Popular movie producer and actor Pastor Blinks has revealed he is not a pastor but a movie maker.
According to him, the name Pastor Blinks came from the experience he had with a man of God.
Speaking in an interview with Fiifi Pratt on Kingdom Plus 101.9 FM, Pastor Blinks revealed he is not a pastor but his mandate is to unveil quack prophets
There are a lot of fake pastors all over and the movie reveals some of the tricks and things they do so people will be cautious of them.” he said.
I was only portraying as a pastor in the movie he said .
He, however, fervently cautioned the general public to be careful of the men of God they associate themselves with.
We are a family of 6 and I have been working in the middle east for the past 16years, my family has been here with me for more than 10years.
I am planning to relocate my family to Europe, Republic of Ireland to be precise as I am in-love with the family orientation in the country and it is an English country.
For people that are already living in Ireland, could you guide us on the best way to achieve this and any risk or challenge to expect especially on the two listed below.
As I see that this thread has attracted the good, the bad and the ugly yet again, I am going to highlight the most credible comments I see. I hope this contribution helps.
ExpressBooking: I currently don't think Ireland Post graduate study with family and kids is going to be in the favour of ur wife unless you have a very huge explainable source of funds to support her and 4 kids alongside paying for nanny for about a year. The rent a year for an apartment that will be minimal convenient for your wife, kids and the visiting nanny will set you back about €1250 - €1800 monthly. That's for a one bedroom, living room, kitchen apartment or 2 bedroom depending on area. If it's in Dublin you are looking at about €20,000 on rent alone per year. Other associated bills won't be child's play. Your wife will be allowed to work only 20hrs weekly and 40hrs when school is on break. Going by the minimum wage of €10.50 per hour, its still not gonna take care of anything. I don't mean to discourage you, but its gonna be better if you move here alongside your family and help them settle in maybe when your wife is done with school, and gets a job with critical skills work permit, she can invite your mum or hers to assist
I believe I am in a stead to offer some perspective on your post.
Republic of Ireland — in Irish (Eire) is a peaceful place and a vibrant economy built around services, tourism, manufacturing and agriculture. Also it is a relatively small country with some 5 million inhabitants.
Back to your query, immigration rules in Ireland aren’t much different from what you find in many European countries. That is: come in via short stay visa (study, visit, work permit, or through Bel**** etc} and try to gain permanent resident status via employer sponsorship transition, marriage or asylum after which one can have a shot at citizenship.
Wanting your wife to move to Ireland as a student is a great idea. Irish education is sound and globally recognised. But the unfortunate thing is that only PhD students are allowed to bring their spouse, common law partner and dependents to Ireland while studying. Unlike the UK that allows MSc and PhD students to do same. Given this peculiarity vis-à-vis your wife’s educational background, I doubt she will qualify to move to Ireland with your kids on a student visa if she is not studying for a PhD.
If you are really desirous of moving to Ireland, perhaps you might want to encourage your wife to do a nursing diploma (RN) or degree and practice for a few years in some other country and then apply for job with the HSE (Health Service Executive - Ireland’s equivalent of UK’s NHS. This approach would allow her get work permit that permits the holder to come with spouse and dependents.
Also to collaborate what some earlier posters have said, cost of living in Ireland is pretty high. You should brace up to cough some real cash for a family of 6 if you insist on travelling this road.
I hope this helps. Cheers.
Mcowubaba: Not very accurate information The proposed scheme is for 'illegal Immigrants' (not immigrants) and people in direct provision (international protection scheme) that have been in the country and system for at least 3 years or so, the full details are yet to be published.
The scheme has nothing to do with legal immigrants in the country. Hence it is not applicable to the OP, unless the OP and his family were illegal immigrants or in direct provision in the past years in Ireland.
NaijirianKing: This is the right decision. We don't want our women to become what we see in western countries.
This is Africa we have values and traditions. The angry feminists cam relocate.
What are you banging on about when you bring "angry feminists" into the mix here?
Do you realise women are still fighting for equal rights in most (Western) countries around the world, or that Nigeria actually ranks lower than Saudi Arabia when it comes to gender equality laws?
Have you actually taken time to look at the proposed laws?
Have you got female children?
