CBN ORDERS NIGERIAN BANKS TO CLOSE CRYPTOCURRENCY ACCOUNTS

The central bank of Nigeria, CBN,  has directed banks in the country to close all cryptocurrency-related accounts.

The Apex bank gave this directive in a statement on Friday.

The regulator prohibited all financial institutions from facilitating crypto currency payments in the country.

This directive is contained in a letter addressed to all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs)and other financial institutions (OFIs) on Friday.

This regulatory directive was confirmed by Osita Nwanisobi, CBN spokesman.

According to the letter, signed by Bello Hassan, director of banking supervision, and Musa Jimoh, director, payments system of management department, the apex bank directed all

DMBs, NBFIs and OFIs to identify persons and entities transacting in, or, operating crypto currency exchanges within their systems to close such accounts immediately.

In the letter, the CBN referenced a circular it issued in January 12,2017 ref FPR/DIR/GEN/CIR/06/010 which cautioned Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs)and other financial institutions (OFIs) as well as members of the public on the risk associated with transactions of crypto currency.

“Further to earlier regulatory directives on the subject, the Bank hereby wishes to remind regulated institutions that dealing in cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency is prohibited,” the statement reads.

“Please note that breaches of this directive will attract severe regulatory sanctions. This letter is with immediate effect,” the bank concluded.

KANO HISBAH ARRESTS BARBER For GIVING CUSTOMERS HAIRCUTS THAT 'OFFEND' ISLAM

The Kano State Hisbah Corps has arrested a barber from Benue State, Elijah Ode, for allegedly giving his customers haircuts which offend the Islamic faith in the Sabongari area of the state.

It was learnt that the religious police force reportedly arraigned Ode on Tuesday and also had him remanded.

According to a Benue State activist, Smith Akoko, who first brought the matter to the attention of Nigerians, the barber, who is also a student, was arrested last Wednesday, after two of his customers were caught with hairstyles deemed blasphemous to the Islamic religion.

His cousin, Sunday Ukenya, who confirmed the incident to Akoko, said the Hisbah corps arraigned Elijah in court on Tuesday, February 2, and thereafter remanded him in prison.

It is not clear yet when his trial would resume.

Elijah Ode, a resident of Kano from Adum East, Obi Local Government Area of Benue State, who combines his barbing vocation with his studies, was accused by the Islamic police of committing blasphemy in the cause of his work as a barber.

According to eyewitnesses, Elijah, who is well patronised by young people for possessing exceptional skills in giving trendy haircuts, attracted the wrath of the extremists last Wednesday when two of his customers were tortured to stupour for having haircuts claimed to be blasphemous to the Islam.

Thereupon, Elijah was traced to his barbershop, where he was arrested for complicity, and put in police detention with the two customers last week.

According to information obtained from a family member, Ode did not design the hairstyles with the intention to provoke.

The source said, “He is only being innovative and to improve on his work, which he used to eke out a living for himself and pay his fees at his tertiary institution of study in Kano, where he sponsors himself.

“The case is already in the court of law at the wish of the aggrieved Muslims with the first session heard yesterday. But all efforts by the young barber's lawyer to bail him proved abortive because of the claim that it is a major case and therefore not bailable.

“At the moment, the family has run out of hope, soliciting intercessory prayers as the reality of incarceration stares Elijah in the face.”

BREAKING: BUHARI FINALLY SACKS SERVICE CHIEFS, APPOINTS NEW HANDS

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally sacked the service chiefs in the country with immediate effect after months of pressure exerted on him by Nigerians over worsening insecurity in the country.

The president also appointed new hands to take over the security architecture of the country at a time when terrorism and banditry are ravaging the country.

Special Adviser On Media and Publicity To President, Femi Adesina, made this known in a tweet on Tuesday.

Adesina wrote, “PMB appoints new Service Chiefs. Maj Gen LEO Irabor, CDS, Maj Gen I Attahiru, Army, Rear Adm AZ Gambo, Navy, AVM IO Alao, Air Force.

“He congratulates outgoing Service Chiefs on efforts to bring enduring peace to the country.”

Adesina wrote, “PMB appoints new Service Chiefs. Maj Gen LEO Irabor, CDS, Maj Gen I Attahiru, Army, Rear Adm AZ Gambo, Navy, AVM IO Alao, Air Force.

“He congratulates outgoing Service Chiefs on efforts to bring enduring peace to the country.”

