Plateau residents protest against ongoing killings

Commercial activities in Jos, Plateau state capital, were temporarily suspended as residents of the state stormed the streets to protest the endless killings in the state.

The protesters called for the prosecution of those behind the killings in the state.

The protesters, under the aegis of ‘The Faithfu, a group of clergymen, also want owner of the pond in Dura Du, where the car belonging to  Idris Alkali, missing general, was found, arrested and prosecuted.

They were, however, intercepted by a team of mobile policemen on their way to the palace of Gbong Gwom of Jos.

While speaking on behalf of the group, Rotdunna Sekat, the convener, called for all those behind the killings.

“We do not want to be a party to the shedding of innocent blood that is today crying ceaselessly to God from Plateau so we took time to search ourselves and search on behalf of the good people of the state for we know that we the people of Plateau state are not collectively evil,” he said.

“We were guided to Proverbs 29:2 that says When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

“These are the leaders that must be called to account for the carnage that have become daily occurrence in our land. For even the Bible in Isaiah 1:23 acknowledges their roles when it noted that ‘Your rulers are rebels and companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases after rewards They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.

“We have watched in pains as the activities of these two men have led to endless bloodshed that can make us all stand guilty before God. We would therefore rely on God’s word to decide what to do with them. Leviticus 18:29 “For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people,” is clear what has to happen for we are further exhorted by Psalm 125:3

“For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous, So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong. We, however, hope that Nigerian laws catch up with him here on earth pending when he answers to God.

“The good people of Plateau state should come together to demand that enough is enough with the soaking of our soil with blood so that we do not yield sorrow on a longer term. We do not want to have to be the ones to answer for the sins of evil men before God so we are acting now to cast them out from our midst before their sins are visited on the entire land. The state and federal governments must align with the people in this regard so that God does not hold the government as being in collusion with the sponsors of killers.” - TheCable

Court orders investigation of APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole for alleged corruption

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the investigation of former Governor of Edo state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Justice Anwuli Chikere on Tuesday directed that Oshiomole, now the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, be served with an application brought before the court by an anti-corruption crusader, Bishop Osadolor Ochei, seeking an order of mandamus compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to arrest and commence criminal proceedings against Oshiomhole over allegations of financial fraud.

The Judge also ordered that the anti-graft agency be also served with the court process, stressed that the service be done within five days from October 9, 2018, when the order was made.

Bishop Ochei’s counsel, Dr West-Idahosa while arguing a motion ex-parte filed in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/628/ 2018 urged the Court to allow Oshiomhole and the EFCC, who are the respondents in the suit to file a reply to the weighty allegations made against them by the Applicant in support of the Federal Government’s anti-corruption fight.

The exparte motion followed Bishop Ochei’s petition to the EFCC on October 28, 2016, ‎against Oshiomhole, who was governor of Edo state from November 2008 to November 11, 2016.

Dr Idahosa, in praying the court to grant the request of his client, referred the court to 86 exhibits filed in support of the application and added that there are documents and electronic pictures of palatial houses of the former governor, whose earnings all his life cannot acquire and that, there are evidence on how Oshiomhole allegedly diverted money for Edo state project to personal projects.

The Counsel added that there are vouchers of exorbitant airfares that the former governor incurred, stressing that the amount of the airfares are enough to buy air carrier for Edo state people.

He said there are receipts of how the ex-governor used huge amount of money of the state to repair his private vehicles and urged the court to grant the relief of his client, saying that EFCC has arrested and prosecuted lesser crimes and there is no reason why the anti-graft agency should ignore the petition.

Justice Chikere adjourned till 23rd October 2018 for arguments from all the parties in the matter.

Bishop Ochei, in the motion, wants the court to declare that the anti-graft agency has the statutory duty to investigate and prosecute the former governor, upon his allegations against him in line with the Act, establishing the commission.

The allegations bother on the diversion of Edo state fund by the former governor, now the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to his personal use.

In an affidavit deposed to personally by the applicant, he averred that, in view of the fact that corruption has become a societal ill which has eaten deep into the fabric of the society and there is the need for the EFCC to take complaints against corrupt practices serious.

