser budget for the wedding but later increased it to N1million but the lady insisted that the money was still too small for her dream wedding.
    Out of frustration and anger, the man cancelled the wedding and relocated to the UK alone.

     

    Heard a gist of this guy that told his babe that he only has ?1M to spend on their wedding.According to him,he upped the budget to 1M cos the lady’s family were having a bad time financially.But the lady insisted 1M is too small,so the guy cancelled the wedding and japa to UK
    Let me add a bit of background so you can see that boys are trying . The would be best man told me his friend initially wanted a very lowkey stuff cos money no too dey and the fact that he’s the only one to shoulder everything.

    It was out of i want to satisfy my babe that made him shift ground only for her to say 1m sef no go reach. This is a woman that will not be spending a dime o. Even the schools they applied to for Msc as a means to japa after wedding,it was the guy footing all the bills. You get !”

     

  • Nigeria: Army repels major attack, kills eight jihadists

    The Nigerian army has repelled an attack on a military base in western Nigeria where nearly 1,700 jihadists are being held, killing eight suspected insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State group, two military sources said Monday.

    Dozens of Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) fighters tried to break into the Wawa military base in Niger state near the border with Benin on Saturday to free hundreds of jihadists, the two officers told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    The attack is a reminder of Iswap’s ability to strike hundreds of kilometres from its northeastern stronghold, where the army is fighting a 13-year-old jihadist insurgency.

    “The terrorists attacked the base around midnight in large numbers but were pulverised by air support, leading to the death of eight of them,” said one of the officers.

    Three attackers, including their commander, were captured in the attack, he added.

    There was no official comment from the army.

    The soldiers had been alerted by intelligence and were waiting for the insurgents to attack the base, said a second officer who gave the same account.

    The heavily armed jihadists tried to blow up the base gates but met “stiff resistance” from the soldiers, he said.

    “It was obvious that they wanted to free other terrorists held in the base as they did in Kuje prison,” he added.

    Last July, Iswap fighters attacked Kuje prison, located near the capital Abuja, and freed hundreds of detainees, including many jihadi commanders.

    Between 2017 and 2018, the Wawa base had been used as a court to try hundreds of Boko Haram and Iswap jihadists.

    On Friday, the Nigerian police tightened security especially in the capital after the US and UK warned of an “increased risk of terrorist attack” in Abuja.

    Washington did not give further details but ordered the families of its diplomatic staff to leave Abuja.

    Iswap has increasingly claimed responsibility for attacks far from the northeast, including in Kogi and Niger states, both of which border the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where Abuja is located.

    The jihadist insurgency in the northeast has killed nearly 40,000 people and displaced two million.

     

    Source: African News

  • Prince Harry And Meghan Markle donate to Nigerian flood victims

    Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Foundation has donated an unspecified amount to charities working in Nigeria to ‘help provide relief following devastating flooding’ that has ravaged parts of Nigeria.

    This is coming after Duchess Sussex, 41, revealed she is 43 percent Nigerian after doing a genealogy test a couple of years ago. She said this in her latest Archetypes Podcast series released on Tuesday.

    In a press release that accompanied the episode, a Spotify representative confirmed that the couple’s Archewell Foundation made donations to Save the Children and UNICEF.

    The devastating floods have been blamed on heavy rain and water released from a dam in neighbouring Cameroon.

    More than 600 people have been killed and around 1.4 million have been displaced in the floods which destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland across Nigeria.

    Save the Children Nigeria tweeted: “More than 1.5 million children are at risk after devastating flooding in Nigeria.

    “Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation has donated to Save the Children in Nigeria as our teams deliver life-saving supplies to affected families.”

    Source: African News

  • ’43 percent Nigerian’: Meghan Markle discovers after genealogy test

    In the latest episode of her bombshell podcast, Archetypes, the Duchess of Sussex discusses her genetic heritage and how she wants to delve deeper into her roots.

    Meghan Markle revealed details about her genetic heritage in the latest episode of her bombshell podcast, Archetypes.

    Unpicking the “Angry Black Woman” stereotype in a thought-provoking discussion with Nigerian American actress and comedian Issa Rae, writer Ziwe Fumudoh and professor Emily Bernards, The Duchess of Sussex told listeners that she took a genealogy test which revealed that she is 43% Nigerian.

    “I just had my genealogy done a couple of years ago,” Meghan explains, as her guests eagerly ask her to share what the results entailed.

    The Duchess then proudly says “I’m 43% Nigerian” to the shock of Ziwe, who shouts “No way!”.

    Meghan Markle
    Meghan says she wants to explore her heritage further after getting the results

    Meghan can be heard giggling over her guest’s excitement, as she opens up about her roots during the major podcast moment.

    “Are you serious? This is huge. Igbo, Yoruba, do we know?” the writer excitedly probes, desperate to know more about Meghan’s findings.

    The Duchess of Sussex then tells her listeners: “I’m going to start to dig deeper into all of this because anyone that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are just like, what?”

    After absorbing the bombshell revelation, Nigerian American Ziwe continues to joke that the Duchess looks like ‘her aunt Ouzo’ in a heart-warming clip between the pair.

    A strong advocate for fighting against racism and prejudice, this is the first time that Meghan has opened up about her ancestral background on the public stage.

    In this week’s episode, the Duchess of Sussex also opens up about the stereotypes of Black female roles in TV as she draws on her experience as a former actress.

    The revelation comes after the Duchess’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, where she and Prince Harry alleged that a member of the royal family made racist remarks about their son Archie’s skin colour when they were working royals.

    Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant Spotify to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around £18 million, in late 2020.

    Archetypes were launched with the aim of investigating “labels that try to hold women back” through conversations between Meghan and historians, experts and women who have experienced being typecast.

    In last week’s episode, she chatted to Paris Hilton about the stereotype of the “bimbo” and revealed that she felt “objectified” during her stint as a briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal.

     

     

     

     

  • Nigerian city celebrates its many twins with annual festival

    Twins appear to be unusually abundant in Nigeria’s southwestern city of Igbo-Ora.

    Nearly every family here has twins or other multiple births, says local chief Jimoh Titiloye.

    For the past 12 years, the community has organized an annual festival to celebrate twins. This year’s event, held earlier this month, included more than 1,000 pairs of twins and drew participants from as far away as France, organizers said.

    There is no proven scientific explanation for the high rate of twins in Igbo-Ora, a city of at least 200,000 people 135 kilometers (83 miles) south of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos.

    But many in Igbo-Ora believe it can be traced to women’s diets. Alake Olawunmi, a mother of twins, attributes it to a local delicacy called amala which is made from yam flour.

    John Ofem, a gynaecologist based in the capital, Abuja, says it very well could be “that there are things they eat there that have a high level of certain hormones that now result in what we call multiple ovulation.”

    While that could explain the higher-than-normal rate of fraternal twins in Igbo-Ora, the city also has a significant number of identical twins.

    Those result instead from a single fertilized egg that divides into two — not because of hyperovulation.

    Taiwo Ojeniyi, a Nigerian student, said he attended the festival with his twin brother “to celebrate the uniqueness” of multiple births.

