Dino Melaye Publicly Claiming He Graduated From Harvard University And L...

Senator Melaye’s WASC Results Show He Had Only Three Credits

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKMAR 24, 2017

SaharaReporters has obtained Senator Dino Melaye’s West African Examination Council (WAEC) result sheets showing that the embattled senator was a dismal student who earned only three credits. 

The result sheet for the senator, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who represents Kogi West senatorial district, came from a secondary school attended by Mr. Melaye, even though he had kept that aspect of his academic history hidden from the public by scrubbing the school from his profile on the website of the Nigerian Senate.

Mr. Melaye sat for the WAEC exams at the Abdulazeez Attah Memorial College, Okeke in Kogi State. His results, exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, reveal that Senator Melaye, whose name on the result sheets was registered as Daniel Jonah O. Melaiye, only made three credits in Christian Religious Studies (C5), Agricultural Science (A3) and Biology (C6). Melaye took 6 other subjects including English Language (P8), Mathematics (P8), Chemistry (P8), Economics (P7) and Physics (F9).

The dismal performance meant that Mr. Melaye did not have the minimum requisite credits to gain admission into a Nigerian university to study for a bachelor’s degree. In fact, the only way he could have been admitted for studies at a Nigerian university was if he earned other credits from another secondary school. 

Mr. Melaye did not list his secondary school education on his www.linkedin.com profile. Nor did he provide it on his senatorial profile on the website of the Nigerian National Assembly. Instead, he listed Gandun Nasarawa Primary School in Kano as the source of his West African School Certificate. Pupils in primary school are not eligible to sit WAEC exams. 

Authorities at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria have stopped responding to inquiries from the media to provide proof that Mr. Melaye fulfilled the requirements for admission and graduation at the university in 1993.

Two of Mr. Melaye’s classmates yesterday disclosed that the senator was impeached as the President of the National Association of Geography Students (NAGS) in 1998/99 because he was accused of stealing a brand new TV set purchased by the association. He replaced the stolen TV set with an old one. 

Since Mr. Melaye’s certificate scandal broke, the senator has sued SaharaReporters for libel and defamation, making a court appearance at a Federal Capital Territory court in Abuja. The senator has also today petitioned the Inspector General of the Nigerian police claiming that the expose of his shady academic records by SaharaReporters constitutes a “cybercrime”.

WASC results of Dino MelayeSahara Reporters MediaDino WASC resultsSahara Reporters MediaNational Assembly websiteSahara Reporters Media

Haulage Driver Reveals He Transported Senator Saraki’s Range Rover Intercepted By Customs Officers From His Ikoyi Home

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKMAR 24, 2017

A haulage driver named Ojo Aloba has stated that he was hauling the Range Rover imported for use by Senate President Bukola Saraki before officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) intercepted and seized the vehicle. In addition to seizing the Range Rover, reportedly for irregularities related to the use of fake documents to significantly reduce the import duty for the car, the customs officers also impounded Mr. Aloba’s haulage truck. 

Mr. Aloba, who owned up that he was the designated driver transporting the controversial armored Range Rover car, told a correspondent of SaharaReporters that he picked up the car from Mr. Saraki’s residence in Ikoyi and commenced its haulage to Abuja. 

According to him, it was in the process of conveying the vehicle to Abuja that customs officers seized the Range Rover at Ore, Ogun State. The officers noted that the car used fake documents to clear the car. And the same documents reduced the amount of import duty assessed on the expensive car. 

Mr. Aloba disclosed that the movement of the vehicle to Mr. Saraki hit a snag when some customs officials intercepted him along Ore Road and insisted on taking the car to their office. He said the officers disregarded a letter he had from the National Assembly Liaison Office explaining that the car was intended to be part of Senator Saraki’s convoy.

In an interview with our correspondent, Mr. Aloba said it was not the first time he hauled an expensive car from Lagos to Abuja for the Senate President. He added that part of what sparked the suspicion of the customs officers was an incomplete phone number written on the cover note that accompanied the car. Were it not for that discrepancy, the car would have sailed through customs checks despite its incomplete documents, said the driver.

