money
Norwegian Air furloughs staff, pleads for help to survive in 2021
Norwegian Air’s cash crisis could force the debt-laden budget airline to halt operations early next year, the company warned as it issued another plea for rescue funding after reporting quarterly results on Tuesday. The rapid expansion of the pioneer in low-fare transatlantic flights has left it with heavy debts and problems that have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now serving domestic routes only, with just six of its 140 aircraft flying. “Norwegian is dependent on additional working capital in order to continue operating through the first quarter of 2021 and beyond,” the carrier said. The company held cash and cash equivalents of 3.4 billion kroner ($380m) at the end of September, down from 4.98 billion kroner ($550m) three months earlier. Its latest plea comes after Nor...
Arabic inscriptions on naira doesn’t threaten Nigeria’s secular status – central bank tells court
The Central Bank of Nigeria has vehemently opposed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos praying that the Arabic inscriptions on naira notes be removed. A Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, who filed the suit before Justice Mohammed Liman, contended that having Arabic inscriptions on the naira notes portrays Nigeria as an Islamic state, contrary to the country’s constitutional status of a secular state. Omirhobo, who said he does not know what the Arabic inscriptions mean, is praying the court to order the CBN to replace the Arabic inscriptions with either English language, which is the country’s official language, or any of Nigeria’s three main indigenous languages – Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo. According to the lawyer, with the Arabic inscriptions on the naira note, the CBN ha...
#EndSARS: 15 policemen arrested protester in Lagos – sister
No fewer than 15 armed policemen arrested a promoter of the #EndSARS protest, Eromosele Adene, after invading his apartment on Adeleke Street, in the Allen area of Ikeja, Lagos State, on Saturday. PUNCH Metro gathered that a protest had been slated to hold at the Allen Junction in Ikeja when the policemen besieged Eromosele’s house and whisked him away. His sister, Florence, who spoke to newsmen on Sunday, said one of the policemen deceived her by claiming that he had a parcel to deliver to their father around 7am on Saturday. “When I met them, they told me that they were actually looking for my brother and instructed me to take them to our house, but I refused. They said they did a business with him and sent money to his Zenith Bank’s account but the commodity was not delivered. I told th...
BBC exposes European pyramid scam exploiting Africans, others
A new investigation by BBC Africa Eye has uncovered a global pyramid scam, run from Europe, that is using smartphones to cheat ordinary people across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Crowd1 describes itself as “the fastest growing crowd marketing company in the world” and produces social media videos which show members buying new cars and enjoying luxury holidays. Using nothing but a smartphone, Crowd1 claims, you can become a millionaire by promoting and selling a series of exciting digital products to your network. These claims have persuaded thousands of people across Africa to hand over the 99 Euros that buys an entry-level membership to Crowd1. But a six-month investigation by BBC Africa Eye reveals that, behind the slick marketing, Crowd1 is peddling a range of bogus products and fal...
#EndSARS: Over 17 police stations burnt in Lagos – official
The police in Lagos, on Friday, warned that the burning of several police stations across the state will lead to retrogression and a waste of money that could have been deployed to other projects. The police spokesperson in the state, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, gave the warning in an interview with newsmen in Lagos. “The implication of this is that money that has been set aside to do other projects and develop certain areas will have to be channeled into repairing these damaged stations.” He said that over 17 police formations across the state have been totally or partially razed by fire, set on them by thugs who infiltrated the #EndSARS protesters. “Also, it will make our work harder now because we will have to enhance our patrols in order to cover more grassroots areas that are normally covered ...
BTS Become Multi-Millionaires After Label Big Hit Goes Public
While the members of BTS have already amassed a large fortune from their chart-topping singles and sold-out stadium tours, today the K-pop superstars added tens of millions of more dollars to their collective net worth. Their latest influx of cash isn’t due to streaming royalties of ticket sales, however. Instead, BTS’s new-found “multi-millionaire” status can be attributed to their record label Big Hit Entertainment going public. According to CNN Business, Big Hit is South Korea’s biggest stock market listing in three years. The company is selling shares at $115 each, and has so far its raked in $822 million. Altogether, the label is currently valued at a colossal $4.1 billion. The seven members of BTS were each given 68,385 shares last month, which are currently valued at ...
