Tag Archives: Spent

Too Much Money! This Man Spent $9 Million On A License Plate

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For high-rolling drivers in the United Arab Emirates, no car is complete without a single-digit license plate.

The oil-rich country’s wealthy elite are willing to drop millions of dollars to get their hands on one.

 Dubai property developer Balwinder Sahni wanted a highly coveted plate bearing the number 5. He wanted it so much, he bid 33 million dirhams ($9 million) for it at a government auction earlier this month.

It was one of the largest sums ever spent on a license plate, although still lower than the $14 million record set in 2008 by an Abu Dhabi businessman.

Sahni found that his big purchase also brought him a lot of attention. He says he can’t go out in public without people stopping him and asking to take a photo — and some aren’t impressed, accusing him of wasting his money.

“It’s hard, people giving comments without knowing the type of person I am,” Sahni told CNNMoney. He described himself as “a simple man.”

The single-digit plates now adorn two of his six Rolls Royce cars. (He also has two more of the luxury vehicles on order.)

It’s also not the first time Sahni has spent serious money on a license plate. He secured a No. 9 plate with a winning bid of 24.5 million dirhams ($6.7 million) at a government auction last year.

Since Dubai has no income tax, Sahni says he sees the hefty license plate purchases as his contribution to the public coffers. He says he believes the money will go to charity and toward improving the city’s infrastructure.

“I believe in giving back,” he said. “This city has given me a lot.”

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority declined to comment on how the proceeds from the license plate auctions are spent. The authority holds several a year. Bids can start in the millions of dirhams.

Read More: CNNMoney

VIDEO: Malia, Sasha Obama Spent Labor Day Weekend Partying With Beyonce At Made In America Festival

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Political and pop royalty collided over Labor Day weekend as first daughters Malia and Sasha Obama hung with Beyonce and Jay Z at the Made in America festival.

The sisters were spotted alongside birthday girl Bey as she marked her 35th birthday at the Philadelphia event on Sunday.

Sporting denim shorts and a “Smoking Kills” t-shirt, 18-year-old Malia also showed her school pride by wearing a Harvard baseball cap, a nod to the college she will attend in 2017 after completing her gap year.

In between enjoying musical acts, she was seen hugging Beyoncé. Watch Instagram clip below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ9XrcvB7GU/

Read More: ETonline

Man Who Spent $100,000 To Look Like Justin Bieber Dies

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An autopsy report shows that a man who claimed to have spent $100,000 on plastic surgery to look like Justin Bieber has died of drug and alcohol overdose.

The 35-year-old man, Tobias Strebel, who went by the name Toby Sheldon’s body was found in a Motel in the North Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The coroner’s report says Strebel’s body was in a state of “moderate decomposition.”

Drugs found in his system include Valium, Xanax and alcohol, as well as the sleep aid temazepam.

Sheldon was featured on the E! plastic surgery reality series “Botched” in 2014. During an appearance on the show, he explained what inspired him to alter his appearance and emulate the singing sensation.

He said, “What brought me to Bieber was the whole package: the full cheeks, the full temples, the bright open eyes, the full luscious lips, and spatial framing… [he’s] just extraordinarily beautiful.”

Credit: Punch

How ‘Missing’ $12.9bn Was Spent- NNPC

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday said parts of the $12.9 billion dividends it received from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Ltd on behalf of the federation but which it did not remit over a period of eight years was not missing but reinvested into other gas projects.

The corporation also said the balance of the dividend has been moved to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adding that it was no longer housing the money in line with the federal government’s directive on the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
NNPC stated these in Abuja when the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) convened a stakeholders’ dialogue on the 2013 audit report of activities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

It said that it took and ploughed back parts of the dividends to new trains that were built by the NLNG.

It equally listed the BrassLNG and OlokolaLNG projects, as well as other gas projects it did not mention, as other beneficiaries from the dividend. The BrassLNG and OlokolaLNG projects have however remained on the ground.
NNPC explained that the reinvestment in NLNG was part of its equity share of the cost of such expansion in its trains. The NLNG currently has six trains which produce 22 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

Credit: Thisday

Woman Who Spent $38,000 On Breast Implants Says She Is Yet To Achieve Her Breast Goals

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?Thirty-nine-year-old Blondie Bennett has reportedly spent $38,000 on Botox, cheek implants, chin liposuction, and five boob jobs in an effort to become a “human doll.” According to the Daily Mail, the California resident already wears a 30JJ bra but wants to go even bigger so she can look, as she put it, “like tits on a stick.”

Bennett recently appeared on the plastic surgery show Botched to talk about the possibility of going under the knife again to enlarge her breasts. Upon seeing her, the doctors immediately showed some skepticism on the advisability of that kind of procedure.

“She’s a little bit too skinny,” Dr. Dubrow said in the Botched episode, “If there’s a strong wind it’s going to knock her over, but at least she’s got cushions for her fall.”