Do you relate well to female members of your family or community? If so, why don't you take time to canvass their views on the subject first?
On Dec. 15, the Nigerian Senate pushed back the Gender and Equal Opportunities (GEO) Bill — a bill designed to secure the rights of women and girls in the country to opportunities equal to their male counterparts— for a second time.
This piece of legislation, sponsored by Senator Biodun Olujimi representing Ekiti South, contains language that guarantees the rights of women to equal opportunities in employment; equal rights to inheritance for both male and female children; equal rights for women in marriage and divorce; and equal access to education, property and land ownership, and inheritance.
It also seeks to protect the rights of widows and ensure appropriate measures that discourage violence against women and gender discrimination.
The GEO Bill was first introduced in the Nigerian Senate in March 2016 but suffered a lot of pushback as male lawmakers contested its usefulness, saying the Nigerian Constitution already clearly upholds the rights of all women.
Olujimi, however, finetuned the bill and presented it again to the Senate in September 2016. This time, it passed through second reading and was referred to the Senate committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters, but no public hearing was held. In November 2019, Olujimi reintroduced the bill again for hearing and deliberation.
Presenting the bill, yet again, to the Senate on Dec. 15, Olujimi took time to highlight the importance of the bill and shed more light on some of its provisions.
"This bill seeks to further strengthen section 42 of the constitution. It seeks to eliminate gender-based violence. This bill was read for the first time in 2019. It will allow for the domestication of all forms of discrimination against women. It will provide for the equality of all persons. If enacted, it will prohibit all forms of discrimination against women and persons living with disabilities,” she said.
Further addressing the senate body, Olujimi added: "The bill, when enacted, will support agencies to recognise and respond to modification of socio-cultural practices towards ensuring the rights of widows and widowers are recognised and protected. It will encourage women to aspire and attain their full potentials considering the fact that there are real walls of discrimination against women. And address equal opportunities in career choices and job security."
While three senators — Stella Oduah, Akon Eyankenyi, and Istifanus Gyang — spoke in support of the bill and encouraged other lawmakers to do so, senators Yusuf Yusuf and Aliyu Wamakko, representing Taraba Central and Sokoto North district respectively, opposed the motion for the bill raising concerns over possible infringement on Islamic morals and ideologies, although by law Nigeria is a secular state.
Other senators including the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, advised that the bill be read for the second time and concerns raised will be addressed at the committee and public hearing stages of its journey to becoming official legislation.
"From the feelers that I'm getting in the chambers, it appears the consultation has not gone far enough. I want to plead that this bill should not be killed here but should be allowed to go for public hearing so if there is anything that Senator Olujimi missed, it will be addressed,” said Omo-Agege.
After about an hour of deliberation in the senate chamber, Olujimi eventually suspended the hearing and withdrew the pursuit of the bill.
This news comes just days after Global Citizen's Nigeria Country Director Maimuna Maibe officially handed over to the Ministry of Women Affairs a petition, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and signed by more than 23,000 Global Citizens, calling for the domestication and implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act across all of Nigeria's 36 states — legislation that would shield women and girls from gender-based violence and help ensure justice for survivors.
You can join Global Citizen in taking action to help promote and protect the rights of women and girls across Nigeria, and globally, here.
[quote author=naptu2 post=108544488][/quote]Good. I like this rebuttal. Now can we have Chief 'I will consult widely' Tinubu give us the chapter and verse lowdown on how he acquired his assets?
DUNKA: assisted reproductive technology is what now? Is ivf not part of it?
I sorted the table attached by the column named 'Nature of Conception' - so check again. Prove to the world that your comprehension skills are not as poor as your earlier posts suggest.
Indeed, there is nothing that the Almighty God cannot do. And here is another good example – wife of the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, has just been delivered of a ‘bouncing baby boy’ at over 50.
Sharing the good news on his Facebook page, her husband, a pastor with the Redeemed Church of God, had this to say: “I bless the name of the Lord for His blessing to my family in the gift of our son, Kachiside! No sorrow shall ever be added to this blessing to my family. However, I believe this blessing is not just for my family. My wife is in the second half of 50s in age. Yet she bore this pregnancy to full term, without even one morning of sickness! This should serve as encouragement to someone who may have given up hope, or is on the verge of doing so, on account of age. God’s promises for such a one will yet come to pass, if they hold on to and act on His word!”
