Rain rain go away, come again another day, little baby wants to play…

No be so! It’s been hot all year long but now it appears the rains are descending hard soon. Fix your wipers, change your tires and learn how to survive being a Lagos motorist or pedestrian throughout the rainy season. Remember that calling while driving is as bad as drinking while driving and driving in the pouring rain on a pitch-black night is tantamount to half-suicide. Remember to tweet #lagosTraffic to warn other road users especially as floods gather and buildings collapse. Be careful, be very careful.

Lagos no go spoil (eko o ni baje o!)

Bookmark It

Happy New Year all,

It is my helpless displeasure to announce to you that you may be asked to ’strip naked’ to US Airport officials as from today. They may even request to shave your… erm… erm hair, so do yourself a big favour by shaving “that” before travelling. Wash your panties, dirty boxers and your bra, you may be asked to strip on a long queue (you know we Nigerians sabi travel). Don’t wear a Ralph suit and Oshodi boxers, same goes for stockings (socks). If you sweat a lot, please get some good quality cotton singlet. The search is “extensive” they say, so expect to spend at least 60 minutes upon arrival. Book the Taxi cab/ Appointment accordingly. The sky is our limit, we are constantly re-branding Nigeria. Although corruption has reduced (that’s what they said) we have moved up in other departments. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s suicide bombing issue, barring.

In Yahoo News, the words were politically, diplomatically and wisely selected but they mean “plenty”, see:

“Beginning Monday, air travelers flying into the United States from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Yemen and other “countries of interest” will be subjected to enhanced screening techniques, such as body scans, pat-downs and a thorough search of carry-on luggage. Passengers are subjected to special screening, including full body searches, in a designated area of the departure lounge, said the spokesman, Sultan Hasan.

My major concern is that I have a phobia for scanning machines. I know that frequent subjection to scanning rays could be detrimental to the human health on the long run. I have said time and before that I would someday consider changing Nationality and if tomorrow I claim to be Togolese, please don’t blame me, I’d rather be Ghanian than face this humiliation and phobia come true. Someone once said “There is NO single benefit of being a Nigerian” and I say to you today. There is at least one. No fuel, no jobs, no food, no water, no money, no reputation, no this, no that, but there is TIME (don’t hiss, every country has 24 hours and whatever you do with YOUR 24 hours…)! Dora, hope I made sense?

What a “perfect” way to start the new year!

Sources: http://rubminds.com/forums/world-news/nigerian-terrorist/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_airline_security

Bookmark It

You are advised to watch what you eat (meat) at parties as some ritualistic celebrants now serve seasoned human flesh at parties and ceremonies. Rumors in Lagos, they say are usually 90% reality. Here is one dirty fiction-type story with some elements of truth in it.

A couple of party planners approached a set of cooks for their services, a day before the party they went to pick up the cooks with a bus to the venue (along Badagry-Expressway). On getting to a bushy path-way, the celebrant then told the cooks that where they were going to is a wealthy man’s place and they needed to be blind-folded (reason being that they didn’t want outsiders to come and meet the wealthy owner of the property and start begging him for money, so the venue had to be secretive). When they eventually got to the place, they were shown the peppers, tomatoes, seasonings and the likes. The cook then asked for the cow, they were then told the meat was at the other side. The traumatic shock that engulfed the cooks had no bounds, alas before them were 18 young girls (all blind-folded, waiting to be butchered), the celebrant then brought out his gun and ordered the butcher amongst the cooks to start cutting the girls to pieces, which they reluctantly did, there after cooking the girls using them for various soup. The celebrants then told the cooks in order to be sure the meals were not tainted that they must taste it, this they also had to do with a gun pointing at them. A bevy of jubilant crowd eventually stormed the party, requesting for plates after plates of various meals, stashing fried meat into their (African) bags (unknown to the crowd, the meat they were munching had been doused with ritual incarnations which was intended to tap into any good in them).

The cooks were eventually paid but before they left, they were taken to a shrine to swear an oath that no one will hear about what had just happened, doing this will only end their lives. Four of the cooks are already dead having told the police and their families. The only person that is still alive was in coma for several days, having told her pastors and was only revived last week, hence, the need for the testimony this past Sunday.

