Below The Headlines - 68
Is Desmond Elliott gay? and an Anambra LG chairman is now the guest of the FBI
We continued our read-along of Capitalism in the Colonies this week covering chapter 7 and 8.
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Enjoy this week’s selection below
Inside Nigeria
What a story:
An Investigating Police Officer, Elizabeth Osikolu, on Monday, told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, how a housewife, Omolara Alashe, forced a 19-year-old girl (name withheld) to sleep with her husband, Ramoni Lateef, to bear children.
[…]
The witness told the court that the incident happened in 2022 in their residence at Ketu where they relocated after their former house in Ojota was sold.
Osikolu told Justice Oshodi that the mother of the survivor died while they were living at Ojota and the couple offered to accommodate her.
The IPO said that while living with them, the survivor said the couple “always abused her physically whenever she made mistakes.”
She said at other times, “The first defendant would also wake her up at midnight and stripe her naked and the second defendant would have sexual intercourse with her without her consent.
“The first defendant (Omolara) wakes her up in the middle of the night, strips her naked while her husband sleeps with her (survivor).”
She said they were in the sitting room one day “when the first defendant suddenly started beating her up, stripped her naked and inserted her fingers in her vagina without her consent.
The IPO further told the court that her investigation also revealed that the couple had a baby who died in October 2022.
She said since then, the first defendant had not been able to conceive again.
“So, they decided that instead of the second defendant getting married again, they would use the survivor to bear children for him.”
With friends like this…:
A 24 -year-old lady, Justina Daniel, on Thursday, appeared before a Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court, for allegedly stealing her friend’s purse, containing an iPhone 12 and other valuables at a wedding.
The defendant, who resides at Goni-gora Kaduna, is charged with stealing, to which she pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor, Insp Chidi Leo, told the court that the complainant, Felicia Dogo, reported the matter at the Sabon Tasha Police Station on Nov. 12.
He said the complainant and defendant went to a wedding and when the complainant stood up to dance, she left her purse which contained an iPhone 12 worth N267,000, N5,000 cash and two ATM cards with the defendant.
He said, “When the complainant came to collect the purse from the defendant, she lied that she gave the purse to the complainant’s mother.’’
The prosecutor added that during police investigation, the convict confessed that she stole the purse, removed the money and phone and gave it to her brother.
Been a while since we heard about ‘self-kidnapping’:
The Bayelsa State Police Command has paraded a suspected self-kidnapper, Biobarakumo Gamade, who allegedly staged his abduction and demanded N10m from his brother.
The suspect was arrested alongside his accomplice, identified as Frank Thompson, on Tuesday, November 5th, after receiving N2m ransom.
Parading the suspect at the state police command headquarters, on Wednesday, the State Commissioner of Police, Alonyenu Francis Idu, disclosed that a case of alleged kidnapping was reported by one Mr. Gemade Esua Igoniamine in October, and a search was mounted.
According to him, a search was carried out, and there was no trace through the security surveillance cameras at the point where the kidnapping occurred or the exit of the state.
He said, “We got a distress call that a black jeep with military personnel kidnapped a man; we searched all our cameras, and no car of such identity was seen. Later, we got a call from someone who claimed to have kidnapped a victim, demanding a N10 million ransom.
“The operatives of the anti-kidnapping swung into action, leading to the arrest of Frank Thompson, who hails from Nembe Local Government Area, through the ransom that was paid.
He added: “Upon interrogation, the suspects revealed that they staged the kidnapping to enable them to collect ransom.
“They had earlier demanded for N10 m random, but two million naira was paid, which was used to trace them to the hotel where they had lodged outside the state.”
Desmond Elliott speaks:
Nollywood actor and lawmaker, Desmond Elliot, has clarified that he chose not to respond to allegations of being gay, explaining that such rumours have no impact on his life or his commitment to public service.
Elliot, who represents Surulere Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, was recently named by a blogger on a list of high-profile Nigerians rumoured to be involved in same-sex relationships.
In a recent interview with TVC, Elliot dismissed the accusations as malicious gossip, stating that he saw no reason to dignify them with a response.
[…]
“So let me say right here, I am straight. You can never have anyone straighter than me.
Peter Obi also speaks:
Peter Obi, the former Anambra state governor, has declared that nothing can ever make him leave his wife, Margaret.
In a recent interview on the ‘Honest Bunch’ podcast, Obi expressed his unwavering love and commitment to their marriage, which has lasted for over three decades.
The politician emphasized that regardless of what Margaret does, including having an extramarital affair, he would never consider divorce.
“No matter what my wife does today I cannot stop marrying her. I can never separate from her. Even if you like carry a gun to shoot me,” he said.
“As long as I am alive, she is my wife. I can tell you that. That is me. That is sealed. Whatever she likes she should do. What can she do to offend me?
“Maybe, have an affair. It is her business. It is not me. Who would say the two of us are having an affair?”
News from the Gwagwalada Magistrates Court:
A Senior Magistrates’ Court in Gwagwalada, FCT, sentenced 22-year-old Samson Sunday to wash restrooms at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital for 10 days after he was found guilty of cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Sunday, a resident of Angwan Dodo in Gwagwalada, pleaded for leniency, assuring the court that he would not reoffend.