Credit: Cosmopolitan

This Couple Spent $300,000 On Plastic Surgery To Look Like Barbie & Ken (PHOTO)

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A Paris-based couple has spent more than $300,000 on plastic surgery in order to resemble their idols, Barbie and Ken.

Twenty-year-old Anastasia Reskoss and 23-year-old Quentin Dehar have gotten more than 15 procedures to resemble the plastic figures, including nose and boob jobs, veneers, lip injections, cheek fillers, and Botox injections. Now they intend to have more work done to make their transformation complete. Anastasia wants to get breast implants, ear reshaping, eye-bag removal, and veneers, and Quentin wants more Botox and pectoral implants. They also plan to legally change their names to Barbie and Ken.

https://instagram.com/p/16bODLJ6z2/

Credit: Cosmopolitan

I Spent N333m, Not N64bn, Jonathan Replies El-Rufai

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Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has denied claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State that his administration spent N64 billion to organize Nigeria’s independence celebrations for three years.

According to the governor, Jonathan spent N13 billion in 2011, N15 billion in 2012 and N14 billion in 2013 and N22 billion in 2011, bringing the total to N64 billion.

However, Jonathan denied the claim, saying only N332.6 million was spent during the three-year period and chided el-Rufai for deliberately lying to confuse the public and give his administration a bad name.

Jonathan, who responded to the allegation yesterday, described the huge figure as figment of el-Rufai’s imagination and a fabricated lie by a favour-seeker.

In a statement in Abuja, through his former Minister of National Planning, Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, Jonathan said: “For the record, a breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6 million.

“We challenge the Office of the Government of the Federation to publish these details for the consumption of the public.

“A breakdown of our spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus: 2012, N107.6 million; 2013, N45 million and 2014, 180 million. So, the question here is where did the billions, as claimed by el-Rufai, emanate from?”

Read More: vanguardngr

Jonathan Spent N64bn On Independence Anniversaries- El-Rufai

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Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for budgeting N70m for the Independence Day anniversary.

El-Rufai noted in a Facebook post on Thursday that under former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Federal Government spent billions every year on Independence Day.

He noted that between 2011 and 2014, Jonathan spent over N64bn celebrating Independence Day.

Curiously, in 2010 Jonathan budgeted N10bn for Nigeria’s golden jubilee celebration.

He wrote, “This is the APC/PMB change we voted for. Independence anniversary expenditure for the past five years: 2011 – N13bn; 2012 -N15bn; 2013 – N14bn; 2014 – N22bn; 2015 -N70m.

Happy Independence Anniversary ??NIGERIA??

THE APC-PMB CHANGE WE VOTED FOR:

Independence Anniversary expenditure for the past 5 years. …
2011 – N13 billion,
2012 – N15 billion,
2013 – N14 billion,
2014 – N22 billion.
2015 – N70 MILLION

Good morning and ?#?GODBlessNIGERIA?.

Read More: punchng

Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan Spent N2.74 Trillion On Power Sector Since 1999

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The successive regimes of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan committed N2.74 trillion to the troubled power sector in Nigeria.

The huge expenditure was disclosed by the Ministry of Power and the Niger Delta Independent Power Project (NDIPP) during the probe of spending in the sector by the Senate.

In his presentation before the Ad hoc Senate Committee on probe of power sector, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godswork Ighali said a total of N1.1 trillion was released for power project within the period under review.

He disclosed that for power projects, the Federal Government appropriated a total sum of the sum of N1.56 trillion, less the releases to the NIPP.

According to him, the amount represented a release of N948.2 billion and the sum of N155 billion as subsidy to cushion the expected shortfall in the revenue flow for the power projects.

Also giving account of spendings by the NIPP within the period, the Managing Director, Mr James Abiodun Olotu said the sum of $8.234 (N1.640) was spent on power generation, distribution, transmission and gas plants.

Details On: dailytimes

Fashola Spent N139m On Two Boreholes- LASG

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Former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, spent N139m on the drilling of two boreholes at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

The project was completed by Deux Projects Limited according to a report published by the state government

The report, which was part of the awarded contracts by the Lagos State Tenders Board in 2013, was seen on the website of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency.

Read More: punchng

We’ve Spent N12bn on Security with FG’s Insignificant Assistance – Gaidam

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Yobe state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam said his administration was saddled with the heavy load of spending over N12 billion on security related issues with insignificant support coming from the federal government.

The governor who spoke to the press through his media aide, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, on Monday, lamented that the only major contribution of the federal government to assisting Yobe state which have had to pick almost all the bills incurred as a result of the protracted Boko Haram insurgency was a meagre N150 million.

Bego, who disclosed that this donation was given during the outgone President Goodluck Jonathan administration, said though no financial donation was yet received from the present President Muhammadu Buhari administration but all things now show that the federal government was better committed to ending the crisis and assisting the affected states pick up some of the bills.
He however said the state government despite the heavy financial burden has not shied away from its numerous responsibilities in all other sectors of the state.

Read More: thisdaylive

How I Spent N78 Million On Website, Mobile Apps, Others- Fashola

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The immediate past governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, has finally responded to the allegation that he approved a contract worth N78 million for the upgrade of his personal website.