He said he has severally complained to the EFCC about allegation of corrupt practices against Oshiomhole without eliciting any response or interest by the commission.

According to him, “On May 4, 2012, one Matthew Edaghese sent a petition to the EFCC, complaining that while serving as governor, Oshiomhole built mansions on a huge expanse of land worth more than N10 billion, in excess of the former governor’s legitimate means of income as governor.

‎”That EFCC did nothing about the petition”, Bishop Ochei stated and added that he had, in 2016 petitioned against Oshiomhole’s corrupt practices without any action by the EFCC.

He accused the former governor of corruptly enriching himself with the fund of the Edo state government. - Daily Post

State Governments have refused to access N86.5bn UBE Fund – Falana

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, on Tuesday lamented that the 36 state governments in Nigeria have refused to access the sum of N86.5 billion lying fallow in the Universal Basic Education, UBE, Account in the Central Bank.

Falana, who is the National President, Peoples’ Alternative Front, PAF, said with these fund, every child in Nigeria should have free access to primary and junior secondary education as prescribed by law.

According to Falana, in a statement, pursuant to the ratification of the United Nations’ Child’s Rights Convention by the federal government in 2001, the National Assembly enacted the Child’s Right in 2003, saying that since then, 25 out of the 36 states of the Federation had adopted the Child’s Rights Act, stressing that under the Act applicable in the Federal Capital Territory and and each of the Child’s Rights Law applicable in the 25 states which have adopted the Act, every child was entitled to free and compulsory basic education from primary to junior secondary school.

“In order to fund the basic education programme in the country the National Assembly enacted the Compulsory, Universal, Free Education Act in 2004. To ensure adequate funding of the basic education programme the federal government is required to allocate 2 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to the UBE Fund while the state governments and the federal capital territory shall contribute counterpart fund to access the UBE Fund. It is further provided that parents and guardians who refuse to allow their children and wards to acquire compulsory basic education are liable to be arrested by the Police and prosecuted,” he said.

Falana said with other welfare laws applicable in the country, the federal and state governments had refused to implement the provisions of the Compulsory, Free, Universal Basic Education Act, the Child’s Rights Act and the Child’s Rights Laws, saying that the said governments had refused to comply with the judgments of the ECOWAS Court and the Federal High Court which had upheld the right of every Nigerian child to basic education.

“Hence, there are 13.2 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, the highest number in the world. According to the UNICEF, 60 per cent of the children are in northern Nigeria while majority are girls due to early marriage. However, while all the 17 states in the south have adopted the Child’s Rights Act only 8 out of the 19 states in the north have adopted it. Meanwhile, government officials who are opposed to the Child’s Rights Law in the North on alleged religious ground are educating their children in private schools at home and abroad.

“It is disturbing to note that education is not a priority of any government in the country. Hence, no state government has accessed the UBE fund up to date. Having failed to fund public education the children of the poor are roaming the streets hawking goods while the rich are educating their children in private schools at home and abroad. But to the detriment of the society, the abandoned children of the poor are being recruited to criminality by terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal gangs,” he lamented.

Falana stated that the irony of the crisis was that a government which claimed that it lacked money to fund education was spending several billions of Naira to fight insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry, warning that to arrest the dangerous trend, it was high time the Nigeria Police Force embarked on the arrest and prosecution of parents and guardians who refused to allow their children and wards to acquire basic education.

“At the same time, pressure should be mounted on the authorities of the federal capital territory and the 36 state governments to access the sum of N86.5 billion lying fallow in the UBE Account in the Central Bank,” he said.