    “We cherish twins while in some parts of the world, they condemn twins,” he said. “It is a blessing from God.”

    Source: Africa News

  • Two Nigerians jailed 40-years for galamsey

    A Tarkwa Circuit Court judge Hathia Ama Manu has sentenced two Nigerians to 20-year prison terms for engaging in illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey.

    The terms will run concurrently.

    The convicts, Ayodele Jackson and Benjamin Obin were arrested at Bepoase, near Prestea in the Western Region.

    The two men who were sentenced on October 7, pleaded guilty to the charges with the explanation that they were unemployed and hungry, and had only resorted to the galamsey work as a means of surviving.

    They told the court that they had only been indulging in the act for about three weeks before their arrest. They were thus convicted on their own plea.

    Laying out the fact of the case, the Prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Juliana Dadzie told the court that a complaint was made against the accused by two officers of the Minerals Commission.

    According to her, the two Minerals Commission staff Emmanuel Morrison and Bismark Mansoh, on a routine patrol in the Prestea area, spotted the accused, with about fifteen others engaging in illegal mining activities with two excavators, a washing plant and a water pumping machine at Bepoase.

    Upon seeing the two officers, the miners fled, but the officers managed to apprehend the two expatriates.

    They were then handed over to the Police, with the pumping machine and one excavator control board.

    The court presided over by judge Hathia Ama Manu described the circumstance under which they had entered into the illegal business as “unfortunate”, but stated that, “the country is at a point where our water bodies, especially those of us in the Western Region, have been destroyed due to illegal mining.”

    The Court thus said that the accused had no excuses to justify destroying the environment.

    They were sentenced due to the severity of their offence.

    The Court ordered that after serving their sentences, the two men be deported to Nigeria.

    The court also ordered that the excavator, with its control board and the water pumping machine be confiscated to the state. They will be handed over to the Minerals Commission.

    Source: Peacefmonline

  • Nigerian soldier arrested for stealing, selling ammunition to terrorists

    A Nigerian soldier has been arrested by his colleagues for allegedly stealing and selling ammunition to criminal gangs and terrorist groups.

    The suspect, identified as Iorliam Emmanuel, is said to be working under the 156-task force battalion in Mainok, Borno state.

    According to Zagazola Makama, a publication focused on the LakeChad region, the soldier was caught in possession of ammunition on his way out of Maiduguri, the state capital.

    In a video shared by the publication, soldiers were seen stripping the suspect of ammunition strapped to his body

    His colleagues could be heard saying “You see your life? You, you will go and give Boko Haram these things so that they will come and attack us in this camp. Don’t worry. God pass you…”

    According to Zagazola Makama, the suspect who hails from Benue, regularly steals ammunition and supplies to criminal gangs across the country suspected to be bandits.

     

    Source: Africa News

  • Flutterwave  to follow eNaira with more e-currencies for merchants

    Nigerian fintech unicorn Flutterwave wants to add more e-currencies as payment options for merchants after adopting Nigeria’s eNaira in September, Chief Financial Officer Oneal Bhambani tells The Africa Report.

    New payment options could be additional national e-currencies or other crypto currencies, subject to national regulations, Bhambani says. “The future is very bright for the eNaira. If it helps merchants to get more revenue then we will endeavour to integrate them.”

    “We follow our customers,” Bhambani says. “As more digital currencies come about, our mission is to make the process seamless for merchants.” The potential for further digital penetration in Africa far exceeds that in the rest of the world, he added.

     

    Source: The African Report

  • We now involve in kidnapping, and others due to poor salaries – Army personnel writes to Buhari

    A soldier of the Nigerian Army, who identified himself as Sergeant Ismaila Ukwuhcodu, has lamented the poor salaries of junior army personnel in the country.

    The sergeant noted that to meet financial needs, soldiers now got “involved in illegal duties, sabotage, arms and ammunition deal, armed robbery and kidnapping” while calling on the Nigerian government to attend to their plight.

    The soldier in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday, said they pay for essential items, which the military ought to provide, out of the meagre pay.

    According to him, they are also forced to spend their own money on buying uniforms, boots and other items of equipment.

    He urged the President to thoroughly investigate happenings in the military, particularly issues involving and affecting the rank and file.

    “As a trustee of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, I humbly wish to address this letter to you who called us to serve the nation. The Nigeria Army (NA) is the land component of the Armed Forces created to defend and maintain its territorial integrity from external aggression and act in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon by Mr President,” the letter read.

    “In the face of security challenges bedeviling the nation, men of the armed forces sacrifice their lives. Despite the risks involved, NA fall in their responsibility and duty to meet the benefits and services of soldiers not minding the consequences it will breed with time. Perhaps the concept is that “soldiers are illiterates with no prospect for a successful future”.

    “The system preaches patriotism, discipline, loyalty and dedication to duty, regrettable sir, our meager salary makes it difficult for us to care for our families and own personal house while in active service.

    “Painfully, we buy uniforms, boots, and other military kits from the same salary to serve Nigeria. Below is the salary breakdown of your soldering per day/month.

    “a. Warrant Officer’s Salary is N95,000/31 days =N3,064 per day(28 yrs in service)
    b. Staff Sergeant Salary is N84,000/31 days = N2,709 per day(26 yrs in “. )
    c. Sergeant Salary is N68,000/31 days =N2,193 per day(21 years in “ )
    d. Corporal salary is N62,000/31 days = N2,000 per day (16 yrs in “ )
    e. Lance Corporal N57,000/31 days = N1,838 per day (10 yrs in “ )
    f. Private salary is N50,000/31 days = N1,612 per day (5 years in service)

    “To meet financial needs, soldiers’ involve in illegal duties, sabotage, arms & ammunition deal, armed robbery and kidnapping. The insensitive negligence to enhance salary and welfare of soldiers is the cause of mass resignation of trained troops.

    “The day soldiers will demand their right will be a sad day for the Nation, on that day, all moral sanctity would have been lost. With due respect Sir, I need respectfully request Mr President and other action addresses to please stand for principle of truth and moral sanctity by holistically and reflectively act on serial 3 above with a view to addressing salary and welfare package of SOLDIERS of the Nigeria Army.”

  • Nigerian laments police brutality, torture, 13 months remand in Prison as ‘robbery prank goes wrong’ in Lagos

     

    The family of one Daniel Christopher of Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has accused the Nigeria Police Force, Lagos State Command of arraigning and remanding their son in prison custody on an attempted robbery charge because they could not pay a N250,000 bail fee.

    Daniel’s family, who spoke to SaharaReporters on Wednesday, lamented that their son had been in prison custody for 13 months without trial after he was detained in a dinghy police cell for 34 days for what they described as “a prank gone wrong.”

    They accused the police of torturing Daniel in the cell.

    Daniel’s sister, Igwe Blessing, told SaharaReporters that trouble started when he went out to shoot a prank video in preparation for D9ja Spirit Talent Hunt at a Point of Sale (PoS) centre at MOT Junction, Epe, on August 3, 2021. Unfortunately, POS attendant took him for a thief and raised the alarm, accusing him of attempting to rob her.

    This led to a mob attack despite showing evidence that he was shooting a prank video.

