A Nigerian socialite, Abiola Femi Quadri, has been sentenced to 11 years and 3 months (135 months) in a United States federal prison for masterminding a $1.3 million COVID-19 unemployment and disability fraud scheme. Quadri, 43, who resided in Pasadena, California, used stolen identities to file over 100 fraudulent claims with the California and Nevada…
The US Mission in Nigeria said on Friday that the reason it reduced visa validity for Nigerians was not because of a recent action by the Nigerian government. GISTSMATE MEDIA reported that the US embassy on Tuesday announced that it had reduced visa validity for non-immigrant Nigerian applicants from five years to three months. Although…
Nigeria won’t cave in to pressure from the Donald Trump administration to accept Venezuelan deportees from the United States, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar has said. Tuggar, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday, said Nigeria has enough challenges of its own and won’t be a dumping ground…
The Federal Government, in response to the United States’ new visa restrictions on Nigerian citizens, has called on Washington to reconsider the policy. The US government had earlier announced changes to its visa reciprocity schedule for Nigeria, limiting the validity of certain non-immigrant visas—such as the B1/B2 (business and tourism), F (student), and J (exchange…
US President Donald Trump will welcome five African leaders to a White House lunch on Wednesday, with commerce and trade expected to feature prominently amongst a mixed bag of potential agenda items. The presidents of Senegal, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon — five nations located along Africa’s Atlantic Coast — will convene at Trump’s behest….
Nigeria’s trade with BRICS countries jumped to N5.41tn in the first quarter of 2025, more than three times higher than the N1.54tn recorded from exports to the United States. This was according to an analysis of data from the National Bureau of Statistics’ foreign trade statistics report. The significant rise shows a major shift in…
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has blamed President Bola Tinubu’s administration for Nigeria’s exclusion from high-level commercial talks between the United States and five African countries at the White House this week. In a statement on Tuesday, the party described Nigeria’s absence as a ‘damning international indictment’ of the government’s poor handling of the economy…
Donald Trump has shrugged off Elon Musk’s plans for a new political party as “ridiculous” — but the announcement underscored the threat the disaffected former ally poses to US Republicans defending paper-thin congressional majorities. Musk’s weekend launch of the “America Party” came in the wake of Trump signing into law a sprawling domestic policy…
A day after asking his followers on X whether a new U.S. political party should be created, Elon Musk said on Saturday that the “America Party is formed.” “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said in a post on X. “Today, the…
US-based Nigerian pastor, Edward Oluwasanmi, has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining approximately $4.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Joseph Oloyede, 61, of Medina, Ohio and Edward Oluwasanmi, 61, of Willoughby, Ohio, were charged in court on 13 counts, including conspiracy to commit…