The driver added that he tried his best to reason with the Customs officers, but on seeing that they were growing impatient, he decided to let them do their bidding. 

“When I called the person who gave me the job, he said I should not move from where I was, that Senator Saraki’s people [were] coming,” said Mr. Aloba. He added: “I could not wait because they were already cocking guns. I went with them, but before we got to Berger, there were already MOPOL [mobile police] waiting, but the customs officers leading me said they [could not] wait on the road.” 

He claimed that the car was purchased from Lanre Shittu, a popular automobile dealer in Nigeria. The auto dealer’s brother, Richard "Richie" Shittu, is tied to Senator Saraki. One source said Mr. Shittu often served as a middleman for Mr. Saraki, purchasing expensive automobiles for him and running other financial transactions for the senator as well. 

The driver’s confession to operating the impounded vehicle contradicts claims by one Tokunbo Akindele, who in an affidavit said he was the dealer who contracted the car. In the affidavit, Mr. Akindele also claimed that Mr. Saraki was not involved in the auto deal at all.

Mr. Aloba disclosed that he had moved cars for many influential Nigerians. He lamented that, whenever he ran into the customs’ net due to stamp duty evasion or other irregularities, the car owners always left him to sort out the trouble, adding that his haulage truck was often impounded by the customs.

He recalled a case where customs officers seized his truck as he transported a vehicle for Olu Obasanjo. According to him, the customs still kept his truck after Mr. Obasanjo resolved the duty evasion problem. He regretted that a similar fate might befall him in the current controversy over Mr. Saraki’s Range Rover, explaining that customs officers were not willing to listen to his story that he was a mere haulage contractor transporting a car from one location to another. 

“One [customs] officer who wanted to help me bring my truck out is now scared because of the issue. My truck is there [seized by customs]. I don’t have any means to feed my family. They are now asking me to bring N350, 000. But where will I find the money? As I am, I don’t even have 350 kobo,” said Mr. Aloba.

He said he wanted to use our medium to appeal to customs officials to release his truck, adding that all the papers for the truck were up to date.

Mr. Ojo AlobaSahara Reporters MediaSarakiSahara Reporters Media

Ghanaian actor, John Dumelo caught with missing Government vehicles (Photos)

Ghanaian actor, John Dumelo caught with missing Government vehicles (Photos)

Award winning Ghanaian actor, John Dumelo was allegedly caught with two state missing vehicles by government agents.

According to a recent report by Daily Guide, which also featured the actor on its cover page, he was caught with a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 at a spraying shop in Accra where it was going to be resprayed. While the second vehicle is yet to revealed.
The vehicle was said to be among the 200 vehicles the presidency says are missing after the previous administration led by John Mahama left office.

It was also reported that Last year, the actor who is an ardent supporter of the past administration, was spotted cruising around with a Toyota Land Cruiser car. 

Below are photos of the car he was spotted cruising with last year.

Photo of 25-year-old Nigerian drug peddler caught in India with 53 grams of cocaine

Photo of 25-year-old Nigerian drug peddler caught in India with 53 grams of cocaine

A 25-year-old Nigerian national was arrested on Thursday, March 23, in Hyderabad, India on the charge of drug peddling after 53 grams of cocaine was found on him.

The accused, Ugochukwu Godpower, was nabbed from Banjara Hills area in the city during a joint operation while he was on his way to deliver cocaine to customers.

During the interrogation, Ugochukwu revealed that he used to purchase cocaine for Rs 3,000 per gram from another accused Davis Chris Richard Mueller, a native of Kenya (who is absconding) and sold it for Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 per gram to the customers at different locations in the city, police said.

In November last year, he had been arrested along with four others by Golconda Police in a similar case and was sent to judicial remand. However, after his release from jail in December, he had again started peddling drugs, police said.