Senior Magistrate Nuhu Tukur instructed corrections officers to oversee his sentence and cautioned him against future criminal activities.
During the proceedings, prosecution counsel Abdullahi Tanko explained that the complainant, Okoro Chinaza, reported the incident to the Gwagwalada Police Station on October 29.
Tanko stated that Sunday had visited Chinaza’s barbershop for a haircut but failed to pay the N27,000 fee for the service, which violated Sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.
Been trying to find what was being mined in the pit that collapsed in Adamawa and killed 30 people. Cannot find it anywhere:
The Minister was reacting to the news of the pit collapse during illegal mining operations in the Gashaka-Gunti National Park, an incident that the ministry was monitoring through the federal mines officers in Taraba and Adamawa states.
It is reported that not less than 22 miners have reportedly died following the collapse of the pit located within a national game reserve spanning Gashaka Local Government Area in Taraba State and Toungo Local Government Area in Adamawa State on Thursday, October 31, 2024.
According to the minister, technical reports from field inspection indicated that the lack of professional skills in mine development by artisanal miners engaging in illegal mining was responsible for the pit’s collapse.
Calling on perpetrators to stop risking their lives in search of minerals, Alake advised them to form mining co-operatives and approach the ministry to facilitate licences and permits to operate legally.
Outside Nigeria
The Economist has a piece on the fertility gap between north and south Nigeria:
To fly from the south to the north of Nigeria takes only a couple of hours. Yet in one way, it is like going back in time. In Lagos state, the commercial capital in the south, women can expect to give birth to an average of 3.3 children during their lifetimes, which is what the world’s fertility rate was in 1990. In Katsina state in the north, the fertility rate is, at 7.4, higher than the global rate was in 1800.
Family size is hardly the only difference between north and south Nigeria. Most northerners are Muslim, whereas the south is largely Christian. The north is much poorer than the south, with GDP per person on average of $292, less than half what it is in the south, despite the fact that Nigeria has had plenty of northern presidents. It scores worse on social indicators such as child nutrition, school enrolment and literacy. Government spending on health and education, though low nationwide, is especially low in the north. Islamist insurgencies, banditry and fighting between farmers and herders are all much worse in the north than in the south.
Another crook voluntarily walks into the arm of the law in America. But that’s not the worst bit - the guy is a newly elected local government chairman in Anambra state. You couldn’t make it up:
A Nigerian man in Texas has been arrested in connection with what federal authorities say was a romance fraud scheme that netted more than $3.3 million.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, 40, on Saturday after arriving at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the FBI announced on Tuesday. He was traveling from Nigeria and is now being taken to the Western District of Washington for his arraignment.
Nwadialo was indicted last December on 14 counts of wire fraud stemming from a romance scheme that scammed four people. He allegedly defrauded victims of at least $3.3 million with the help of co-conspirators who have not been identified, according to the indictment and criminal complaint obtained by USA TODAY on Thursday.
"All too often the defendants in these romance scams are overseas and unreachable by U.S. law enforcement," U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a statement "I congratulate investigators who are alert to any opportunity to arrest such defendants and hold them accountable."
Which one of you tried to ship dead bats from Nigeria to Florida?:
An illegal shipment of 41 dead bats and 41 dead birds has been intercepted on its way from Nigeria to West Palm Beach, Florida.
Labeled as "Yam Flour Sponge," U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialists (CBPAS) made the grim discovery at the Louisville Port of Entry in Kentucky.
The explanation behind the import of the dead animals from Africa to West Palm Beach is so far a mystery. Newsweek has contacted the CBP for comment by email outside of normal office hours.
The bats were identified as Straw-Colored Fruit Bats, which are eaten and traded as bushmeat in Nigeria. The dead birds were yellow and black feathered Village Weavers, which live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Update from Grenada where the PM is still being dragged over the oil deal he claimed to have signed when his plane was ‘diverted’ to Nigeria a few weeks ago:
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said he is unable to comment on the arrangement that Global Petroleum Group recently signed with Nigeria’s Oceangate Oil and Gas Engineering company that will develop the country’s oil and gas reserves.
The deal — according to S&P Global Commodity Insights, a website that focuses on the global energy and commodities markets — is valued at $1.8 billion. Dr Aisha Achimugu, the CEO of Oceangate, said that the deal has the potential to reach as much as $8 billion as the companies develop Grenada’s “significant” hydrocarbon reserves.
[…]
When asked to comment on the latest development as published in several Nigerian news sites in an interview, Prime Minister Mitchell said, “I cannot speak to it because if you read the article, you will see that nowhere in it, it speaks about the Government of Grenada. I can’t speak, I have seen the article just like yourself; I am not in a position to speak on the matter,” he told the nightly MikeyLive news outlet.
