₦airaland Forum

My ordeal in the hands of The Netherlands police, by Osoufia[/color]
By Justin Akpovi-Esade

BARELY two months after the local media lambasted comedian Bright Okpocha a.k.a Basket Mouth for trying to fan the embers of hate between Nigeria and Austria with his alleged accusation of the former as racists in their land, Nollywood actor Nkem Owoh popularly called Osoufia, may have reaped the 'gains' of that seemingly careless joke.

Osoufia at a press briefing in Lagos last week alleged he was a victim of racist attack in faraway Holland where he went for a show with fellow comic Maleke. A celebrity magazine had reported that the comedy actor was deported back to the country in chains after The Netherlands police invaded the Grand CafZ venue of the show at about midnight, midway into the sold out event. "I am here to clarify some reports in the newspapers that have made the rounds recently. Some of the reports either got it all wrong or had some of the facts, but the reason for this gathering is to let the world know what I went through in Holland. Some said I was arrested, that is not correct," the actor began.

He told of how the owner of Grand CafZ, a spot he described as the hangout "of Nigerians, Africans and lovers of Africa in Amsterdam," got in touch with him to come over to do a show which eventually was eventually slated for June 15. All was well, the venue filled to capacity and the show was well on the way "when at about midnight, I was on stage when the police invaded the place. They came in large numbers, over 150 of them. They ordered the show stopped and asked all of us to move to a corner of the hall. I came down from the stage and told the officer that I was the main performer and if there was a problem we could talk about; I was shoved violently to the corner and ordered to leave the hall to the other side of the street. Before then, the officers had distributed leaflets which claimed that Grand CafZ was being used for criminal activities and they were there to fish out the criminals."

The actor who addressed the press in company of his legal adviser said he had no objection with police trying to do their duties such as finding a criminal, but "I believe they should go about it in a dignified manner without trampling on the rights of others. My papers were in perfect order, same for Maleke who I contracted for the show. But the way and manner The Netherlands police went about the whole charade that day smacked of racism. The were so unfriendly, they were pushing and shoving people, including a diplomat from Zambia who came for the show. It was pure racism in action."

At first, the comedian thought his controversial song entitled I Go Chop Your Dollar, which many believed glorified Advance Fee Fraud otherwise called 419, was responsible for his ordeal. The song has gained world popularity especially in the United States and Europe where it is often use as signature tunes for talk shows on 419 as allegedly being perpetrated by Nigerians. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the nation's anti graft agency, was reportedly not comfortable with the actor's debut album. Rumours had it that the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC placed a Not To Be Broadcast seal on it. So, naturally, Owoh felt it was the same song that "has made the The Netherlands police feel that the King of 419 in Africa is in Amsterdam. But it was not to be, they (police) just needed an excuse to invade the Grand CafZ."

From across the street, the actor watched as Nigerians and others of African descent, about 500, were being frisked and sniffed at by giant police dogs, and were later loaded in trucks and driven away to various detention centres. "What got me mad was the way they manhandled Maleke. I felt bad and helpless as I watched from across the street the way they wrestled Maleke to the floor, cuffed his hands and took him a away like a common criminal simply because he sought for an explanation for the police action."

Osoufia became convinced it was a racist attack when "they started letting go the whites among the crowd. A woman who is from The Netherlands challenged them but she was just ignored and asked to just go. She was really mad from the way she was speaking."

The task of looking for Maleke fell on Osoufia who was further impeded by his lack of knowledge of the language and terrain. "It was a big ordeal to find Maleke as every police precinct we went to, there was no record of his arrest. I could not speak the language and I just must find Maleke because I took him to Amsterdam. It was later in the afternoon that he managed to get a telephone and called my number. He described his location and told us he was simply taken on a ride and abandoned in the middle of nowhere. You see what I mean that the raid was just planned to harass Nigerians and Africans leaving in Amsterdam?"

He immediately lodged a complaint with the Nigerian Consulate General at the Hague, who according to him was not too happy with the development and promised to take it up officially with The Netherlands government. Nkem Owoh had instituted a legal action against the Amsterdam police for what he described as a "gross infringement on his rights". Legal moves are on to free the over 300 people still being held in various detention centres in the city, he said. "The Nigerian community felt really insulted by the affront. They told me that the police there are fond of harassing Nigerians after the claim that former president Olusegun Obasanjo said during one of his visits that the authorities should send Nigerians home as he had jobs for them. I don't know if actually Chief Obasanjo made that statement, I would not want to believe that he did said that anyway. It was after television stations started condemning the action of the police that they started releasing some of the detained people. We also staged peaceful demonstrations on the streets of Amsterdam, which the television stations widely reported, the newspapers too. But there are still about 300 of them in detention as I speak with you who the police said they would deport, for which reason I do not know. It is a pathetic situation."