I think I’ll just eat nothing at parties then. Serve me nothing, no free lunch anyway.

Bookmark It

After Banky W’s tonguelashing of Reuben Abati, Dele Momodu becomes the second newspaper celebrity to be battered by a better schooled reader.

Feyi Fawehinmi: Dele Momodu; Please Up Your Game….Your Sh*t Is Weak!

Firstly; I cannot begin to tell you how terribly upset I am that I wasted 10 minutes of my life this morning reading the utter tripe of an article you submitted to ThisDay as your column last week.

Please break my heart and tell me you got paid for writing that steaming pile of dog poo? I stopped reading your nonsense a while ago but I somehow got sucked into reading this one.

But it’s not all your fault. I blame Mr Nduka Obaigbena who seems to be unsure whether he wants ThisDay to be a serious newspaper or a light entertainment magazine.

If your column was published in The Daily Star in between the pictures of the naked page 3 girls, I wouldnt much care. But you seem to want people to take your column seriously… .which is what I have a problem with.

Dude, if we want to hear an allegory about the hunter and the antelope, we would watch Tales by Moonlight.

We certainly dont want to pay N150 for a newspaper for us to listen to you talk to us as if we were impressionable children listening intently to the gentlemen who just returned from a sojourn abroad regaling them with tales which stretch the truth to breaking point.

I think you should be a bit more humble…your life is NOT that interesting. You need not tell us details of how you and your wife and child slept on a single bed in London.

What you might have considered squalor at the time is to die for many children all over the world today. Besides what you went through is part of what forges the character of any man.

You ate chicken in Cotonou? Really? I am happy for you.

Besides the majority of Nigerians who come to live and work in the UK almost always have exceedingly humble beginnings.

It’s the way the society is designed in case you hadnt noticed. The UK is not given to producing millionaires overnight unlike Nigeria.

People are expected to work their way upwards on the social ladder.

We also do not care if you only ever met Madam Cecilia only once or thrice. In any case we have no way of verifying this information.

However if you choose to make this information public, then I have a right to disbelieve it. So I am telling you now that I think you have met Mrs Ibru at least 15 times and that Intercontinental has advertised in Ovation in the past.

What are you going to do about that?

Again, we do not care if you bought a second hand Bentley at 42. If you had friends who were jealous of you on account of that, then I suggest you upgrade the kind of friends you keep.

What does it cost to drive a brand new car in the UK? If I wanted to drive a 2009 car today in the UK, I could do so by tomorrow…. all I need to do is prove I can meet the monthly payments and I will drive away with the car dealer thanking me profusely.

I cannot imagine any of my friends being jealous of me if I decide to buy a second hand Bentley. Stop fooling yourself, a second had car is never a sign of success in the UK.

I also notice the sly attempt to paint yourself as a martyr right up there with Dr Tai Solarin and Madam Due Process, Oby Ezekwesili. Nice try Bob Dee…pull the other one.

So now in your eyes all the bank MDs only made mistakes? Do you obtain your wisdom from the back of danfo buses in Lagos….you know the ones where they write ‘nobody is above mistake’?

You talk about Sanusi going overboard and beyond his mandate. You then spectacularly fail to tell us what the said mandate is. Dude, you are not allowed to do that.

If you are going to accuse the man of acting beyond what his powers allow or even counter to the national interest as you allege, you gotta back it up with facts. And what exactly do you mean by historical dialects?

I know you studied Yoruba in University but seriously, get a grip.

Mr Dele Momodu are you saying that the impeachment of Governors [in the middle of the night as you claim] were all acts of scapegoatism? ?

Whatever it is you are drinking, I suggest you cease and desist from drinking it forthwith. It’s clearly too strong.

For the first time in the history of Nigeria, there was a reckoning for politicians who felt they could get away with riding roughshod over the will of the people by brazenly rigging elections.

Do you know that names like Palm Kernel, Michael Jackson, Iron etc were discovered on the ballot to have voted for Dr Olusegun Agagu in the 2007 elections in Ondo state?

Are you saying that cheating to win an election is ok?

Do you know of any serious democracy where rigging an election is ok?

In your view only a ‘benevolent and visionary dictator and clear headed visionaries’ can rid Nigeria of corruption. Wow. Dude please make up your mind are you a democrat or thugocrat?