Akabueze, a former bank MD, erstwhile Commissioner in Lagos State and one time Special Adviser to the President on Planning is currently 62 years while his wife is in her mid 50s.
Of course, prior to the arrival of Kachiside, which means how God wrote it or destined it, the couple had other children.
Congratulatory messages have been pouring in for them. Celebration has also taken over the household.
OssyMalik: Boarding schools have turned to home for children from dysfunctional homes. They go to boarding schools and become violent against well trained kids.
Say NO to boarding schools!!!
Yours is one of the most candid remarks I have read on this subject.
Now while I won't go as far as to call for a ban on boarding schools, I believe the sector needs to be better regulated by licensing authorities. Too many of these schools focus inordinately on the generation of revenue, over and above the welfare of the students they enroll - and this has to stop.
Nigeria needs an Education Inspectorate that is fit for purpose. No child should ever be made to feel unsafe in a learning environment.
The judge pronounced Joshua guilty of the four counts and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. The court also ordered the convict to restitute his victims.
Fani-Kayode under fresh EFCC probe over forgery allegation
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is investigating a former Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode on a fresh development bordering on forgery before a Federal High Court, Lagos.
The Lagos EFCC office is expecting Fani-Kayode on November 24, 2021, to answer questions on possible forgery of hospital documents to hoodwink the court handling the case against him on money-laundering allegations with a view to stalling hearing.
The ICIR learnt that Fani-Kayode might well be deploying a contrived method between him and some medical personnel on the medical excuses to enable him evade trial.
The EFCC, after receiving the defendant’s latest letter, observed the trend Fani-Kayode’s letters had taken in getting adjournments and decided to take a hard look at the development.
The agency observed all the letters were supposedly issued from the Kubwa General Hospital, Abuja, except one issued from the Federal Staff Hospital, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja.
The letters were signed by different doctors, with the last one in October stating that the “patient (Fani-Kayode) has been diagnosed by one Dr. S. A. Tobechukwu” and signed by him.
The agency wrote to the Kubwa General Hospital on October 12, 2021 seeking authenticity of the letter. The hospital replied the next day, October 13, 2021, debunking Fani-Kayode’s claim and declaring there was no Doctor Tobechukwu in its employment and that, in fact, none of the names of the ‘doctors’ who purportedly issued the five letters existed in the hospital’s records.
The hospital also disclosed that no Femi Fani-Kayode had ever been diagnosed or treated as a patient at the hospital. The letterhead on the paper that Fani-Kayode used for his letters, the hospital stated, was fake and did not bear its reference number, just as the format of the patient’s number that he used did not tally with the format in the hospital’s database.
Consequent upon that finding, the EFCC wrote to Fani-Kayode on November 4, 2021, inviting him to report at its Lagos office on November 10, 2021, for a chat.
Fani-Kayode responded to the EFCC letter on November 9, 2021, stating he would be unable to honour the invitation because he would be appearing before an Abuja court on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, in a criminal case, and would need to prepare for the case with his lawyers. He requested that the agency shift the date to November 17 or 18, 2021.
But he did not show up on the newly appointed day. Instead, he again said he would honour the invitation on November 24, 2021, and should be allowed to appear at the Abuja office instead of the Lagos office of the EFCC. But the agency promptly rejected his request to appear at the Abuja office rather than the Lagos office as the money laundering case against him that had elicited the invitation to him was being heard at a Federal High Court, Lagos, and not in Abuja.
The EFCC had on June 28, 2016, arraigned Fani-Kayode; Nenadi Usman, who was the Minister of State for Finance during the former president Goodluck Jonathan administration; Yusuf Danjuma, a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), and a limited liability company, Jointrust Dimentions Nig. Ltd. before Justice Muhammed Aikawa on a 17-count charge of the N4.6 billion money laundering trial.
The defendants were alleged to have committed the offences between January and March 2015, shortly before Jonathan left office in May 2015 following his defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential election. Fani-Kayode, who was the Director of Media and Publicity in the Jonathan government and a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in September this year).
The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the counts and were granted bail.
