ZIKKYZ HINTS BLOG

Thursday, November 4, 2021

GREECE CONFIRMS MIGRANT RESCUE ON STORMY MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Officials in Greece have confirmed an ongoing search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea east of Crete, following reports of a migrant ship in distress. Yet the situation remains a bit confusing, according to one NGO monitoring the ship’s fate.

On Friday, the Hellenic Coast Guard said they were conducting “one of the largest search and rescue operations carried out in the Eastern Mediterranean.” The agency released an image of the Turkish-flagged cargo ship being towed, but it’s unclear what happened to it or the people onboard.

The Aegean Boat Report, a Norwegian migration NGO, first called attention to the migrants’ plight after getting reports that the disabled ship was drifting just south of Crete. The migrants, who said they are from Afghanistan, were en route to Italy but were turned aside by mechanical issues and bad weather in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy has been battered by a “medicine” storm that is forecast to cross the sea and reach Libya by Sunday evening.

The NGO raised questions about whether the migrants would be returned to Turkey, in keeping with a European policy that for years has caused bitter contention and division among most Mediterranean coastal nations. They asked why the boat wasn’t taken to Crete and disputed the Greek authorities’ claims that they had not found any migrant ship.

Greek officials have yet to answer those questions but said they plan to make an updated statement on the incident.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has seen an uptick in Mediterranean Sea fatalities this year, although less so on eastern sea routes. Most migrant fatalities occur after ships leave Libya and Tunisia, or on a West African route through the Canary Islands, a territory of Spain.

IOM director António Vitorino appealed earlier this month for more assistance for Afghan refugees. There are now an estimated 5.5 million internally displaced persons in Afghanistan, with 5.7 million more who have fled to other nations.

Let us know your opinion in the comment session below

And follow us on IG @zikkyzhints

Facebook @zikkyzhints

Twitter @zikkyzH

US-BASED SHOW PROMOTER ACCUSES NIGERIAN GRAMMY AWARD WINNER, BURNA BOY, MUM OF N28 MILLION THEFT, FRAUD

Uzoh, who is the CEO of Gold Moola Entertainment, accused the singer of refusing to perform at a show despite being paid in full.

A US-based show promoter, Emmanuel Chinyere Uzoh has accused Nigerian Grammy Award winner, Burna Boy and his mother, Bose Ogulu of extortion, fraud, and theft.

Uzoh, who is the CEO of Gold Moola Entertainment, accused the singer of refusing to perform at a show despite being paid in full.

Stating the allegations on his company’s Instagram handle on Tuesday, Uzoh also accused Ogulu, Burna Boy’s mother and manager, of attempting to extort $10,000 (about N6 million at the black market rate of N573 to $1) from him.

He said Ogulu insisted that he had to pay an additional $10,000 before Burna Boy could come downstairs to perform after he had already been paid.

He wrote, “Bose Ogulu attempted to extort me of $10,000. After the agreed sum was paid in full, she proceeded to ask for an additional $10,000.

“After the balance was paid in full, he posted and confirmed his attendance. That’s when Bose told me that I had to pay another $10k before he comes downstairs.

“I realized that I was being extorted. At that point, I no longer wanted to move forward with the deal. This was around 1:10 am. He was set to arrive at the club at 12:45 am. Once I requested a refund of the $15,000 (about N9 million) that was paid that night, (The deposit was paid on October 7th in Los Angeles) that was when he posted this canceled flyer.

“When I realized what was happening, I decided to pull from the show completely. I asked for the $15k balance that was paid on the night and they refused to return the money.

“After hours of negotiations in the hotel lobby, the entire team snuck out of the hotel through the back exit to avoid us.”

Uzoh vowed to take up the matter legally, saying his only demand is for Burna Boy and his mother to refund the money he had paid to them.

He continued, “These are just the primary details of what happened on the 31st of October in Houston, Texas. Because I didn’t fall for the demands of extortion, I was robbed of over $50,000 (about N28 million) and my name was left to be slandered in the city I love. We will allow the law to finish what it started. I pride myself on being a stand-up guy, especially in the entertainment industry.

“My only demand at this point is a refund. You were paid for a service that you didn’t complete. Be a stand-up guy and kindly return my money @burnaboygram.”

Let us know your opinion in the comment session below

And follow us on IG @zikkyzhints

Facebook @zikkyzhints

Twitter @zikkyzH

LAGOS BUILDING COLLAPSE: US-BASED PROPERTY AGENT, BOB-OSENI UNDER RUBBLE, HE WAS TO RETURN TO AMERICA THE SAME DAY HE DIED

Oseni was on his way to the United States on Monday when he got a call from Osibona, to check out the ongoing development.

A US-based real estate dealer, Wale Bob-Oseni is among the victims of the building collapse which happened in Ikoyi, Lagos on Monday.

