₦airaland Forum

Crime knows no tribe. Lets condemn bad snd praise good.

Rarely do you meet a Nigerian youth who is active on social media who does not know and admire Raymond Igbalode Abbas popularly known as Hushpuppi. The socialite rose to limelight sometime in 2017 when he spent over 11 million naira in a single shopping spree.

Hushpuppi is not one who is shy to flaunt his wealth and hush whoever he believes is less influential.

However, news broke out on June 10, of how Hushpuppi and eleven members of his gang were arrested by what was believed to be Interpol in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was arrested alongside popular social media figure Olalekan Jacob Ponle, widely known as Woodberry. Hushpuppi and Woodberry are notorious personalities who pride in their luxurious and extravagant lifestyle for the camera.

Their arrest did not come as surprise to many. Though Hushpuppi is not an official Gucci brand ambassador, he rocked the brand at all time and would shade anyone he feels wears phony designers. Nigerian musicians Phyno and Timaya were moved to sing a song in response to Hushpuppi’s constant shading of celebrities who he believed wear fake Gucci and other famous brands. The duo called him out for his lifestyle despite not having known source of wealth.
The 38-year-old branded himself professional beggar, more like Cubana chief priest calls himself celebrity bar man. Whether being a bar man pays in millions is yet to be answered.

Dubai Police Media office in a video released on twitter threw more light into the circumstances surrounding his arrest. The Arab nation’s security operatives swooped on the gang in a coordinated six raid operation codenamed ‘Fox hunt 2’. Police say the crew were responsible for Dh1.6 billion (about N169 billion) fraud involving over 1.9 million victims. Items worth N15.845 billion (Dh 150 million) were equally seized.

Also recovered were, 13 luxury cars worth Dh25 million (N2.640 billion), 21 laptops, 47 smartphones, 15 memory storage devices, 5 external hard drives and 800,000 emails of potential victims. Their arrest took four months of security surveillance into their activities during which a searchlight was beamed on their social media activities by highly trained personnel.

The Dubai police accused Hushpuppi and his gang of specializing at hacking corporate emails. They would create fake pages for existing websites in order to redirect victims’ payments into their own accounts. Authorities say Hushpuppi and his crew would send out letters from email addressed almost identical to those of legitimate companies targeting customers of these companies with the purpose of diverting payments to themselves.

Now that the puppy has been hushed and the mystery unraveled, celebrities who had constantly defended him and his lifestyle have been in denial of their support for the gang. Now that the chips are down, everyone knows that the wealth which the gang have been throwing at the faces of Nigerian youths, were ill gotten through crime. Many have been left disappointed by the exploits of their idol. Other members of his crew who are yet to be nabbed have gone into hiding, apologists who bash anyone who questions his source of income have been dumbfounded.

Hushpuppi’s case is made even worse that his trial is happening outside the shores of Nigeria where he would have little opportunity to bribe his way out of jail. His woes are compounded by reports of bulk of his victims being citizens of United States and reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation being interested in extraditing the crew to the US. Back home in Nigeria, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu had denied that the commission was involved in his arrest but has since released a statement claiming Hushpuppi has a case to answer with the anti-craft agency.

The ordeals of Hushpuppi are reminiscent of another Nigerian socialite, Ismaila Mustapha, alias Mompha who was arrested in 2019 over fraud amounting to about N32.9bn. He was arrested by operatives of the EFCC on counts bothering on fraud, money laundering and running a foreign exchange business without the authorization of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He spent months in custody before his unceremonious release without proper trial.

Hushpuppi on the other hand might not be as lucky. The Dubai police might not be as lenient as their counterpart in Nigeria. The evidence believed to have been gathered complicates his case and it might just be a matter of how long rather than if he will spend time behind bars.

Given his love for Gucci, it might be appropriate that he gets Gucci ropes while being held. Now that the masquerade has been unmasked, young people should learn to delight in their legitimate work and strive to work their way up. The easy way might be quicker to attain glamorous lifestyle but as the puppy has shown, the radar might slide to any direction at any time.

It is pertinent that youths learn that what glitters might not really be gold. Social media is colourful and delightful but one should be able to separate reality from fiction. It doesn’t always look as it seems. Nigeria as a nation has had her image tainted in foreign countries by unscrupulous elements. It is high time government intensifies effort at engaging the teeming workforce which it is blessed. Some young people take to crime as solution to unemployment to escape poverty. That does not however, justify crime by any means.