Further probe is being carried out to unearth the network of local and foreign drug dealers, police said.

Police Rescues Woman Who Attempted To Jump Into Lagoon On 3rd Mainland Bridge Today

Police Rescues Woman Who Attempted To Jump Into Lagoon On 3rd Mainland Bridge Today

Just days after a medical doctor, Allwell Orji jumped into the Lagoon from Third Mainland Bridge and died, a woman Taiwo Titilayo Momoh almost made the same stunt today but for the quick intervention of police officers.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni told newsmen at the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, headquarters, Lagos Government Secretariat, Alausa, today that Momoh was in a taxi heading towards Oworonshoki on Third Mainland Bridge when she told the taxi driver to stop on the bridge.

According to Owoseni, the woman was about to jump into the water when a police patrol team on a routine patrol on the Third Mainland Bridge sighted her and rushed to save her before she jumped into the Lagoon.

An investigation by SaharaReporters has revealed that Mr. O.A Ojo, a director in the National Assembly Service Commission at the center of a scandal in which fake documents were used to evade the payment of appropriate customs duties on a Range Rover imported for the use of Senate President Bukola Saraki, benefited from irregular and questionable promotion that catapulted him over numerous of his seniors in the civil service. 

Some members of the Senate have demanded an investigation of the scandal, focusing particularly on Mr. Saraki’s possible role in generating fake documents for the clearance of one of his many cars, and the loss of revenue to the Nigerian treasury occasioned by such sharp practices. 

Our sources disclosed that Mr. Ojo, whose fingerprints were all over the scandal, was for some inexplicable reason elevated above colleagues with seniority in qualification or service. An architect by training, the controversial director signed the letter addressed to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to demand the release of the Range Rover, which cost N298 million, after customs officers seized the car. In the letter, Mr. Ojo stated that the car was for use in the convoy of Senate President Bukola Saraki. The NCS had impounded the car on account of the use of fake documents to pay customs duties that were significantly lower than the appropriate fee.               

Documents exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters showed that Mr. Ojo was promoted from the rank of Deputy Director to acting Director and then to Director within one year. Two civil service sources told our correspondent that the man’s dramatic and unusual elevation represented a form of reward for Mr. Ojo’s extraordinary loyalty to corrupt political office holders. Our sources cited Mr. Ojo’s letter to the NCS as the kind of “service” he often renders to public officials who wish to cut corners and deprive the Nigerian treasury of legitimate revenues. 

“[Mr. Ojo] is a well-known beneficiary of the corruption in the National Assembly, and his accelerated promotion has been marked by several irregularities,” said one source. 

Documents obtained by our investigators revealed that, on December 2, 2016, Mr. Ojo was appointed as Secretary, Directorate of Procurement, Estate and Works. The promotion came via an internal circular (NASS/CNA/46/ Vol. 1/222) dated December 2, 2016 and signed by Mr. M.A Sani-Omolori, Clerk of the National Assembly. The appointment came even before the resolution of a controversy related to his previous promotion.

On January 1, 2008, he had been promoted from the Directorate level to Assistant Director. Then, in January 2012, he was again promoted to the post of Deputy Director. A year and nine months later, Mr. Ojo was elevated to the post of acting Director by the National Assembly Service Commission. He was appointed as a replacement for Mr. Ojeh A. Dickson, who had submitted a notice of his intention to proceed on pre-retirement leave. Mr. Ojo’s appointment as acting director was made via a circular (NASC/SS/PF/1378) dated November 24, 2014 and signed by Mr. M. E Onu, Director in charge of Promotions, Discipline and Appeals, on behalf of the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission. The same month, Mr. Ojo was promoted to the post of substantive Director.

In a curious twist, the letter conveying Mr. Ojo’s promotion was backdated to January 1, 2013. Our sources remarked that the promotion was highly irregular, noting that Mr. Ojo was rewarded at a period during which he was neither serving in an acting capacity nor eligible for promotion, as he had spent barely one year as Deputy Director. 