    Blessing noted that after assaulting Daniel, he was taken to the police station, where he was tortured. She added that all efforts made by her brother to prove his innocence were rebuffed, as the policemen refused to watch the recorded video of the prank.

    “They instead on transferring him to the office of the defunct notorious police anti-robbery squad (SARS) in Ikeja after the family could not pay N250,000 demanded his bail,” she said.

    Daniel’s fiancée, Semilla Iribhogbe, who corroborated Blessing’s statement, said that while at the disbanded SARS, Daniel was detained for 34 days under physical and mental torture, adding he was later allegedly forced to sign a confessional statement, admitting he wanted to rob the POS shop.

    Iribhogbe alleged that after signing the ‘confessional statement’, the police IPO asked him to call his family to bring N250,000 for his bail otherwise he would be arraigned in court for attempted robbery.

    In an appeal for help made to SaharaReporters, Daniel narrated his ordeal at the hands of police operatives at the infamous premises where the defunct notorious police unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) used in Lagos, describing it as hell.

    The 27-year-old artist narrated: “We were getting ready for a talent hunt (D9jaspirit Talent Hunt) that was supposed to kick off by September with a management team comprising a media manager one Mr Debo and myself, then sponsor one Mr John.

    “Me and my media manager agreed on getting contents on standby before the talent hunt would kick off as that was supposed to give us ground on our pages while on the show.

    “I was to get some contents and forward them to the media manager for editing. I came up with a one-man stunt robbery prank video. Every character that fit into the skit was to get a N50,000 reward for appearance.

    “With an A9 bug camera which at the time was perfect for 1080 mobile resolution. I also had on me an iPhone 12pro, 500g hard disk, 64 gig flash drive, N50,000 cash, a small Nokia phone and a wooden toy gun I carved myself for the prank which was flexible; it can be broken into two and also stick back.

    “It was on August 3, I set out for my first shot. My first shot was at a POS centre. I went to the POS centre and the lady there allowed me in. Then I introduced myself as an artist with my camera set in front of my face cap.

    “Then I went on to ask about her experience on the job and her biggest challenge working as a POS agent. She even told me how one of her colleagues lost money to a fake alert and was forced to pay with her salary.

    “I asked these questions to know how to compensate her afterwards. Then I went on with the main script.

    “Hey, give me your bag or I shoot you, then she flared up and ran outside. Then I started shouting that it was a prank. I broke the wooden gun into two to show her it was a fake gun but she wouldn’t stop, she grabbed my shirt and held on.

    “Her shouts attracted a crowd who rushed to the scene from different angles. I tried to explain to them but the beating was too much, I was beaten into a coma. I kept shouting that it was a prank and that I was an artist. I tried to explain that it was supposed to be an entry video for my application to D9ja Spirit Talent Hunt.”

    Daniel noted that all his pleas and explanations were not taken as the crowd insisted that he was lying, and that “musicians don’t do this kind of thing”.

    He continued, “I was able to get them to take me to a police station nearby. When we got there, I tried to get the cops to recover my items which the POS attendant and some other members of the crowd had snatched from me.

    “Unfortunately, the policemen didn’t even want to hear me as the first thing they did was beat me up and tie me with a cable. They flogged me with a machete.

    “Later that day, they asked me to call one of my family members or friends to come and bail me with the sum of N250,000. Without my phone and with the mental torture I had suffered, I couldn’t think of any number offhand. Then I begged them to take me to Rehearsal Studio in Lekki where I went with my media manager to shoot a viral video earlier that week but they refused.

    “I found my 64gig flash drive which was the only thing I held close to my hand even when the mob were beating me. The cops took it from me.

    “Three days later, I was in detention and could not provide the N250,000; that was on the 6th of August. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) instructed his men to transfer me to SARS in Ikeja.

    “In the evening, I was transferred to Ikeja, where they started torturing me all over again. I was isolated and tortured every day for 34 days. They forced me to sign a statement they wrote under intense torture after spending 34 days in isolation with no communication with my family and friends; no food, no water and no bath. Then I was taken to court and was remanded in Kirikiri prison on the 9th of September 2021.”

    “It was in prison that I was able to use the welfare platform to finally reach my management and family members,” he explained.

    Meanwhile, his fiancée lamented that for the 13 months Daniel spent in detention, it was adjournment upon adjournment without trial.

    Iribhogbe further lamented that a lawyer, one Mr Chijike Jiakponna they engaged to defend Daniel made things worse for them.

    She said, “Jiakponna asked me to pay him N800,000 to defend him but immediately after we paid him N450,000, he vanished. He has never shown up in court, not even once. When Daniel asked for a refund, he started manufacturing different arguments. Now we have no money to engage legal services as Jiakponna has refused to refund the N450,000 paid to him.”

    She appealed for Nigerians’ intervention, adding that her fiancée has never committed a crime either in Lagos or any other state.

    Efforts to get the reaction of the Jiakponna were unsuccessful as he did not answer his calls or reply to a text message sent to his mobile line.

    Source: Sahara reports

  • Meet the Nigerian who is the youngest player in the history of English football

    As Arsenal breezed past Brentford with an emphatic 3-0 victory on Sunday, September 19, 2022, a product of the Gunners’ well-renowned academy was making history as the youngest footballer to play in top-flight English football.

    By subbing him on in the 91st minute, Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta made Ethan Nwaneri the youngest player to ever kicked a ball in a Premier League match.

    With 15 years and 181 days, Nwaneri has etched his name in English football history as the youngest player ever.

    The attacking midfielder has been a constant feature for Arsenal’s under 18 and Under-21 and has been billed to take football by storm.

    Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta says he listened to his ‘guts feelings’ by adding him to the squad and bringing him on to make history.

    “It was a pure gut feeling, I met the kid and I liked what I saw. He has trained a couple of times with us and I had a feeling yesterday that if the opportunity came I would do it. But I think it sends a strong message about who we are as a club. I told him yesterday he would be with us and he had to be ready. He is ready. When he went on I said ‘congratulations and enjoy it. I don’t know what it is. When I met him, when I looked at him, I had that feeling.”

    The Spaniard said: “We want to give opportunities When there is talent and personality and when players love what they do, and when they have no fear, the doors are open for them to explore where they can go.

    “All the decisions that we take, that I take, are for the club. It’s not for me, it’s not for the player. It’s because we believe he has a talent that has to be developed incredibly in the next few years and we’ll see how we manage that. Normally it’s not us, normally the players tell you and they mind you, how far you can go on that.”

    Who is Ethan Nwaneri

    The attacking midfielder was born on March 21 2007 and has risen through the Arsenal academy rapidly.

    He made his under-18s debut aged 14 and scored. Last month, he scored for England’s under 17s after coming off the bench.

    The youngster is believed to be of Nigerian descent with his parents being Nigerians.

    Source; goal.com

  • ‘A monumental loss: Nigeria’s film director Biyi Bandele passes away at 54

    On Monday family of acclaimed novelist and filmmaker, Biyi Bandele announced the death of the novelist in a Facebook post.

