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TINGO MEDIA BOSS, EBUWA MARTINS BURIES MUM IN PORTHARCOURT, RIVERS STATE.

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•Details Of The 2-Day Event

 

It was a life well spent for late Princess Karina Namikpoh who passed on at the age of 68 a few weeks back. A grand burial was staged for her by her children led by the only son, Ebuwa Martins along with his elder sister, Madam Blessing E. Agbonwaneten all together gave mama a befitting burial.
It was a collage of top celebrities from the entertainment industry and socialites who stormed the wake keep, funeral service and grand reception in honor of late Princess Karina. Ebuwa Martins pulled a big one as many important personalities honored him by giving his mum a grand burial. The burial rites started with a wake-keep service at The Azny Place, Louise Drive, New GRA Port Harcourt, Rivers State while the funeral service took place at The church followed by a grand reception which was held at The Palacio Events center, Woji Road, Phase 2 Port Harcourt.
On the band to thrill guests was the popular Groove Guys, alongside with one of Port Harcourt finest Dj DSA. While many professional vendors were in charge of the surplus foods and expensive drinks. SOCIETY REPORTERS captured how the party went.

 

LATE PRINCESS KARINA NAMIKPOH LIVED A GOOD LIFE

For Mama when she was alive, she enjoyed the fruits of her labor. She was described as a caring and compassionate woman who looked after her children. She was a woman with a large heart who embraced everyone she came across. She was known to be a giver and no wonder, many testified to her generous nature. She died fulfilled shortly after she turned 68.

 

EBUWA MARTINS THE PERFECT HOST

Mama’s popular son, Ebuwa Martins, who is also mama’s only son, was up and about at the event. He was seen mostly around all the tables making sure every guest at the party was well catered for. He was indeed the perfect host who shouldered the Mama’s boy mantle for his sister and made sure everyone was fine. He was seen decked in a beautiful blue color complete buba and sokoto for the reception proper. He is well-loved by all and no wonder many celebrities, and many of his class mates (IMMACULATE CONCEPTION COLLEGE OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION ) all came out to celebrate with him as he buried his mum.

 

THE BOND BETWEEN EBUWA MARTINS AND HIS MUM

If you are close to Ebuwa, you will notice he does not joke with his mum. He loved his mum dearly and was always in close communication with her most time. Though Ebuwa was not by her side when she passed on, but he was one of the last to speak with her before she passed on. And in his amazing tribute, he eulogized his late mum who instilled many life lessons in him. While giving the vote of thanks at the wake keeping he said, “Tribute to my Dearest Mother* That you are no longer with us is yet to fully dawn on me. It was indeed a great privilege and honour to have such an alluring, enchanting and assiduous woman as my mother. You woke up early in the morning to pray for me after not sleeping all night due to prayers and praise worships. We talked on the phone almost everyday; We gisted about your joys: past, present, and the future.

Mummy, you were truly One in a million. You were a strong woman, a caring and generous mother. A warm and God-fearing woman. Your caring nature was displayed in the way you would call to check up on us when you had not heard from my sister or myself in a while. Certainly, I will miss the manner you called to check on me. You made it a point of duty to call and pray for each and every one every first day of the month. My mother was a very warm, compassionate and vibrant woman, who always went out of her way to help others. You were always willing to give so much of yours to others and I have tried to emulate that act of generosity myself.
The emotional Ebuwa Martins also talk about how he procrastinated to have seen his mum before she passed on, In his words; ” I am sorry for procrastinating many times to come and see you mummy, I will always postpone seeing you to another time in as much as we talk often but it is so unfortunate that my visit was to see your corpse.”
Speaking further he admitted that his late mum lived a very good life and will never be forgotten in a hurry. “You lived a good life and we will not forget you in a hurry”.
Children learn different things, either positive or negative, from their parents. However, the lesson learnt from Mama’s life has been a tremendous blessing for me. My mother impacted my life in such a way that words are inadequate to describe my feelings. Certainly, you cared so much for your children, grandchildren and for those who are not yours, especially your tenants. Mother was virtuous, elegant, circumspect, and intelligent. Now that you have transited, rest in paradise, my adorable mother, as you join the band of celestial angels. Enjoy your deserved peace with the Lord, and may your kind-hearted soul continue to rest in the bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

