The management of the global ponzi scheme, Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM), has announced a final shut down of operations.

The ponzi scheme in a statement on its official global website on Friday said they were shutting down due to the death of the founder, Sergey Mavrodi.

Mr Mavrodi, an ex-convict, died of heart attack on March 26.

The scheme, which collapsed over a year ago in many countries including Nigeria, has been a subject of controversy globally.

Mr. Mavrodi launched his controversial scheme in 2011 and crashed in Nigeria in December 2016; with millions of Naira belonging to Nigerians trapped in the scheme.

Although the scheme announced a comeback in 2017, it could not launch operation before the renewed enthusiasm among its members fizzled out.

On Friday, the scheme said continuous operation without Mr. Mavrodi made no sense.

“Dear participants, after much deliberation, we have made the conclusion that continuing the System operation, without our leader and ideological inspire, is impossible and makes no sense,” the statement read in part.

“We all carried out the tasks he assigned to us, since we had no doubt in his genius and rightness of the path he had chosen. We are firmly aware of the fact that none of us has a full view of his conception’s profoundness and sequence of all the actions to achieve a final goal, declared in the “MMM’s Ideology”.

”Sergey Mavrodi’s broadmindedness scale is unprecedented. Therefore any attempts to continue the System operation without him are bound to fail. We respect him immeasurably and cannot afford to allow that our unskilled actions may cause profanation of his concepts.”

The scheme, which said members were aware of the risks involved initially, therefore announced final closure.

”In view of the above, with deep sadness, we have to announce the ultimate and irreversible MMM closure.

”We also remind (as a matter of form) that all initially were fully aware of the risks and read the WARNING and confirmed that by checking the relevant box when registering.

”Hoping for your understanding, Administration.”

Before its final collapse in Nigeria, many Nigerians participated in the scheme and associated with it publicly, especially on social media.

This was despite repeated warnings by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other regulatory agencies warning about the likely consequences of such pyramid scheme once it collapses.

Last month, the death of Mr. Mavrodi was trailed by curses and several other hilarious comments by Nigerians who claimed they lost huge amount of money to the scheme.

Following Friday’s announcement, it is unclear whether the new development would affect the operation of the scheme’s websites across the world as the global website was still in operation Saturday afternoon.

Similar checks on Sunday morning shows that the Nigerian website of the scheme was still running.

PT

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday claimed to have uncovered a plot by the Federal Government to plant illegal items on him outside the country.

The plan, he alleged, is to implicate him so that he would be quizzed by foreign security agencies.

This, the governor claimed, was what was done to former Bayelsa State Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha in 2005.

But Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu said the government would not react to the allegation.

Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) dismissed the claim.

A statement by  Wike’s Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu,  said the governor’s investigations revealed that the government was using security agencies for the plot.

The statement quoted Wike as saying: “My investigation reveals that the Federal government is planning to use her security agencies to set me up anytime I am travelling outside the country. They plan to organise security to storm the hotel I am staying and say they found xyz cash in my possession; after which they would say I was arrested for currency trafficking or whatever offences outside the country.

“They will then precipitate crisis in my state and other parts of Nigeria. They will plan demonstrations to demonise me and claim I have gone outside to embarrass the country. The public odium is meant to smear me before my people and other Nigerians. It is unfortunate, wicked and unfair.

“What they plan is similar to what was once done to the late Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha. They are planning what they call the ‘Alams treatment’ for me. But, by the grace of Almighty God, they will fail.

Wike said he chose to alert the public to the evil and dangerous dimension politics had degenerated in the country.

“I am using this opportunity to alert the world of the sinister plot. I am a law-abiding citizen of this country and countries I visit in the course of my work or holidays. I have never dabbled into anything illegal. So, any attempt to frame me up on trumped up charges or alleged offences is bound to fail.

“What they are doing is just cheap politics. They want to intimidate the opposition into silence as they are already doing with their so-called ‘looters’ list’. It won’t work. We can’t all be intimidated. What we expect government at the centre to do is to showcase to the people their lists of achievements; why they should get a second chance. But they have nothing to show; so they are embarking on intimidation and arm-twisting tactics of the opposition.”