    Bandele, 54, is described as a prolific author, playwright, and filmmaker whose work includes the adaptation of famed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton.
    In a statement signed by his daughter Temi Bandele, she revealed that her father died in Lagos-Nigeria.
    She wrote, “I am heartbroken to share the sudden and unexpected death on Sunday 7th of August in Lagos of my father Biyi Bandele.”
    “Biyi was a prodigiously talented writer and filmmaker, as well as a loyal friend and beloved father. He was a storyteller to his bones, with an unblinking perspective, singular voice, and wisdom that spoke boldly through all of his art, in poetry, novels, plays, and on screen. “
    “He told stories which made a profound impact and inspired many all over the world. His legacy will live on through his work,” she wrote in the post.
    Bandele was considered one of the finest filmmakers and storytellers of his generation.
    In an interview with CNN in 2014, he said, “I knew I wanted to be a writer from when I was six. My dad took me to the local library. I was five or six, and I just fell in love with the books.”
    Bandele grew up in the small northwestern Nigerian town of Kafanchan, Kaduna State, and left Nigeria at 22 after studying drama at Obafemi Awolowo University.
    “I actually came [to London] because I’d been invited to a theater festival … within weeks, I had a publisher, not just in the UK but in Italy and in France and in Germany,” he told CNN.
    “Then I got offered a job to be the literary editor of a weekly Nigerian newspaper in London so I had actually come with absolutely no intention of staying.”
    Shortly after his arrival in the UK, his work was published and he received his first commission from the Royal Court Theatre where he was catapulted into the arts.
    Three years later, Bandele wrote a screenplay that was picked up by the BBC, which attached a young up-and-coming director to it. His name was Danny Boyle.
    “Working with Danny was a game changer. I wasn’t that interested at the time in actually directing anything but I watched Danny … it was a joy working with him,” he said.
    Mo Abudu, founder of Ebony Life Studios and one of his long-time collaborators told CNN they were preparing to debut their new film, Elesin Oba (The King’s Horsemen) at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
    “He was so passionate about Elesin Oba, more so than any of the other projects he had worked on with us… and was so excited when he heard about our selection at TIFF. I am sad he will not be at TIFF and that he will not get to see how loved his last project was.”
    Bandele also co-directed the Netflix hit Blood Sisters. The streaming platform paid tribute to him in a Twitter post calling his passing “a monumental loss to Nigeria’s film and creative industry.”
    “Biyi Bandele’s passing is a monumental loss to Nigeria’s film and creative industry. He will be remembered as a powerhouse who made some of the finest films out of Africa. As we mourn him, we commiserate with his family, friends, and colleagues. May he rest in power.”

  • Nigeria: Police fire teargas to disperse Revolution Now protesters in Lagos

    The Nigerian Police Force has dispersed the Revolution Now protesters in Lagos.

    The protesters who gathered under the Ikeja Bridge were convened by Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore.

    They are demanding good governance and an end to the corrupt practices of public officeholders.

    Armed policemen who arrived at the location fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

    The protest is also ongoing in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and other states in Nigeria.

    More details later…

    Source: mynigeria.com

  • Coronavirus: Nigerian drug stores hike hydroxychloroquine price

    Hydroxychloroquine, the controversial drug used in the treatment of COVID-19, is being sold in one drug store in Rivers State, South-South Nigeria, at an outrageous price of N50,000.

    Hydroxychloroquine, before now, was essentially used for malaria treatment. It was never known to be this costly, as at then.

    The drug began selling at about N3,000 around March in Nigeria during the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the country, a pharmacist told PREMIUM TIMES.

    Some person who apparently wanted to alert Nigerians on the exorbitant price of the COVID-19 drug took a photo of its pack, with the price tag, name and the telephone contact of the drug store on it, and then got it circulated on WhatsApp over the weekend.

    The drug, as shown in the photo, is Zentiva brand, with 60 tablets (200mg) in a pack. The store selling it is Ebus Pharmacy Ltd, at Eastern bypass, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    The N50,000 price tag attracted outrage from Nigerians who felt it was too high.

    Ebus Pharmacy said the retail price of the hydroxychloroquine was dependent on how much money they used in importing it.

    “What is your concern about how much I sell what I buy when you don’t know how much I bought it?” A man from Ebus Pharmacy told PREMIUM TIMES, Monday, on telephone.

    The man refused to disclose his name and position in the drug store. But Truecaller, a phone app, identified him as Boniface Ebugosi.

    “Have you checked around here in Port Harcourt, Lagos or Abuja to know the price (of the hydroxychloroquine) before you say it’s outrageous? Or is it only hydroxychloroquine that you know the price has changed since COVID-19 came to be?” Mr Ebugosi said, while arguing that the naira was depreciating against the dollar and that it was negatively affecting imports.

    He said people were free to buy at other drug stores if they felt Ebus Pharmacy was selling their products at exorbitant prices.

    PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Ebugosi how much his store was selling hydroxychloroquine before now.

    “Those things do not hold water,” he responded. “What we are saying now is: do you have it? How much is the price? Bring it.”

    Mr Ebugosi said besides hydroxychloroquine, the prices of other drugs used in COVID-19 treatment, like vitamin C and zinc, have increased in Nigeria.

    He said prices of food items too have increased in the country.

    Really, the prices of vitamin C and zinc has increased across Nigeria because of COVID-19.

    In Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, for instance, most drug stores as of last week were selling at about N5,000, 100 tablets of 100mg zinc in a small container. On Monday, the price suddenly increased to N5,500 in some of the stores in the city.

    “At some point it was selling at N8,000,” a pharmacist in Uyo told PREMIUM TIMES, Monday evening.

    “Before COVID-19 it was N2,000,” he added.

    “It is not anybody’s making. Ebus, as a company which has a name to protect, would want to sell at the cheapest prices so that our customers would remain with us,” Mr Ebugosi said of the exorbitant price of hydroxychloroquine at his store.

    PREMIUM TIMES’ checks at three other drug stores in Port Harcourt showed that they were also selling hydroxychloroquine at about the same amount with Ebus Pharmacy.

    One of the stores said they were selling it at N54,000, but had ran out of stock.

    Some other stores in the city were selling between N15,000 and N18,000, another brand of hydroxychloroquine which contains 20 tablets in a pack, unlike the brand at Ebus Pharmacy which has 60 tablets.

    A federal agency in Nigeria, the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) intervened in a similar case in Lagos in March and forced a drug store – Medmark Pharmacy – to make a refund to a woman who bought a 500ml hand sanitiser at an exorbitant price of N19,950.

    The incident happened at the time many Nigerians were involved in panic-buying of hand sanitiser and face mask because of the Coronavirus.

    The woman who felt she was being ripped off said she thought the price of the sanitiser was N1,950.

    The head of FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera, told PREMIUM TIMES, Monday evening, that his agency was investigating the sales of hydroxychloroquine at exorbitant price in Port Harcourt.

    Ebus Pharmacy was not open on Sunday when operatives from the FCCPC visited it, Mr Irukera said.

    The operatives went back to the drug store on Monday, according to Mr Irukera, but hydroxychloroquine was not on the shelf.

    The manager of Ebus Pharmacy was said to have declined to give information to operatives on the sales of hydroxychloroquine in the store.