A Black Love Party inspired by an Instagram account called ‘MeAndSomebodySon’:
Both MeAndSomebodySon and its offline offshoot, “A Black Love Party,” were created by Zemirah Moffett, a 27-year-old copywriter on Long Island. Since the first “Black Love” party, held in May, Ms. Moffett has hosted eight more in cities including Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The name of Ms. Moffett’s account nods to a familiar term of endearment. By identifying a man as “somebody’s son,” you are explicitly positioning him in the context of a family — representing not only himself, but also a mother or a father. For women, it can be an optimistic label: With more on the line than his own self-respect, the thinking goes, a man will be less likely to play in your face. The term, which is often used in jest, has become so popular that the Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage released a song in 2021 of the same name.
My dear friend this week became the leader of the Conservative Party. An incredible achievement that I could never have seen coming in 2010 when I first helped her campaign. But I have since learnt never to doubt her determination and resilience. Word reaching me is that she might not be very popular in Nigeria though. As we say here - shame innit? :)
Kemi Badenoch’s father was known as “Fariga”, a word in the Yoruba language meaning “I will not yield or succumb”, for the way he campaigned against institutional bullying at school.
“I see that spirit in Kemi; her tenacity and doggedness is the Fariga spirit,” Seyi Roberts, a family friend who studied with both of Badenoch’s parents, said. “People say she is overbearing, but she’s just a chip off the old block.”
It is a sentiment that Badenoch’s mother, in her first public comments about her daughter, mirrors.
“In many ways Kemi stood out among her peers,” Feyi Adegoke, a professor of physiology at the University of Lagos, said. “She was studious and quite cerebral, and she grew up to be forthright, outspoken and fearless, just like her father, but very loving.”
Winners Chapel bought a site for £600,000 in Kent here in the UK. Now residents don’t want them to set up their church there:
Residents of a historic market town are battling to stop a church with 'abhorrent views' on homosexuality taking over a centre in the heart of their community.
Kingsnorth Recreation Centre in Ashford, Kent, which was once the home of Little Acorns Nursery, is set to be occupied by Living Faith Church Worldwide — also known as Winner's Chapel.
The Church bought the centre from Ashford Borough Council for £600,000 in May and informed pre-school bosses they would need to vacate immediately.
Now the Church has come under fire after homophobic remarks made by leaders and pastors of the organisation - which has its headquarters in Nigeria - have come to light.
Among them is Pastor Faith Abiola Oyedepo, a senior preacher at the church and the wife of its founder Bishop David Oyedepo, who has been dubbed by Forbes as the wealthiest preacher in the world with a net worth of more than $150million (£115m).
Ms Oyedepo has previously posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, about homosexuality to her followers, referring to it as 'a trap of the devil'.
In February this year, she wrote: 'God loves you and wants to deliver you from every trap of the devil. Homosexuality is a trap, and its reward is fatal. Do not toy with it; come to Jesus today, and He will free you from its hold.'
Ike Ibeabuchi is back after 25 years:
The hard-hitting Nigerian will make a comeback on December 7 in his home country against Egyptian Ayman Farouk Abbas at the ripe old age of 51.
Ibeabuchi was a rising contender in the 1990s and was on the verge of a world title shot at the back end of the decade after securing big wins over David Tua and Chris Byrd.
However, his career was cut short before he could realise his dream.
In 1999, four months removed from his vicious seventh-round stoppage win over the previously unbeaten Byrd, Ibeabuchi was arrested after taking a Las Vegas call girl hostage.
Ibeabuchi trapped the woman in a closet in his hotel room, barricaded himself in the bathroom and only surrendered to police when pepper spray was discharged under the door.
The 21-year-old woman said she was there to strip and claimed she was attacked by Ibeabuchi after demanding to be paid upfront.
His legal defence was made more difficult by the reopening of a similar sexual assault allegation against him eight months prior.
Ibeabuchi was released on bail and placed under house arrest but was remanded after two more similar allegations surfaced.
He was sentenced to 2-10 years for battery with intent to commit a crime, and 3-20 years for attempted sexual assault after being deemed incompetent to stand trial due to his bipolar disorder.
Who is Tim Ayo?
Tim Ayo, born Ayodele Timothy Oluwatosin in the western part of Nigeria, is a magnetic character.
Just talking with him you get a sense that there is more than what appears on the surface.
Ayo moved to the Sault in 2023 to study at Sault College in the Healthcare Leadership program.
Ayo is a pharmacist in his own country.
“I went to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi Ghana to study Doctor of Pharmacy for six years,” he says.
“All the smart people in my high school class wanted to become doctors because being in the medical field was the highest pay kind of job you could get at the time. I was smart, so I went into that field of study.”
But medicine wasn’t his original passion.
“I’m from musical home,” he says.
[…]
“I haven’t done much music since I came to Canada. I’m looking forward to doing lots of things in the future and meeting lots of people in music. I haven’t met many musicians yet.”
For the time being, Ayo is “taking it all slowly.”
“I lost my dad just one month after I came to Canada which was a sad moment for me and made me put lots of things on pause,” he says.
“It basically changed my whole life. May his soul rest in peace, Amen. So, although I am not cooking anything musical right now, I open to new music ventures.”
With a foot in both worlds, Ayo’s journey is just beginning, and he’s ready to make his mark in Canada.