He said to end the national shame of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, the PAF had resolved to carry out publishing the FG-UBE Matching Grant Disbursement to the federal capital territory and the 36 state governments from time to time; filing an application for the writ of mandamus at the Federal High Court to compel the Nigeria Police Force to arrest and prosecute parents and guardians who refuse to allow their children and wards to acquire basic education at public expense; ensuring that the 13.2 million out-of-school children are enrolled in public schools in all the states of the federation; extracting a firm commitment from presidential and governorship candidates of all political parties that not less than 26 percent of the budget is set aside for education in line with UNESCO Recommendation and finding below the UBE Matching Grant Disbursement by state governments and federal capital territory up to January 2018. - PM News

How A Social Media Post In Russia Can Land You In Jail

It was just before 6 a.m. when police officers raided Daniil Markin’s apartment in Barnaul, a small Russian city some 2,000 miles from Moscow. Markin, a film student who was 18 at the time of the July 2017 raid, had no idea why police had burst into his home. The officers, he says, were in no hurry to explain. Instead, they removed his computers, smartphone and other electronic devices, then drove him to the local branch of the Center for Combating Extremism, a police department within Russia’s powerful Interior Ministry.

Officers from the so-called Center E then informed Markin that he was being charged with hate speech against Christians over a handful of images that he had either reposted or saved to his account on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, which is also known as VK. The earliest dated from 2013, when he was just 13. Markin did not create any of the images, most of which had already been widely circulated online, but he now faces up to five years in prison over the charges, if found guilty.

The online memes that landed Markin in legal trouble may have been offensive to some Christians, but Alexander Yeremenko, his lawyer, says there are no grounds on which to classify them as hate speech. One featured Jon Snow, a character from Game of Thrones, with a halo and the words “Jon Snow is risen! Truly he is risen!” The caption, a reference to Snow’s magical resurrection in the popular HBO series, was a parody of the words that Russian Orthodox Christians traditionally use to greet each other at Easter. Another depicted three angels smoking marijuana from a bong. Investigators, Markin says, laughed at the pictures as they scrolled through his VKontakte account.

“To say I was shocked when they told me what I was being charged with would be putting it mildly,” says Markin, whose ongoing trial began in June. On top of the criminal charges, the Russian government has added him to its list of extremists and terrorists, which includes neo-Nazis and supporters of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). The status means he is barred from using a bank card. Other financial restrictions, which apply to everyone on the list, limit him to withdrawing a maximum of 10,000 rubles ($150) from his bank account a month. “I saved a few images that no one even really saw, and for that I have been included on a list that also includes people who kill in Iraq and Syria,” he says.

The police raid on Markin’s home came amid Russia’s escalating crackdown on social media activity. Agora, a Russian human rights group, says law enforcement has opened 411 criminal cases against internet users in Russia in 2017, compared with 298 cases in 2016. Forty-three people were given prison terms ranging from several months to just under four years. The overwhelming majority of the charges were for reposts or simply—as Markin did—saving images to their personal photo albums on social media accounts. Prosecutions have involved satirical memes lampooning the Russian Orthodox Church, a key Kremlin ally, as well as ones criticizing Russia’s military action in Ukraine.

Critics say the prosecutions are the latest step in a long-running crackdown on freedom of speech that began in the early years of President Vladimir Putin’s 18-year-rule, when major media outlets were forcibly brought under Kremlin control.

In another ongoing trial, Eduard Nikitin, a 42-year-old unemployed man from St. Petersburg, is facing five years behind bars after police accused him of “inciting hatred” over a series of politically charged images and memes that he posted on VKontakte. One of the images was a satirical drawing that mocked Putin’s supporters as ignorant and uneducated. And in early September, Natalia Kovaleva, a 42-year-old woman from Saratov in central Russia, was charged with extremism after she posted a series of Russian folk songs accusing local courts of corruption. Police, who raided her home, say she is suspected of “besmirching the honor and dignity” of Saratov region judges.

“I think they are trying to charge people…who go to protests, who support [opposition leader Alexei] Navalny,” Alexei Bushmakov, a lawyer who has defended suspects charged with extremism, told Russia’s  66.ru website recently.

Formed in 2008, Center E has about 100 employees in Moscow, with several hundred more nationwide. It wasn’t always focused on cracking down on online political dissent. Its officers played a major role in breaking up Russia’s white power movement in the late 2000s, putting large numbers of violent ultra-nationalists behind bars. “They jailed hundreds of these people,” says Alexander Verkhovsky, director of Moscow’s Sova Center, a human rights nonprofit that monitors extremism. “And this was often dangerous work—not like looking at VKontakte all day.”