    “Our people will be there tomorrow (Tuesday) to check the inventory in the pharmacy,” Mr Irukera said.

    Mr Irukera said his agency has also received information about a location where hydroxychloroquine was being sold at N75,000 in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    He said the agency was conducting surveillance operations on the Lagos location and other locations in Abuja.

    A pharmacist in Port Harcourt who did not want his name mentioned in the report attributed the exorbitant price of hydroxychloroquine to a viral video of a U.S-based medical doctor, Stella Immanuel who claimed she has used the drug to successfully treat more than 300 COVID-19 patients in America.

    “Nobody needs to get sick. This virus has a cure – it is called hydroxychloroquine. I have treated over 350 patients and not had one death,” Ms Immanuel said in the video, surrounded by other doctors with similar views.

    The video, which many people believed was done to promote the U.S President Donald Trump’s political ambition, prompted a global discourse especially among medical experts on hydroxychloroquine, but it was quickly taken down by Facebook and Twitter on grounds that it was promoting unproven medical claims.

    Mr Trump has been advocating for the use of the anti-malaria drug in the treatment of COVID-19, contrary to the advice of the World Health Organisation and the U.S Food And Drug Administration.

    Coronavirus has been on the increase in Nigeria. The number of confirmed cases in the country is 43,841 as of August 2.

    Eight hundred and eighty-eight people have died so far from the virus, according to the data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, while 20,308 have been treated and discharged from hospital.

    Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, remains the epicentre of the virus, with 15,267 confirmed cases, followed by Abuja, with 3,972.

    Rivers, an oil-producing state with over 5 million population, has 1,829 cases, the fifth highest in the country.

    Some states in Nigeria, overwhelmed by the number of cases, have resorted to home-treatment for many COVID-19 patients, and in some cases the patients are asked to procure the drugs for their treatment.

    The implication here is that if drug stores arbitrarily fix high prices for COVID-19 drugs, some poor Nigerians face the risk of being excluded from treatment for COVID-19 and may die without getting medical help.

    Source: allafrica.com

  • Feminist backlash over Nigerian train stations

    Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has faced criticism after listing only one woman in the renaming of railway stations.

    On Monday, Mr Buhari named 23 train stations after “deserving Nigerians” seen to have contributed to the progress and development of their communities and the country.

    Among those named were former Nigerian leaders, serving ministers and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.

    But Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a feminist and activist who was also mother of late Afrobeat music legend Fela Kuti, was the only woman honoured.

    Some on social media have likened this announcement to the president’s previous appointments – like in 2019 when only seven women, out of the 43, were appointed as ministers.

    They have suggested that women who deserved to be honoured include Stella Adadevoh, the medical doctor who died preventing Ebola from spreading in Nigeria, and Dora Akunyili, who spearheaded the crusade against fake drugs before her death in 2014.

    Former lawmaker Shehu Sani has asked the president to name a station in Kaduna after the female combat helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, who died two weeks ago in an accident.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Nigerian official collapses at corruption hearing

    A Nigerian government official answering questions on mismanagement of funds collapsed on live TV while facing lawmakers.

    Daniel Pondei, who is the acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), was being questioned by a committee in the House of Representatives when he slumped forward in his chair.

    There was a commotion as attempts were made to revive him, with several people fanning him while a man who looked like an aide, stuck his hands into Mr Pondei’s mouth to stop him from choking.

    Thereafter, he was helped out of the auditorium leaning on two men.

    Mr Pondei had been grilled for about 45 minutes on alleged mismanagement of funds at the NDDC, where details of massive spending have come to light in recent weeks in a hearing that has shocked Nigerians.

    He has said that the spending was justified.

  • How the US caught flashy Nigerian Instagrammers ‘with $40m’

    The day after his 29th birthday in May, Olalekan Jacob Ponle posted a picture on his Instagram standing next to a bright yellow Lamborghini in Dubai.

    “Stop letting people make you feel guilty for the wealth you’ve acquired,” he admonished, wearing designer jewellery and Gucci clothes from head to toe.

    A month later, the Nigerian, who goes by the name “mrwoodbery” on Instagram, was arrested by Dubai Police for alleged money laundering and cyber fraud.

    The most famous of the dozen Africans nabbed in the dramatic operation was 37-year-old Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, “hushpuppi” or just “hush” as he was known by his 2.4 million Instagram followers.

    Police in the emirate say they recovered $40m (£32m) in cash, 13 luxury cars worth $6.8m, 21 computers, 47 smartphones and the addresses of nearly two million alleged victims.

    Mr Abbas and Mr Ponle were both extradited to the US and charged in a Chicago court with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and laundering hundreds of millions of dollars obtained from cybercrimes.

    The two have not yet been asked to plead and are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

    “I think there’s probably a certain arrogance when they believe they’ve been careful about maintaining anonymity in their online identities, but they live high on the hog and get careless on social media,” said Glen Donath, a former senior prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC.

    It is a spectacular crash for the two Nigerian men who extensively documented their high-flying lifestyle on social media, raising questions about the sources of their wealth.

    They unwittingly provided crucial information about their identities and activities for American detectives with their Instagram and Snapchat posts.

    They are accused of impersonating legitimate employees of various US companies in “business email compromise” (BEC) schemes and tricking the recipients into wiring millions of dollars into their own accounts.

    On Instagram, hushpuppi said he was a real estate developer and had a category of videos called “Flexing” – social media lingo for showing off. But the “houses” were actually a codeword for bank accounts “used to receive proceeds of a fraudulent scheme”, investigators allege.

    “Our value system in Nigeria needs to be checked, especially the emphasis we place on wealth, no matter how you got it,” the economist Ebuka Emebinah told the BBC from New York.

    “It’s a culture where people believe that results speak for you. We don’t place as much emphasis on the process and this has built up over time.”

    English Premier League team targeted

    In April, hushpuppi renewed his lease for another year at the exclusive Palazzo Versace apartments in Dubai under his real name and phone number.

    “Thank you, Lord, for the many blessings in my life. Continue to shame those waiting for me to be shamed,” he captioned an Instagram picture of a Rolls-Royce just a fortnight before he was arrested.

    “Abbas finances this opulent lifestyle through crime, and he is one of the leaders of a transnational network that facilitates computer intrusions, fraudulent schemes (including BEC schemes), and money laundering, targeting victims around the world in schemes designed to steal hundreds of millions of dollars,” the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said in an affidavit.

    In one case, a foreign financial institution allegedly lost $14.7m in a cyber-heist where the money ended up in hushpuppi’s bank accounts in multiple countries.

    The affidavit also alleged that he was involved in a scheme to steal $124m from an unnamed English Premier League team.

    The FBI obtained records from his Google, Apple iCloud, Instagram and Snapchat accounts which allegedly contained banking information, passports, communication with conspirators and records of wire transfers.

    About 90% of business email compromise scams originate in West Africa, research from American email security firm Agari shows.

    ‘Yahoo boys’

    The complaint against Mr Abbas and Mr Ponle describe tactics that resemble what the company calls Vendor Email Compromise tactics, where scammers compromise an email account and study communication between a customer and a vendor.