Wike said he was sure of victory in the 2019 polls because he has been serving the people diligently and efficiently.

“My works will speak for me. My projects will speak for me. The People of Rivers State will speak for me by voting me back. No shaking, “ he said.

Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, Chief Chris Finebon said: “Wike is raising false alarm. Wike was at the forefront of using federal might to win elections in 2015. Wike and his cohorts used the security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to massively rig the 2015 polls. The Rivers governor is now afraid of his shadow. Everybody is not like Wike. Nobody in APC will repeat what Wike and his cohorts did in Nigeria in 2015.

“Wike is simply being mischievous by claiming that the Federal Government will have nothing to show during the 2019 elections. The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has performed so impressively. In 2017, the trailer loads of rice that Wike bought for members of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came from APC’s Kebbi State and part of the Buhari’s agricultural revolution.

“Wike is deceiving himself by claiming that he is sure of resounding victory in 2019, with his claim of serving Rivers people diligently and efficiently. Rivers people are ready to vote Wike out in 2019, to put an end to his poor performance, brazen stealing, misrule, impunity and bad governance.”

The Nation 

The Lagos State Police Command on Sunday said it had dispatched letters to the Embassy of Denmark over investigation of the murder of a Nigerian singer allegedly by her Danish husband.

Chike Oti, the state police spokesperson, said the letters were to inform the embassy about its investigation of Peter Nielsen, a Dane, for an alleged case of murder.

Mr Nielsen, 53, had been arrested in connection with the murder of his Nigerian wife, Zainab, and their four-year-old daughter.

Zainab, a musician popularly known as Alizee, was murdered, alongside her daughter, last Thursday at Bellasta Tower, Banana Island in Ikoyi.

“In respect of the unfortunate incident, the Command declares as follows:

that on the 5th day of April, 2018, at about 11am, it received a complaint from the Facility Manager of Bellasta Tower, Banana Island, Mr. Kunle Kukoyi, that at about 7am of 5th April, 2018,” the police statement on Sunday evening began, “He was informed by 13-year-old Miss Gift Madaki that she heard her elder sister, late Mrs Zainab Nielsen, 37 years old, crying in the early hours of the morning as she was being manhandled by her husband, one Mr. Peter Nielsen, a 53-year old citizen of Denmark.

“The little girl estimated the time she heard her sister’s cry to be 0345hours.”

Based on the report, the police said, crime scene detectives were sent to the location alongside medics from Britannia hospital in Lekki Phase One.

The team got to Flat 17, Block 4 apartment of the Nielsens, where they saw two bodies identified as the deceased and her child.

“The doctor and his team inspected the bodies and confirmed them dead,” the police said.

“Preliminary investigation conducted at the scene revealed that the violence that consumed the deceased persons started in the couple’s bedroom but the bodies were dragged to the kitchen.

“On closer examination, visible marks of violence were seen on the bodies. The corpses were photographed and evacuated to Lagos Island General Hospital for autopsy.”

Following the news of her death, the deceased’s record label, Petra Entertainment, issued a statement urging the Nigerian Immigration Service to be on the alert as police begin an investigation of Mr Nielsen in connection with the murder.

PT

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was sentenced to five years prison on Thursday by an Indian court for killing endangered wildlife nearly two decades ago.

Khan, regarded as the bad boy of Indian cinema, was taken into police custody and driven to jail after the sentencing amid chaotic scenes outside court.

But the actor, who denied poaching the rare antelopes known as black bucks in 1998, can still appeal his conviction for a crime that has gripped celebrity-obsessed India for years.

“The court has given a five-year jail term and fined Salman Khan 10,000 rupees ($150),” prosecution lawyer Mahipal Bishnoi told reporters outside the court in the Rajasthan city of Jodhpur.

Hundreds of police were deployed outside the courtroom to keep back fans who massed to support the body-building actor best known for his macho roles.

