A Nigerian in detention has been charged for running a drug ring in Australia. The 49-year-old was caught in a $9 million drug operation operating out of Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney. New South Wales Police said the suspect, Dirichukwu Patrick Nweke, used an encrypted messaging service and had established a network of runners outside the centre, who sold large amounts of methylamphetamine and cocaine for him. During a search of a unit at the detention centre on July 11, police found three mobile phones. Subsequent searches uncovered 2kg of methylamphetamine and $169,000 in cash, which had previously been seized…
Author: Olowofela Adebanji
Meta has deleted 63,000 accounts from its platforms over suspected sextortion. The company said the accounts were operated from Nigeria and targeted rich males in the United States. It said the users of the accounts posed as attractive women and tricked their victims into sending them nude photos. The nude photos would then be used to blackmail them for money. Meta’s crackdown on sextortion has included the removal of 200 Facebook pages and 5,700 Facebook groups, all from Nigeria, that were providing tips for conducting such scams, such as scripts for talking with victims. The groups also included links to…
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged Nigerians living abroad to use their experience to aid the country’s growth. He was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, at the 2024 National Diaspora Day celebrations in Abuja on Thursday. “As someone who once lived and worked abroad, I can attest that migration can be transformative and serious. In the 1970s, I went to the United States, where I studied and worked, before returning to Nigeria to contribute to nation-building. “I, therefore, urge our citizens who relocate abroad to remember that there is no place like home.…
A man, who claims his name is Euro, has narrated how his life turned upside down in Canada. The man, believed to be Nigerian, said he was arrested while driving a stolen Maserati and thrown in jail. He appeared tattered and ragged from possible drug use. He was seen smoking a cigarette from a pipe while sitting in the streets of Toronto, Canada. Asked how life was with him, he said, “bad”. When he was asked why he thought so, he said, “I don’t know.” He, however, said he was hoping for a bright future with peace and “crack cocaine”.…
Nigerians may start enjoying direct flights to Canada soon after Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and the Canadian High Commissioner, Jamie Christoff, had a meeting. According to a statement by Gbenga Saka, Special Adviser on Digital Communications to Keyamo, on Tuesday, the two nations also discussed potential business collaboration in the aviation sector. He said the discussions also covered the shortage of aircraft for local operators and the establishment of a direct bilateral aviation safety agreement (BASA) route to Canada. Saka said the minister expressed keen interest in the route, while the high commissioner affirmed its viability, citing the high number of…
A Nigerian man based in Europe has expressed confidence that his wife, whom he has not seen since 2016, is faithful to him. He said this in an interview with @italiandavido on TikTok. He vouched for his Nigeria-based wife, saying although they had not seen in eight years, she had kept herself for him. He added that his friends were congratulating him for marrying a good woman, who despite not seeing her husband for many years has remained faithful. He boasted that he could score her 100 per cent, saying she is not a ‘social media woman’ and could never…
An Irish man has complained about the number of Nigerians flocking to the country, saying it is not sustainable. Michael O’Keeffe was reacting to a video posted by a Nigerian lady, showing how her family relocated to Ireland to reunite with their father, who was granted asylum in the country. O’Keeffe lamented that the Nigerian man was granted asylum and had now applied for family reunification to bring in his wife and ‘seven children’. He claimed that 6,295 Nigerians were claiming asylum in Ireland. Ireland battled riots between anti-immigration protesters and the police on Friday, July 19. The protesters clashed…
A report released by Statisense, a data collection organisation, has shown that over 600,000 Nigerians attempted to flee the country under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023. Statisense, on July 17, 2024, said a total of 664,384 in eight years sought asylum, 355,792 between 2016 and 2019 while 308,592 sought asylum between 2020 and 2023. READ ALSO: $10,000 Account Balance, N640,000 Non-refundable Fee – Nigerians Lament UAE Visa Requirements On a year-by-year basis, 66,862 sought asylum in 2016, 91,924 in 2017, 84,624 (2018), 112,382 (2019), 73,233 (2020), 83,105 (2021), 83,402 (2022), and 68,852 in 2023. Statisense…
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has denied knowledge of the visa requirements being reported after lifting its two-year ban on Nigerians. Japajantis had reported on Monday that part of the new requirements for a UAE visa includes a $ 10,000 bank account balance, a N640,000 fee for document verification (DV) and others. The report had sparked outrage on social media, with many Nigerians accusing the UAE of extortion. A section of the commenters alleged the Nigerian government had colluded with them to fleece Nigerians. However, popular investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, suggested the DV hub is not traceable to the UAE…
Nigerians have lamented the new requirements for a United Arab Emirates (UAE) visa after the ban was lifted on Monday. One of the new requirements is obtaining a Document Verification Number (DVN) which according to the DV hub, is a specialised service designed to authenticate and verify documentation essential for visa applications to the UAE. The DVN costs a non-refundable N640,000 excluding VAT for each application. This does not include the visa fee which must be paid by credit card at the UAE visa centre in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. “Your issued document verification number will be valid for 14…