    “The scammer would gather contextual details, as they watched the legitimate email flow,” explains Crane Hassold, Agari’s senior director of threat research.

    “The bad actor would redirect emails to the bad actor’s email account, craft emails to the customer that looked like they are coming from the vendor, indicate that the ‘vendor’ had a new bank account, provide ‘updated’ bank account information and the money would be gone, at that point.”

    Mr Ponle, known online as “mrwoodberry”, used Mark Kain in emails, according to the FBI.

    He is accused of defrauding a Chicago-based company into sending wire transfers of $15.2m. Companies in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York, and California are also said to have fallen victim.

    The cash trail allegedly disappeared after his accomplices, called money mules, converted the money into the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

    Email scams have become so prevalent globally, and so deeply linked to Nigeria, that the fraudsters have a name in the country: “Yahoo boys”.

    They try to convince a recipient to wire money to the other side of the world or they go “phishing”, stealing a user’s identity and personal information for fraud.

    The FBI warns against the Nigerian letter or “419” fraud – emails promising large sums of money, called advance fee scams. The “Nigerian prince” trope has become shorthand for deception.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Nigeria’s China virus compensation case ‘frivolous’

    China has dismissed as “frivolous” an attempt by Nigerian lawyers to get compensation for the coronavirus pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

    The 11 lawyers accuse China of failing to promptly inform the World Health Organization (WHO) about the virus.

    They are demanding $200bn (£158bn) in damages for the “loss of lives, economic strangulation, trauma, hardship, social disorientation, mental torture and disruption of normal daily existence of people in Nigeria”.

    But the Chinese embassy in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, said the case lacked basis in international law.

    “Covid-19 has caught the whole world by surprise. China, like other countries, is a victim. Confronted by an unknown virus, we have acted responsibly to protect people’s life and health and safeguard global public health,”it said in statement on Twitter.

    “China was the first country to report cases to WHO and promptly share information with relevant countries and regions, the first to sequence the genome of the virus and share it with the world, the the first to publish guidelines for treatment and containment.

    “In the fight against Covid-19, solidarity and co-operation is our most powerful weapon.”

    The embassy urged the lawyers, who are planning to persuade the government to institute a state action against China at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, to do more to enhance mutual trust rather than hyping up the situation.

    The case has yet to be heard at Nigeria’s High Court.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Nigerian soldiers ambushed on reopened highway

    Islamist militants launched a deadly ambush on Nigerian soldiers who were travelling on Tuesday on a key highway that re-opened in January after being closed last year because of frequent attacks.

    At least 23 soldiers are reported to have been killed in the attack, which took place approximately 40km (25 miles) from Maiduguri, the main city in north-eastern Borno state.

    The death toll is yet to be confirmed but the military has acknowledged it took place in the village of Bulabulin, on the road between Maiduguri and Damboa.

    The army, which often downplays its losses, said in a statement that only two soldiers had been killed as well as 17 militants.

    The Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), a Boko Haram faction, said it was behind the attack, saying 40 soldiers were killed.

    The splinter group has carried out a number of devastating attacks this year, killing 81 people in the village of Gubio in June, as well as striking the garrison town of Monguno.

    Militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoots have waged a brutal insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Nigerian arrested for attempting to acquire a Ghanaian passport fraudulently

    The Tema Regional Immigration Command has apprehended a Nigerian national for attempting to acquire a Ghanaian passport at the Passport Application Centre (PAC), Tema.

    The Nigerian, 29-year-old Obina Ukah, was arrested during the vetting of his application by Immigration Officers and was subsequently referred to the Tema Regional Command for further investigations.

    This was made known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Friday in a press release signed by DSI Mercy Budu, Regional Public Affairs Officer, Tema Regional Command.

    According to the release, Mr. Ukah had entered Ghana illegally through the Aflao border and had been working at the Volta Hotel in Akosombo, for six months as an engineer without a valid work/residence permit.

    Mr. Ukah then decided to acquire a Ghanaian passport and was assisted by a 53-year-old Ghanaian national, whose name has been withheld for security reasons. His Ghanaian accomplice was to assist him acquire a Ghanaian birth certificate with false personal information at a fee of 200 Ghana cedis to aid in the processing of the passport.

    The two suspects had been referred to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) National Headquarters for further investigations.

    The GIS cautioned all foreign nationals in Ghana, especially those from the ECOWAS sub-region, to desist from attempting to acquire a Ghanaian passport by false pretence, which was a serious offence under the laws of the country.

    Source: GNA

  • Nigerian troops kill Boko Haram commander

    A Boko Haram commander, Abu Imrana has been killed in an exchange of gunfights with Nigerian soldiers in Borno state.

    Vanguard had reported how over 150 people were killed in attacks across Monguno and Gubio local government areas of Borno last week.

    Recently, Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai commended the Nigerian troops for repelling Boko Haram attacks in Mungonu.

    Source: vanguardngr.com

  • Nigeria develops three-year coronavirus response plan

    The Nigerian government says it is developing a three-year action plan for its response to the pandemic.

    It also said it is not yet safe to reopen schools and other places where large gatherings could take place.

    Health Minister Osagie Ehanire told journalists that the pandemic “will be with us for a long time and we shall keep learning as we go along”.

    He said the response plan covers the short, middle and long term effect of the pandemic.

    Tracing, testing and case management will also be driven by data and evidence.

    The minister decried what he described as an escalation in the level of non-compliance with social distancing and wearing of face masks especially in markets and motor parks.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Immigration officials refuse 19 Nigeriens exit

    Vigilant Immigration officials on duty at the Beat two unapproved route bordering neighbouring Burkina Faso in the Hamile Sector Command have nabbed nineteen Nigeriens for attempting to exit into Burkina Faso.

    They are all males and their ages ranged between 14 and 43.

    Preliminary investigations revealed that they were in Ghana around Ashanti region for some time now.

    Their intention was to sneak into Burkina Faso en route Niger for farming purposes.

    They were screened by the Port Health personnel.

    They were sent back to Kumasi and its environs on board a VIP bus with registration number GT 4356-16 at 1500HRS

    Source: Kasapa FM

  • Meet Awwal, the young “Northerner” who has 7 BMW cars, while his father has 3 Rolls Royce cars

    Awwal is a Nigerian boy, born and brought up in the north, Abuja to be specific. He is a young boy who recently trended on twitter after uploading himself posing beside his father’s Rolls Royce wraith.

    Though we don’t know who is father is, but what we know for sure is that the father is surely a wealthy man. A follower on his page then asked him if his father has 2 Rolls Royce, he then replied and said no, his father has 3 Rolls Royce.

    Another follower then asked him if only him owns 3 BMW cars, but he said not 3 but 7.

    I guess you are wondering what job he is doing that he has money to buy all these things? Well, he is into pimping of cars in Abuja.

    He is also known to be an organizer for car drifting competition. Here are some of his photos below

    1) Awwal with his father’s Rolls Royce

    2) Awwal with his friend

    3) Part of Awwal’s car collection

    4) Awwal cruising in one of his cars with his friend

    5) Awwal’s car drifting show

    6) Conversation he had with a follower, telling him how many cars he has

    7) Awwal’s instagram page

    That is truly a flashy life everyone will wish to live. There are truly allot of wealthy northerners who we hardly hear their names.