Khan, one of the Indian movie industry’s most bankable stars, wore black sunglasses and a figure-hugging black shirt as he walked briskly from a white SUV to the courthouse flanked by security.

Four other Bollywood stars -- Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam Kothari -- were also accused of joining the hunting trip but were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Khan, whose legion of fans emulate his distinct hairstyle and fashion, has accused Rajasthan’s forest department of framing him over the black buck case.

His defence lawyers had suggested the black bucks died of natural causes such as overeating, and claimed there was no evidence they had been shot.

Controversial bad boy

The 52-year-old has been dogged by multiple charges since undertaking the infamous hunting safari in protected forest land while shooting a film in Rajasthan.

The Bishnois, a Rajasthani tribe seen as custodians of the region’s wildlife, filed a complaint against the actors.

Khan spent a week in prison in 1998 when first accused of using unlicensed arms to shoot the black buck.

Last year he was cleared by a court over the alleged use of unlicensed guns on the expedition. A higher court is challenging his acquittal.

Khan was also found guilty of killing gazelles on the hunting trip and served a very brief stint in jail in 2006, but was later acquitted on appeal.

Controversy has followed the Bollywood bad boy since he burst onto the silver screen in the 1980s.

He was cleared in 2015 of killing a homeless man in a hit-and-run accident. That decision is now being challenged in the Supreme Court.

Indian courts can often take years -- and sometimes decades -- to pronounce verdicts.

He was also accused of assaulting a former Miss World and provoked a firestorm in 2016 by saying his workout schedule for a film left him feeling “like a raped woman”.

But the off-screen drama has done little to dampen his appeal.

The actor known as “bhai”, meaning “brother” in Hindi, enjoys a cult-like status with the majority of his devotees, young men who envy Khan for being unmarried at 52.

Bollywood film industry analyst Komal Nahta said the conviction and any jail term would only delay movies but not seriously harm his career.

“He is a superstar whose films guarantee huge box office numbers,” Nahta told AFP. “A jail term might affect a few films that are in the pipeline.

“These films can wait as they have not yet begun production and at present it would only mean a loss of time rather than money investment.”

Khan remains one of Bollywood’s biggest draws despite his off-screen drama, starring in more than 100 films and television shows.

According to Forbes, he made $37 million in yearly earnings to finish second behind Shah Rukh Khan in the 2017 Bollywood rankings.

Both the Khans are among the top 10 most highly paid actors in the world.

The Bollywood heartthrob’s latest blockbuster “Tiger Zinda Hai” (Tiger is alive) collected some $85 million worldwide.

Source: MSN.com

Globally, youths are the major driving pulse for development per se. Thus, the sluggishness and relative lethargy of government in investing in the world of education is disquieting which is inextricably linked to the prevailing criminal activities, pervasive poverty, high rate of unemployment among other inhumane activities quintessentially Boko Haram etc. 

Surprisingly, it is apparently stated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that, basic education is free and compulsory, yet according to the United Nations Children’s  Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria still has more than 8.6 million out-of-school children - the world’s highest number, girl-child constitute a large and rapidly growing proportion of 60% out-of-school.

It is on this background that some multitude of politically motivated and interest driven demagogues conventionally use this as a window to indoctrinate ample of youths to the wrong arena of thuggery, violence, cultism, drug/alcohol abuse among others which certainly serves as sufficient alibi to distort the future of this great country.

Additionally, it is not enough to cite world’s youngest leaders, for instance, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, Kim Jung Un of North Korea among others as sufficient tipping point for running for political positions without well acquaintance of knowledge of the subject as well as the international scene, Nigeria’s national interest and foreign policy.

Consequently, it is in the enlightening self-interest of government at all levels to take a proactive giant stride to forestall the appearance of future unpredictable loss of lives and properties. These measures range from enhancing food security, motivating youth creativity, abiding by the constitutional right of free and compulsory education by enlightening and reorienting the citizenry at all levels as enshrined in Chapter II, Article 18 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Umaru Yakubu Kirawa, Maiduguri, Borno State

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, leaders of the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), also called Third Force, yesterday, said they are poised to take the country away from current political office holders who they have accused of failing the Nigerian people.

