by Admin | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former president Goodluck Jonathan, said she was using her $15m, which was frozen in four companies’ accounts, to settle medical bills while she was out of the country. She, therefore, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Skye Bank to lift the restriction on the accounts. Patience said this in a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016, written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, which was addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu. The PUNCH had reported that the four accounts belonged to the following companies: Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited. A houseboy, a driver and other domestic workers of a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, were named as directors, but Patience’s $15m was lodged in the accounts and she was given a platinum card and exclusive access to the accounts. The letter read in part, “It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said accounts, which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts and our client is the sole signatory to these accounts. “However, our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or hindrance. Our client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on July 7, 2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon, contacted Skye Bank Plc through our solicitors. It was only then that the bank officials informed our...
by Admin | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Jessica Beer, a Junior Secondary School (JSS) II student of Gyegeh Memorial College Logo1 , Makurdi, Benue state, has committed suicide. The female student according sources drank substance believed to be poison and was rushed to a clinic in Akpehe, before doctors confirmed her dead on arrival . A close friend of the deceased, who would rather want to remain anonymous, told the Nation that the girl committed suicide because her boyfriend by name Labi, a pork meat seller at Wurukum Market in Makurdi impregnated and abadoned her and then impregnated another girl. Residents of Akpehe who were startled by the news rushed to the clinic to catch a glimpse of the remains of the...
by Admin | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, may forfeit to the Federal Government, a N10bn hotel allegedly belonging to her if she fails to explain how she came about some funds allegedly traced to her accounts. “This is one of the questions she may have to answer as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission continues investigation into the $20m found in five accounts she has laid claim to,” a source told our correspondent on Monday. The hotel, which is known as Aridolf Resort Wellness and Spa, Yenagoa, was inaugurated by Patience in April 2015, barely a month before the end of her husband’s tenure. According to a UK business newspaper, The Financial Times, the hotel, which has imported state-of-the-art furniture, can compete with other luxury hotels in developed countries. The report dated April 21, 2015, states in part, “The Aridolf Hotel in Yenagoa is an unlikely monument to kitsch on a reclaimed swamp in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta. In the lobby, Louis XIV furniture is accompanied by bowls of plastic fruit, faux Dutch landscapes and a grotesquely gaudy chandelier. The hotel is redolent of the riches on display in a region that for half a century has generated the bulk of Nigeria’s wealth. “The Aridolf, which is owned by Patience Jonathan, wife of the former President, is symptomatic of how superficial progress has been in addressing the festering sense of marginalisation in the region, which remains desperately impoverished despite benefiting from a tide of petrodollars in recent years.” The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, told our correspondent that the EFCC...
by Admin | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI THE Nigerian Army on Monday raised the alarm concerning members of the Boko Haram terrorist group disguising as mad men. This was also as the Army announced the killing of a female suicide bomber at a checkpoint in Borno State. These were contained in a statement in the early hours of Monday by the spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Colonel Sani Usman. The statement reads in full: On Sunday 11th September 2016, evening, a suspected female suicide bomber was seen approaching troops check point located at Kara Cattle market axis, Dikwa, towards Antul and Mukdala, Dikwa Local Government Area, Borno State. She was challenged from afar by the vigilant duty sentry, she refused to stop claiming to be coming from Monguno to see her parents in Dikwa. Troops sensing the direction of approach was suspicious and abnormal, fired a shot at her and the sentry gallant sentry was proven right as she was carrying a Person Borne Improvised Explosive Device (PBIED) which exploded with a loud bang, killing her instantly and causing minor injury on 2 soldiers and a Civilian JTF assisting them. The injured soldiers and the civilian have been treated and have continued with their duties. This incident has shown that there are a few of the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists that are determined to carry out criminal acts to create panic and insecurity in some areas. In a related development, there is also very reliable information that remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists now disguise or pretend to be mad men or women in order to gain access to some locations, especially...
by Admin | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Weeks after the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned the general public against falling prey to an online investment scheme tagged, “MMM Federal Republic of Nigeria,” many people remain immovable in their quest for its breadth-taking gains. In a survey by The Guardian, most of the respondents, who were mostly students of tertiary institutions, described the scheme as a less-risky venture, which if successful, leaves participants smiling. The MMM, according to information on its website, is a trending financial scheme which promises to create a community of people providing financial help to one another on the principle of gratuitousness, reciprocity and benevolence. Registered members help each other by providing a certain sum of money (as ordered by the operators of the scheme) and such paid amount is expected to yield a 30 per cent increase at the end of the month. At any month end, members could withdraw their invested amount as well as the added interest through a similar means of being paid by another participant. By operation, the scheme, which platform is Nigeria., has no central system or account. However, SEC, in a recent statement on its website, disclosed that the system was a ponzi scheme, alleging that the facilitators were online fraudsters who promise high rates of return with little risk to investors. It added: “The platform has embarked on aggressive online media campaign to lure the investing public to participate in what it called ‘mutual aid and financial network’ with a monthly investment return of 30 per cent. “The operation of this investment scheme has no tangible business model, hence it is...
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