I dare say if a dictator were to appear on the scene in Nigeria today, you would be one of the first batch of people he would go after because of your specialty in glorifying all that’s wrong with Nigeria.

Please dont start feeling too cool with yourself just yet.

You talk about Sanusi not giving the bank MDs the opportunity of redemption. Gracious me, do you want a microphone and pulpit so you can deliver your 2009 version of The Sermon on The Mount?

You dont even think they are guilty, so to slyly canvass for redemption for them is downright bizarre.

Dude, do you know that one of the best ways to fight corruption is to let people know and see that justice will be done if you are corrupt?

If these MDs are guilty of the very serious crimes they have been accused of, do you have a problem with them doing the time for it?

They are not poor men…they can hire the best lawyers to defend them AND they will get a chance to defend themselves in court which is very crucial.

Mind you, a ‘benevolent and visionary dictator’, as you suggest, would probably just throw them in jail and leave them to rot there.

You say the government is a pathological debtor. Show me a country where the government is not a debtor.

If the government stopped borrowing from the banks, how many of them do you think would survive one day? I am certain that you wouldnt know a government bond if it landed on your lap, stroked your chest hair and called you ‘Bob Dee’.

But remain ignorant if you wish…just dont spread the disease in your columns anymore.

You said the western govts rolled out ‘workable packages’ compared to our theatre of the absurd when dealing with the financial crisis.

I will only slightly tolerate your ignorance as you appear to be suffering from what is called a ‘fatal conceit’ ….trying to talk about something you couldnt possibly know anything about.

But I will give you just one example; At the height of the credit crunch the UK govt forced Lloyds TSB to takeover HBOS.

HBOS was dead to all intents and purposes at the time but Lloyds was doing pretty ok as it hadnt taken on the kind of risks HBOS had.

Over what has now come to be known as the most expensive glass of champagne ever, the deal was struck and Lloyds Banking Group was born.

So far this year, Lloyds has had to make writedowns of £13bn as a result of that unholy marriage that was orchestrated by the government.

Not only that, it was revealed that Lloyds will have to close as much as 550 branches of Halifax it inherited with all the attendant job losses.

When all those people lose their jobs, they wont pay any income tax. They will also start collecting benefits increasing the cost to the government.

If that’s what you call a workable package, then please get in touch with me…there’s a bridge linking Ikorodu and Lekki I want to sell to you for a good price.

You claim foreigners were not invited to take over the banks in America when they were teetering on the brink of collapse.

Really? When Lehman Brothers went kaput, Barclays and Nomura were the vultures who were called in to split the carcass. Those banks are American I take it?

Ever the heard the name Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan before? Well he was the Abu Dhabi Prince who bailed out Barclays last October when the bank was doing everything possible to avoid taking a bailout from the UK government.

He invested £7bn for an 11% stake in the bank last year and that literarily saved them from damnation. He also owns Manchester City Football Club for your information.

Dude, the world has changed. These days you take money from where you can find it. Do you have an idea of just how much the US owes China?

The Hummer vehicle brand was sold to Sichuan Tengzhong by General Motors when it needed to raise cash. I could go on and on.

You throw about some Latin quotes in a bid to look smarter than you really are. You talk about the Nemo dat rule in relation to Sanusi, claiming he should not or could not have sacked the MDs.

Mr Wannabe lawyer, I have news for you; Under Sections 33 and 35 of The Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act of the Nigerian consitution, Sanusi has the powers to sack bank MDs.

So your nemo dis or nemo dat sh*t is weak! There is a reason why we have that law in Nigeria.

It’s because bank MDs sit tighter than Gaddafi in Libya….other than sacking them, there’s almost no other way to remove them when they have been found to have done wrong.

You also quote the audi alteram partem rule which effectively says no one should be condemned WITHOUT being heard i.e due process must be followed.

Except I am missing something, NONE of the bank MDs has yet been condemned… .and they are currently getting a chance to be heard. So why are you wetting your pants getting overly excited?

These bank MDs have been accused of very serious crimes of borrowing people billions of naira of shareholders money without so much as taking a kolanut as collateral.