At a meeting of NIM’s top leaders in Lagos, the movement’s National Chairman, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), said despite not being a registered political party, NIM was already deploying strategies on how to mobilise Nigerians on how best they would ease out of office the current crop of political leaders and install a new breed of leaders using their voting power.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Agbakoba said, “This is our first meeting after our summit in Abuja. We are discussing the way forward after the summit. We understand that millions of Nigerians are hungry, poor, unemployed and do not have access to basic education, good health care system, among other challenges. 

“And since we understand that the general elections are close by, our central aim now is to increase the tempo of mobilisation across the country and ensure that we rescue the country from current political office holders. We want Nigerians to own the power for their common good,” he said.

The Co-Chairman of NIM, Dr. Abduljahlil Tafawa Balewa, said since NIM was not a political party, the instrument of mass enlightenment and mass mobilisation was what was currently being deployed. 

Abduljahlil said this has been yielding fruit and that it was a matter of time for the seed of awareness being planted in the consciousness of downtrodden Nigerians to germinate and resonate across the country.

DailyTrust 

The Nigerian Army has denied reports that it was phasing out its troops from states that are experiencing security challenges.

Describing the report as untrue, the Nigerian Army assured the public that they would continue to live to the expectations of Nigerians in the discharge of their constitutional duties of defending the nation’s territorial integrity and giving aid to civil authorities.

The Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu said in a statement that troops would continue to intervene decisively to checkmate any form of criminality, and appealed to the  public for understanding and cooperation.

Calling on state governors and local government chairmen to live up to their responsibilities of proving social amenities, he said this would help reduce incidents of crime.

DailyTrust 

The father of Nigerian artiste, Zainab Ali-Nielsen, popularly known as Alizee, who was murdered alongside her daughter, Petra has finally spoken.

Zainab and and her four-year-old daughter, Petra, were killed in their Banana Island, Lagos home by her Italian husband, Nielsen.

The police on Friday issued an update, confirming that Nielsen was in custody.

Alizee’s dad revealed that his daughter’s husband started assaulting her sometime last year.

He, however, said Nielsen had begged and signed an undertaking not to ever beat her before the incident.

He told Punch “I have known my late daughter’s husband for over seven years now. At the outset, he was of good character but last year, he started fighting his wife. Last November, a case was reported at the police station when he beat her to a coma. He then wrote an undertaking that he would never batter her again.”

“On Thursday morning, he called me; I was in Abuja. Since I missed his calls, I called back and he told me he saw my daughter and granddaughter on the floor in the kitchen. I asked what went wrong; he didn’t say a word and dropped the call. One of my two daughters staying with them called their mother and broke the news. We took the next flight to Lagos and found out she was dead truly.

“I didn’t even know my grandchild was dead too. I told my daughter to get Petra for me and we should go, then she told me she was dead too. I was shocked. The husband claimed it was gas suffocation that killed them. We know that gas doesn’t kill people that way. In the pictures, you would see bruises all over their bodies. They were strangled to death.

“I strongly believe he did it because their compound is highly secured. Whenever I visited them, the security operatives had to confirm my visit with them before I would be allowed in.”

Speaking on reports that the Nielsen was an alcoholic, Alizee’s father said, “I don’t know if he has a history of being an alcoholic or drug addict. She once came back to our house in Abuja after being battered by her husband. She was there for almost a month.

“The man came and started begging that he was drunk. He said he consumed too much alcohol on the fateful day he beat her. Since they had been together for a while and he had never misbehaved, I accepted his plea and allowed Alizee to return to Lagos.

“My two daughters are in the police station right now to give their statements because they witnessed all that happened. They said he hit her head on the wall. In the morning, he then asked them where his wife was.

” They pretended they didn’t know what happened. They knew that if they had made any attempts, they could be attacked too. There were five people in the house when the incident occurred – my late daughter, her child, husband and my two daughters – one 12-year-old and the other 10-year-old. I have four girls; Alizee is my first child and her immediate younger sister works in a bank.