Our sources added that the letter conveying Mr. Ojo’s promotion to full director was even more bizarre as his predecessor, Mr. Ojeh Dickson, was at the time still in the service with the National Assembly Service Commission. “That meant that Ojo was above the man he succeeded,” one source said.

According to the same source, “If Mr. Ojo’s promotion was based on the period he served as acting Director, then his date of promotion, by service rules, should be with effect from 2014 and cannot in any circumstance be January 1, 2013.” He and other sources argued that the date Mr. Ojo’s promotion took effect, January 1, 2013, was dubious. They demanded scrutiny of the exercise.

“We strongly believe that Mr. Ojo was unlawfully promoted ahead of his seniors to serve the purpose of some corrupt individuals at the National Assembly,” one of the sources stated, echoing the views of several who spoke to our correspondent.National Assembly promotion scandalSahara Reporters MediaNational Assembly promotion scandalSahara Reporters MediaNational Assembly promotion scandalSahara Reporters MediaNational Assembly promotion scandalSahara Reporters Media

Source : Sahara Reporters

Nigerian woman gives birth to baby girl aboard migrant rescue ship en route to Italy

Nigerian woman gives birth to baby girl aboard migrant rescue ship en route to Italy

A Nigerian woman gave birth to a baby girl on a migrant rescue boat en route to Italy on Tuesday morning, March 21.

     

The crew on the Aquarius ship had rescued 946 people and was travelling to Italy when the mother, Taiwo, went into labour.

The birth went smoothly and the baby named Mercy, weighing a healthy 3.7kg (8 ounces), disembarked in Catania with her mother later on Tuesday. Italian authorities and relief organizations were on hand to assist the rescued migrants.

"Giving birth to a child is one of the most intimate moments in a woman's life, and she had to go through it on a boat surrounded by complete strangers”, said midwife Elizabeth Ramlow, who was aboard the boat.

Monday and Tuesday's rescues came after a busy weekend, which saw over 3,00 people rescued in one day as migrants take advantage of milder weather to attempt the risky crossing.

The total of 947 brought to shore on Tuesday - including Mercy and 200 unaccompanied children - was a record for the Aquarius boat, coming as aid organizations have raised fears that spring could see a further increase in the number of migrant arrivals.

More photos below..

Source: MSF

3 Nigerian men, one woman caught with Meth in Cambodia (photos)

3 Nigerian men, one woman caught with Meth in Cambodia (photos)

Three Nigerian men and a Khmer woman were arrested for drug trafficking in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on March 17th, 2017.

They were found in possession of two bags of meth, a total weight of 56.72 grams, worth $800. The suspects appeared in court on Tuesday, March 21. More photos below...

Fatal Accident:One Died And Many Injured As School principals going for a meeting in Kwale, Delta State

Fatal Accident:One Died And Many Injured As School principals going for a meeting in Kwale, Delta State

School principals going for a meeting in Kwale, in Ndokwa west LGA, Delta State with eighteen seaters bus somersaulted this morning, between Oghara and Mosogar Ethiope west local govt. leaving one dead and others with various degrees of injuries. Disturbing Pictures!!Read more after cut...

They have been taking to Delta state university teaching hospital, Oghara.

Update! Suspected ritualist, Toafeek Hassan confesses - ‘I was paid N4k to cut off woman’s body part'

Update! Suspected ritualist, Toafeek Hassan confesses - ‘I was paid N4k to cut off woman’s body part'

Suspected ritualist, Toafeek Hassan who was caught with a woman's decapitated head and hands on Sunday, has confessed that he was paid N4000 to butcher the victim.

Taofeek who was paraded yesterday at the Ikeja command headquarters by the Lagos State Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni admitted chopping off the victim’s head with a cutlass, while two clerics (alfas) and a herbalist held onto her hands.

 

He said the cutlass used was given to him by the herbalist who contracted him for the job.

According to him, the victim was brought to Lagos from Sango Ota, Ogun State.