ABOUT EBUWA MARTINS’S ONLY SISTER

To give Mama a befitting burial was also Ebuwa Martins’s sister who also supported him from beginning to the end. She stood out and made sure the programme went as planned. Mama was survived by two successful children. Mama’s only son is Ebuwa Martins, a top Lagos businessman and CEO of Tingo Mobile a fintech company, and his elder sister Madam Blessing E. Agbonwaneten, they all looked good for the event.

 

AGN PRESIDENT SIR EMEKA ROLLAS, NOLLYWOOD STARS TAKE THE FRONT SEAT

It will be surprising not to see celebrities from the entertainment industry at the event because Ebuwa Martins shared a very robust relationship with the industry cutting across music and Nollywood sector. In fact many people always see him as an entertainer and this is also very obvious because of his support for the entertainment industry in diverse ways..
They have a business relationship and also storm social events together, they are always like 5 and 6. It was payback time for Ebuwa MArtins as the Nollywood’s finest stood solidly behind him, and for many hours, dined and wined before they took their leave. They were seated at the front table.
Among those who graced the event was the President of Actors Guild Of Nigeria, Sir Emeka Rollas (MON), Sir Victor Osuagwu, Steve Eboh, Tony Nnaji, Ify Eze, Kelvin Uvoh..
Others are; Segun Arinze, Collins Ejike, Sarah Sweet, Chioma Emenike, Tracy Edwin, Dera Content amongst many others.

 

OVATION BOSS, BASHORUN DELE MOMODU’S BRIEF APPEARANCE

For Bashorun Dele Momodu, society is his life, he is very popular within the social milieu and also very well connected. He pulled a big one at the party as he flew into Port Harcourt at the early hours of the day. Give it to the impresario himself, hardly will you see any A-class gathering that Bashorun Dele Momodu does not fit in. He is very relevant. He also shares a very close brotherly friendship with Ebuwa Martins. He was one of the first callers at the event.

 

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION COLLEGE OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION BENIN CITY STOOD BY HIM

Highly and fully represented were the popular Immaculate conception college old boys association Benin city. They outdid themselves at the party. They were over 30 in number who all came to honor one of their own. They were conspicuously seen everywhere around the hall. making sure Ebuwa Martins had a hitch-free event. Some of those in attendance were: Mr Edafe Erhie (Vice President), Mr Bruno Sobotie , Mr Osagie Agbonwaneten, Mr Sunny Obazee, Mr Nedo Osayande, Mr Ralph Obasogie, Mr Tommy Ebohon,  Mr Oghenekevwe Roland Okpe (Welfare Officer), Mr Tony Udoroh, Mr Osahon Osawaru (PRO), Mr Ogbebor Osahon Dally (Fin Sec), Mr Onaiwu Thomas Eghobamien, Mr Efosa Egieoze ( Sec), Barrister Patrick Okonjo, Barrister Alfred Iduhon.
Others are; Mr  Ejiro Roland, Mr Clifford Eruotor, Arc Aimanesi Omokpo, Mr Olaniyi Olufemi, Barrister Rogers Omodia, Mr Abdul Segun Benjamin, Mr Osagie Egbon. Mr Edwin Obasogie (FCA), Mr Job Eromosele, Mr Ogaga Obiebi, Prescious Osazuwa.

 

BY : SUNDAY ADEBAYO

Society

‘Not My Property’ – Ex-Petroleum Minister, Diezani Exposes Owner Of Recovered $52.8 Million Loot

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Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has clarified that she is not connected to the $52.5 million that was recently brought back to the country from the United States of America (USA).

Society Reporters recalls that the federal government on Friday, January 10, announced the receipt of $52.88 million in recovered Galactica assets linked to the former Minister of Petroleum.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, announced the recovery during a formal signing ceremony of the asset return agreement in Abuja.