Please keep quiet and let the whole drama play out. Life goes on….they will get their day in court and plenty more facts and evidence will be revealed.

And I repeat; they will have access to the very best lawyers in the country…something the majority of Nigerians can only dream of.

Mr Momodu, you do not have a right to play fast and loose with the facts because you have the priviledge of a back page column in a national daily.

As a journalist and member of the 4th estate, you have a duty to inform the public of the facts and as much as possible only give an opinion after you have thoroughly checked the facts.

At your level, ignorance is very dangerous and expensive, moreso in a country like Nigeria with all our myriad problems.

Your sh*t is weak dude…you need to up your game big time!

Bookmark It

SHOCKING REVELATION: Sanusi may not be acting in our interest after all. Chances are that he and Waziri of the EFCC are only protecting northern interest and are being used as tools to carry out the northern agenda since Soludo removed the Arabic language from the Naira. Please read on:

Vanguard on 23 March 2009, did a world exclusive on alleged plot by a group of individuals to take over five banks in the country.

Two weeks ago, the new Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi sacked the chief executives and boards of five banks, therefore confirming our scoop of March 23.

The story:ANTI-CONSOLIDATION forces have regrouped with the hope of dismantling the structures and forcing a takeover of the top five banks in the country, Vanguard can now reveal. The grand plan by the group is to cause panic and uncertainty in the industry and make the target banks look unsafe for depositors

Meantime, indications emerged yesterday that the Federal Government may announce the names of a new Governor of the Central Bank (CBN) and the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) in April just a few weeks before the tenure of the incumbents run out.

However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to make public information on causes of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the aim of the anti-consolidation forces is to cause loss of public confidence in the banking industry and compel the Federal Government to move in by injecting funds. Further, they ultimately plan to instigate government to take equity holdings in the targeted banks.

Vanguard gathered that the group at work is made up of former bank owners who lost out during the consolidation exercise, a powerful clique in the present government, and some aggrieved persons in three of the six geopolitical zones in the country who felt left out in the consolidation exercise.

Presidency sources disclosed that those who felt left out in the consolidation exercise are up in arms to recoup what they felt they lost during Obasanjo years.

Part of the plans hatched by the group is to ensure that the incumbent Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, does not get a second term. The plan is also to ensure that whatever gains consolidation recorded are discredited.

This, it was learnt, was meant to force the President to act quickly in the matter of appointment of a successor to Soludo as they anticipate that the president’s slow move may scuttle their dreams and cause the renewal of Soludo’s re-appointment for a second term.

The group’s second game plan is to make Nigerian banks look unsafe in the eye of the banking public. Part of the game is to spread rumours that some banks are unsound and are on the verge of collapse. They send out text messages to individuals and account holders passing wrong information on their target banks. At the moment, the group’s target is one of the high-flying new generation banks where they have sent out several messages.

New CBN Gov, Auditor-General to emerge April

The tenure of the CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. O. R. Ejenavi from Delta State will lapse in May 2009.

Naming nominees for the top jobs, according to a presidency source, will afford the Senate ample opportunity to work on them before they assume office.

While Soludo will complete his first term in office as CBN governor by May 29, Ejenavi will be due for retirement on age grounds on May 18.

However, among those being considered for the position of CBN governor include the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman from Kano, who was a former Finance minister and deputy governor at the apex bank; another former CBN deputy governor, Obadiah Mailafia from Nassarawa, Mallam Isa Hayatudeen from Borno, a former managing director of FSB International Bank, incumbent Managing Director of First Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also from Kano, and Mallam Falalu Bello from Kaduna, Managing Director, Unity Bank.

But the most touted name so far is that of Mallam Isa Yuguda, the Bauchi State governor who won election on the platform of the All Nigeria peoples Party, ANPP, but defected to the ruling PDP last week. Yuguda is also an in-law of President Umaru Yar’Adua. Yuguda was also a former Managing Director of Inland Bank, a legacy bank in post-consolidation FinBank.

Past CBN governors include late Dr. Clement Isong (Akwa-Ibom), Alhaji Adamu Ciroma (Yobe); Mr. Ola Vincent (Lagos), late Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed (Bauchi); Mr. Paul Ogwuma (Abia), Dr. Joseph Sanusi (Ondo) and the current Professor Charles Soludo (Anambra).

