Below The Headlines - 106
Wife wanted for a fairly used 46yr old man and Baby Gorilla in reverse japa
Hope you had a good week. And if not, you can always try again next week.
Tobi and I did the follow up to our AI podcast this week. In which we tried to think through the dangers of Nigeria being left behind and where the best applications will come from.
Enjoy the usual selection below
Nigerian Media
It is not clear what exactly was the crime committed here:
The Lagos State Police Command on Friday said preliminary investigations have uncovered how 65-year-old man Engr. Chibuike Azubike, who paraded himself as the “Obi of Lagos,” allegedly masterminded a fraudulent plan to swindle unsuspecting Nigerians through a bogus ₦1.5 billion palace unveiling.
It will be recalled that Azubike was arrested alongside three accomplices over an aborted installation ceremony in Amuwo Odofin.
Giving an update on the arrest, the spokesperson for the command, DSP Babaseyi B. Oluseyi, said: “Engr. Chibuike Azubike confessed that he is not a certified engineer as he had claimed, but a mere supplier of construction materials.”
Explaining further, Oluseyi said: “Police investigations revealed that the suspect had announced plans to unveil the prototype of a ₦1.5 billion ‘Palace of Obi of Lagos State’ at Apple Hall, Amuwo Odofin, on Saturday, September 13, 2025.
If you’re interested in marrying Charley Boy’s son, the job spec is now out:
Veteran entertainer Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, has revealed that he is on the lookout for a wife for his 46-year-old son.
In a post shared on X on Friday, Charly Boy disclosed that his son, a master’s degree holder who stands 5ft 11ins tall, was previously married but divorced and now appears to be “afraid of women.”
According to him, the search is specifically for a woman from a “good home with humble beginnings,” stressing that only “authentic graduates” should apply.
He wrote, “My people, I still dey look for wife for dis my son. E don marry once, divorce. Now, e be like say e dey fear woman. Biko, if you’re from a good home with humble beginnings, DM me. He is coming next month.
“He is a master’s degree holder, age 46. 5ft 11ins. Very humble. If you’re not an authentic graduate, don’t bother. I need to tie him to Nigeria.”
The Nigerian Police obsession with tinted windows has been going on my entire life:
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has insisted that its tinted-glass permit system is legal, despite a lawsuit filed against it by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
In a statement released on Wednesday in Abuja, Force Spokesperson CSP Benjamin Hundeyin described the NBA’s claim that the permit policy is unconstitutional as untrue and misleading.
According to the police, the policy is backed by law.
The statement pointed to Section 2(3a) of the Motor Vehicles (Prohibition of Tinted Glass) Act, 2004, which gives the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) or an authorized officer the power to approve permits.
It also referred to Section 1(2), which requires applicants to provide valid reasons—such as health or security concerns—before approval can be granted.
Explaining the rationale, the Force said: “The essence of this regulation is consistent with the core mandate of the Police to prevent crimes, as the permit is a critical tool for curbing violent crimes such as kidnapping, armed robbery, terrorism, and one chance operations.”
Motorcyles and cows were arrested by the Oyo state militia. It is not clear why the complaints are about humans:
Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority (OYRLEA), in collaboration with Oyo State Transport Management Authority (OYRTMA), has confiscated thirteen motorcycles and arrested three cows for gross violation of anti-open grazing and other relevant laws of the state.
The Chairperson, Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority, OYRLEA, Honourable Justice Aderonke Adekemi Aderemi (Rtd.), said the arrest was made during raids at different locations in Ibadan
She emphasised that “the unyielding nature of humans requires a firmer approach, hence the need for a continuum of intense enforcement.”
“Our people are adamant, and we are not stopping soon either, until maximum compliance is ensured.”
Jobseekers in Ondo are protesting the fake employment letters given to them. Nigeria is truly full of surprises:
Hundreds of aggrieved job seekers on Friday staged a protest at the Governor’s Office, Alagbaka, Akure, the Ondo State capital, over alleged fake letters of employment issued to them for teaching positions in the state.
The protesters, who had applied for teaching jobs under the state’s civil service, barricaded the entrance to the Governor’s Office while demanding immediate inclusion in the ongoing biometric capturing exercise for newly recruited teachers by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
According to the protesters’ claims, despite possessing ‘official-looking’ appointment letters purportedly issued by SUBEB and the State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), their names were not included in the official list of successful candidates scheduled for the exercise.
While armed with placards of various inscriptions, the job seekers chanted solidarity songs and called on the state government to intervene.
A source said, “The affected members of the newly recruited teachers in Ondo State are protesting their disengagement from the capturing exercise due to backdoor appointment letters issued to them by unscrupulous directors of the personnel at SUBEB and TESCOM offices.”