Fagbemi explained that $50 million of the recovered funds would be channelled through the World Bank for the development of rural electrification projects.

The remaining $2.88 million, he added, would be allocated to the International Institute of Justice to enhance the justice system and support anti-corruption initiatives.

However, in a statement issued on Sunday, Diezani, who has been residing in the United Kingdom (UK) since departing from Nigeria, asserted that the funds associated with her in the media as illicit gains actually belonged to Nigeria’s oil entrepreneur, Kola Aluko.

Finally responding to the alleged recovery through her attorney, Mike Ozekhome SAN, Diezani maintained that the term “Diezani Loot” is unfounded, as she had no involvement in the circumstances surrounding the forfeiture of the funds by its rightful owner.

Expressing her stance, the former minister stated that the $52.5 million originated from a vessel that was confiscated by the American authorities from Kola Aluko, which was subsequently sold, with the proceeds returned to the Nigerian federal government.

Her disavowal of ownership over the funds was detailed in an extensive press release issued on Sunday by the Chambers of Mike Ozekhome SAN, titled “There is no such thing as Diezani Loot.”

The statement reads: “My chambers makes this intervention in the public domain as Solicitors to Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM) ,the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, HMPR.

“As her Solicitors, we are fully versed in and conversant with her present ordeal and the entire facts surrounding her matters both here in Nigeria and abroad. So, we write from the vantage position of one that is aware of the cocktail of lies that have been spurned around her cases in the last ten years.

“Many of the narratives are outrightly false; some others sheer outlandish speculations; and most, simply bizzare stories cooked up by her traducers to extract a Shylock’s pound of flesh from her for reasons she does not know and cannot even fathom.

“This intervention therefore seeks to correct this skewed narrative and set the records straight for purposes of history. Many Nigerians often talk about wanting ‘technocrats’ to be involved in governance. They desire that people with character and integrity should join politics.

“We agree with them. However and regrettably too, now and again and many a time, the same people not only allow, but actually join the bandwagon to mob-lynch those who chose to serve the nation.

“And we often do this insidiously, covertly and overtly, even when there is no concrete or even any iota of proof that such public officers ever abused their offices or stole from public coffers.

“It is therefore surprising and of great concern to us, to see the level of sustained vilification of an innocent Nigerian citizen who has not yet been tried and found guilty of any offence known to law by any court of law whether in Nigeria or abroad. The person at the receiving end is Citizen Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM).”

Mischievous And Cruel
The statement from Ozekhome’s office described the earlier claims about the asset recovery as misinformation and defaming.

It said: “We note with concern the recent deliberate attempt to link her with what has been described as a civil forfeiture of a yacht Galactica, the sale of which was said to have yielded $52.8m to the US government; which sum has since been repatriated to Nigeria.

This is a clear example of the mischievous and cruel sport of tarnishing the image of the lady through a bouquet of consistent, persistent and unrelenting cocktail of falsehoods and misinformation.

“The purveyors of this line of misinformation term it “name-and-shame”. To sell the storyline, the architects ensured they attached Diezani’s name to a recovered yacht which is not in any way linked to her.

“They now falsely termed it “Diezani loot”. Nothing of the sort ever happened. She was never involved in the purchase, use and sale of the said yacht.

“The yacht Galactica, from information readily available in the public domain and in open sources, was purchased by Mr Kola Aluko who had used the vessel until he agreed to its forfeiture to the United States of America.

“The yacht Galactica was neither owned nor ever used by our client. DAM has in fact never set her eyes on the yacht. Kola Aluko is an experienced businessman who had been in business well before DAM came into office as HMPR.

“The only tenuous basis for deliberately linking DAM to the said yacht is the false narrative that the Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) which were entered into between Kola Aluko & Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy companies and NNPC, were allegedly corruptly awarded to the said companies by DAM. DAM was not the GMD of the NNPC as so did not and could not have awarded the said contracts.