It was also gathered that strict obedience to civil service rules will be observed in the appointment of a new Auditor General for the Federation going by the constitutional provision.

Section 86 Subsection 1 of the 1999 constitution states: “the Auditor-General for the Federation shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Federal Civil Service Commission, subject to the confirmation of the Senate.”

That of the CBN may be determined by other factors, mostly political considerations which are at the pleasure of the President without recourse to the commission.

The most senior director in the office of the Auditor-General currently is Mr. Ogunsina G.F from Ekiti State who may be appointed unless there is political maneuvering. Having been a director since 2004, it may not be smooth sailing for Ogunsina because, there is another senior civil servant Mr. Osonuga T. A. from Ogun State who was promoted a director in 2007 and is being propelled by other forces to occupy the office.

It’s unfortunate top 5 banks are targeted, says official

A CBN official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that it is unfortunate that top five banks are the target. The banks, he said, are sound. The CBN had mistaken in the past the ongoing move as de-marketing by competitors in the banking industry, saying it is unhealthy competition.

The group is using this means to make depositors panic and undertake massive withdrawal of funds from the targeted banks in an attempt to cause liquidity problem in the bank. In that state they hope to cause a take over by the government which may buy a stake in the bank and later sell to members of the privileged group who may be appointed in the interim into the board of the banks.

Arewa worries over liquidity problem

However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to inform the people the cause of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.

ACF said that the commercial banks must have obviously lent too much money to people who either invested them in buying stocks or in the importation of petroleum products in the country, but are unable to repay such loans.

A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Mr. Anthony Sani however blamed the CBN for enquiring “into the volume of the so-called toxic assets of the commercial banks while refusing to tell Nigerians how or why in the first place, the banks found themselves in trouble.

The statement reads “The Working Committee of the National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) held its meeting at its national headquarters in Kaduna on Tuesday, the 17th of March 2009. In attendance were all National officers of the ACF drawn from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). General IBM Haruna, the Chairman presided.

“Among other things, the meeting reviewed and discussed a number of issues and other troubling developments in the country. At the end, it resolved to issue the following statement.

“The ACF deliberated on the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and observed that Nigerians are feeling increasingly frustrated by the failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disclose the true the true nature and the scale of the crisis.

“Even members of the National Assembly, despite their best efforts, have been unable to get to the truth of the matter.
According to Arewa consultative forum “All that seem obvious is that our commercial banks had lent out too much money to too many people who had invested them in stocks or petroleum importation but who are now unable to pay back. Beyond that, the public has no clear idea as how or why the loans were given and on what terms.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/08/26/group-plots-takeover-of-five-top-banks/comment-page-13/

Bookmark It

EFCC Smashes ATM Card Cloning Syndicate

The aggressive campaign by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC against Automated Teller Machine (ATM) fraudsters recorded a major breakthrough last week with the arrest in Lagos, of three powerful members of a crack syndicate whose specialty is the cloning of ATM cards using Magnetic Card Reader/Encoder machine.

Image
From Left,Chris Okeke,Nicholas Egbo and Kelechi Aro with their instruments of fraud.
The trio, Chris Okeke, Nicholas Egboh and Kelechi Aro were smoked out of their hide out following series of investigations which started from Kano that fingered them as the arrow heads of the deadly gang that has been defrauding depositors of various banks through the ATM. They were arrested on the last floor of a two storey building in Alaba Suru, a suburb of Lagos. Six Laptop computers, the Card reader machine, Bank documents and several credit cards and ATM cards were recovered from the suspects. Also recovered is a Gulf 3 saloon car.

According to investigation, all the fraudsters needed to have access to the account of any bank depositor are the victim’s ATM and PIN numbers. Once they have that information, they would use card reader machine to print the numbers on any ATM card. Once that is done, they can use the card to withdraw money from the victim’s account without even knowing the account holder’s name.

It is believed that members of this syndicate belong to the group of fraudsters that have been sending scam mails and text messages in the name of Interswitch Nigeria, urging unwary debit card holders to upgrade their ATM cards by filing online forms which requires them to disclose their pin numbers. Those who fall prey to this scam lost millions of naira to the fraudsters.