In the charge, Fani-Kayode alone was accused of making payments to Paste Poster Co. of No. 125, Lewis Street, Lagos, above the maximum amount allowed by law. He was also said, in counts 15-17, together with one Olubode Oke, who is at large, to have made cash payments of about N130 million, in excess of the amount allowed by law.
The EFCC alleged in counts 1 to 7 of the charge that the defendants unlawfully retained a sum of over N3.8 billion “they should have known formed part of proceeds of stealing and corruption.”
They were also alleged in counts 8 to 14 to have unlawfully used a sum of over N970 million, “which they reasonably ought to have known was part of corruption money.”
But the trial has suffered many adjournments, mainly due to Fani-Kayode’s request for adjournment on medical grounds.
According to the court’s records, Fani-Kayode had written to the court seeking adjournment on February 1, 2018; May 20, 2019; November 24, 2020; March 21, 2021, and October 9, 2021.
At the last hearing on October 13, 2021, Bilikisu Buhari, who had announced an appearance for the prosecution, told the court that the EFCC had received Fani-Kayode’s letter on October 11, 2021, stating a doctor had given him bed rest.
Buhari said letters from the defendant had become the fashion whenever he wanted to avoid a court appearance. “Whenever he wants to avoid court, this is the type of letter we get,” she said.
Justice Daniel Osaigor, who had been assigned the case after Aikawa was transferred out of the Lagos jurisdiction of the court, also expressed his dissatisfaction with the former aviation minister’s absence in court and his numerous medical excuses.
Osaigor said he had examined the court file on the case and noted that the defendant had sought adjournment on five occasions on virtually the same medical grounds.
The judge then fined Fani-Kayode a sum of N200,000, to be paid before the next adjournment date or he would revoke the bail the court had granted him, saying, “the recurring medical excuse has been a pattern that slows this trial.”
* Fani-Kayode blames medical doctor for alleged forgery
The ICIR contacted Fani-Kayode over the forgery allegation raised by the EFCC.
Fani-Kayode sent his spokesperson, who identified herself as Gloria Brown, to respond to the allegations at the Abuja head office of The ICIR.
Brown, who also identified herself as Fani-Kayode’s official spokesperson, said the former aviation minister did not forge medical reports as alleged by the anti-graft commission.
Instead, she blamed the alleged forgery on a medical doctor, whom she claimed signed medical reports he issued to Fani-Kayode with different names.
Brown confirmed that ‘Doctor Usman’ and ‘Doctor Tobechukwu’ are the medical doctors’ names on various medical reports signed and submitted to the court.
In an interview with The ICIR, she said, “What happened is he (Fani-Kayode) has a doctor who comes to treat him at home on private practice. Within five years that this case has been on, he has been going to court about seven to nine times in a year, and he only missed for five times and each time, it was basically on health issues that were beyond his control. Usually, this doctor comes to treat him and then goes ahead to produce the medical certificate from his hospital.
“Where the issue of the forged certificate is coming from is what we can’t really place our hands on at the moment. There was no forged medical certificate that he obtained – a doctor in that same hospital obtained the medical certificate.”
But Fani-Kayode’s spokesperson refused to disclose the medical doctor’s real name.
“I will not want to disclose the name of the doctor because the investigation is ongoing,” she said.
She insisted that the doctor’s real name was in two earlier medical reports that he issued to Fani-Kayode.
“We cannot place our hands on why he started using a different name in the last three medical reports. If anybody should answer the question, it is the doctor; he has to explain why he had to use a different name to produce those medical reports.”
Questioned further, Brown noted that although Fani-Kayode was the beneficiary of the medical reports, “it was the doctor that produced it with a different name and sent it to the lawyer”.
Brown alleged that conspiracy was involved in the matter and suggested that the doctor was being used to frame up the former minister.
Asked if Fani-Kayode’s team got in touch with the medical doctor to seek explanations for allegedly issuing the medical reports with different names, she said, “Having known that investigations were going on, we didn’t bother ourselves to do that anymore.”
However, Fani-Kayode’s spokesperson refused to speak on camera when The ICIR requested that the interview be recorded on video.
Brown initially agreed to participate in a video interview but suddenly declined when the session was about to commence.
delzbaba: This man really disappointed me personally.
