Leave Southwest or face OPC – Gani Adams warns criminal Fulani herdsmen

 

The Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has warned criminal herdsmen in the Southwest to leave immediately.

He said failure to adhere to the warning would mean such elements were ready to face the wrath of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).

Adam’s reaction followed the breach of Professor Wole Soyinka’s Ijegba residence by herders.

In a statement by his spokesman on Thursday, the Yoruba leader said the encroachment was a threat to the privacy of the Nobel laureate.

Adams said reports available to him from Southwest states showed that criminal herdsmen have migrated from Ibarapa in Oyo State to Yewa in Ogun State.

The Aare said this had increased the spate of insecurity, stressing that the activities of criminal Fulani herdsmen had become unbearable.

Adams wondered why President Muhammadu Buhari has been complacent about the security situation in the Southwest.

“We thank God that the recent encroachment on Prof’s residence failed. The fundamental problem in this country is that we have a President that seems to be complacent on serious issues.

“It is in our own interest to continue to raise our voices against the unprecedented threats to the southwest region.”

The Aare advised Southwest governors to boost the recruitment of OPC, Vigilante and Hunters in Amotekun to further strengthen the security outfit.

Adams appealed to the Lagos State Government to inaugurate Amotekun as soon as possible, adding that delay was dangerous.

- DAILY POST

EFCC burst syndicate in Lagos for $257,822 credit card fraud

 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has smashed a credit card fraud syndicate.

The suspects are Daniel C. Stephen, Nestor Ezeani, Sonny Okwaraji, Sylvester E. Otuwa and Jeff Ogbonnaya.

They allegedly masterminded the theft of $257,822.16 from a new generation bank, a statement by EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said.

In a petition, the bank said it received a mail from VISA International on suspected 60 credit card transactions.

Operatives moved in and arrested the five suspects at 7th Avenue in FESTAC, Lagos.

They were caught with several credit cards which they use in loading money before transfer to other banks.

Uwujaren said some of the suspects already made useful statements.

Investigations continue and all will be charged to court upon conclusion.

- DAILY POST

Instagram blocks Robert F. Kennedy Jr

 

Instagram blocked Robert F. Kennedy Jr from the social media network for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines, the company confirmed Thursday.

“We removed this account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” a spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told AFP.

The nephew of assassinated US president John F Kennedy nonetheless remained active on Facebook, where he had made similar posts promoting debunked claims about the harm done by vaccines.

“We don’t automatically disable accounts across our apps, because the accounts may post about different things on our different services,” the spokesperson said.

The environmental activist and son of former US attorney general Robert F Kennedy have repeated a false claim that the recent death of baseball legend Hank Aaron was linked to the Covid-19 vaccine.

He had previously posted misinformation about the flu vaccine.

Kennedy frequently has gotten involved in controversial issues and personalities, speaking last summer to a massive demonstration in Berlin of coronavirus deniers organised by the far right, and joining forces with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to provide heating oil to poor Americans.

Facebook also removed several other accounts from the two sites for spreading vaccine disinformation.

NAN

Bitcoin hits all-time high after Mastercard adoption

 Bitcoin has jumped to a record high after Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon moved to make it easier for customers to use cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, rose as much as 7.4 per cent to $48,364, surpassing the all-time high reached on Monday, after Tesla announced it would hold $1.5 billion of the cryptos on its balance sheet.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp., an American investment banking services holding company, on Thursday, said it will hold, transfer and issue Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for institutional customers.

Also in a blog post by Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president for digital assets, blockchain products and partnerships, the company said it is preparing for the future of crypto and payments.

“Whatever your opinions on cryptocurrencies — from a dyed-in-wool fanatic to utter skeptic — the fact remains that these digital assets are becoming a more important part of the payments world,” the blog post read.

“This is a big change that will require a lot of work. We will be very thoughtful about which assets we support based on our principles for digital currencies, which focus on consumer protection and compliance.

The Central Bank of Nigeria recently directed banks and other financial institution to close accounts of persons or entities involved in cryptocurrency transactions.

The CBN argues that cryptocurrencies pose the risk of loss of investments, money laundering, terrorism financing, illicit fund flows and other criminal activities.

Source: Bloomberg

Fulani herdsmen: Buhari is not in charge of Nigeria – Soyinka

 

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has insisted President Muhammadu Buhari is not in charge of the country.

Soyinka stated this while speaking on Arise TV on Thursday.

According to him, if Buhari is in charge, the insecurity in Nigeria would not have degenerated to what it is now.

Soyinka, whose compound was invaded by Fulani herdsmen this week, said: “Buhari does not appreciate the situation, he doesn’t understand, I see no evidence that he understands how grave the situation is.

“I have said it again and again. I don’t believe he is in charge because it is not possible in my view for a head of state, a commander-in-chief of the armed forces to say he is presiding over a nation and things get to this level.

“Something is critically wrong within the leadership of this nation and that is where we civilians must come in, we must pick up the slack for our own situation, for our own salvation.

“What happened to me in this incident is typical of what happens to millions in this country and we cannot just sit still and say we are relying on central help when obviously it is not coming.”

- DAILY POST

Jakande never lived in govt house, not covetous – Afenifere

 

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Thursday mourned death of former governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, saying he never lived in a government house nor drove a government car.

Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said Jakande served Lagos without greed and covetousness.

“Afenifere deeply mourns the death of the first executive governor of Lagos state Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande at the age of 91.

“Alhaji Jakande was the last of the LOOBO Governors who faithfully implemented the UPN (United Party of Nigeria) five cardinal programmes.

“His implementation of the free education programme, especially the phasing out of the shift programme in Lagos schools was swift and revolutionary,” Afenifere said.

The statement added that: “He served Lagos without greed and covetousness. He never lived in a government house or drive a government car throughout his service to the state.

“Jakande developed the Lekki area and never took a plot for himself. His life was all about service. We pray that God will send more of his type our way.”

Jakande, popularly called Baba Kekere, reportedly died on Thursday at the age of 91

- PM NEWS

NCC: 187,171 mobile subscribers ported in 2020

 

A total of 187,171 mobile subscribers switched their network service providers in 2020.

This is according to the 2020 subscribers statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

This change was facilitated through the mobile number portability (MNP) scheme.

Launched in 2013, the MNP allows subscribers to migrate from one network to another while retaining their original phone numbers, irrespective of the network the subscriber chooses to migrate to in search of quality service.

For 2020, 9mobile received the higest number of users through the MNP by gaining 74,134 telephone users.

This is followed by Airtel, which added 67,927 subscribers. MTN gained 37,027 customers from others networks to its network, while Globacom recorded 3,870 additional customers.

In terms of subscribers that exited their networks for another, Airtel lost 67,596 customers, followed by Globacom 55,322; MTN 35,881 subscribers; while 9mobile lost 28,372 customers.

In 2019, the telecommunication operators gained a total of 139,022 customers.

In a document released on Monday and titled “Nigeria Mobile Number Portability: Business rules and port order processes”, NCC said mobile operators will henceforth pay a porting transaction fee of N450 on each subscriber than they receive from another network.

“The porting transaction fee charged by the NPC Administrator for each successful port shall be N450 and may at the NCC’s sole discretion be varied from time to time, after consultation with the industry,” the document reads.

“The NPC Administrator shall not charge a fee for processing emergency repatriation porting transactions.''

- THECABLE