The Nollywood actor, after his experience, has started a pet project aimed at laundering the image of Nigerians especially in the Diaspora. "The fact that I played I Go Chop Your Dollars does not mean that I support fraud in any way. That song was the sound track of a movie I did. Entitled, The Masters where I outlined the evils of fraud, it was so revealing that I started getting threat letters from fraudsters who claimed I revealed their trade secrets. I am caught in the middle, people are hounding me that I glorified 419 and the fraudsters on their part are angry with me! We are starting a project both here and in Amsterdam that would bring to the fore Nigerians doing great things in various fields of human endeavours worldwide, so that the world would see that Nigerians are good people who are doing great in other fields aside the one the world believes that we are only good at."

President Musa Yar' Adua would soon get the proposal from the actor on how to use Nollywood to launder the image of the country. "We are sending the proposal to the president and other relevant agencies. It is now time to tell the world that Nigerians are not all fraudsters, yes, there are some bad people just like you would find in every society, but the idea of saying that we are all bad, should stop. That is my present mission," he submitted.

Sources: http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/arts/article01/260707

Seun:
Buhahaha. And while he's at it:
- He should "order" the Nigerian economy to start booming!
- Why hasn't he "ordered" peace to reign in the Niger Delta?

One step at a time

NBA:
FIRST BANK SUSPENSION LIFTED!

Proshare News and Analysis
Dealers Perspective 250707
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2007


After the successful completion of the twin offer (both Rights and Public offer), technical suspension was today lifted on the shares of First Bank. The interests in the stock remain huge on the heels of massive over subscription witnessed in the primary market.

http://www.proshareng.com/myproshare/portal_news.php?id=2670

This is a very good news man , and the stock gained 5% on the first day after the sunpension was lifted , are we gonna see the same bull run like we saw with dangote sugar ? hopefuly .
and if that becomes the case then man am on my way to some good time as i got them stocks long time from the floor , so no waiting for the certificate for me

atilla:
If you don't have a domicillary account you leave that part blank on the form and the issuing house will open a domicillary account for you.


You have to make sure that you sign the form and also put in a valid current account. Those are what I believe are necessary.

I do not know how u got by this info , but my broker went to gtb and they told here its must that i have a domm account , in any case i suspect leaving the domm account block empty might mean my allocation might be rejected and money returned to me only when God knows , so i would prefer to buy another stock that has rather few complexities .

I have been buying all my stocks through cashcraft and i would say that i have mixed feelings about their services , however i think that the kind of brokerage firm u would need might depend on the kind of services u might require especially depending on ur location.
as am not based inside Niger , so i needed firm that have very good online presence and cashcraft was the right one for me .
i would not say that they are effective in every aspect , but am yet to see those that are , in fact Zenithsecuirities who i hold in high esteem seem to have disappointed some people also even with their online presence and 5 million naira minimum .I started with cashcraft with only 40,000 naira and they are yet to tell me that they have increased their minimum .
what i would like you to know is that none of them brokerage firms are 100% in everything and sometimes ur problem may not be with the management of the firm itself but ur account manager or vice versa.one thing you must know is that just like in everything in niger there is always that Nigerian factor, so u must always be at their back to make sure they do what u ask of them , when i give buy orders , i have to call them almost everyday to make sure that my order has been effected .
hope this would help you to make better decision on this ?

naijaking1:
I agree that ugly people should not govern or hold important offices, but there is a small problem:

who decides who is ugly and who is pretty?

what have u been drinking ? so if a leader is handsome but a criminal , u would prefer him to an ugly honest one ?

well i wont comment on this news untill i read it .

Yeah it must not be with GTB , but same rules apply , or do you know where u can get one without having a current bank account that bank for at the least 6 months ? plz tell me if u know any such bank .

What about the gtb who own the offer , its in their form that domm account is a must , i have talked to them on phone and they confirm same , how are u going to go about that ?

Good one , do u have any link to the news please ?

Do you know that for u to be able to open a domm account nu must have had current account with the same bank for not less than 6 month, now consider the fact that we were not told about domm account being compulsory with this offer in advance and the offer deadline is very tight , then u would understand why many people suspect foul play .

Thank God for them , but am out .

my sister plz tell them oooh , by the way yayade , inakwaaanan ki ?

If he made a "mistake" and pay to a wrong number what about the account name ? or would the bank credit an account when u produce only the account number number without the account name ?

wanaj0:
Quite possible for such a POSTING error to be made.

Have had a situation where my Broker purportedly paid a substantial amount of money into my account. The money was tehre for over a week while I tried to unravel the mystery behind the payment.

Many things can be responsible but I suspect posting error. The bank will discover with time.

In this case your broker had your account number and also the account number of the real person he wants to pay the money to ,so its possible that he paid to ur supposing that u are the other person, but the issue here is that it was paid to a supposed unknown account , which the person who paid the money did not even know the account number or the name of the wrong person that he paid into , that is very rare in my own opinion , but when its an inhouse thing , then we can't say it was paid by mistake .

Most likely to be a lie , forget his so called life style , do u think that bank accounts numbers are that close to each other , i mean if my bank account number is 000523523891 , do u think someones account number nin the same bank should be something like this 000523523892 ? no thats not how this numbers are issued to the best of my knowledge , and even when the numbers are that close , what about the names ? and when suddenly out of the blue 300 millions came into the account of someone that may not have up to 10 million , dont you think the bank itself might try to contact efcc as per the rules ?