During interrogation, Chris Okeke the ring leader whose father’s house was being used for the fraudulent group’s activities disclosed that the house belongs to his ailing father who had relocated to his village in Anambra State due to ill health and that all the items found in the house belonged to his accomplices. He further revealed that one Darlington, who is at large, is the owner of the machine and the Gulf car recovered from him. He claims that he was always staying in his room while Darlington and other members of the syndicate perpetrated the fraud in the living room.

But, 34 year old Nicholas Egboh debunked the claims of his co-traveler in crime. According to Nicholas, Chris knew much about the scam and benefited from the proceeds of the crime. Nicholas said he used to see different people coming to the house everyday and that he had warned Chris on several occasions that he would run into trouble. He disclosed that he was a trader in Onitsha, Anambra State and, that six months ago, his business collapsed and he relocated to Lagos in preparation for a trip to Egypt. He denied being a member of the syndicate, but one of the Laptop computers recovered in the house, belongs to him.

The third suspect, Kelechi Aro who wears a dreadlock also exonerated himself from the crime saying that he was a musician and a labourer. He said he relocated to the house of fraud two years ago from Ajegunle, another Lagos Suburb. But it was obvious that he was being economical with the truth as operatives caught him sending scam messages with one of the Laptop computers when he was arrested.

Interestingly, the report that triggered the arrest of members of this deadly syndicate originated from kaduna. A resident of that city had lodged a complaint with the Commission’s office in Kano to the effect that some fraudsters had pulled out some money from his account in one of the banks in the city. Investigators were able to trace the fraudsters to Surulere, Lagos through the Driver’s License used by the fraudsters to withdraw money from the said account. Consequently, Remilekun Ojolowo and Sherifat Aderomu, who have been admitted to administrative bail, were arrested. Upon interrogation they claimed to belong to a network of syndicates that specialize in ATM fraud and led operatives to the den of the fraudsters where the startling recoveries were made.

This latest discovery followed a similar one in port harcourt, Rivers state where EFCC operatives unveiled a set of bank officials who duplicate customers ATM cards to defraud them of millions of naira.
In the case of the Port Harcourt syndicate, one Ms. Cassandra Olaleye, a banker and her accomplice, Regal Horsefall were arrested by EFCC operatives following the discovery of the ATM fraud. The two suspects who have been working as partners since June 2008 withdrawing funds totaling about N12 million from a customer’s account, an account managed by Cassandra. Their journey to the EFCC net started when the customer gave a cheque of N4 million to someone and was told his account was already in the red. He went to the bank to verify and from his account statement, it was discovered that a lot of ATM withdrawals had been done on the account. The customer who was surprised as he has never used his ATM card before protested and the matter was reported to the EFCC Port Harcourt Zonal office.

After a careful study of the bank statement, operatives discovered that the money was drawn from an ATM machine located in the premises of a Hotel in Port Harcourt almost on a daily basis since July 2008. They visited the ATM Machine to see if it has a camera, but there was none. Luckily for them, the Hotel has a CCTV surveillance camera. The footages were rolled back and it was discovered that for almost two months, a particular red Toyota corolla car brings a lady to the machine to make withdrawals.

The number plate of the car was copied and a search for the vehicle began. After about two weeks of searching, the vehicle was discovered in a compound in Elekahia Housing Estate, in Rumoumasi area of Port Harcourt. Operatives went in and a lady (Regal Horsefall) who they suspected was the culprit from the CCTV footages was sighted. She was approached for questioning, but she said she has never gone to the hotel for any withdrawal. They asked her about the car and she said it belongs to her brother.

The operatives then arrested her. She was taken to the EFCC office where a call was put through to the supposed brother who came immediately and said she was not his sister but his girlfriend who goes to the ATM machine located in the hotel. He took the Operatives to her house where she agreed that she made the withdrawals. She was arrested and during interrogation, she said it was Cassandra Olaleye that gave her the ATM card to do the withdrawals for her. It was discovered later that the ATM point in the hotel premises was chosen because the culprits noticed it didn’t have a camera on it.

Operatives contacted Cassandra Olaleye who they discovered had moved from Port Harcourt to Calabar where she currently works with a different bank. She was subsequently arrested and brought to the EFCC Port Harcourt office where she initially denied all the allegations.

