It has been revealed that popular ponzi scheme MMM has officially announced a “RESTART” of the system, leaving many Nigerian participants wailing with thousands and millions on Naira trapped in the scheme.

In a message posted on the home page of participants Saturday morning, the scheme said that it had struggled to stay afloat after going on a break in Dec. 2016 but had been forced to do a system restart.

Many of the participants who commented in various MMM Whatsapp groups recounted sadly how they and family members had lost millions to the scheme.

MMM is a ponzi scheme which gained popularity in Nigeria in 2016. It promised to pay participants 30 per cent return on investment every 30 days.

Despite various warnings by the Federal Government and its financial regulators, many Nigerians adamantly went on to participate in MMM.

Recall that in 2016, the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned Nigerians against putting their money in the scheme.

In December 2016, the scheme went on “Pause Mode”, freezing the funds of participants and allegedly bolted with N18 billion but promised to resume payments by January 2017.

MMM kept its promise by resuming in January but it had new rules: 2016 money was to be paid back in percentages of new money “invested”.

This also did not stand the test of time and by July 2017, the scheme went on a semi pause mode when it could not pay withdrawal requests.

While those who lost their money in June/July continued to wait and lament, the ponzi scheme, in a frantic effort to stay afloat, commenced payment of those who “invested” their money in August, promising to backdate the payment to cover those whose money were still pending from June and July.

It even introduced 100 per cent return on investment to encourage more Nigerians to participate in August.

Apparently unable to meet its promises to pay back June/July pledges and faced with more challenges, the ponzi scheme on Saturday announced that it was going on restart, blaming the Nigerian government and the media for its woes which started in 2016.

Read the full text of the message:

RESTART

Unfortunately, we were unable to overcome the consequences of the crisis triggered by the authorities and mass media incautious actions at the beginning of this year. Despite all our efforts. The problems have been accumulating and, as a result, we have to announce a restart.

So, there is a restart:

All old Mavros (acquired before this announcement is posted) are frozen. We will gradually buy them back as the System develops.

All transactions with new Mavros (acquired after this announcement is posted) will be carried out on the usual terms with no restrictions.

Some amendments have been made to the rules:

Mavros will now start growing at the moment the request is confirmed (not at the moment it is created, as it was previously).

Consequently, bonuses will start growing at the moment when the main contribution is confirmed (upon which bonuses have been rewarded on).

Mavro-50% for the first contribution will not be available.

We launch three-month contributions of two types: 40% and 50% (see more details in WHAT IS MMM).

We’re confident that this measure (especially paragraphs 1 and 2) will significantly reduce the load on the System while also significantly improving its stability.

As a matter of fact, a restart is not the end of the world, it’s just a restart of the System and nothing more. Continue to provide help and you’ll get it all back (even if you’ve lost something now). It all starts from the beginning. It’s the most opportune time for participating.

We would also like to remind you (just for form’s sake) that everyone had been fully aware of all the risks and had read the WARNING which they had also confirmed by checking the relevant box in the process of registration.

Hoping for your understanding,

MMM Administration

Some of the participants of the scheme expressed regrets for ever joining MMM.

One of the participants (names with held) said that if he had known he would have used his money fro something better rather than investing on the scheme.

“This MMM people are very useless, they just came to dupe us,” he said.

On the promise by the scheme to buy back the debts it owed Nigerians when it restarts, he said: “Restart? who are they restarting with? Nobody will join MMM in Nigeria again”.

“MMM is gone and gone for good,” he said.

3 Kidnappers who returned to UNIABUJA (University of Abuja) to kidnap more female students on Friday, met their waterloo as some students recognized them, pounced and beat them to stupor before they were rescued and taken away by the school’s security.

According to a student of the school, Damilola, the alleged kidnappers had come to the school on Tuesday to pick up some ladies but the ladies never came back. It was also gathered that after they were nabbed, their car was also set ablaze.

Another student, Mercy, also said;

“Two girls got an invitation to go out, from a hostel member, who is not a student, but was impersonating just to get girls kidnapped from the school”.

The school’s Chief Security Officer, Mr Solomon Ngbede, who spoke with Premium Times, confirmed that the kidnappers who have been identified as Ifeanyi and Precious Okeke, indeed abducted students but they have been rescued.

“The students were kidnapped five days ago and the kidnappers confessed that they were the ones who picked them up so we went there in the company of the police and rescued the girls last night and they are with their parents now,” Mr Ngbede said.

“The kidnappers came back yesterday to pick another set of girls. They were two men and a lady. The students were able to recognise them, so we have the men and two girls in our custody,” he added.

An 18-year-old housewife, Divine Preye Idan, has confessed to the Police in Bayelsa State how she assisted her 35-year-old husband, Idan, to rob a boutique in Biogbolo-Epie, Yenagoa.

Divine and her husband were arrested by the police after robbing a boutique, at gunpoint, on September 21, 2017.

Divine confessed that they hired the locally-made gun they used during the operation from another couple, Iro Royereyigha, 30, and Abani Perelebina, 18.

The mother of one, who is also pregnant, said after negotiating for the gun with an initial deposit of N1000, they proceeded for the operation, with a promise of paying up the remaining N100,000 after the operation.