So Babajide Akeredolu, who studied Engineering but has very limited work experience in the field, is now the DG of the state’s Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit (PPIMU)?
yusfatedeeprof: The man was a religious fanatic who believed his faith in Jesus will hold the building together. Because no one in his or her right mind, who works with professionalism, diligence, logic and reality of things would allow a building that was initially designed for 6 floors to be taken all the way up to 21 floors!!!
They were asking him how he was able to achieve the projects, instead of him quoting his experience, skill and expertise he said it's Grace of God, it's faith in God, God this, God that. Religious fanatics are the worse to work with...
Thanks for pointing out the zealotry and blind faith that must have spurred on that corrupt developer.
When T.B Joshua's building similarly collapsed under its own weight of 'flouted planning laws', we had so many of his followers attributing that preventable outcome to a unidentified flying object (UFO).
Despite many fingers pointing at poor workmanship as the cause of the church’s collapse, the late TB Joshua maintained an aircraft flying too low over the building triggered the building's fall.
Despite the protestations of the South Africa government, who wanted a thorough investigation carried out as quickly as possible, that case remains covered by a cloud of opacity till this very day. I know, though, that many of T.B Joshua's adherents - including a certain garrulous former minister known for peddling conspiracy theories - have taken comfort in the evidence provided by an 'expert witness'. Yes I am referring to Paul Iguniwei, who only completed his Master's degree in Explosive and Material Science in 2016 (NDA). Is the really the best Nigeria has to offer? Or what is the case that this individual is the most pliable 'expert' willing to bear false testimony in a court of law?
I leave it up to Nigerians to decide...
Six years after the man of God has been vindicated In this exclusive footage from SABC, the national broadcaster of South Africa, an interview was conducted with scientist and weapons expert Paul Iguniwei, who revealed shocking details about the advanced infrasonic weapons he concluded were used to attack and destroy the building at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos, Nigeria on September 12th 2014
A letter has shown that Prowess Engineering Limited, the company that began the construction of the building which collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos on Monday withdrew from the project in February 2020.
The company withdrew its services on grounds that it no longer shared the same vision with its client believed to be Fourscore Heights Limited as addressed in the letter.
Prowess Engineering Limited, which had constructed two other buildings for its client, said it couldn’t guarantee the integrity of the third (collapsed building) from anything above the fourth floor.
The letter titled, ‘Re: Proposed Gerrard Terraces For Fourscore Limited,’ was signed by the company’s managing director, Muritala Olawale who confirmed its veracity to our Correspondent.
It read, “This letter is to formally inform you of the withdraw of our structural consultancy service from the above named project. We arrived at this decision due to the fact that we no longer share the same vision with you as our client in terms of how the project is being executed.
“We can guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings and also work done up to the fourth floor of the third building supervised by us provided specifications have been met in terms of the required concrete strength. This we do not have control over as we do not have the concrete cube test results of each stage of the building till date. Also, note that we are not taking responsibility for any other construction errors that may have occurred overtime on the project.
“Furthermore, we request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project.
“We regret this decision and the lost opportunity to do business together. We look forward to future cooperation in other projects.”
Meanwhile, The PUNCH learnt that three survivors have been rescued while four dead bodies have been recovered from the rubble of the collapsed building as of the time of filing this report.
Engineers: Ikoyi building initially designed for 6 floors — changes made were inadequate
November 16 The Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructE) says the 21-storey building that recently collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos state was originally designed to be six floors.
The structure, which was being developed by Fourscore Homes, caved in on November 1, leaving over 40 people dead.
Femi Osibona, owner of Fourscore Homes, is one of the 45 persons who have so far been confirmed dead.
In a statement on Tuesday, Kehinde Osifala, NIStructE president, said the changes made to the project appear to “have been seriously inadequate”.
“There are clear indications of several design brief changes on the project and the engineering and management of these changes appear to have been seriously inadequate,” Osifala said.
“The building that collapsed was initially designed for just six floors, and later to 12 floors, before this was further changed to 15 floors.
“It could not yet be established the adequacy of any properly designed and documented further revision to the eventual (and tragically, final) 21 floors that was being implemented and which collapsed.
“There are also indications that more than two structural engineering design firms worked on the project at different times.