The youth should focus on acquiring skills would help them thrive in an ever competitive labour market. Consistency is key, patience is a virtue and crime is never a solution. If the already bashed image of the nation must be redeemed, the actions of a few bad elements should be condemned to dissuade others from towing same path.

source: http://www.africannewstoday.com/entertainment/hushpuppimania-the-tragedy-of-a-bad-influencer/

Rwanda will on Thursday commence a random COVID-19 street testing survey in Kigali and points of entry to ascertain the coronavirus situation in its largest city, a senior health officer revealed on Wednesday.

Minister of state for Primary Healthcare Tharcisse Mpunga in a news program of Rwanda Television disclosed that the Ministry of Health will initiate the testing of samples in the street of Kigali due to its dense population.

Mpunga said that the testing will avail reliable information which could be relied upon to make informed decisions on strategy of curbing COVID-19 in Rwanda.

According to the minister, the survey aims to test over 5,000 residents of the city who have resided in the capital within the past one or two weeks. He urged people to abide by instructions of health workers as they undertake their duty.



On Wednesday, 17 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Kigali by the health ministry. Rwanda has presently recorded 1,042 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 480 recoveries and three deaths.

source: http://www.africannewstoday.com/politics/rwanda-to-carry-out-testing-survey-of-coronavirus-in-the-street-of-kigali/

Leadership in Africa has been unique with its abundance of long serving leaders most of whom could be adjudged to have lost passion for delivering dividends of democracy to citizens.

Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera by virtue of his swearing in as the sixth president of Malawi set an unprecedented record in the history of the continent as the first ever President to unseat a sitting president after court annulled election. The events that played out in Malawi were reminiscent of that of Kenya which was the first ever presidential election annulled by election tribunal. While Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya went on to defeat opposition candidate Raila Odinga in the boycotted election in 2017, Chakwera claimed 58.57% of votes cast to unseat incumbent Arthur Peter Mutharika.



An insight into the events that led to the record setting events in Malawi would suffice at this point.

Chakwera’s predecessor, Arthur Peter Mutharika was elected as the fifth President of Malawi in 2014. After his swearing on 31 May 2014, he was quick to hit the ground running by setting up his cabinet. He earned admiration by naming one of his opponents in the election Atupele Muluzi, as the Minister of Natural resources while he designated the portfolio and control of the defense ministry to himself as the president and commander in chief of the armed forces.

Mutharika is the younger brother of former Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, who was the country’s third president. Prior to his election for a five years tenure which is only renewable once consecutively, he was embroiled in a United States (US) citizenship saga. Malawians expressed fears that his loyalty would be divided as he held a US Greencard.

People feared that as a president who had US Greencard, he would be obliged to spend three months in the US yearly to service his permanent residence status. Prior to the election, Mutharika renounced his US permanent residence status to pledge his full loyalty to Malawi.

His show of commitment won him support from electorates. Allegations of corruption and shortages of food and power cut was met by discontent among the people in his first term. Multitude of people took to the streets in 2018 to protest corruption scandals rocking the administration.

Bribery scandal and contract scam accusations did not help Mutharika’s reputation in the buildup to the 2019 general election. Though Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cleared Muthatika on the Malawi Police Service food rations contract allegations, it did little to salvage his bruised image.

It was at that point that Chakwera, a member of the pioneer political party in Malawi- Malawi Congress Party (MCP) emerged as a strong opposition figure for the 2019 presidential election. Chakwera became a popular voter’s choice in the build up to the election.

The May 21, 2019 election was popularly dubbed the “the Tippex Election”. Election observers and opposition party representatives alleged massive irregularities in the election. Vote rigging, threatening of opposition political party monitors and tampering of election result sheets were reported to have characterised the election. Electoral officials were arrested in different regions of the country for manipulating and switching the votes of Chakwere’s result in favour of Muthatika’s DPP. Tippex, a popular brand of correction fluid was reported to have been largely used to mutilate result sheets in the controversial and disputed election.

Muthatika was declared winner and sworn in despite public outcry over the conduct of the election while Chakwere and his party sort redress at the court. Widespread protests erupted across Malawi to protest the suppression of the choice of the electorates. The protests went on until the recent court judgement on the petition.