Divine’s husband, Idan, corroborated his wife’s account of their criminal act, but said it was their first time of engaging in robbery. He said they were dealing on timber adding that hardship drove them into robbery.

He appealed to the police to forgive them. On his part, Iro, who hired the gun, said temptation led him to commit the crime and to involve his wife in the criminal act.

Iro, a father of 11 children from two women said he got the gun from a friend and handed it over to his second wife, who subsequently gave it to Divine’s husband.

Parading the couples, the Commissioner of Police, Amba Asuquo, said they would be charged to court after investigations and lamented rising parental irresponsibility in Bayelsa.

A beautiful fresh graduate of Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, has been killed by a stray bullet, shot from a vigilante’s gun.

Identified as Uloko Lawrenta Apaume, the young girl was shot dead by the vigilante on Friday, November, 3, 2017, a day after her signing out.

The landlord of the Banking and Finance graduate, had invited vigilantes to the hostel to secure the place for the celebration of HND graduates.

However, out of celebration, the vigilantes shot into the air and Apaume was hit by a stray bullet and died instantly.

“She graduated on 2nd of November and died on 3rd of November, still like a dream to us. What a world”, her coursemate, Rita wrote.

Following controversies that had trailed his son, Jide’s death, the national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has disclosed that the deceased died of cardiac arrest.

Tinubu’s clarification on his son’s death came barely 24 hours after departing Lagos with his wife, Oluremi, who is chairman, senate committee on Environment, for London to visit the family of deceased.

The former governor, in a statement by his media aide, Tunde Rahman, on Friday, described his son’s death as a reminder except GOD, no human have knowledge of his last day on earth.

“My son was a highly intelligent person with a vibrant personality and a zest for life. He followed his own course and made his own way on his own terms. Those who knew him could not help but like him. Yet, he was taken away by cardiac arrest when it seemed he had so much life to still live.

“This is a reminder that we must live each day to its best as none of us knows when our last day shall be. Mortality comes upon us all. We have no choice in that but we do have a choice whether we shall be good or bad, just or unjust. Let us all strive toward the best in ourselves.

Felicia Ifeanyi, an undergraduate of the Abia State College of Health, Science and Management Technology, Aba, on Friday, gave birth to a set of triplets at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.

According to Punch, Felicia, a resident of Uhet, Cross River State, said she did not expect to give birth to triplets, adding that they were gift from God. The joyous mother, whose husband is jobless, however, said she does not have the wherewithal to cater for the babies.

The mother of three, who just started schooling last year, therefore, called on government to come to their rescue. Her excited husband, Okechuku, revealed that God gave them the babies without them asking for them.

Dr Ezekiel Mutua, who is responsible for TV and film censorship in Kenya, has blamed gay men for the actions of two lions recent photgraphed getting intimate in Kenya’s Masai Mara.

The two male lions were seen engaging in a love-making session that lasted for at least a minute. Mutua saw the photo and said gay men who visit the national park are responsible for influencing the animals’ behaviour. .

He also called for the two lions in question to be caught and kept in isolation until scientists can “determine how they acquired homosexual behaviour”.

Homosexuality among certain animals, including lions, has been observed for decades and is believed to be a natural occurence, but Dr Mutua is convinced that the only way the lions learnt that is either by seeing gay men having sex in front of them, or the lions have been possessed by demons.

“These animals need counseling, because probably they have been influenced by gays who have gone to the national parks and behaved badly,” Dr Mutua told Nairobi News.

“They must have copied it from somewhere or it is demonic. Because these animals do not watch movies.” The images of the lions getting intimate were taken by London-based photographer Paul Goldstein during a trip to the Masai Mara.

The lions had walked into some bushes to get some privacy and that was when Goldstein saw them. He said he first observed the two lions standing side-by-side, before one lay down and was gently mounted by the other.

Mr Goldstein says: “When lions mate it normally last a few seconds, these two were at it for over a minute and the obvious affection afterwards was very evident, as opposed to the violent withdrawal when male and female mate.

Even as he dismounted he did not back off as is normal after mating, he crept round to the other male’s muzzle, for a nuzzle and threw a conspiratorial wink his way.”

Lions are not the only animal species where homosexual relations exits. Biologists have recorded same-sex sexual activity in more than 450 species including flamingos, bison, beetles and warthogs.

An Ebuta-Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court, on Friday, remanded 16-year-old Hannah Osazuwa in Ikoyi Prison for allegedly stabbing her boyfriend to death in Lagos.

Chief Magistrate, Mr Tajudeen Elias, gave the order when the defendant appeared before him on a one-count charge of murder.

Elias ordered that the case file be duplicated and sent to the office of the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPPs) while the accused should remain at the Ikoyi Prisons pending a legal advice.

He adjourned the case to Dec. 12.

Earlier, the Police Prosecutor, Sgt. Kehinde Omisakin, had told the court that the defendant committed the offence on Oct. 16 at 9.00 a.m. at No. 34, Road K, Close, Gowon Estate, Egbeda.

She said that the accused had stabbed her boyfriend, Tomide Akintewe, 20, on his chest with a pair of scissors, resulting in bleeding that claimed his life.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened Section 222 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes a death sentence for convicts.