    Source: operanewsapp.com

  • Nigerian woman in court for impersonating ministers

    A Nigerian woman has been put before an Accra Circuit Court for impersonating some Ministers of State to defraud prospective job seekers on social media.

    Vivian Sajida Imran, a 31-year-old trader and her husband, Prince Joel, are alleged to have created multiple fake accounts on Facebook in the names of Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information; Shirley Ayorko Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Henry Quartey, Deputy Minister of National Security.

    According to court documents, the two succeeded in defrauding many victims to the tune of GH¢10,277 under the pretext of securing jobs for them at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Ghana Gas Company, and Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).

    They then requested their victims to pay various sums of money through Mobile Money for application forms and interviews.

    Vivian Sajida was arrested at Jericho at Ashaiman after the ministers had been made aware of her criminal acts and informed the National Security.

    Her husband managed to escape arrest and is still at large.

    The two are facing one count of pretending to be public officers and seven counts of defrauding by false pretences.

    She pleaded not guilty, and the court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Essandoh, a High Court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a Circuit Court judge, granted her a bail of GH¢12,000 with two sureties, one of whom must be a public servant earning not less than GH¢1,500 a month.

    The prosecutor, Detective Frederick Sarpong, presenting the facts said the accused persons used the names and photographs of the ministers to create Facebook accounts and posed as them.

    He told the court that the accused persons in their calls and chats with their victims promised to secure jobs for them at TOR, Ghana Gas Company, and COCOBOD.

    They then convinced their victims to pay various amounts of money totalling GH¢10,277 through Mobile Money for applications forms and interviews.

    The court heard that the monies were paid into MTN numbers 0242774965 and 0551047196 and later transferred another Mobile Money account number 0248024471.

    Detective Sarpong stated that the ministers who later had information about the activities of the accused persons reported the matter to the National Security.

    He said the accused were tracked to their house at Jericho where Vivian Sajida was arrested, but Prince Joel managed to escape.

    He said a search conducted in their room revealed six mobile phones, including the three mobile money numbers used to receive the monies from their victims.

    The prosecutor added that a forensic on the phones revealed that one of them had the number 0248024471 which was registered in the name of Vivian Sajida Imran and was the number through which the money obtained from the victims were transferred and later withdrawn.

    Source: Daily Guide Network

  • Nigerian men put cocaine on their manhoods to make it sweet hen having sleeping with ladies — Kenyan socialite, Shornarwa claims

    A popular Kenyan socialite identified as Shornarwa has made a wild claim about Nigerian men during a live Instagram video with media personality, Shaffie Weru.

    She claimed that alleged that Nigerian men put cocaine in their manhoods to make sex sweeter. She also claimed that this act makes women addicted to them.

    This Kenyan socialite disclosed that some of her female followers shared their sexual experience with Nigerian men and this made her very shocked.

    She stated that one of the ladies confessed that the Nigerian man she has been sleeping with is very good in bed, a claim which she said four other women countered, stating that these set of men deceive ladies by using other things to make sex sweeter.

    Source: www.ghgossip.com

  • Coronavirus: Cleaners get more health allowance than us Nigerian lab scientists

    The Delta State chapter of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, AMLSN, Thursday said its members receive an average of N30, 000 as health allowances in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that its personnel are paid far lesser than cleaners in the health sector in the state, who are paid N70, 000.

    The scientists while threatening to withdraw their services from the Delta State COVID-19 team if the anomaly is not rectified, said they are giving the state government two weeks to look into their grievances or else, there will be no health personnel to collect samples from suspected COVID-19 patients in the state.

    Though the State Commissioner for Information, Dr. Mordi Ononye declined commenting on the matter when contacted, his counterpart in the ministry of information, Charles Aniagwu, debunked the claims by the scientists saying, “That cannot be true because our allowance is bigger than any other state in the country.” AMLSN Public Relations Officer in the state, Hilary Ugwoke while lamenting what he described as the discrepancies in the health allowances compared to other health professionals in the state, wonder the modalities used in the payments for doctors, nurses and pharmacists who he said receive far more than medical laboratory scientists in the state.

    He said: “Of all health workers in the state apart from drivers, medical laboratory scientists in Delta State are the least paid. Some are paid as much as N30, 000 for the six months based on the sample collected and we are saying that it is not a function of sample collected because hazard is hazard as we are all prone to being infected by a singular person.”

    “At the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, DELSUTH, Oghara for example, Doctors were paid an average of N250, 000; Nurses got N90, 000, Pharmacists got N180, 000 while cleaners where paid N70, 000 compared to medical laboratory scientists whom were paid N30, 000.

    “We will like to know the methods used in the variation of payments for all health professionals that will warrant us receiving N30, 000. If this anomaly is not rectified within the shortest possible time, we will be forced to withdraw our services from the COVID-19 programme in the state and we are giving them a timeframe between now and next month to do so.

    “Of all health professionals, we are the only personnel that interact with suspected COVID-19 patients with their mouths and nose open while coughing and breathing on us in most cases, unlike doctors and nurses who attend to them while wearing protective equipment thereby putting us more at risk.

    “It should also be on record that if our services are withdrawn, as the only professionals backed by law to collect samples from suspected COVID-19 patients for test, nobody will be available and allowed to collect samples from such patients for test.”

    Source: vanguardngr.com

  • Reduce salaries of appointees, sell presidential jets – Atiku tells Nigerian govt

    Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has advised the Nigerian Government to reduce the salaries of political appointees and sell some presidential jets as a way out of the economic quagmire the country finds itself.

    In an article titled “Nigeria Cannot Afford Luxuries During an Austerity”, Atiku stated that “the best way out of this economic quagmire is to reduce our expenditure”.

    He also pointed out that the current budget the country is running on was formed according to a projection on crude oil which is no longer the case.

    The statement reads: “It is to my consternation that despite the crash in the price of oil, and the inability of Nigeria to expand our revenue base through the non-oil sector, the FG of Nigeria has only seen fit to slash our budget by a mere 0.6%. This represents a reduction of only ?71 billion.

    “Putting politics aside, this is grossly insufficient and betrays the fact we have lost touch with the current realities in the global political economy.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, when this budget was presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, it was predicated on a projection that our nation would generate crude oil production of 2.18 million barrels a day, at an expected oil price of $57 per barrel.

    “Today that is no longer the case. Both our production, and the price of oil have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, to the extent that we have unsold vessels, and our income has tanked by more than 50%.

    “Given that this is the case, how can anyone justify a reduction in expenditure of just 0.6%? We cannot be the only nation bucking the trend?

    “Saudi Arabia, a nation with a much stronger production capacity than ours and with a larger global market share, as well as a foreign reserve that is 12 times ours, has slashed her budget by almost 30%. Ditto for other oil economies.

    “Nigeria cannot make up for the loss of expected revenue by taking out more loans and issuing out more bonds. Debt will be the death of our economy, and bonds will put our people in bondage.