“He cannot do this in our country and get away with it even though he could get away with it if he had done it in his country. We want our government to pass a strong message to other foreigners with this. If this happens in their country, they would surely execute the Nigerian. Our government must give justice too as they do in other countries.”

Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose has reacted to the bank robbery at Offa in Kwara state.

The incident left 17 persons (according to official figures) dead.

Fayose wondered how the robbers operated freely without the intervention of the police.

The Ekiti governor tweeted: “I sympathize with victims of the Offa, Kwara State robbery that led to the death of over 30 people.

“It is sad that such a terror attack could go on for more than one hour and the robbers were able to escape. It is another clear vindication of the call for self defense.

“Killing of over 30 people in an operation that lasted for over one hour cannot be regarded as mere robbery, it is terrorism! It further shows that under this govt of President Buhari, the country is not secured and Nigerians are now at the mercy of killers. It is sad, very sad.

“I’m still wondering how long it will take Police Helicopters to get to Offa from Abuja or Lagos. Robbery operation lasted for over one hour and there were no police helicopters to trail the robbers? Are those helicopters owned just for decorations?

“Sad that these days, mass killings in Nigeria is no longer Breaking News, it has become a normal occurrence.

“Over 30 people killed in Offa and we are yet to see concrete action from the FG that controls security apparatus? Just imagine this happening in any European country.”

DP

It is now clear why   more members of the National Executive Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) backed out of the tenure elongation gambit championed by the party leadership.

It followed the unearthing of the party’s financial records indicating a breach of all known rules and personalization of party funds in “the most opaque manner.”

A top leader of the party allegedly authorized the disbursement of party funds into personal account of another senior member of the NEC.

It was discovered that savings of over N1b handed over in 2014 by the interim executive headed by Chief Bisi Akande was “hastily decimated without care for transparency.”

State chapters of the party were equally short changed in the disbursement of fund they are statutorily entitled to.

Hopes of party officials from the national to the ward levels having their tenure extended by a year suffered a setback last week when President Buhari bluntly described such a move as a breach of both the party constitution and the provisions of the 1999 constitution.

The President’s new position is at variance with the NEC’ resolution in February which had favoured tenure elongation on the grounds that extending the stay of the current executives (whose subsisting four-year tenure ends by June) would spare the party of possible internal acrimony that might jeopardize its chances ahead of the 2019 general polls.

Some members of the party national executive committee were said to have become crest-fallen when they got wind of the classified reports detailing consistent transfer of party funds running into billions of naira to personal bank accounts of a party chief over the years for purposes not stated in the covering memo.

It was further discovered that there was no clear paper trail on what all the funds were used for.

Said one member of the national executive committee who craved anonymity: “My brother, someone like me who initially was among those canvassing tenure elongation became dumb when I saw the reckless way party money was being used. If you don’t have anything to hide, why put party’s money in personal accounts? As if that is not bad enough, once money got released, no one bothered to explain for which purpose and no retirement was made in line with the principles of book-keeping.

“So, the conclusion one could draw is that these people asking us to support the extension of their stay in office by all means are only out to continue this financial recklessness.”

For instance, in the report sighted by The Nation, two “suspicious” transactions on a single day resulted in the transfer of N143.8m via two letters addressed to the manager of the Maitama, Abuja branch of a leading new generation bank. The cash moved in two instalments of N100 million and N43,880,000 ended up in the account of another member of the party’s executive committee who hails from the Southeast.

In another transaction, a letter entitled “Authority to Transfer the Sum of N50,000,000 from our account number (figure withheld)” was issued with the instruction to transfer the said amount to the same official.

On yet another day, another transfer of N48,470,000 from the party’s account with the Area 3, Abuja branch of a First Generation bank was carried out involving the two top executives of the party.

In total, the report indicated that “a whopping N671,640,000 was transferred to the personal account of the party executive alone under such suspicious circumstances”.

The transfers had continued when administrative workers at the national secretariat of the party were complaining of being owed salaries and wages.

The Nation