US Republican senators confront Netflix over Chinese sci-fi show
Five Republican US senators have confronted Netflix over the streaming giant’s plan to adapt a Chinese sci-fi book trilogy, expressing concern over the original author’s comments about claims of forced labor in Xinjiang. Liu Cixin’s bestselling “The Three-Body Problem,” which tells the story of humanity’s first contact with aliens, is set to become a major Netflix series co-written by the creators of “Game of Thrones.” In a letter to content boss Ted Sarandos, the senators accused Liu of “parroting dangerous [Communist Party] propaganda” and suggested Netflix was “providing a platform to Mr Liu in producing this project.” They highlighted a New Yorker article from last year in which Liu is quoted defending mass internment in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where activists say more th...
Ekiti lady colludes with friend, fakes kidnap to extort money from parents
The Police in Ekiti State have arrested a lady, Mary Idris, for allegedly faking her own kidnap on August 9, 2020, with a view to extorting money from her parents. The state Commissioner of Police, Tunde Mobayo, said the lady was “arrested alongside her accomplice, Victor Olawuse, in Akure, the Ondo State capital, where she had gone from Ekiti State to carry out the act.” The commissioner, who was represented by the state Police Public Relations Officer, Sunday Abutu, during the parade of 18 suspects for various offences at the police headquarters, said Mary’s mother “came to our station and reported that her daughter, Mary Idris, left home on August 9, at about 4pm and never returned. “She said all efforts to reach her daughter via phone calls proved abortive. After a while, the younger s...
Kidnapped ex-Taraba senator cries out to governor for help
Kidnapped former Senator, representing Taraba North, Zik Ambonu Sunday, has cried out from his abductors’ den, calling on Governor Darius Ishaku to pay the fifty million naira ransom being demanded so that he could regain his freedom. The ex-senator was kidnapped in his Bachama village, Karim-Lamido local government area of Taraba at about 1.30 am last Saturday, according to police spokesman, David Misal. Zik Ambonu Sunday was senator from 2003 to 2007. The abductee has also called on the federal House of Representatives member from Karim–Lamido/Ardo-Kola, Danladi Baido, to assist in making up the ransom cash. His abductors had initially demanded N100 million as ransom. But a few minutes ago -after spending a week with him, they reduced the ransom cash to N50 million, after series of negot...
Ibrahim Magu failed to account for interest on N550 billion recovered loot – panel
Voice of Nigeria A prior presidential panel, which investigated the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, indicted him, a report has alleged. The report noted that the embattled EFCC boss had been unable to account for the interest generated from N550bn cash recovered from 2015 to 2020. The panel is separate from the panel led by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, which is currently probing Magu and other top officials of the agency. The chairman of the previous committee was Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim and the members were DIG Anthony Ogbizi; a member from Federal Ministry of Justice; Mualledi Dogondaji from the EFCC; Hassan Abdullahi from the DSS; an unnamed member from the Office of the Accountant General of the...
Police arrest 46 ‘criminals’, recover N1.5m in Nasarawa
The Nigerian Police Nasarawa State Command has arrested 46 suspected criminals and recovered 1.5 million naira from its operations recently. Commissioner of police in Nasarawa, Bola Longe, disclosed this known to newsmen today at the police headquarters in Lafia. According to the police chief, 46 suspected criminals have been apprehended by police personnel. “We have arrested 46 sophisticated criminals and their breakdown is as follows: 1. armed robbery suspects – 19, 2. kidnapping suspects -14, number of suspected cultists – 6, number of fire arms recovered 11, number of live ammunitions recovered – 63, money recovered N1, 486, 40, number of motorcycles recovered -1“ he said. The CP stated that an official complaint was filed at the police station in Garaku at about 10:50pm on 4/4/2020, f...
US: Malta seizes $1 billion in counterfeit Libyan money
Maltese authorities have seized counterfeit Libyan money worth $1.1 billion that was printed by a Russian firm and worsen the north African country’s economic problems, the US State Department said. There was no official statement on Saturday from Valletta although Malta Today newspaper had published a report about $1.1 billion in counterfeit money seized in Malta on its Facebook site that was no longer available. “The United States commends the Government of the Republic of Malta’s announcement May 26 of its seizure of $1.1 billion of counterfeit Libyan currency printed by Joint Stock Company Goznak – a Russian state-owned company – and ordered by an illegitimate parallel entity,” the State Department said. “The Central Bank of Libya headquartered in Tripoli is Libya’s only legitimate cen...