    “The best way out of this economic quagmire is to reduce our expenditure. And a 0.6% reduction is no reduction. It is only window dressing.

    “My counsel to Nigerian Government is this: put Nigerians first and cut your coat, not according to your size, but according to your cloth.

    “Realistically slash the budget. Every pork barrel has to go. The billions budgeted for the travels and feeding of the President and Vice President has to be reduced. The ?27 billion budget for the renovation of the National Assembly has to go.

    “The massive budgets to run both the Presidency and the Legislature has to be downsized. The budget for purchasing luxury cars for the President, his vice, and other political office holders must be abandoned.

    “Leave the salaries of civil servants alone, but reduce the salaries of political appointees. Sell 8 or 9 of the jets in the Presidential Air Fleet.

    “Any budget slash that is less than 25% will not be in the interest of Nigeria.

    “And beyond a budget slash, Nigeria needs a budget realignment, to redirect expenditure away from running a massive bureaucracy, into social development sectors like education, infrastructure, and above all, healthcare.

    “We must invest in the goose that lays the golden egg – the Nigerian people.

    “These are the types of sacrifices that we need in a time of crisis. We do not need empty gestures that will lead to empty treasuries.

    “In times of austerity, no nation, not the least a mono-product economy, such as ours, should be living in luxury at a leadership level”.

    Source: mynigeria.com

  • Coronavirus in Nigeria: The engineers fixing ventilators for free

    Two Nigerian software engineers have been fixing ventilators for free at a hospital in northern Nigeria.

    William Gyang and Nura Jubril, who have experience doing electrical repairs, discovered that there were 40 faulty machines at the University of Jos teaching hospital.

    They’ve already fixed two and are now working on the others.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-52216400/coronavirus-in-nigeria-the-engineers-fixing-ventilators-for-free

    Source: BBC News

  • Coronavirus: Court remands Nigerian for taking blood sample of pregnant women

    A 34-year-old Nigerian has been arrested for allegedly defying the restriction order by taking blood samples of pregnant women and residents at Gbese Community, a suburb of James Town without legal authority.

    Chukwuka James, 34, has therefore been remanded by the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Afia Owusuwaa Appiah to re-appear on April 15, 2020.

    His plea was not taken because prosecution had indicated it will need time to augment their facts with new information.

    In court on Wednesday, the Prosecution led by Chief Inspector Gulliver Tenkorang told the court that the suspect was arrested holding medical equipment.

    He told the court that certain amendments needed to be added to the facts and will need one week to have that done. He subsequently prayed for the suspect to be remanded.

    The court while remanding the suspect to reappear on April 15, for his plea to be taken, ordered the prosecution to file their disclosures before the next court date.

    Tears flow

    The suspect immediately after being remanded broke down in tears while kneeling before the court and asking for clemency.

    He said it was not intentional that he came out that day and begged for forgiveness.

     

    Brief facts

    The facts of the case as presented to the court were that Chukwuka James, 34, is a Nigerian national and currently resides at Newtown, in Accra.

    According to Chief Inspector Tenkorang, the prosecutor in the case, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the president by Executive Instrument 65 in accordance with provisions of the Imposition Restrictions Act 2020 (Act 1012) imposed a two-week lockdown on some specified areas, including the area of suspect in Newtown on March 30, 2020.

    He told the court that on April 4, 2020, at about 0900 hours, police had information that the suspect was taking blood samples, checking BP, and sugar level of residents in Gbese Community.

    According to him, the police proceeded to Gbese in James Town and arrested the suspect who had in his possession glucometer, thermometer, test strips and gloves.

    Upon interrogation, the suspect informed the police that he is a distributor of food supplement and admitted that he went to Gbese to check the blood pressure of his client.

    He said it came to light that suspect does not fall within the exemption group with regards to the imposition of restrictions on all persons in Ghana.

    A pregnant woman who lives in Gbese Community confirmed to police that her blood pressure was checked by the accused person.

     

    Source: starrfm.com.gh

  • Nigerian tests positive to coronavirus in U.S.

    A Nigerian has tested positive to Covid-19 (coronavirus) in Washington, US, the Mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, said on Saturday.

    Today News Africa reported that Ms Bowser said the Nigerian man spent time in Washington DC and tested positive for Covid-19 at a hospital in neighbourhood Maryland.

    She said the Nigerian does not live in DC, but travelled to the area from Nigeria where he had been staying with relatives before he fell ill. She, however. did not give further details.

    Ms Bowser gave the information when updating the public on the first presumptive case in Washington.

    She said there were two cases in Washington – the first one was a Nigerian who spent time in Washington DC and tested positive in Maryland, while the second case was that of a DC resident in his 50s who tested positive and has been hospitalized in the district.

    The DC resident is the first to test positive for Covid-19 in Washington.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. has also been recording increasing numbers of cases in the last weeks.

    The U.S. recorded the first confirmed death from coronavirus on February 29.

    The man in his 50s had underlying health conditions, and there was no evidence he had close contact with an infected person or a relevant travel history that would have exposed him to the virus.

    Now the rapidly-spreading virus has killed 19 people in the U.S. and affected more than 30 states and the District of Columbia, turning into a health crisis.

    Federal health officials announced the first case of coronavirus in the U.S. on January 20. The patient was in Washington state, and had just returned five days prior from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak started.

    The outbreak in the U.S. has been raising alarms among its citizens as many of them are not happy with the way the Trump administration was handling the outbreak.

    However, the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said Friday that he was “confident” that the United States would handle the novel coronavirus “better than any nation in the world.”

    Mr Pompeo expressed the optimism during an interview with CNBC, in response to a question about whether the U.S. response could as good as that of China without interfering with people’s civil liberties. China imposed severe restrictions on travel in an effort to contain the virus.

    “I’m confident we can handle it here. I’m confident we’ll handle it better than any nation in the world,” Mr Pompeo said.

    Source: allafrica.com

  • Nigerian teenager kills man ‘who tried to rape her’ – Police

    A teenage girl (name withheld) at Aboru high school, Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos, allegedly killed a security guard who tried to rape her on Saturday.

    Bala Elkana, the Lagos police spokesperson said on Sunday that Babatunde Ishola, the 49-year-old security guard was stabbed to death by the 16-year-old girl at his residence at Ogundele street, Aboru.

    The young girl is a SS3 student of Aboru high school and resides on Olalemide Street, Aboru.

    According to a police statement, the teenager went to the house of the deceased on Saturday “to help him fetch water as he was living alone”.

    The late Ishola was a friend to the suspect’s father and she had always been helping him with house chores.

    Mr Elkana said “while she was helping out with the water, on 7/3/2020, he attempted raping her and she picked a knife from the room and stabbed him.”

    When the Oke Odo Police Station received the report, the corpse of the man was found lying in his pool of blood, the police said.

    “The corpse was evacuated to hospital for post mortem examination. The suspect was arrested and the knife she used in stabbing the deceased person was recovered,” Mr Elkana added.

    Meanwhile, Mr Elkana said the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has directed the immediate transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department Yaba for discreet investigation, while the young girl has been taken to the hospital for medical and forensic examination.

    Source: allafrica.com