This room is about stocks that could make us rich in 2007 and not about forex

This is news to me

There are so many complexities about this offer , someone told me that the delay that happened with the form (the form came out days after the offer actually opened ) was rather intentional , i called my broker as of yesterday and they told me that they still have not received the form , also i could not see the form even on GTB site .
i don't want to believe this , but somehow is looks like some powerful people are trying to buy this offer for themselves alone , remember what some brokers did with dangote one day Nascon offer .I must also say that the way gtb have handled the whole offer thing suspiciously very poor .i would like someone with more info to comment on this .

if few people buy this offer , then it would be scarce on the London stock exchange , so could it be true that some forces are trying to corner it for themselves and then create some artificial scarcity that would drive up the price , consider this with the fact that the stocks would be eligible to be traded one week from the day it ends , also why didn't they tell us in advance that we must have domiciliary account to be bale to buy the offer ?

Is it compulsory to have domiciliary account for one to buy this offer ?

u cant fight poverty with donations .

Kashif:
The source is there. The last line

I need a link , i mean i need where to click and read it myself , got it ?

Can we have source of this information please, i mean some link .

To all the gurus in the house. I think I made a mistake when placing orders for some shares. I bought some shares in Dangote sugar @ N55, Crusader @ N6.5 and RTBriscoe @ N29.5 but since when I bought the shares, the price has done nothing but surge downwards. do you think I should place a sell and count my losses or I should wait it out in hope that it is a good stock on the long run. I don't want to lose money and I also don't want to lose more money. So I would like an advise on the best thing to do now with this shares. Your opinion counts. Thanks

Of the three companies you mentioned , i only could say something about Dangote sugar . I think its not a mistake for u to buy dangote sugar , but if u would have need for that money for some immediate needs , then it may be better for you to sell, if not , i suggest you leave it for now as the fundamentals of the company are still very much there .

@ All the Gurus
I don't trust my brokerage firm {which is no news to a lot of us here, I suppose Sad }, they sold a few items for me recently. I am incapable of doing accurate maths myself { I now see why I should have listened to my Maths teacher years ago Cry }, but have the sneaky feeling that the figures don't add up.
Please can any one help with the following

10k units of FBN stock sold @ 40.40 on the 25/05/2007
9k units of Ashaka stock sold @ 80.5 on the 31/05/2007
20k of Ecobank stock sold @ 8.47 on the 31/05/2007

The question here is what would have been the individual balance for each of the stocks after deduction of all sundry fees? I might look stupid because of this post, but I need to be reassured else the firm and myself might be visiting the SEC/ NSE disciplinary commitees Embarrassed.

Kind thanks, in anticipation, to all who offer me their help

Having checked from Cashcraft price history , i saw that your Firstbank shares was sold at same prevailing rate on the date you posted .
you also posted that your @80.50 on 5/31/07 , well on that same date it closed @83.00 according to Cashcraft price history , so there is 2.50 to difference .
while on that same 5/31/07 according to your post , your ecobank stocks was sold @8.47, it closed @8.69 according to Cashcraft price history , so there is 0.22 difference .
now before you run to SEC and SEC , I understand the stock price fluctuates during a trading day until trading closes on the floor of NSE ,then it would finally end at permanent price for that day .
This is much that i know about it, maybe the gurus would help and make it more clear .

Forgive my pessimism , but am new to trading stocks this way , so i would like to know if this is all legal , are we keeping to all the NSE AND SEC rules by trading this way ?

Dis Guy:
I think it will be like share transfer after discussing with the seller, you will both contact you stock broker, the rate of transfer will be another issue.

Thanks Dis Guy ,
That makes it a little more easier , could someone plz come up with more detailed explanation , i need every single details about this to make a proper decision .

How exactly does this work ? assuming i want to buy from someone or vice versa , how do we go about it ?

Yara Dua declared his worth , they say it means nothing , if he didn't do it, they would say that's because he is some criminal , declare or not u are damned , today a Nigerian have taken a bold step in the right direction and all this ever pessimistic , and ever hopeless compatriots call him a clown and other names , when in this life would this kind of people ever see something good from their own country? they seat there and didn't do anything to stop the rigging next time and now someone have tried something and they are calling him names and rubbishing his effort ,i believe that self destruction is part of the problem of this country .If it were some professor from the us or uk that invented this,am sure they would all clap for him , God save Nigeria .

I have done it with a beautiful Indian girl , and also have done it with a nice Irish woman , both were mybrother's girl friends , ofcos at different times .

easimoni:
FY EPS is expected to be >15k. They have also signed a number of contracts with Tinapa, Ghana, Lagos State e.t.c. Should soon start reaping the benefits of the terminal upgrades.

easimoni! , easimoni!! , easimoni!! , how many times did i call ur name ? you dey try me oooh

Is that the yahoo in Nigeria ? na craze dey worry you