BREAKING NEWS:
Former News Agency of Nigeria American Journalist, Abdullahi Shuaibu Arrested for STEALING$10,000 …Apprehended for Robbing FOUR BANKS in NEW YORK
*Untold story of how DRUGS, CASINO Ruined his LIFE and CAREER
* How he was SACKED in News Agency of Nigeria
* “I Admitted to the Robbery Crime. I used the Stolen Funds to Pay my Acrrued Bills’-Abdullahi Shuaibu confessed
* ‘We’re yet to Receive full Details of his criminal activities’-Consul General of the Nigerian Consulate in New York
* “Shuaibu and his wife rent a $2,000-a month, three-bedroom town-house apartment from me about eight years ago”-Inosthene Delimon, his Landord
* “He’s Facing multiple charges of Robbery and Attemped Robbery related to the heists”-NYPD’s Major Case Squad
* “Shuaibu Not Permitted to enter United Nations Building. He was NEVER a UN Employee’- United Nations spokesman
BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & SAMSON SHOAGA/MANAGING EDITOR, NEW YORK
IN 2006 AND 2009, he was United Nations (UN) correspondent for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) where he glowed in his reportage, writing skills and breaking news features for NAN on activities of UN. Then, Abdullahi Shuaibu was a melting-point for African news style reports within the UN. But allegedly for drugs addiction and care-free casino lifestyle, he ended up in debts, and to maintain his ‘hard-habit’, he unfortunately ruined his life, career by robbing four different banks close to UN Building recently where he threatened the bankers and forcefully made away with the sum of $10,000 cash.
While at the UN as a NAN correspondent, he had tried to attain further education in few colleges in New York, but could not comport himself or concentrate on any of his studies, as he fell out of school, since he prefer to circumvent the realities of life for ‘short cuts’ provided he gets cash on time. He was sacked by NAN for not returning to Nigeria at the end of his tenure of UN media coverage.
Shuaibu was a familiar face in Casino Professionals of NY located at 261 W 35th St, New York, NY 10001, Casino Parties LLC on 244 5th Ave #205, New York, NY 10001 and New York City Poker Tour at 347 W 36th St #301, New York, NY 10018. He lived like the ‘King of the Night’ whenever he arrives these casinos, he wastes away hard earned money, behaving like a ‘thin-god.’ To keep to this high profile of drug-use and casino spend spree, Shuaibu allegedly began to keep the company of ‘bad friends’ who further lured him deeper into drugs and hail him as the ‘Don’, who could get whatever he wants by being ‘HIGH on Drugs.’
Information reaching our correspondents in New York showed that Shuaibu earlier seen as a complete gentleman while in UN as a correspondent became reclusive, dejected and withdrawn when he returned from Dafur as then Contract staff for UN for a period of three months. He was thereafter ‘FIRED’ by UN when they received incontrovertible evidence and reports on various criminal tendencies, behaviours of this erstwhile NAN Correspondent. Though he had applied as ‘Stingers//Freelancers) in some media outfits in New York, they all distance themselves away from him due to his shady behaviour.
Matters reach breaking point with embattled Shuaibu resident in a duplex on Queens as he decides to go into robbery for ‘quick money’ for survival since he knew the bills would not stop coming as he was jobless. This 53 years old Nigerian holding an American valid working visas status allegedly plundered about $10,000 in cash during an Upper East Side crime spree that began February 27 and continued over three more Mondays. In each of two successful heists, he showed the teller a note that said, “Give me $5,000, Thank you,” police sources said.
Shuaibu also allegedly left two banks empty-handed before getting busted on Monday, following a failed robbery at the HSBC branch at Third Avenue and East 63rd Street. Bank teller Rani Ahme, 50, reportedly said a “regular guy” in a blazer slid her a note but “did not let go of it.” “I asked, ‘How can I help you?’ and he said, ‘Check it, check it,’ looking at the note, but he did not let go of the note. The would-be crook disappeared while Ahme ducked into the rear of the bank to alert her boss”, she said.
Shuaibu ran back to sit outside the US Mission of the United Nations, a place he was nabbed where he’s been allegedly working out of the building’s Foreign Press Center as a State Department-credentialed reporter for the Pan African News Agency, police sources said. But a retired cop who works as a guard at the mission, across the street from the UN building, tipped off cops after recognizing Shuaibu in surveillance photos of the alleged bank robbery that the New York Police Department (NYPD) circulated last month. The eye witness said, “It wasn’t hard to recognize him. He comes in and out of here every day.”
After his arrest by NYPD, Shuaibu confessed to the robbery by admitting he spent all the stolen money paying bills, sources said. He was charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery and was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. His words: “I admitted to the Robbery crime. I am so sorry. I used the stolen money to pay my accrued bills.”
On UN position, a spokesman for UN said that Shuaibu worked for the organization during October and November 2013 but no longer had credentials to enter the building. Also, Shuaibu’s wife formerly worked for the Nigerian Mission to the UN and split from her hubby, said Kassimu Mohammed, the mission’s protocol officer.
When NYPD detectives visit his house, they got no answer when they knocked on the door of his home in Hollis. The home’s Landlord Inosthene Delimon said Shuaibu and his wife began renting a $2,000-a month, three-bedroom town-house apartment from him about eight years ago. Delimon described the family as “good people who always paid their rent on time. I have never had any problems with them.”
In his own view, the Consul General of the Nigerian Consulate in New York, Mohammed Bello said: “We’re yet to receive full details of his criminal activities.”
Without any iota of doubt, this is the fall and disgraceful end of Shuaibu, a Nigerian journalist who once made waves as a UN crack reporter. This is a life lesson that in all circumstance, we should all live a clean, decent life devoid of crime. Honesty, hardwork and consistency in good values of life are the keys to unending, evergreen success.