According to reports, Oseni had gone to visit his friend, Femi Osibona at the ill-fated 21-story building on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi before the unfortunate incident.

US-based real estate dealer, Wale Bob-Oseni is among the victims of the building collapse which happened in Ikoyi, Lagos on Monday.

According to reports, Oseni had gone to visit his friend, Femi Osibona at the ill-fated 21-story building on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi before the unfortunate incident.

The rescue and emergency personnel have evacuated nine persons alive from the debris of the fallen building.

The survivors comprised eight males and one female, while the fatalities had three females and 33 males.

The 21-story building was still under construction when it crumbled on Monday in the upscale Ikoyi neighborhood of Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Meanwhile, Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has directed the establishment of an independent panel to probe the disaster.

Members will be drawn from the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA), Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), and other professional bodies.

The committee will investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incident and make recommendations on how to prevent future occurrences.

“The investigation is not part of the internal probe already being conducted by the government,” Information Commissioner, Gbenga Omotoso had announced in a statement.

Sanwo-Olu had also vowed to bring those responsible for the disaster to justice.

The governor also directed that the General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Gbolahan Oki, an architect, be suspended from work immediately.

The Deputy Governor of Lagos, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, who visited the site amid tight security, explained that the premises of the collapsed building had been sealed by the government agency in charge of testing, for more investigation into the integrity of the structure.

Let us know your opinion in the comment session below

And follow us on IG @zikkyzhints

Facebook @zikkyzhints

Twitter @zikkyzH

SENEGAL'S MOHAMED MBOUGAR SARR WINS GONCOURT, FRANCE'S TOP LITERARY PRIZE

France's oldest and most prestigious literary prize is won by a Sub-Saharan African writer for the first time.

Senegal's Mohamed Mbougar Sarr impressed the judges with his novel "The Most Secret Memory of Men". But first, world leaders pledge more support for Africa, a continent that has contributed the least to climate change but which bears the brunt of rising temperatures and environmental disasters.

Let us know your opinion in the comment session below

And follow us on IG @zikkyzhints

Facebook @zikkyzhints

Twitter @zikkyzH

© FRANCE 24

Sunday, September 5, 2021

LAWYER SHOT DEAD NEARLY THREE MONTHS AFTER HIS WIFE AND SON WERE KILLED AT THEIR HOME

Alex Murdaugh, the descendant of a prominent family of lawyers in rural South Carolina, was shot on Saturday, nearly three months after his wife and son were killed at their home.

For nearly three months, the question of who killed the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh, a prominent lawyer in rural South Carolina, has gripped the state’s Lowcountry region as harrowing details of the crime emerged but the police made no arrests.

On Saturday, the mystery deepened further when Mr. Murdaugh himself was shot in the head while changing a tire on the side of the road, according to his lawyer, Jim Griffin, who said Mr. Murdaugh was conscious and able to speak on the telephone from his hospital bed.

Mr. Murdaugh told one of his brothers from the hospital that he had pulled over to change the tire when someone in a truck drove past him, then drove back around and shot him, Mr. Griffin said.

Tommy Crosby, a spokesman for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the police agency that is investigating the original double killing, confirmed that Mr. Murdaugh had been shot in Hampton County, a rural county that borders Georgia, but said he could provide no more details.

Mr. Murdaugh is a lawyer whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather each served as the top prosecutor for a broad swath of the southern part of the state over more than eight decades, forming a legal dynasty that has made people wonder whether they were targeted.

On June 7, he returned to his family’s home in Islandton, a hamlet of fewer than 100 people, and discovered his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and his son, Paul Murdaugh, a college student, fatally shot.

Since then, questions have swirled about who the perpetrator could be, and the family has received intense scrutiny, particularly over the fact that Paul Murdaugh was, at the time of his death, awaiting trial on charges of boating under the influence related to a 2019 crash that killed a 19-year-old woman who was a passenger.

Documents and videos released since Paul Murdaugh’s death have raised questions about whether the police were sloppy or gave him favorable treatment, though they have denied that. In one case, a passenger on the boat told a Department of Natural Resources officer that Paul Murdaugh had been driving the boat, but the officer wrote in a report that the passenger had said he was not sure who was driving.

In June, Alex Murdaugh pledged a $100,000 reward for information that led to a conviction against whoever killed his wife and son.

Let us know your opinion in the comment session below

And follow us on IG @zikkyzhints

Facebook @zikkyzhints

Twitter @zikkyzH

Credit: The New York Times

SINGER AKON'S SENEGALESE 'WAKANDA' CITY UNSTARTED, LOCALS LEFT IN DARK

A year after singer Akon laid the first stone of the $6 billion futuristic cities he vowed to build for his native Senegal, the site remains grassland.