On 3 February 2020, Constitutional Court judges traveled in a military vehicle under heavy police escort to the court to pronounce judgement on the disputed election. The 500-page court decision of the judges cancelled the result of the election and ordered a fresh election, thereby making Malawi the second county in Africa to annul a presidential election.

There was widespread jubilation across the length and breadth of Malawi in reaction to the landmark judgement.

The June 28 swearing of Chakwere after garnering majority of votes cast to overturn the results of the initial elections set an example for the African continent. The Southeastern country has set a new standard for democracy in Africa. There are lessons to be taken from all political actors involved in the process.

Former president Muthatika displayed his statesmanship by allowing the judiciary and electoral umpire reasonable liberty needed to discharge their duties fairly. His actions were more laudable compared to that of Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya. In 2017 after the presidential election in Kenya was annulled, high ranking electoral officials resigned their positions citing nonexistence of conducive environment to coordinate the election as reason for their resignation. Notably, before the rerun, recently resigned Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Commissioner who fled to the US said in a statement that the second Kenyan Presidential election would not be fair. Equally on the same day, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati expressed skepticism about a fair election as well, claiming the IEBC commissioners were partisan-minded.

The controversies surrounding the reelection led to Odinga, the opposition candidate and beneficiary of the annulment, to quit the election on 10 October due to lack of reform of the IEBC.

Chakwere’s doggedness, resilience and assertiveness deserves high praises. He stood his ground and fought his battle with the right apparatus of the law. He did not advocate violence which would have resulted to loss of lives and property.

The Judiciary in Malawi has set a precedence which should serve as a point of reference to others in the continent. In the face of tension and pressure from interested parties in the election petition, the judges stood on the side of the people and delivered their judgement without fear or favour.

The whole continent can borrow a leaf from the example of Malawi. The Judiciary in Nigeria which has come into question in recent times due to some of its pronouncement could take a clue from their Black African counterparts. Presidential election petition tribunal judgement in Nigeria sometimes leave much to be desired. Most recently, the opposition candidate in the 2019 general election in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar saw his petition against the election that ushered in the second term of President Buhari to power dismissed. Atiku had sought intervention of the court on the basis of electoral irregularities and cases of result manipulation but his claims were dismissed the supreme court, Nigeria’s apex court.

Nigerian court had as well given contentious verdict in Imo State where a fourth placed candidate was declared eventual winner.

As the world seeks to deepen the gains of democracy, Malawi has proven itself to be on the path of sustainable development which good leadership entrenches. When leaders known that the voice of the masses will count, they adhere by their vows of delivering social amenities to the people.

The commendable development in Malawi should serve as the beginning of a new wave of responsible governance in Africa. Its good citizens have [b]proven their zeal to ensure their votes count, a stance which voters across the continent should adopt. This is the only way that Africa can grow and this is the way Africa should evolve. The greatest democracy across the globe was built by people standing for what they believe is right.

source: http://www.africannewstoday.com/politics/lazarus-chakwera-the-new-face-of-democratic-struggle-in-africa/

Tabbaz:
if you have searched it, you would have seen it

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His moniker is: AbiodunFaf

I was scammed by a nairalander- AbiodunFaf. Dude appeared so gunuine. But stories began to pop up after I already made payment in full. He has blocked me on all platforms.

Las las, he will die soon sha.

Tabbaz:
The details of the scammer will enter the red list today

Please be reminded that his name is yet to enter the list?

Tabbaz:
The details of the scammer will enter the red list today

Thanks!

Tabbaz:
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Tabbaz Hope you have seen the uploaded conversation. Kindly do the needful, please.

Tabbaz:
kindly upload the last part of the conversation sir

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Tabbaz:
kindly send me the link to the post

I mentioned you in the post. It's on page 100. I attached accompanying evidence.

https://www.nairaland.com/3430558/scam-alert-dont-victim-updates/99#87899804

Dominique

Tabbaz

Please you're yet to reply my post on FafAbiodun that slammed me. I uploaded evidence as well. Kindly check and add his moniker...

Dominique

Tabbaz

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He uses First Bank and Zenith Bank Acct Name: Fafunso Abiodun, First bank Acct No: 3060256295.

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