Now, however, Russian opposition activists have begun referring to Center E officers as okhranka—after the name of a czarist-era secret police force. The overwhelming majority of charges are connected to posts on VKontakte rather than on Western social networks. Critics say that’s because the Russian company is too willing to hand over data on users to the authorities. VKontakte says it has no choice but to cooperate with police, but Mail.Ru, its parent company, is calling for the reposting of “extremist” content to be decriminalized and for an amnesty for those already convicted. It has also pledged it will introduce an option for VKontakte users to make content totally private.

In the meantime, the prosecutions keep coming. Other grounds for extremism charges have included memes or images that feature Nazi symbols, regardless of the context in which they were posted. Until four years ago, it was only an offense under Russian law to post symbols of the Third Reich if the aim was to promote Nazism. In 2014, however, that caveat was removed from the law in a move to combat what Russian authorities said were attempts to “rehabilitate Nazism,” opening the way to what critics say are frequently absurd prosecutions.

In one case, police in central Russia charged a man after he “liked” a promotional poster for the Hollywood movie American History X, which contained a swastika. The movie, starring Edward Norton as a violent skinhead who reforms while in prison, has not been banned in Russia and has even been shown on state television. In another case, a 16-year-old opposition supporter in Vladivostok, in eastern Russia, was prosecuted after saving an image of a left-facing swastika—the Buddhist symbol of light and peace—to his VKontakte photo album. Both suspects were eventually ordered to pay small fines, but critics say the disruption to the lives of those falsely charged can be significant.

“On paper, some of these laws against extremism are good because they are aimed at combating racism and discrimination’” says ­Dmitry Dzhulai, a former police officer who worked at Center E from 2014 through 2016. “But recently they are being used against people that the authorities disapprove of—such as political activists and opposition figures.”

But Dzhulai and other former Center E employees tell Newsweek that political repression isn’t the only reason for the increasing numbers of internet users facing extremism charges. A major factor, they say, is relentless pressure from Center E’s bosses to meet ever-growing arrest quotas. And police chiefs aren’t too fussy about the methods officers use to meet targets. (Center E did not respond to a request for comment.)

“Officially, there is no quota system, but every year more crimes have to be uncovered than in the previous year,” says Dzhulai, now a lawyer in Moscow. “The easiest and simplest way to do this is to use a search engine to seek out memes and s****d things that people have written on VK.” Police raids and criminal charges often follow.

“These are just statistics for the sake of statistics,” says Vladimir Vorontsov, another former Center E officer, during an interview in Moscow. He notes that while Russian authorities initially drew up some anti-extremist laws to clamp down on dissent, they are now often being applied, almost at random, by Center E employees desperate to please their bosses.

“When I worked in Center E,” says Vorontsov, “people didn’t voice their opinions about the work. They just said, ‘Well, this is my job, so I’ll do what I’m told.’ Those employees who spend their time searching the internet don’t consider this shameful. They are more concerned with keeping their bosses happy and are ready to put other people’s lives and freedom on the line for this.”

Center E officers aren’t the only ones searching for suspected online extremism. “There are many anonymous complaints,” says Dzhulai. “Others are from people who have had an online argument with someone and decided to get revenge.” It’s a practice, he says, that has echoes of the Soviet era, when relatives informed on relatives, and neighbors on neighbors, over “anti-Communist” activities or comments.

Inevitably, the crackdown has caused VKontakte ordinary Russians to think twice about what they post online, especially on VKontakte. “I try not to worry, but it’s always in the back of my mind that I could face charges for something I post or repost,” says Yelena, a 33-year-old charity worker who asked that her surname not be published. And growing concerns are leading to rising anger.

“People see that they and their children can become victims, that the laws are unfair, and that the law enforcement agencies are using these laws in their own interest,” says Andrey Petsev, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank. “Inevitably, a question arises: Why are people going to prison for memes while corrupt officials receive suspended sentences? As more and more people pose it, the Kremlin has only itself to blame.”

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Even Putin appears to have concerns. During a question-and-answer session in June, the Russian president said that “those that are guilty must be called to account” but warned that there was a danger some Center E changes were being pursued to “absurdity.” Then, on October 3, Putin introduced proposals to parliament that would decriminalize “extremist” reposts. If approved, however, the president’s amendments to the law would still allow courts to jail internet users for up to 15 days over their social media activity.

