Police arrest Isheri North kidnap ‘kingpin’ in Ogun

The suspect

• Epe abductors demand N50m ransom for farm workers
The alleged mastermind of the kidnap of Lagos Isheri North Estate Secretary, Dayo Adekoya, Joseph Omoni, has been arrested. He was arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Abba Kyari.
The 38-year-old suspect, who hails from Ajapa community, Ese in Ondo State, was arrested in Century Village, Ogijo town, in Ogun State. The suspect was alleged to have also participated in the kidnap of the Nigerian Turkish school girls and officials and also the December kidnapping operation at Ikorodu, where a popular TV presenter, Aisha Ali-Balogun, was killed.
The suspect confessed that he only got N250,000 from the ransom paid for the release of the Isheri North estate secretary. “I got N250,000 from the ransom because the sum paid was too small, but for the Nigerian Turkish International College, I got N2 million. I was also involved in the kidnap on Ikorodu Road, where Aisha Balogun was killed. We didn’t know her until we read in the papers that she was a TV presenter. I got about N1 million from that ransom.


“I cannot say what really happened during the Isheri North kidnap. Though we exchanged fire while escaping with the man, but we read in the papers that three security men were killed. Well, I cannot say that I regret everything because I was able to build houses with the money I got from the Nigerian Turkish school. I bought tiles, windows and other accessories to complete my house at Century Village, in Ogijo community,” he said. In another development, abductors of the two members of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and five farm workers of Eliasa Livestock farm, who were kidnapped in Igbodu area of Epe on Tuesday have demanded the sum of N50 million as ransom from families of their victims.

His house where he was arrested

The gunmen, it was learnt, contacted the manager of the farm using the phone of one of the victims yesterday and asked for a whooping N50 million for their seven victims.
According to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 command, Mr. Kayode Aderanti, “we are going to rescue the victims alive. We are doing everything to police that area; but the major problem in that part of the state is that the area is porous. It gives room for kidnapping to thrive.
“We will police that area 24 hours every day but my advice to business owners and school operators is that they should be security conscious and do their background checks on anybody they want to employ. We are also going to do our own job to see to the release of the victims without paying a dime to the abductors,” he said.
A senior police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “On February 14, around 4a.m. after unrelenting follow up by IRT with technical intelligence unit, one of the Isheri Estate secretary and Turkish school kids kidnappers, Joseph Omoni, was arrested.”
The police officer said one kingpin simply identified as ‘chairman’ has also been identified to be hiding in the same Century Village at Ogijo, but assured that he would soon be arrested as detectives has condone off the area. He said the police were making effort to apprehend other members of the gang.

Guardian

Cash-strapped Greece 'contemplating ditching Euro for Dollar as crippling financial crisis continues'-Paul Hooper

Ted Malloch - Donald Trump's pick for EU ambassador - said Greek economists have considered the idea

Ted Malloch said the idea of the Greeks switching to the dollar "freaks out" Germany (Photo: Splash News)

Cash-strapped Greece was last night believed to be contemplating ditching the Euro and switching to the US dollar - in a move which would humiliate Brussels.
Ted Malloch - Donald Trump’s pick for EU ambassador - has revealed how senior Greek economists are looking into taking on the American banknotes if the country turns its back on the European currency.
Due to Greece’s crippling financial crisis, officials are said to be desperately hunting an alternative to the Eurozone.
Prof Malloch revealed the controversial move would ‘freak out’ Angela Merkel.
His comments come just four days after one of the EU’s most powerful finance chiefs warned Greece will be forced out of the Eurozone if it fails to address its ailing finances.

Greece will be forced out of the Eurozone if it fails to address its financial crisis (Photo: PA)

He was quizzed on Greek TV, about his claim that a “Grexit” by Greece would be the best option for residents, because the current situation was ‘simply unsustainable’.
He said: "I know some Greek economists who have even gone to leading think tanks in the US to discuss this topic and the question of dollarisation.

US President Donald Trump has criticised the Eurozone (Photo: Getty)

"Such a topic of course freaks out the Germans because they really don’t want to hear such ideas," he added.
Greece’s economy fell in the fourth quarter of 2016 as the debt-laden country faces stalemate in negotiations with its creditors.
Athens faces debt repayments of 7.0 billion euros this summer that it cannot afford without defusing the feud that is holding up new loans from Greece’s 86 billion euro bailout.

Culled from Mirror

The downfall of Ivanka Trump's brand isn't about her father -Melody Hahm

Ivanka Trump dresses at Burlington Coat Factory (Melody Hahm)

It is indisputable that Ivanka Trump’s apparel line has suffered greatly in recent months, but the first daughter’s affiliations may not be what’s killing her brand.

Ivanka Trump’s online sales fell 26% in January compared to January 2016, according to Slice Intelligence. It’s true that Grassroots movements like #GrabYourWallet — a campaign that targets retailers that sell Trump products — may have accelerated this movement to ditch Ivanka Trump apparel and accessories. However, the brand was already in peril before Donald J. Trump became president, according to two retail analysts.

“Whether this was caused by politics or not, the brand was becoming less and less relevant. The election certainly was an acceleration of retailers choosing not to carry the line, but over time, the brand was not going to continue to perform at the Neiman Marcuses and Nordstroms (JWN) of the world,” Jessica Bornn, an analyst at Merchant Forecast, told Yahoo Finance.

Beyond people not wanting to purchase Trump-branded clothing, the core problem is actually entirely unrelated to politics. The real culprit is the dominance of athleisure, making Ivanka Trump’s structured dresses and pumps seem out of sync with how people dress these days — more casually, even to work.

Ivanka Trump heels at Nordstrom Rack (Melody Hahm)

US consumers spent $323 billion on apparel, footwear and accessories in 2014, which represents an additional $2 billion, or 1%, from the year before, according to The NPD Group. NPD analyst Marshal Cohen noted growth in the activewear market is driving that spending.

“Casual and ‘athleisure’ have taken on a life of their own. This is no longer a trend — it is now a lifestyle that is too comfortable, for consumers of all ages, to go away anytime soon.”

And other analysts agree. Morgan Stanley forecasts that the activewear industry could add $83 billion in sales by 2020. Deutsche Bank, in a research note last year, pointed out that athletic apparel was the biggest boost to the industry — up 4.1% from 2008-2015 on average. “As we believe the athleisure cycle is a bona fide trend with further dollar share shift ahead, we expect the disparity between athletic and non-athletic growth to widen in upcoming years,” read the report.

As Bornn noted, “We are experiencing a macro shift — very few women actually need to wear tailored pantsuits or dresses to the office anymore. People just aren’t dressing that formally. The business look is falling out of favor.”

But it would be unfair to solely call out Ivanka Trump, because other brands in the same category are also struggling.

Ann Taylor storefront (Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Ann Taylor (ANN), Kate Spade (KATE), Michael Kors (KORS) and other players in the mid-tier apparel space — dresses retail around $150 full price — are logging poor performance because they’re not matching people’s changing tastes, or are doing so inauthentically, noted Bornn.

Ivanka Trump: not a ‘destination’ brand

The other issue may be that Ivanka Trump’s clothes were never a “destination” category, according to Jan Rogers Kniffen, a former retail executive and the current CEO of J Rogers Kniffen WWE, a firm that consults investors in retail companies. For that reason, he’s not surprised upscale chains like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom dropped the Ivanka Trump line. Particularly when shoppers peruse department stores, all the brands blur into one another. It’s hard to tell one dress from the next, Kniffen told Yahoo Finance. 

Culled from Yahoo finance