'I live at the Itoga-Zeba area of Badagry. I am a wood cutter and at times I assist owners of coconut plantations to pluck coconut. The whole thing started on Saturday evening when one of my herbalist friend known as Manase came to me to say that he was expecting two alfas from Sango Ota. He told me they would be coming with a lady and that he would pay me N4000 to help butcher the woman. 

He told me the two needed some fresh human parts to prepare a concoction for one of their clients.

'True to his words, the two alfas arrived Itoga on Sunday evening. I noticed that before their arrival, the two alfas had used some charms on the lady. I noticed that she was just obeying their directives without asking any question. I asked her where she came from and she explained that she resides at Otta and that she had gone to seek spiritual help from one of the alfas.

'Around 9:00a.m. on Sunday, we took the lady deep into the forest, close to a river. Manase asked her to kneel down and she did. It was while she was still kneeling that I chopped off her head with a sharp cutlass given to me by Manase.”

The 61-year-old ritualist, who admitted that he had killed one other person about a year ago, disclosed that his herbalist friend was the one who also brought that victim to him.

On Tuesday, Toafeek led the police to his slaughtering ground where he killed an unidentified woman.

Nigerian Female fraudster gets 14 years in jail for Issuance of Dud Cheque

Nigerian Female fraudster gets 14 years in jail for Issuance of Dud Cheque

A female fraudster was on Monday, March 20, 2017, convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment at the State High Court sitting in Mararaba, Nasarawa State. Hanna Abraham was sentenced on a 3-count charge of obtaining by false pretence and issuance of a dud cheque to the sum of N7million preferred against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

According to reports, the convict was said to have, under false pretence, obtained the said sum as a loan to supply 22 trucks of diesel to News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, and diverted it to other purposes other than what it was meant for. The offence contravenes Section 1 (1) a, Section 1 (b) (i) and Section 1 (b) (i) of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, 2006 and Dishonoured Cheque Offences. Despite pleading not guilty to the counts when she was arraigned. Justice Aboki found Abraham guilty on all three counts.

Delivering the judgment, he sentenced her to 10years imprisonment on count one and two years each on counts two and three without an option of fine. While the sentence is to run concurrently, the convict is to refund all the money she collected from the complainant.

"I Have Anal Sex With Snakes" - 40-Year-Old Prophet Reveals

"I Have Anal Sex With Snakes" - 40-Year-Old Prophet Reveals

A Zimbabwean self-professed prophet, Pachawa Kwanamba, has confessed of his involvement in sex sessions with snakes. The 40-year-old told Zim News that he was helpless over the situation which started after he had sex with one Sheila Taibu, a member of a popular cult in Zimbabwe.

He said, “I now physically engage in anal sex with a snake. The mysterious snake is in the habit of penetrating me from my behind every day. “Sometimes I feel it is much better for me to die than to continue to live the life that I am living.

“Mysterious things have been happening to me ever since the day I had sex with Sheila and I now regret the decision I made of indulging in sex with her.
“Whenever I explain my situation to people some think I am insane and others would cut communication ties with me. “I helplessly find myself being a victim of anal sex every day; the snake only comes whilst I am about to sleep and enters me from behind.

“This does not happen spiritually but the snake comes in its physical state and I even have scars on my behind to prove what I am saying. “I have since lost my prophetic powers as a result of being intimate with the woman.

“When I reflect at what is happening in my life, I am reminded of the biblical Samson who lost all his powers after sleeping with Delilah.

“The trauma is tormenting,” he added.

Another Set Of Nigerians Return From Libya

Two weeks after 171 Nigerians voluntarily returned home from Libya, 155 others followed suit on Thursday aboard a chartered Nouvel Air aircraft with registration number TS-1NB.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the aircraft landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 6.00 p.m.

Like the initial group which returned on March 7 after being stranded in Libya while enroute Europe, the returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.

They were received at the Hajj Camp area of the airport by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.