To solve the riddle, the two of them were brought together because Regal insisted that Cassandra gave her the card.

With the face off, what will solve the riddle was a deeper investigation. When eventually Cassandra was confronted with the heap of evidence already gathered by operatives in the course of investigation , she admitted all the allegations.

http://www.efccnigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=689&Itemid=34

Bookmark It

Sanusi versus bank mismanagement

Disgraceful List of Oceanic Bank, Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank and Union Bank Debtors including Femi Otedola, Ibori, Arisekola, Ramanniya and all the “richest” men in Nigeria. This list released by the CBN also contains the amount owed. Please click on each picture to see a wider view.

Bookmark It

Who's next on their preylist?

Sometime ago, I notified you of the upsurge in kidnapping all over the country and recently in Lagos, well, if my statistics are right, 1 out of 10 people know someone who’s relative was recently kidnapped. Don’t you? Churches and schools have seriously stepped up their game in identifying parents and guardian of pupils (you know the type of school I’m referring to of course, he that is down needs fear no kidnap). With unemployment taking its toll on the family, to whom much is given… , our graduates have to survive and give something back to the family as fast as possible and they are taking it to the extreme based on the fact that we live in a community where so much emphasis is placed on material things. You just have to hammer, you gast to be bigs! Interswitch ATM card threats (419 scam), street begging, pick pocketting, bag snatching, shop lifting, car stealing, contract killing, car smuggling, gigoloing, oil bunkering, road waylaying, armed robbery, yahoozeeing and last but not the least, kidnapping.

Youths now “work from home”, the order of the day.

By the way, I’ve not been feeding well lately, I am begging you kidnappers out there, please come for me! I’m worth at least 15,000 naira so far you’ll be feeding me thrice daily for at least two weeks He he he. Please see a forwarded mail from my colleague right below, you may have seen it before but the question is, did you pass it on?

Kidnapping is becoming rampant, like HIV, it is now a scourge. It is real!

In this era of kidnapping, just to add to our caution list and tips. I got this from an ex-colleague……………………….

“I felt I should share this experience with you so that you will be careful how you deal with people who are unfamiliar with you.
About a month ago, a family friend in Abuja, Nigeria received anonymous telephone calls and text messages demanding a ransom of
NGN1, 200,000, failure which he and/or members of his family would either be kidnapped or shot.
No reason was given for the threat.  The gang was very thorough in their details of my friend’s family and his movement.
They gave him the first and middle names of each of his children and his wife, which were known only to very close relatives.  On one occasion, the gang gave a description of the clothes he wore on a particular day and the times he went out and came in.
The recipient was advised to play along with the group while efforts were made to contact the State Security Service (SSS) and the Police.
Two weeks ago, the gang issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the money to be paid.
The SSS contacted the management of the commercial bank nominated by the gang for the deposit of the ransom.  My friend was then advised to deposit the sum of NGN200, 000 in the Abuja account.  Three hours after the deposit was made, attempt was made to withdraw the money in a branch of the bank in Lagos.  The bank immediately alerted the police who arrested the man and kept him incommunicado.
As other members of the gang could not reach their member who was then in Police custody, they rang my friend to enquire if he reported the banking details to security agencies.  When my friend enquired why they asked, he was told that they had neither seen nor heard from the man they sent to collect the ransom from the bank.  The gang appeared to have bought the lie sold to them by my friend when he told them that the man might have absconded with the money.  Two hours later, they sent an account in another commercial bank for the remittance of the balance ransom.

The security agencies again placed alert on the account after which my friend paid in NGN200, 000.  Soon after the deposit was made, two men worked into a branch of the commercial bank, again in Lagos, to withdraw the money.  They were both arrested and handed over to the police.  All three men are now being interrogated by the FCT Command of the Nigeria Police.

In the course of the investigation, it was found that all three men had been contracted by my friend to drill a borehole in his house about two months ago.
While they were constructing the borehole, my friend’s wife had occasions to take them in her car to some places in Abuja to purchase materials for the works.  On one occasion, she had left a file containing her school records and other personal documents on the back seat of the car.  A member of the gang scanned through the file and extracted some vital personal information with the use of his mobile phone.  Also, during the course of the two weeks when they drilled the borehole, they had interviewed my friend’s two little children, aged four and three, to know their full names.”

