HIGHLIFE wiTh LANRE ALFRED 08076885752 …Amazing lifestyles of Nigeria’s rich and famous
The needs of a female billionaire are unusually legion: from high-priced art, diamonds and platinum to gold jewels, filthy rich women like their male counterparts, don’t mind splurging a fortune and more on expensive toys. Add a private island and coastal estate to the mix and you have a stereotypical staple for the pleasure of the superrich alpha female. However, if there is one distinctive marker of class or status symbol amongst the Nigerian alpha female, the filthy rich in particular, it is ownership of an expensive private jet.
At the last count, just few women boast ownership of the status-enhancing aircraft and they include: Folorunsho Alakija, the richest black woman in the world, Hajia Bola Shagaya, oil magnate and politician, and Daisy Danjuma, wife of Gen. Theophilus Danjuma – who bought her the private jet as a gift on her 60th birthday years ago. Ownership of a private airplane has undeniably given rise to a culture of acquisition that has become central to the forging of a new personal identity and independent tradition that is tirelessly endorsed by the contemporary alpha female and coveted by the middle-class of this social divide.
More importantly, ownership of the high-end jets guarantees easier access for this influential women between their homes and business domains. Besides guaranteeing easier access to important business and political engagements, the private jets enable Alakija, Danjuma, and Shagaya hassle-free travel to and fro their favourite exclusive beach Eldorado and other guilty pleasures that catch their fancy. Of course, not every alpha female owns an island, but for these extraordinary women, the private jet metamorphoses into an island of sort in the perpetuation of the peculiar indulgences.
But while the alpha women bask in the privileges and elevated status accruable from their ownership of the private planes, it is unclear if they will upgrade anytime soon, like the few privileged corporate titans and high net worth entrepreneurs that have upgraded to bigger planes – leather seats, plush bedrooms and opulent boardrooms – in apparent defiance of economic recession characteristic of several economies of the world.
£12 MILLION NHS TRUSTS FRAUD: WALTER WAGBATSOMA GETS ADMINISTRATIVE BAIL
•WHY OIL MAGNATE WILL NOT COME TO NIGERIA ANYTIME SOON
“If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence,” said Charles Bukowski, German-born U.S. writer. Walter Wagbatsoma probably knows who his friends are now. That due to his ignorance in Forex transactions, the oil magnate landed himself in troubled waters is no longer hot-button news. At this moment the relatives and friends of Walter are extremely happy that his incarceration was not a tale of another long walk to freedom.
As you read, the Managing Director (MD) of Ontario Oil and Gas Ltd, who was caught on the barbed end of justice has been given a bail in the UK. But Walter is not coming to Nigeria anytime soon. It so unfortunate that an erroneous decision he made in the past has mutated to haunt him like an explosion of virulent cells.
You couldn’t have forgotten so soon when Walter was charged in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Economic Crime Unit of Lincolnshire Police, in connection with a £12 million NHS trusts fraud.
Findings revealed that Walter may have unknowingly purchased “dirty” foreign exchange from an anonymous source through an intermediary in Dubai, United Arab Emirates without proper due diligence on the source of the funds before it was wired into his company’s offshore trading account. Unknown to him, the Forex was part of the NHS trusts fund being investigated in the UK. The fund was later traced to his account as the investigation continued, according to a source.
Walter was allegedly contacted about the investigation by the British authorities few months ago. Although he was initially shaken by the development, the Ontario Oil head honcho had been cooperating with investigators and even hired attorneys to represent him in the matter.
At the beginning of his travail, Walter was reportedly detained in Germany on a red notice by Interpol on the matter. The multi-millionaire businessman was detained in Germany on Monday June 6, 2016, following the issue of a European Arrest Warrant by Lincolnshire Police and was extradited to the UK on Thursday 30th June where he was charged with conspiracy to launder money and appeared at Lincoln Magistrates Court on Friday, July 1. The investigation, named Operation Tarlac, commenced in September 2011 following a report of fraud and money laundering in excess of £12m involving Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