“The preliminary investigation also revealed some evidence of structural inadequacy in the construction and that signs of some structural distress had already started to show within certain elements of the building. Some remedial measures were already being undertaken to address some of this.
“The method of implementation of this was not in accordance with sound structural engineering practices.”
The NIStructE president also said lack of proper quality control during the construction of the building was evident.
“All the above findings, which are very significant from the structural engineering point of view, need to be investigated further during the detailed investigation stage so that all factors related to the cause or causes of the collapse can be truly established and the appropriate lessons identified and implemented,” he said.
“It is our view that the outcome of our preliminary investigation will give a general indication of what likely led to the unfortunate incident.”
Righteousness2: We Live in very Interesting and Biblical times.
The report says China launched Hypersonic Missiles that "Defied the laws of Physics".
Anymoment From now, there is gonna be a Sound from Heaven and all over the World, Everyone whose Believe in JESUS Christ and Whose Names are in the Book of Life will Defy all Scientific, technological and any sort of Laws and will Suddenly Disappear to Meet the LORD JESUS in the air.
If you Desire to be among those that will Defy these laws, You Must Believe and Surrender to JESUS Christ as Your Lord and Savior.
Oh please zip it. You know zilch and are merely projecting your insecurities here.
If there is hell below, we are all gonna go - Curtis Mayfield.
There is no such thing as UK police spokesman The silly blogger who put this one together does not understand how decentralised law enforcement is in the UK.
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.[nb 1] Most law enforcement is carried out by police officers serving in regional police services (known as territorial police forces) within one of those jurisdictions.
Scientists have found three viruses in bats in Laos that are more similar to SARS-CoV-2 than any known viruses. Researchers say that parts of their genetic code bolster claims that the virus behind COVID-19 has a natural origin — but their discovery also raises fears that there are numerous coronaviruses with the potential to infect people.
David Robertson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow, UK, calls the find “fascinating, and quite terrifying”.
The results, which are not peer reviewed, have been posted on the preprint server Research Square1. Particularly concerning is that the new viruses contain receptor binding domains that are almost identical to that of SARS-CoV-2, and can therefore infect human cells. The receptor binding domain allows SARS-CoV-2 to attach to a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of human cells to enter them.
To make the discovery, Marc Eloit, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and his colleagues in France and Laos, took saliva, faeces and urine samples from 645 bats in caves in northern Laos. In three horseshoe (Rhinolophus) bat species, they found viruses that are each more than 95% identical to SARS-CoV-2, which they named BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236.
Natural origin “When SARS-CoV-2 was first sequenced, the receptor binding domain didn’t really look like anything we’d seen before,” says Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia. This caused some people to speculate that the virus had been created in a laboratory. But the Laos coronaviruses confirm these parts of SARS-CoV-2 exist in nature, he says.
“I am more convinced than ever that SARS-CoV-2 has a natural origin,” agrees Linfa Wang, a virologist at Duke–NUS Medical School in Singapore. Together with relatives of SARS-CoV-2 discovered in Thailand2, Cambodia3 and Yunnan in southern China4, the study demonstrates that southeast Asia is a “hotspot of diversity for SARS-CoV-2 related viruses”, says Alice Latinne, an evolutionary biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society Vietnam in Hanoi.
In an extra step in their study, Eloit and his team showed in the laboratory that the receptor binding domains of these viruses could attach to the ACE2 receptor on human cells as efficiently as some early variants of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers also cultured BANAL-236 in cells, which Eloit says they will now use to study how pathogenic the virus is in animal models.
Last year, researchers described another close relative of SARS-CoV-2, called RaTG13, which was found in bats in Yunnan5. It is 96.1% identical to SARS-CoV-2 overall and the two viruses probably shared a common ancestor 40–70 years ago6. BANAL-52 is 96.8% identical to SARS-CoV-2, says Eloit — and all three newly discovered viruses have individual sections that are more similar to sections of SARS CoV-2 than seen in any other viruses.
Viruses swap chunks of RNA with one another through a process called recombination, and one section in BANAL-103 and BANAL-52 could have shared an ancestor with sections of SARS-CoV-2 less than a decade ago, says Spyros Lytras, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Glasgow. “These viruses recombine so much that different bits of the genome have different evolutionary histories,” he says.
