American defrauds Nigerians seeking Green Card of $565,000

An American, Marco Ramirez, was on Thursday re-arraigned before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja for allegedly defrauding some Nigerians of $565,000 (about N203.4m) on the pretext of helping them secure the United States Green Card.

He was arraigned alongside his companies, USA Now LLC, Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA Now Capital Group by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on amended 12 counts bordering on conspiracy and obtaining under false pretences.

According to the EFCC, Ramirez and his companies, sometime in February 2013 and August 2013 in Lagos, defrauded Ambassador Godson Echejue, Abubakar Sodiq and Olukayode Sodimu of the said sum.

The defendant and his companies had been arraigned on June 22, 2017, before Justice Josephine Oyefeso on 16 counts bordering on the same offences and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Following his not guilty plea, Justice Oyefeso admitted him to bail in the sum of $25,000.

However, midway into the trial, the case file was transferred and he was subsequently re-arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada.

After taking his plea, Ramirez’s counsel, Ademola Adefolaju, urged the court to allow his client to continue with the bail terms set by the previous judge.

When asked by Justice Dada if the defendant had complied with the bail terms, Adefolaju confirmed that his client had fully complied and had been going to the EFCC’s office as directed by the court.

Granting the request, Justice Dada said, “Having not breached the bail terms granted by my brother judge, the defendant is hereby allowed to continue with the terms.”

The matter was adjourned till October 7, 8, 9 and 10 for trial.

– Punch

Donald Trump has just launched a massive aircraft carrier worth £10,000,000,000 that can sail for 20 years without refuelling

Donald Trump has just launched a massive aircraft carrier that he says will make America’s enemies ‘shake with fear’.

The carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, weighs 100,000 tonnes, cost £9.9billion, and can apparently sail for 20 years without needing to refuel.

Speaking at the ship’s launch in Norfolk, Virginia, the US president said: ‘I hereby place United States Ship Gerald R Ford in commission.

May God bless and guide this warship and all who shall sail in her.’

BBNaija’s Bisola: I Could Not Attend University Because Of N15,000

In an interview with NAIJ, Former Big Brother Nigeria contestant Bisola 

Aiyeola recently spoke about life after the show, how she wants to keep working to maintain her fame, her life before BBNaija and why she could not attend university.

Excerpts below:

Looking back at Big Brother Naija…

I wanted that platform. I wanted that wide reach. People send me messages from Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, etc. on a normal day, before I entered the house, how many people would have known me? So yes, even though I did not win, I feel like I achieved my aim. Even if I won that money, It would still finish.

Why she did not attend university

I wrote Jamb and I was jammed. It’s not like I did not try. I tried so many schools all over the country. It’s not that I wasn’t passing the exams; it was a problem of not getting funds. I did not have money to pay for certain things. I was even duped when I tried to enter LASU. That pulled me back and all this just made me discouraged. I also tried National Open University (NOUN) and you know it is very easy to get into NOUN, and at certain times you needed to pay certain fees. Believe me; it was difficult to raise N15, 000 at that time. I just decided that all of my energy let me use it into using my talent to feed myself.

How she used to go to her neighbor’s house to ‘stylishly’ ask for food because she and her daughter had nothing to eat

Sometimes when there was no food to eat at home, I take my daughter to my neighbor’s house under the pretext of watching television and stylishly feed my daughter and myself. That’s why I can relate to people because when you are down, you are down. But one cannot just stay down. I would love to help people get out of this type of situation.

Her plans for the future:

I have so many things lined up. Obviously I want to do more movies and music too. I did get into the entertainment industry via music but I put it on hold for a couple of years so I’m going to revamp that access. I also want to make my own films in future and I‘m an ambassador for the One Campaign Poverty is Sexist so I will be pursuing that as well.

Credit Naij.com

Nigerians Can Now Own Houses With N30,000

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo says under the N100 billion social housing scheme of the present administration, anyone who can afford N30,000 will be able to own a house.

He said this at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday at an event tagged “A Smile for Every Nigerian” organised to commemorate the administration’s second anniversary.

The acting president explained that the housing scheme was part of the administration’s social intervention prpgramme that had not been mentioned.

He said: “This is 100bn set aside for the Family Home Fund our Social Housing Project. The 100b is a yearly contribution to our N1trn Social Housing Fund, the largest in the history of the country. The World Bank and the African Development Bank are contributors to the Fund. From this Fund, developers will borrow 80% of the cost of project and counter fund with their own 20%.

“The same fund will enable us to provide inexpensive mortgages for hundreds of thousands across the country who want to own homes. Anyone who can afford N30,000 will be able to buy a home under our new social housing fund scheme. Already, the project has started in 11 states. We expect that this family housing fund will jump start and expand construction exponentially across the country.”

Speaking further, the acting president maintained that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth should translate to jobs.

“First the trickle down model has proved far too slow to stem the tide of poverty in one of the fastest growing populations in the world. Secondly, most of the growth was on account of the oil sector which is capital intensive but not labour intensive.

“So, while we were recording growth levels of 7% because of the high oil prices, unemployment figures grew, the acting president stated.

He sad in developing the APC manifesto and the economic development plans, the administration knew it had to directly intervene with a massive social investment programme that would tackle poverty and exclusion across the various spectra.