Nigeria’s agriculture minister declares victory over food prices:
The prices of food items have crashed across the country, according to Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari.
The Minister said this when he featured on an ARISE TV programme on Friday.
He said President Bola Tinubu’s interventions on food security have started yielding results.
He also defended the administration’s strategy of combining production support with temporary importation to address what he described as deep-rooted structural imbalances in the agricultural sector.
“There are tools if you want to take care of the structural imbalances in the agricultural sector,” Kyari said.
“I have said it before—even the former President of the African Development Bank during his tenure, he also imported. There are tools to manage what you already have.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came at a time when there was huge structural default in terms of food security and that is why he had to declare the clarion call and emergency on food security in July 2023.
Non-Nigerian Media
Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo a.k.a Pollie, a former NNPC General Manager, will be going to prison:
According to evidence presented at a four-day trial, Okoronkwo, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria, was a foreign official who served as the general manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), a state-owned company through which Nigeria’s government developed that nation’s fossil fuel and natural gas reserves, including through partnerships with foreign oil companies. In this role, Okoronkwo owed a fiduciary duty to the Nigerian government and was a public official.
In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned petroleum, gas, and petrochemical conglomerate, wired a payment of $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) in the name of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm, purportedly for his work as a consultant who negotiated and completed a settlement agreement with the NNPC with respect to Addax’s drilling rights in Nigeria. According to the indictment, Addax calculated that it stood to lose billions of dollars if its favorable drilling rights were not secured.
The engagement letter that Addax signed that month with Okoronkwo’s law office – with a fake address in Lagos, Nigeria – was a ruse intended to conceal the fact that its payment to Okoronkwo was a bribe in exchange for his influence in securing more favorable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria.
United States Attorney’s Office
The New York Times annual list of 50 best restaurants in America is out and there’s a new kid on the block:
This isn’t your average all-day cafe. With just six bowls, some salads and snacks, the chef Ope Amosu weaves compelling, distinct stories from West Africa and its diaspora. Each bowl’s flavors are well calibrated and precise, balancing crisp-edged plantains with a tomato-laden red stew, an aromatic jollof jambalaya with coconut curry. ChòpnBlok started as a stall in Houston’s Post Market food hall, presenting the flavors of Mr. Amosu’s childhood. When he moved to a full-service restaurant, he kept the bowls and added frozen drinks (thank goodness) and bites like beef skewers dusted in a jolting suya spice that he personally picks up from a polo club in Lagos. The colorful walls teem with aso oke, a Yoruba fabric worn for Nigerian celebrations and paintings curated by the artist Zainob Amao. In a world of sad salads shoveled out of cardboard, ChòpnBlok is a delightful antidote to the slop bowl era.
Nigeria is “topping the charts” for Africans naturalising as US citizens:
Between 2021 and 2023, a total of 277,430 Africans became U.S. citizens. The numbers grew from 76,010 in 2021 (9.3%) to 106,090 in 2022 (10.9%), before easing slightly to 95,330 in 2023 (10.9%).
While overall U.S. naturalizations fluctuated during this period, Africa’s share held firm, underscoring the continent’s growing role in shaping America’s immigrant story.
Nigeria stood out as Africa’s leader, with 38,890 new U.S. citizens between 2021 and 2023. This included 10,920 in 2021, 14,440 in 2022, and 13,530 in 2023.
Nigerians accounted for about 14 percent of all Africans naturalized during the period, reinforcing the country’s place as the leading source of African-born U.S. citizens.
How is Nigeria doing for Chinese trade in the wake of Trump Tariffs?
The world beyond America, then, is snapping up more Chinese goods than ever before. This is particularly true of the global south, where China’s Belt and Road Initiative (bri), established in 2013, has laid firm foundations. The bri’s pace has quickened since Mr Trump returned to the White House. In the first half of 2025, bri activity reached a record, with over $120bn in new contracts and investment handed out in the scheme, according to the Griffith Asia Institute, a research outfit. Nearly half of the initiative’s construction contracts, which are awarded to Chinese firms, are for projects in Africa. These amounted to more than $30bn—five times the amount in the same period the year before, and more than for any other region.
These deals are fuelling trade. Chinese exports to Nigeria leapt by over half in the past three months compared with a year earlier, led by demand for equipment to build Chinese-financed railways and power generation. Egypt has also tapped bri loans. And Chinese finance is making progress in other regards, too. Kenya plans to convert dollar-denominated Chinese loans into yuan; Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa have signed swap agreements.
The baby gorilla we previously covered here on BTH is returning to Nigeria:
Shinning down a lamp-post, the tiny gorilla almost seems to be laughing as he dodges past his keeper at an Istanbul zoo he's called home since being rescued from traffickers.
