Cartel Imports 40 Chinese Prostitutes as Expatriates – NIS

''The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has said that the 40 Chinese teenage girls earlier arrested on Sunday, at Emina Crescent, Ikeja,  were brought into Nigeria on expatriate quotas of four Chinese owned companies operating in the country.
Consequently, NIS disclosed that the four companies including a popular iron melting company located in Ogba area of Lagos would be sanctioned for abuse of immigration/expatriate quota law of Nigeria.
A top immigration source disclosed that the service high command has been given the go ahead to handle the incident with utmost dispatch. “We have the approval to sanction the four companies who decided to abuse their quotas. I can assure you that this is not going to be a child’s play because at the end of the day this organizations would have to face sanction, including heavy fines,” said a senior NIS officer. The officer who spoke with our Correspondent in a telephone interview from Abuja added that the affected companies usually apply for expatriate quotas to bring in skilled staff for their operation in the country, only for them to sell such quotas to human traffickers who would use it to import teenage Chinese girls into Nigeria for prostitution and other dirty jobs.
Also speaking, the leader of the team that invaded the prostitutes Hostel at Emina Crescent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja in Lagos last weekend, Joseph Omoniyi, as Assistant Superintendent of Immigration (ASI) confirmed to our Correspondent that four Lagos based Chinese companies (name withheld) have so far been indicted.
“We have already started investigation on the affected companies and soon they would be sanctioned accordingly. The offense they have committed is criminal, and that is how they shall be treated. You applied for expatriates for your company, NIS gave it to you, you now turn around to sell such quota to cartel who used it to perpetrate crime. The law is there to deal with them.”
He stated further that some companies apply for two or three expatriate quota and ended up bringing in over one dozen Chinese along with them when they are coming. “If you asked them they would tell you, they are either their children, wives, sisters/brothers or cook and stewards. It is these girls that they later turn to prostitutes. Some of these girls are used to launder money by our politicians.”
The Nigerian Immigration Service had last weekend swooped on 40 Chinese teenage girls at Emina Crescent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja in Lagos and arrested over 13 of them, stressing that the rest girls and the kingpins (husband and wife) escaped.
It was also learnt that the Chinese couple, Sun and Yin Li, who runs the ring charges the teenage girls $1,000 dollar a day. “The girls charge their clients around $2,500 dollars for a night outing. This is real exploitation and forced labour. The teenage girls are given to top business moguls, politicians and other top class socialites.”
NIS added that investigation has already begun and soon the suspects would be charged to court. “After that they will all be deported to China. But we want to appeal to anybody harbouring the run-away kingpin turn them in or such person would be treated as an accomplices.”

SOURCE: Nigerian Political Economist

Dangote Makes Top 25 Richest Billionaires’ List

''Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has made history becoming the first African to be listed in the top 25 richest people list, with a net worth of $25 billion.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has regained the top spot as the world’s richest person, according to Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of global billionaires.

Gates’ total net worth was estimated at $76 billion (£45.5 billion) this year, up from $67 billion in 2013.

His rise in wealth knocked Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim off the top spot into second place.

In total, there were a record 1,645 billionaires, according to Forbes.

The funds needed to make it into the top 20 ranking are now $31 billion, up from $23 billion last year, Forbes said. Gates has been top of the list for 15 of the last 20 years, according to Forbes.

Technology firms featured heavily in the list, with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg becoming the biggest gainer in net worth.

His fortune more than doubled to $28.5 billion, boosted by a sharp rise in the price of the social network’s shares.

The social network’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, also made the list for the first time.

WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton entered the list at number 202 and 551 respectively, thanks to Facebook’s $19bn purchase of the messaging app.

The world’s largest economy, the US, continues to have the most billionaires, with 492.

By region, Europe boasted the most billionaires outside the US, with 468 in total, closely followed by Asia, which had 444 billionaires.

The list suggested that wealth was spreading, with four new countries featuring for the first time – Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania and Uganda.

Landlord Gerald Grosvenor and family were the richest British family to make the list, with a net worth estimated at $13 billion. Known formally as the 6th Duke of Westminster, he owns 190 acres in Belgravia, an area adjacent to Buckingham Palace and one of London’s most expensive neighborhoods.''

SOURCE: Nigeria Political Economist