Last weekend, analytic firm, BudgIT, revealed that Mr. Fashola approved, before he left office, a contract of N78.3 million from the state treasury for an upgrade of his personal website.

The news caused outrage among Nigerians who accused the former governor of financial recklessness and the misappropriation of public fund.

In a statement he personally signed on Thursday, Mr. Fashola admitted that indeed a contract valued at that amount was awarded, but it involves the provision of other services beyond the upgrade of the website.

Mr. Fashola’s statement comes on the heels of the denial by the contractor, Info Access Plus, that it received N78 million. The company said though it quoted N12.5 million for the upgrade of the website, www.fashola.com, it only received N10 million from the state government.

On Thursday, the former governor said only N12 million was actually awarded for the upgrade of the site while other services such as the handover countdown clock, mobile apps for Google, for iOS ipad, for Microsoft, and Blackberry and the annual maintenance cost for managing the site make up the total of N78 million.

He said due process was followed before the contract was awarded and that the procurement agency, PPA, did not raise any objection as at the time the contract was awarded.

“It was for these services that the contract was issued for N78 million, which the Lagos State procurement agency gave a No Objection based on the advice of the Ministry of Science and Technology, who are the government adviser on ICT matters.

“In publishing the contract award which was the government tradition under my watch, the procurement agency ‘s website summarized it as ‘upgrade’ only without detailing the other services and this has been distorted by the agents of hate as their suspected ‘smoking gun’”, he said.

Read More: premiumtimesng

How We Spent N11bn- PDP

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The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) finally opened up on how they spent over N11bn realised from the sale of forms to various aspirants ahead of the last general elections.

This comes as they called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after former governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing the anti-graft agency of targeting only former PDP governors and members.

They specifically asked the commission to probe former governors of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu ,and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State,

The acting national chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, stated these when he received the minority leaders of the senate, who came to pay a solidarity visit to the party leadership. The senators were led by senate minority leader, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.

Aggrieved workers of the party had accused the leadership of squandering N12billion raised during the electioneering period. They workers were aggrieved over moves by the party to slash staff strength by 50 per cent and cause for revalidation of every staff of the party.

But reacting to the allegations leveled against the National Working Committee (NWC) by the workers, Secondus, who clarified that the amount realized was “about N11billion” and not 12billion denied allegations that no private account was opened.

Giving a breakdown of how they spent the money he said, “We did not open any private account. From sales of forms, we raised a little over N11billion to be shared among the national, states and zones. We gave state chapters 10 per cent; local government and zones 5 per cent each. 15 per cent for people on assignment, while the rest was used for election. We raised the money and we used the money for election, there was no embezzlement or fraud.”

Read More: leadership

FG Spent Our Pensions On Jonathan’s Campaign- Pensioners

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Federal retirees, under the banner of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, on Thursday accused the Federal Government of using their 10 months unpaid contributory pension to support the electioneering campaign project of President Goodluck Jonathan.

They said the action subjected them to abject poverty.

The retirees made the allegation at a press conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while protesting their unpaid monthly pension.

They said over 20 of their colleagues died in the struggle to have their pension paid.

The over 100 protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as “We have suffered enough after 35 years service to our fatherland”; “PenCom is owing retirees 10 months arrears of unpaid pension and gratuities”;  and” N4.6 trillion has been used for campaign, Abi na lie”.

The leader of the pensioners, Samuel Kojusola, said the association noticed some anomalies in government’s implementation of Reform Act 2014.

He listed them to include computation and compilation of retirement benefits, meagre amount paid as monthly pension, review of pension and non-payment of retirement benefits.

Mr. Kojusola said it was disheartening that workers all over the country who retired under the contributory pension scheme since August 2014 are yet to have their lump sum or monthly payment settled by the Commission

“What do they want the retiree to be eating after serving Federal Government of Nigeria for 35 years meritoriously? We suspect that our money in the kitty of Pencom has been used for 2015 electioneering campaign,” he said.

He also lamented that almost a year after the Pension Reform Act 2014 was signed into law, contributory pensioners in Nigeria were yet enjoy increment on their pension since 2007 till date.

The chairman said pension review was a constitutional right of any retiree in Nigeria as enshrined under Section 15(4) of the new Act.

He said, ‘Retirees have been complaining seriously on meagre amount paid as monthly pension either as monthly withdrawal or annuity. Contributory pensions received only 20-25% of their last pay as monthly pension, while a pensioner in the old pension scheme receives 80% of his last pay as monthly pension’

“Pension Reform Act 2004 section (4) stipulated that retirees will have not less than 50% of their last pay as monthly pension as at the date of their retirement. None of the retirees enjoy this amount since the inception of the act till date. Unfortunately the portion has been expunged from the new pension reform act 2014. What have we done to deserve this ugly treatment? This is a leeway for PFA’s to milk us perpetually,” the pensioners lamented.

Credit: premiumtimesng