For now, Markin, the film student, is left facing the sobering possibility that he could spend his early 20s behind bars over an irreverent joke about a Game of Thrones character. “Russia is slowly but surely killing me,” he says. “And the most important thing is that this can happen to absolutely anyone in Putin’s Russia.” - Newsweek

Nigerian woman commits suicide over closure of shops in Ghana

Following the closure of her shops by Ghanaian authorities, a Nigerian woman and mother of three children has committed suicide, the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs), Ghana Chapter, reported in Abuja on Tuesday.

The association made the development known when the leadership visited the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to seek the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter.

The President of NANTS, Ghana, Chief Chukwuemeka Nnaji, said Mrs Stella Ogonna Okpaleke, a Nigerian whose shops were locked for her failure to meet strict trading conditions put by the Ghana Government committed suicide on Sept. 22.

Nnaji, armed with a petition to Buhari, called for the intervention of the Federal Government over the alleged maltreatment of Nigerian businessmen in Ghana.

“Regrettably on Saturday, Sept. 22, one of our female members, Mrs Stella Ogonna Okpaleke, whose shop has been under lock and key by the Ghana authority committed suicide.

“She committed suicide based on her shop and that of her husband that were locked; the information we gathered was that when they locked the shop she lost hope of reopening it.

“She is from Nnewi Local Government (Area) in Anambra; we actually don’t know how much she owed, but we learnt that she took loan for her business,” he said.

According to him, the harassment on the Nigerian community and traders in Kumasi, Ghana, is so severe.
“It is unfortunate that that very woman decided to take her own life,” Nnaji said and called on Buhari to urgently intervene to avert similar incidents in the future.

He said Nigerian traders were being unnecessarily stressed by Ghanaian authorities.

In her remark, Dabiri-Erewa expressed the Federal Government’s condolences to the union and the family of the deceased.

She appealed to members of the union to remain calm and assured them that the president would intervene in their case to ensure a lasting solution to the problem.

“I am just going to start by appealing to you, I know it is painful, it is emotional, it is deep but I just urge you to remain calm.

“I appeal to you to remain calm and may the soul of Stella rest in perfect peace.
“When she is about to be buried, let us know so that we may send our condolence message to the family,” she said.

The Ghanaian authority is demanding that traders must have one million dollars as minimum foreign investment capital to do business in Ghana as stipulated in its Ministry of Trade and Industry Act, 2013. - PM News

Nigerian Navy speaks on recruitment, warns applicants against fraudsters

The Nigerian Navy has cautioned prospective applicants for its 2018 Direct Short Service Commission to be wary of activities of fraudsters demanding money to facilitate their enlistment into the service.

The Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Commodore Ayo Olugbode gave the warning in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
He added that enlistment and selection process into the Nigerian Navy Direct Short Service Commission was free and without any form of gratification.

He said that “The attention of the Nigerian Navy has been drawn to the activities of fraudsters impersonating as Nigerian Navy enlistment agents and fraudulently extorting money from unsuspecting Nigerians.
“The General public is please reminded that enlistment and selection process into the Nigerian Navy Direct Short Service Commission is free and without any form of gratification.

“Prospective applicants for the Nigerian Navy Direct Short Service Commission are strongly advised not to have any dealings with anyone who demands money as a guarantee for enlistment into the Nigerian Navy.’’

He said that prospective applicants could access the guidelines for the Nigerian Navy Direct Short Service Commission enlistment on the Nigerian Navy Enlistment Portal, www.joinnigeriannavy.com.

He added that the registration portal opened on Oct.3 to receive online applications from interested applicants.

The spokesman directed applicants to call 08062090473 and 08033063694between 0800 and 1700 hours (8am and 5pm) only, for further clarifications.

He added that applicants could also send email enquiries to: nners@outlook.com for technical support. - Daily Post

AMCON needs alternative dispute resolution to recover N5.4trn debt, says Onnoghen

Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria, says the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) needs alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to meet its recovery mandate before its sunset period.