There is so much we can learn from this incident.
    First, personal and sensitive information should not be left in a place where unauthorized persons could have access to them.
    Second, in our homes we should use only workmen who have been referenced and/or are familiar.
    And third, we should teach our household members to not speak to strangers.

Bookmark It

Sean Alsilski Gala Boy

Buy your Gala here!

You may or may not have heard or seen ‘Oyibo man’  hawking UAC food’s most popular brand, Gala beef roll. It’s a popular snack on major roads in Lagos and demand is highest during the rush-hour and heavy traffic. Gala has been around for many years and has enjoyed monopoly (many others have come and gone) even in the face of adulteration (or better still, piracy). Gala now sells for 50 naira per roll. You can see why Sean has combat pants to keep his plenty denominations of the Naira so that he can equally provide “change” to buyers who are in no time to hit the next car bumper to bumper, if you don’t have change, you don’t sell. If you don’t have the energy, others outsell you. You must be able to navigate in between different types of cars and ‘learners’ and also evade your worst enemy – the okada. Watch out for KAI or Task Force men, you know where to keep your phone if you have one. Lastly, you need all your sense organs – ears (to sense people beckoning), eyes (to read gestures) and even nose (to smell danger) – and your skin, as tough as the alligators as you need to be strong in times of rain, cold and scorching sun. Not to mention, you must learn to flash the “fresh and soft” gala in the face of pupils in the back seat. If you are thinking of starting a gala-hawking business, please think twice, it’s not that easy! And of course, you must know where, where not and when not to hawk: (http://lagosmet.com/blog/category/laws-of-lagos-state)

Gala beef roll

Here’s the story from PM News:

American Hawks Gala In Lagos An American, Mr. Sean Alsilski, was seen hawking gala sausage rolls yesterday, at the Ojota area of Lagos state. He easily drew a large crowd as Lagosians laughed and wondered what could have made him to hawk gala in Lagos, and on a sunny day too. But Alsilski, unperturbed by the people watching and giggling at him, continued to sell his stuff to motorists and passersby who were eager to buy from him, some just for the fun of it. He rebuffed people trying to ask him why he was out in the streets selling gala, saying he was too busy to talk to anyone. After much prompting by this reporter, he opened up on why he was out selling gala on Lagos streets. Alsilski said he came to Lagos to carry out a six-month research project on hawking and street trading in Lagos, and the best way to get the answers that he wants was to get involved in the real business rather than be an observer. He said he had already spent five months in Lagos, hawking gala at different parts of the state. “I am here to do a research on hawking and street trading. I was billed to be in Nigeria for six months as part of the Fullbright exchange programme. “I have been here for five months now, hawking. I have one month to go. I am going to give a presentation to the United States Embassy about my research,” said Alsilski. Born in the city of New York, the United States, Alsilski lamented that from what he has observed, government was harsh on hawkers and street traders. “Hawkers here are under stress right now from the government and I am studying what the government is doing right now. We can make some recommendations. “Government is harsh on them. Some of them have had their goods taken away. I am not sure that is the best way to go about it. “In some cities, hawkers and traders are given licenses and allowed to go to certain areas to hawk. But hawkers should not be allowed to hawk in places like Oshodi,” he stated. Alsilski’s hawking business has taken him to Yaba, Ojuelegba, Mushin, Ojota, Mile 2, Apapa, Lagos Island and Agege.

Source: PMNEWS (http://thepmnews.com/2009/06/16/american-hawks-gala-in-lagos)

Bookmark It

Daylight Bank Robberies are now the order of the day as Niger Delta boys step up from kidnapping and demanding ransome to actually tapping from the source of the ransoms. Banks within and outside Lagos now open in fear as these ruthless guys come in armed and trigger happy. You may find the following pictures disgusting as they contain very violent scenes and blood. View at your discretion.

The bullet holes, violence, the blood splatter, the destruction and the psychological trauma of all who witnessed this. God help us. Name of bank and branch witheld.

Here The Punch has a January Bank Robbery report

Bookmark It