WIFE OF MAN WHO ACCUSED APOSTLE SULEMAN REACTS, SAYS HUSBAND MUST BE ON DRUGS

Pastor Mike Davids who came forward, alleging that Apostle Suleman slept with his wife has attracted a reaction from his wife, Pastor Faith Edeko.

Pastor Faith Edeko who heads the Abuja branch of Omega Fire Ministry has cleared the air on the issue, saying that Apostle Suleman is only but her ‘spiritual father’.

APOSTLE SULEIMAN IN ANOTHER SEX SCANDAL SLEEPS WITH PASTORS WIFE, POLICE BEGING PROBE

Apostle Suleiman 

The police are currently probing the founder of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johson Suleman for allegedly sleeping with a pastor’s wife.nHe’s currently being probed by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.

According to Punch, the IGP ordered a probe of the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman, for allegedly sleeping with the wife of Pastor Mike Davids, threatening his life and denying him access to his children.

The woman Apostle Suleman is accused of sleeping with is known as Pastor Faith Edeko, who heads the Abuja branch of Omega Fire Ministries in Utako while her husband, Pastor Davids, has left the church.

The IGP conveyed the order in a letter addressed to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Intelligence Bureau, Garki, dated January 5, 2021.

The letter, with reference number CB:7000/IGP.SEC/ABJ/Vol.515/561, was signed by the Principal Staff Officer II to the Inspector-General of Police, ACP Iliya Doma.

The letter is sequel to a petition written by V.C Ezenagu & Associates on behalf of the aggrieved Pastor Davids who accused Apostle Suleman of threat to life and preventing him from seeing his three children.

The police letter is titled, ‘Re: Criminal Petition Against Apostle Johnson Suleman for Enticement of a Married Woman; Adultery; Unlawful Criminal Restraint to Access Children and Threat to Life’.

The letter reads in part, “I attach herewith a copy of a letter dated December 30, 2020 with its attachments received from V.C Ezenagu & Associates on the above underlined subject. The Inspector-General of Police directs that you treat. Accept the assurances of my esteemed regards please.”

In the petition he sent to the IG, Davids said he met Apostle Suleman in 2003 while he was in school. He said they became very close and he was eventually ordained a pastor of Omega Fire Ministries on June 9, 2006 by Apostle Suleman and served the church for over 15 years before his exit in 2019. He attached his pastoral certificate with licence number 125 to the petition.

In three videos posted on Instagram on Sunday, the aggrieved pastor accused Suleman of sleeping with his wife and destroying his marriage.

Davids, who wept in the videos, said he began a relationship with his wife in secondary school and they courted for about 11 years before marriage.

He said in 2008 he introduced his wife – who was still his fiancée at the time – to Apostle Suleman whom he regarded as his spiritual father and she told him that Suleman had been making advances at her and once invited her to Reliance Hotel, Benin, but he never regarded it as anything serious.

The aggrieved pastor said things finally began to go downhill when he was posted to Osun State in 2010 shortly after the birth of their daughter, Michelle, in November 2009.

The petitioner said Apostle Suleman was setting up a gospel television station and then said he would need the assistance of his wife who was an employee of NTA.

He said it was during the visits to Apostle Suleman that he eventually slept with his wife but what made it more painful was that the act was done in the presence of their child.

Davids said, “My wife was a staffer with NTA Iruekpen, so Apostle Suleman reached out to her that they will need her to build Celebration TV and Rhema for Living. She would have to shuttle between Osun State and Auchi.

“She came back from Auchi to Osun State and said she wanted to talk to me that her conscience was pricking her. I asked what was it and she said that while in Auchi, Apostle Suleman lodged her at Uyi Grand Hotel and he came there and slept with her.

“And the moment she said that, the first thing that came to my mind was my daughter. I asked where was Michelle when this happened and she said Michelle was on the bed, pushed aside and I asked, ‘You mean you slept with a man with my daughter on the bed?’. I had to let it go because there was nobody I could tell and I couldn’t fight with Apostle Suleman… I forgave her but the amorous relationship continued. One thing I know is that my wife was hypnotised. This is not the woman I got married to, who I knew for 11 years.”

Davids said his relationship with Apostle Suleman soon turned sour and he was suspended but after the suspension was lifted, he refused to return and then started receiving threats from Apostle Suleman.