Speaking on “strengthening AMCON recovery drive” in Abuja on Monday, Onnoghen said AMCON can effectively recover its outstanding N5.4trillion debt using this means.

“I will encourage the use of ADR, as part of the mechanism put in place to resolve asset management related disputes in our courts,” he said.

“Certainly, judicial time and capacity are scarce public resources; as such repeated delays constitute waste of these precious resources. A better understanding of the current trends in this area of the law will go a long way in curbing delays and waste of judicial time and resources, thereby helping AMCON in fulfilling its mandate.

“The judiciary will continue to do its best to ensure judges remain conversant with the AMCON regime towards engendering efficiency, uniformity and improvement in the quality of judicial services in our courts.”

Zainab Bulkachuwa, president of the appeal court, also urged AMCON to consider leveraging the alternative dispute resolution infrastructure that is now available in Nigerian courts.

“In fact, the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria has consistently encouraged the utility of ADR viewing the delays in adjudication caused by the density of cases in the dockets of the trial and appellate courts.”

She further explained that, the “appellate courts trust that this form of interactions holds the key to fast tracking debt recovery by AMCON and the eventual industrialization of the Nigerian economy”.

“I am aware that my Lord the CJN – Hon. Justice Onnoghen is also considering an exclusive Practice Direction for AMCON at the Supreme Court. In the meantime, I am also aware that the Hon. CJN has advised AMCON lawyers to adopt the fast track window for all AMCON appeals at the Supreme Court.

“In the court of Appeal, I have since issued a circular directing the expeditious disposition of all AMCON appeals and I am aware that the circular is being effectively implemented,” Bulkachuwa added.

Ahmed Kuru, AMCON CEO, in his submission reminded the honourable justices that AMCON currently has a lot of cases that are pending at the Federal High Court because obligors of the corporation deliberately raise issues that would cause delay.

“AMCON currently has over 3,000 cases pending at the federal high court. Given the litigious tendency of our obligors, we anticipate that more than 50 per cent of the cases will proceed to the court of Appeal and eventually the Supreme Court.

“We hope that the special Practice Directions issued by the President of the Court of Appeal will be very instrumental to speedy determination of the eventual appeals.

“The Practice Direction prescribed three months for concluding all AMCON matters. If the national assignment of recovering over N5trillion of bad debts will be achieved, the Practice Direction needs to be strengthened and encouraged.” - TheCable

32-year-old farmer rapes 78-year-old grandmother

A Chief Magistrate’s Court in Minna has ordered the remand in prison custody of a 32-year-old farmer, Rilwanu Salisu, after he pleaded guilty to the charge of raping of a 78-year-old grandmother.

Salisu is being tried over rape, contrary to section 282 of the penal code law.

According to the Police Prosecutor, Mr Daniel Ikwoche, the victim’s son, Mukhtar Garba, reported the matter at the Nasko Police Station on Sept. 14.

Ikwoche quoted the complainant as alleging that the accused person, a resident of Kwada village in Magama Local Government Area, entered into the room of his mother, while she was asleep, and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her.

He further quoted the complainant as saying that the victim sustained injuries in her private part and was bleeding.

When the charge was read to the accused person, he pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency.

However, the presiding chief magistrate, Nasiru Muazu, declined to take the plea of the accused person because his court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

Muazu directed the Police to forward a duplicate copy of the case file to the State Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.

He, thereafter, ordered the accused person to be remanded in prison custody pending the outcome of the advice, and adjourned the case to Oct. 25, for further mention. - Daily Post

LASU fires three ‘sex-for-marks’ lecturers

The Lagos State University (LASU) has sacked three of its senior lecturers over alleged sexual misconduct.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ademola Adekoya, the university’s spokesperson, said their dismissal was approved by the governing council of the university at its 119th statutory meeting on October 4.

The affected lecturers were identified as Ayoola Odubunmi, an associate professor of economics; Isiaka Ogunwande, an associate professor of chemistry and Emmanuel Gbeleyi, a lecturer in the department of anatomy.

Adekoya said the lecturers were queried after which a disciplinary committee constituted to look into the allegation passed its final findings to the governing council.