Missing links The Laos study offers insight into the origins of the pandemic, but there are still missing links, say researchers. For example, the Laos viruses don’t contain the so-called furin cleavage site on the spike protein that further aids the entry of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses into human cells.
The study also doesn’t clarify how a progenitor of the virus could have travelled to Wuhan, in central China, where the first known cases of COVID-19 were identified — or whether the virus hitched a ride on an intermediate animal.
Answers might come from sampling more bats and other wildlife in southeast Asia, which many groups are doing.
Another preprint, also posted on Research Square and not yet peer reviewed, sheds light on the work under way in China7. For that study, researchers sampled some 13,000 bats between 2016 and 2021 across China. But they did not find any close relatives of SARS-CoV-2, and conclude that these are “extremely rare in bats in China”.
But other researchers question this claim. “I strongly disagree with the suggestion that relatives of SARS-CoV-2 may not be circulating in Chinese bats, as such viruses have already been described in Yunnan,” says Holmes.
The corresponding author of the study declined to respond to Nature’s questions about the findings, because the paper is still under review.
Wang says that both studies highlight the importance of ramping up sampling in regions outside China to help uncover the origins of the pandemic.
Mompha sees himself as the cat with nine lives bah? Let's see how long it takes for Nigeria's finest to contain his alleged criminality
Mompha’s Accomplice, Hamza Koudeih Bags One Year Jail Term, Forfeits N100m, Car To FG Justice Tijjani Garba Ringim of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has convicted and sentenced an internet fraudster, Hamza Koudeih, to one year imprisonment.
Koudeih alongside Kayode Phillips were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, November 28, 2019, before Justice Muslim S. Hassan on a 25-count charge bordering on conspiracy and money laundering.
The defendants, who are high-valued targets in Organized Cyber Syndicate Network, OCSN, were arrested for their alleged involvement in various cyber crimes and money laundering.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Kayode Phillip (a.k.a Voice of the King) and Hamza Koudeih (a.k.a. HK) sometime in May, 2019 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired among yourselves to commit an offence to wit: conversion of the aggregate sum of $7, 069, 000 (Seven Million, Sixty-Nine Thousand United States Dollars), £1, 000, 000 (One Million Pounds) and €80,000 (Eighty Thousand Euro), which sum you reasonably ought to have known form part of the proceeds of fraud and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Sections 18 (a), 15 (2)(d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”
The defendants, who are accomplices to a notorious internet fraudster, Ismailia Mustapha, alias Mompha, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them by the Commission, thereby leading to their full trial.
On July 18, 2021, Koudeih, who is the second defendant, had sought the leave of the court to travel to his country, Lebanon for psychiatric treatment.
However, the application was refused by the court.
Consequently, in view of the overwhelming evidence against him before the court, Koudeih approached the prosecution for a plea bargain.
The agreement thereof was filed before the court by the prosecution, with an amended charge on Wednesday, September 8, 2021.
At the resumed sitting on Thursday, September 9, 2021, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, presented the terms of the agreement to the court , pursuant to Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015. According to him, “Koudeih entered a bond with the EFCC to be of good behaviour and never to be involved in any form of economic and financial crimes both within and outside the shores of the country.”
Delivering his judgment, Justice Ringim convicted and sentenced him to one year imprisonment , with an option of fine of N1m.
The Judge ordered the forfeiture of the sum of N100m concealed by Koudeih in Zenith Bank Plc account number 1014845962 of CHK Property Investment Ltd. to the Federal Government.
Justice Ringim also ordered forfeited a Mercedes Benz GLE43 with chasis number HJGED6EBXHA063213; two pieces of iPhone and a HP Desktop computer recovered from Koudeih to the Federal Government.
Too right. It is unfair to locate those two on the same axis as the nation's perennial rogues.
That being said, can anyone tell me when and where the First National Rescue Summit was held?
The 2nd National Rescue Summit will be held on 1st October 2021, to commemorate the 61st Independence Anniversary of Nigeria and for the NC Front General Assembly to formally adopt its new mega political movement,” Tanko told The PUNCH
Politics › Re: Soyinka: Those Saying I Endorsed Tinubu Are Illiterate Interlopers by Talawaka: 11:13am On Jan 14, 2022