He alleged that when he left the church in July 2019, his wife started to fight with him and then his wife left the house with their three children and they relocated to Abuja.

The pastor said though estranged, he and his wife remain married because their marriage has not been dissolved by a competent court.

Davids said, “Apostle Suleman has given her a branch of the church in Utako, Abuja to head without permission. I am calling on Pastor David Oyedepo, Pastor Paul Enenche, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Pastor Margaret Idahosa, CAN, PFN.

“Apostle Suleman has damaged my life. I have not seen my wife and children for two years and Apostle Suleman says if I ever go near them, he will have me taken out. I have a video where he said he will make me disappear. I don’t want to lose my life.”

However, his wife in a video described her husband’s allegations as cheap blackmail, adding that it was the petitioner that abandoned the marriage and when her relatives reached out to him, he refused to return home.

She said the ordeal affected her health and she even contemplated suicide but her son stopped her.

Pastor Edeko, who wept in the video, said she never slept with Apostle Suleman, adding that she did not even have easy access to him.

She said, “There are recordings which I will upload. You told my brothers that I would crawl in the gutters. I told them not to do anything to you, that you are still the father of my kids. At some point, I contemplated suicide. I had written my suicide note, I had bought sniper because I could not fathom how I would live life in so much pain. I won’t drag you because of my children… you have done too much and it is enough. I am not hypnotised. I am not under a spell.”

She said she did not abandon her marriage. Rather, it was her husband who abandoned the family and even demanded a refund of her bride price from her family.

She said, “I don’t know what you hope to achieve, I don’t know who paid you but the only thing I will say is haven’t you done enough? Are you not tired of flogging someone’s daughter in pain?

“You left me in Kano. You called me on a certain day that you were going to leave the marriage. I thought you were bluffing. I called my people and they can testify. My elder brother called you from the UK. You told them you were leaving the marriage. My elder brother told me you were bluffing.

“I remember I begged you and then I got to the office and I collapsed, according to what my principal said because I found myself in the hospital.”

She said that no one was preventing Pastor Davids from seeing his children, adding that he lived in the same city with them but had refused to visit.

Attempts to reach Apostle Suleman proved abortive as his telephone line indicated that it was switched off. A text message was not responded to.

However, Resident Pastor, Omega Fire ministry, Headquarters, Joseph Iyare, who responded on behalf of Apostle Suleman in a terse text message, said Pastor Davids is “frustrated by his own evil deeds”.

SOLDIERS ESCORT HERDSMEN TO OGUN VILLAGES, FLOGGED OBAS, OTHERS FOR REJECTING HERDERS

Residents and some monarchs of Ketu-speaking villages in Yewa North Local Government Area, Ogun State have lamented that they were brutalised by soldiers who escorted herdsmen to graze in their communities.

In separate interviews with The Nation, the residents narrated that the soldiers, numbering about 10, flogged them for daring to prevent the herders from grazing.

It was learnt that one of the residents, identified simply as Mulero, was beaten mercilessly, leaving him with serious injuries, for insisting that the herdsmen would not be allowed to graze.

It was also gathered that traditional rulers were beaten after they were forced to convoke a meeting.

According to them, the herdsmen, who had departed Ubeku village after their continued presence was rejected suddenly resurfaced about 2 pm on December 19, 2020, with the soldiers from the 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta.

The soldiers headed straight to the palace of the traditional ruler of the community, Chief Olaleye Adigun, calling out the villagers and warning them against preventing the evicted herdsmen from returning to the village.

It was in the middle of this encounter that the soldiers were told that the herders would not be allowed to remain in the community because of their brutal killing of residents and the destruction of their farmlands in recent times.

One of the residents, identified simply as Mulero, said, “Everyone was frightened by the action and utterances of the soldiers but I summoned courage to tell them how a Geography teacher Mr. Yomi Akinola and two students of Community High School, Ibeku, among others, were killed by the herdsmen while our women were raped and killed on their way to the farm.

“Before I knew it, the herdsmen had motioned to the soldiers who immediately pulled me out of the audience and flogged me mercilessly with a wire whip. It was as if I stole something valuable.

“As I speak, my body still aches because of the wounds, even after I had been treated in a hospital.

“Numerous other villagers were subjected to the brutal act as the soldiers escorted the herdsmen from one village to another all in a bid to intimidate us into allowing them to graze on our farms.”