One of the victims was said have contacted a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to wade into the matter after one of the associate professors had made repeated overtures at her.

The NGO had planted a hidden camera on the lady who proceeded to meet the lecturer in his office on a Saturday after he invited her to rewrite a particular course she failed.

The lecturer was allegedly caught on camera molesting the female student while he gave her the examination paper to keep writing. The university security officials who were on standby were said to have swooped on them and arrested the randy lecturer.

Gbeleyi, on his part, was reported by two female students who he asked to buy an injection, which he was accused to have used to sedate them before having sex with them.

In June, the management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Osun state had fired Richard Akindele, a lecturer who allegedly demanded five sessions of sex from Monica Osagie, a  postgraduate student of the institution, to award her a pass mark in a course she failed. - TheCable

Instagram is using AI to detect bullying in photos and captions

Last year, Instagram introduced an enhanced comment filter that uses machine learning to spot offensive words and phrases in challenging contexts. Now, the company is expanding similar coverage to photos and captions. Today, it announced that it will use AI to “proactively detect bullying” before sending content to human moderators for review. 

The new feature will roll out to users in the coming weeks, launching in time for October’s National Bullying Prevention Month in the US and just before Anti-Bullying Week in the UK. The same technology is also being added to live videos to filter comments there as well. 
This is the first product announcement under new Instagram chief Adam Mosseri who took over following the hasty departure of co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger last month. The split was reportedly due to simmering tensions between the pair and parent company Facebook, which has frequently meddled with Instagram’s product. 

With public trust in Facebook continuing to fall, Instagram remains the bright spot in the company’s product lineup. It’s popular, profitable, and it has yet to be tainted by the scandals that have undermined Facebook. In this context, using AI to help weed out offensive content and keep Instagram a home for good vibes is extremely important. 
A story published in Wired last year explained some of the details of Instagram’s machine learning comment filters, but it’s well-established that this sort of technology is no silver bullet for content moderation. AI is cheap to deploy at scale, yes, but it still has trouble dealing with human context and nuance. That’s why it’s good that these new bullying filters also send content to human moderators to perform the final check. Automation without oversight is a recipe for disaster. 

Interestingly, Instagram says it’s not just analyzing photos captions to identify bullying, but also the photo itself. Speaking to The Verge, a spokesperson gave the example of the AI looking for split-screen images as an example of potential bullying, as one person might be negatively compared to another. What other factors the AI will look for though isn’t clear. That might be a good idea considering that when Facebook announced it would scan memes using AI, people immediately started thinking of ways to get around such filters. 

Along with the new filters, Instagram is also launching a “kindness camera effect,” which sounds like it’s a way to spread a positive message as a method to boost user engagement. While using the rear camera, the effects fill the screen with an overlay of “kind comments in many languages.” Switch to your front-facing camera, and you get a shimmer of hearts and a polite encouragement to “tag a friend you want to support.”  - The Verge

Yabatech: Eight cultists land in court over N5,000

Eight students of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, were on Tuesday brought before an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court over membership of an unlawful society called Eiye confraternity.

The accused are Lawal Ahmed, 23; Ogunyemi Oluwayosi, 19; Samuel Irikefe, 17; Godwin Etim, 23; and Abayomi Badmus, 24. The others are: Chiemeka Oluwaseyi, 21; Promise Agbogwu, 20; and Benedict Isichie, 18.

The accused, who were allegedly arrested with charms, are facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, belonging to a secret cult and stealing.

The men, according to Police Prosecutor Lucky Ihiehie, committed the offences on September 21 at 10pm at Yaba College of
Technology.

Ihiehie said the accused also stole N5,000 from another student on the campus.

The complainant (name withheld) had told the police at Sabo Station that he was on the campus when the accused accosted him and collected his phone, ATM card and withdrew N5, 000 from his account.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the case was later transferred to the Anti-cultism Unit, Gbagada, on September 25.

The offences contravened Sections 42 (a), 287 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Magistrate, Mrs E. Kubeinje, granted them bail in the sum of N50, 000 each with two sureties each in like sum.

The case was adjourned until November 21 for hearing.  - Daily Post