“We plead, as her lawyers, with all and sundry that she be accorded fair hearing and that the process of these UK court proceedings be allowed to take their natural course to avoid prejudice to her in the ongoing subjudice UK proceedings against her.

”Those purveyors and peddlers who habitually spin these outrightly false, unfounded, defamatory, unintelligent and indefensible narratives to denigrate and humiliate her should please find better use of their time and leave DAM alone.

“Let the law take its natural course without interference. We humbly pray.”

 

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Bisi Onasanya, ex FirstBank MD flees Nigeria to Ghana as EFCC closes in……

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Bisi Onasanya, the embattled former Managing Director of FirstBank has followed in the steps of Oba Otudeko, the former chairman of FBN Holdings and fled the country.
Onasanya who is expected to appear at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday January 20 to answer to the charges brought against him by anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, may likely be absent in court as he is currently holed up in Ghana in hiding.

He was spotted at Movenpick Hotel in Accra where he checked in at exactly 8 am on Friday morning.

Society Reporters had earlier reported that Onasanya will be arraigned before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke for looting over N12.3 billion.

He will be arraigned alongside Otudeko, also the chairman of Honeywell Group who is equally on the run, as well as two others, a former board member of Honeywell Group, Soji Akintayo and a firm, Anchorage Leisure Limited connected to Otudeko.

The quartet committed fraud in tranches of N5.2 billion, N6.2 billion, N6.150 billion, N1.5 billion and N500 million, N6.2 billion and N2.09 billion between 2013 and 2014 in Lagos.

The 13-count charge, filed by EFCC counsel Bilikisu Buhari on January 16, 2025, further claimed that the defendants made and uttered forged documents to deceive the bank.

Specifically, count 1 accused the defendants of conspiring “to obtain the sum of N12.3 billion from FirstBank Limited on the pretence that the said sum represented credit facilities applied for by V-TECH DYNAMIC LINKS LIMITED and Stallion Nigeria Limited, which representation you know to be false.”

In Count 2, it was alleged that the defendants, on or about the 26th day of November 2013 in Lagos, “obtained the sum of N5.2 Billion from FirstBank Limited on the pretence that the said sum represented credit facilities applied for by V TECH DYNAMIC LINKS LIMITED which representation you know to be false.”

The 3rd count claimed that the defendants, between 2013 and 2014 in Lagos, obtained N6.2 Billion from FirstBank Limited on the pretence that the said sum represented credit facilities applied for and disbursed to Stallion Nigeria Limited, which representation you know to be false.”

In the 4th count, they were accused of conspiring to spend the N6,15 billion, out of the monies.

According to the Commission, the offences contravened Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and are punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.

Counts 5 and 6 read: “That you, CHIEF OBA OTUDEKO, STEPHEN OLABISI ONASANYA, SOJI AKINTAYO AND ANCHORAGE LEISURE LIMITED on or about 11th day of December 2013 in Lagos, procured Honeywell Flour Mills Plc to retain the sum of N1,5 Billion, which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of proceeds of your unlawful activities to wit: Obtaining by False Pretense and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(c), 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.

“That you, CHIEF OBA OTUDEKO, STEPHEN OLABISI ONASANYA, SOJI AKINTAYO, AND ANCHORAGE LEISURE LIMITED on or about the 17th day of December 2013 in Lagos, converted to the use of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc the sum of N500 million only which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of proceeds of your unlawful activities to wit: Obtaining by False Pretense and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2 (b)) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”

“That you, CHIEF OBA OTUDEKO, STEPHEN OLABISI ONASANYA, SOJI AKINTAYO, AND ANCHORAGE LEISURE LIMITED on or about the 17th day of December 2013 in Lagos, converted to the use of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc the sum of N500 million only which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of proceeds of your unlawful activities to wit: Obtaining by False Pretense and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2 (b)) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”

The Street Journal

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Society

Just In: Wasiu Ayinde loses mum, aged 105

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Music Maestro, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal has lost his adorable mother, Alhaja Halima Shadiya Anifowoshe.

 

 

She was aged 105.

 

May her soul rest in Peace.

 

 

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