Also, indigenes of Iselu, Ibeku, Agbon-Ojodu, Asa and other villages were also harassed and assaulted by the soldiers at the instance of the herdsmen.

One of them, Mulero’s brother, Gabriel, was said to have been slapped after he was identified as one of those who resisted the herdsmen's attempt to graze.

Narrating their experience in a petition, the traditional rulers said the herdsmen confirmed that they invited the soldiers to intimidate, harass, and beat them.

The traditional rulers are the Oniggua of Iggualand, Oba Micheal Dosumu; the Eselu of Iseluland, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi; and the Alademeso of Igan Alade, Oba Gabriel Olalowo.

The monarchs in a petition addressed to the Brigade Commander, 35 Artillery Brigade, Nigerian Army, Alamala, Abeokuta, titled, ‘Matter of urgency,’ dated January 7, 2020, said, “The Baale was asked to gather his subjects and people from nearby villages which he did. The suspected soldiers told the people that the purpose of their visit was to inform them that the Fulani herders would be coming into their communities to graze cows.

“After their address, they asked if anyone had a question or comment to make in reaction to the information. Expectedly, one Mr Seye Mulero responded by calling the attention of the soldiers to the inherent challenges of allowing the herders in their communities based on the sad previous experiences in the community.

“That the said Seye Mulero further cited past killings, maiming and destruction of farms to buttress his point. Sadly, at this point, the soldiers seized him and mercilessly beat him up.

“In the same manner, the Fulani herders in the company of the suspected soldiers left Ibeku for Asa, the adjoining village to address the Baale of Asa and his subjects as they had earlier done at Ibeku, the people refused to respond, having heard what transpired at Ibeku.

“However, one of the Fulani herders sighted some of the people in the audience and picked on them as those that purportedly shouted on them at Ibeku while brutalising their victim (Seye Mulero). The herders asked the soldiers to also deal with them."

ALIKO DANGOTE SUES AMERICAN MISTRESS FOR EXPOSING HIS BUTTOCKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

   Aliko Dangote

The $30,000 lawsuit in an American court could further expose the intimate details of the billion’s relationship with his estranged mistress.

Aliko Dangote has filed a lawsuit to claim damages for his battered reputation after one of his American mistresses posted videos on social media that included the billionaires exposed buttocks earlier this month.

Mr. Dangote filed the charges in an American court in Miami, Florida.

He sought compensation for $30,000 in the civil lawsuit, which he appeared to have filed under a pseudonym John Doe. The name also has an alias that says ‘DA’, which appeared presumably as initials for Aliko Dangote.

The charges were filed against a woman who was identified as Autumn Spikes. She was on social media to expose the lawsuit and threaten Mr. Dangote that he had taken the wrong turn by making the case public, indicating that the billionaire risked having additional embarrassing information about him published on the Internet as part of the suit.

Already, the woman claimed Mr. Dangote had offered to pay her for her silence, an arrangement she rejected before the billionaire filed the suit.

She said the pair had been in a relationship for nine years without a non-disclosure agreement to gag her from publicly commenting on the affair.

A spokesman for Mr. Dangote did not immediately return a request seeking comments about the case on Sunday evening.

Using a handle, Allarounda1 on Instagram, the woman posted a video of herself and Mr. Dangote on a couch inside what appeared to be a luxury yacht on January 1. It was unclear in which country the yacht was sailing when the mistress shot the video, but it showed Mr. Dangote drap himself in an orange blanket while fiddling with his mobile phone amidst clearly exposed buttocks.

She also posted pictures of Mr. Dangote alighting from a luxury plane in a private hanger, describing herself repeatedly as a ‘ForbesListSugarBabe’ in apparent reference to her lover’s status amongst an elite list of world’s billionaires.

The raunchy images were later deleted by the woman, claiming she had been flooded with requests from bloggers to comment further on her affairs with Mr. Dangote. She also rejected claims that she took her affairs with Mr. Dangote to social media to chase undue fame.

In follow up updates, she said she was trying to clean Mr. Dangote’s name from the mess earlier created by Bea Lewis, who described herself as a restaurant operator in the United States.

Mr. Dangote’s lifestyle has been largely kept from the public until now. Little was known about him beyond his marriage and divorce in the past. Mr. Dangote’s media aides have yet to comment on the scandalous affairs that seemed to be pointing at the billionaire’s steep appetite for glowing American women.