He was five months old when he was discovered, days before Christmas, crammed into a wooden crate in the cargo section of a Turkish Airlines plane en route from Nigeria to Thailand, his terrified face making headlines across Turkey and beyond.
Nearly nine months on and Zeytin (Turkish for olive), as he was named, is an entirely different creature from the traumatised infant brought to Polonezkoy Zoo in the hills outside Istanbul to recover from his trafficking ordeal.
His recovery means he will be soon sent back to Nigeria where he began his journey, Turkish officials say.
Zeytin is believed to be a Western lowland gorilla, a critically endangered subspecies native to the rain forests of central Africa whose numbers have plummeted in recent decades because of deforestation, hunting and disease.
Diezani Alison-Madueke was suddenly back in the news this week, charged with receiving bribes by the UK authorities:
She faces six bribery charges. She is alleged to have received bribes from two oil industry executives connected with the Atlantic Energy and SPOG Petrochemical groups between July 2011 and August 2015.
They are alleged to include the use of a mansion in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire; a flat overlooking Regent’s Park in central London; and two further properties in a block in nearby St John’s Wood. The bribes allegedly included the services of staff to run the properties.
The bribes are also said to include £100,000 in cash, furniture, chauffeur-driven cars and flights in private and charter jets.
During the same period she is alleged to have been bribed by Benedict Peters, an African oil industry executive, with the use of a house in Marylebone, central London, help with buying another property from Christopher Aire, a US-based celebrity jeweller, and the payment of school fees for her son.
Alison-Madueke also allegedly accepted bribes from Igho Sanomi, a Nigerian oil tycoon, including purchases from Thomas Goode — which supplied fine china to the royal family — the fashion retailers Louis Vuitton and Lora Piana, the furniture designer Vincenzo Caffarella and Cartier jewellery.
She is also accused of accepting bribes from Kevin Okyere, a Ghanaian businessman, of flights on private jets, furniture and home furnishings, the use of a Range Rover, and cash.
She is charged with allegedly accepting gifts of purchases from Harrods and Vincenzo Caffarella from Prince Haruna Momoh and Olatimbo Ayinde, both oil industry executives.
Ayinde, who lives in London, is charged with bribing Emmanuel Kachikwu, then group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, with payments totalling 1.03 billion naira (then worth about £3.5 million) over a three-month period in 2015. Kachikwu was later appointed Nigeria’s petroleum minister and president of Opec. Ayinde denies wrongdoing.
Alison-Madueke is accused of conspiring with Benedict Peters and her brother to “give a financial advantage” to Agama, his Christian Way of Life Church and the Apostolic Pastoral Congress.
Well, this does not inspire confidence:
A pilot and co-pilot have tested positive for alcohol after the plane they were operating veered off the runway when landing in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) screened the pair after the accident in July, at the Port Harcourt International Airport. In addition, a crew member tested positive for cannabis.
All 103 people on board the Boeing 737 at the time of the incident were unharmed.
Air Peace, the company that operated the flight, said the 64-year-old pilot has been sacked for failing to adhere to safety regulations, while the co-pilot has since returned to his role.
In a statement, Air Peace said the co-pilot was acquitted by the national regulator, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), following preliminary investigations and a clean bill of health.
Tests carried out by the NSIB found the pilot and co-pilot had tested positive for Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG), which indicates recent alcohol consumption.
A cabin crew member also tested positive for (THC), the psychoactive component in cannabis.
Everything is harder in Nigeria:
When cell phone and internet networks went down across nine states in Nigeria earlier this summer, leaving millions without service, telecoms officials pointed to an increasingly familiar culprit: vandalism.
Destruction of telecoms infrastructure is rife in Africa's most populous country, from jihadist groups aiming to create communications blackouts to outright theft of cables and parts, as well as generators and diesel from substations.
But now some Nigerian telecoms operators worry incidents like the summer blackout will become increasingly common as the country's economic crisis triggers more cable thefts and vandalism and pushes up the costs of repairs.
With consumers turning to solar alternatives to get away from unreliable power supplies, experts say some batteries stolen from telecoms substations end up powering people's homes.
In the June outage, businesses and professionals that depended on data services for their operations scrambled to find alternatives in an incident that Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), blamed on a vandalised fibre-optic cable in Lekki, an upscale neighbourhood in the economic capital Lagos.
Vandals regularly steal cables to sell. Accidental damage by construction workers adds to the problem, and the cost of repairing or replacing stolen equipment has seen overheads balloon.
Between 2018 and 2022, there were at least 50,000 cases of major destruction to telecom infrastructure and facilities, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission.
One would think this is a skit …
Is somebody gonna tell the gorilla?
Also how’s it Deziani’s STILL grinding harder than me FFS?!
And yeah sack the lot of them ( pilot, co-pilot and cabin crew member)