The stone itself sits at the bottom of a dirt track in a field; a small placard advertising the megaproject has fallen off it.

Construction of "Akon City," a project due to feature ultramodern twisting skyscrapers, was already meant to have begun near the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene.

But building work is yet to start, prompting residents who were hoping for jobs to wonder about its future.

"They laid the foundation stone with a lot of speeches and promises," said Jules Thiamine, a 35-year-old local who works in the tourism industry.

"Compared to everything that was announced, I don't think we have seen much yet."

Akon -- a Senegalese-American singer-songwriter best known for his R&B hits such as "Smack That" -- launched his eponymous city in September 2020, to great fanfare and international media attention.

The city's otherworldly design is partly inspired by Wakanda, he said at the time, referring to the fictional African city of the "Black Panther" Marvel movie and comic series.

Akon City's planners also say it will be a "beacon of innovation and human development" that will boost industry in the West African state of Senegal.

A stadium, casino, luxury high-rise apartment complexes, and an education district that will "accommodate the most prestigious universities in the world" are also part of the plans.

- Sleepy hamlet -

The glittering vision is a far cry from the existing sleepy hamlet of Mbodiene, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital, where pigs roll in the muck and donkeys amble along the road.

Locals interviewed by AFP said they knew little about Akon City, nor why construction had been delayed.

The ceremonial stone was laid on August 31 2020 and construction was scheduled to begin early this year.

A hospital, school, shopping mall, homes, police station, waste center, and solar power plant are supposed to be completed in 2023 -- and the whole city by 2030.

Speaking on an untarmacked road as horned cattle grazed behind him, 25-year-old student Ahmeth Deme wondered whether the project had been cancelled.

Badara Diakhate, the deputy mayor of the local commune, said he was unaware of the exact reason for the delay but that "people want things to get going."

He welcomed investment in the village and said that delays were common, especially given the pandemic.

- Disillusioned -

At $6 billion, the planned cost of Akon City is huge -- it is not much smaller than Senegal's overall 2020 budget of about $7.5 billion.

The pomp and size of the project elicited skepticism in Senegal at first, where developers and politicians often tout the merits of pet building works.

About 40 percent of Senegal's 16 million people live below the poverty line, according to a World Bank metric.

A lack of clarity regarding Akon City's funding also raised questions.

Paul Martin, from the US-based firm KE International which won the Akon City construction contract, said that Kenyan entrepreneur Julius Mwale is the lead investor.

He added that he could not disclose information on other investors for confidentiality reasons, but said more than $4 billion in funding had been raised.

Construction of Akon City will start in October, Martin said, after a similar Mwale-funded city is completed in Kenya.

"The first 12 months incorporated planning, approvals, procurement and recruitment of sub-contractors," Martin said by email, referring to Akon City.

But tourism worker Thiamane said that he'd grown disillusioned, pointing to earlier failed development projects in Mbodiene.

"What is shared in the village at the moment is the beginning of disappointment," he said.

Akon's team, and the Senegalese state tourism agency SAPCO, which is managing the project on the government's behalf, did not respond to repeated solicitations by AFP for comment.

- 'Still have hope' -

Most Mbodiene residents cited the potential benefits of Akon City and said it could bring jobs.

"This is big for us," said Philomene Bamimba, who heads a local women's association.

David Seck Sene, president of the village youth association, admitted there was confusion around the delays but said: "I still have hope. I don't see how a project like this could stop tomorrow."

He, like other residents, is pushing for education and training so that villagers are not sidelined to laborers' roles in Akon City.

KE International's Paul Martin said the aim is to empower locals to fill high-skilled jobs, adding that training would start when construction does.

Let us know your opinion in the comment session below

And follow us on IG @zikkyzhints

Facebook @zikkyzhints

Twitter @zikkyzH

GUINEA SOLDIERS SAY PRESIDENT 'TAKEN' AND GOVERNMENT 'DISSOLVED'

Guinea's special forces claimed Sunday to have captured President Alpha Conde and "dissolved" the country's institutions, in a video sent to an AFP correspondent, while the defense ministry said it had repelled their attack on the presidency.

"We have decided after having taken the president, who is currently with us (...) to dissolve the current constitution, to dissolve the institutions; we have also decided to dissolve the government and the closure of land and air borders," said one of the uniformed and armed coup plotters in the statement, which has also been widely circulated on social networks but has not been broadcast on national television.

The coup plotters, with whom AFP's correspondent confirmed the source of these images, broadcast a video of President Conde in their hands. They ask him if he has been mistreated, and Alpha Conde, in jeans and a shirt on a sofa, refuses to answer them.

For its part, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement that "the insurgents (had) spread fear" in Conakry before taking the direction of the presidential palace, but that "the presidential guard, supported by the defense and security forces, loyalists, and republicans, have contained the threat and pushed back the group of attackers.