Some new tricks kidnappers use to lure victims

Reports of kidnapping have become common in Nigeria. Though not a new trend, kidnappers have continued to devise new methods to lure victims. Below are some of the new tricks to watch out for:

• Ploy at parties

In this method, a note is dubiously passed to the master of ceremonies requesting the owner of an identified vehicle to come out and move his or her vehicle to allow others parking access. Immediately the individual gets to his car, the kidnappers grab the person and zoom off in the car.

This was what happened to Mr. Remi Olakunri who was kidnapped at a party venue in Lagos some months ago.

Olakunri, who drove an SUV to the venue, heard his car’s number plate called out by the emcee, requesting him to step outside to move his vehicle. As Olakunri got to his car, three men grabbed him and forced him to drive off in his vehicle. Over N1m ransom was paid before his abductors released him.

• Road blocks

The modus operandi of kidnappers includes mounting road blocks on highways in military uniforms and staging a surprise attack on unsuspecting motorists.

An All Progressives Congress governorship aspirant in Ondo State, Victor Olabimtan, was abducted by gunmen after he declared his interest to contest the state’s governorship election.

Olabimtan was on his way to Abuja when some persons in military attire, who dubiously manned a road block on the expressway kidnapped him.

• Disguising as church members

There have been several reports of how kidnappers found their way into churches, disguised as church members and waited for the service to end before carrying out their criminal act.

A pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Isawo branch, Ikorodu, Lagos, was recently abducted by gunmen who disguised as members of the church and whisked him away after the service.

• Isolated ATMs

According to a security expert, Mr. Pedro Ayandokun, kidnappers now target isolated automated teller machines with long queues of customers.

“These kidnappers look out for the last person in a queue because such individual will be an easy target for them.  Nigerians should avoid using isolated ATMs even during the day. Bank customers should always use ATMs within the confines of a bank,” he said.

• Fake job interviews

Text messages for job interviews are randomly sent to the mobile phones of persons who did not apply for the job. Their agenda is to get desperate job seekers to an arranged venue and hold them before contacting their relatives to pay ransom.

A victim, Mr. Segun Abiodun, who travelled to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for a job interview was abducted by those who purportedly had a job offer for him. His abductors initially demanded N5m before it was reduced to N2m.

• Neighbours as bait

Security agencies have constantly warned Nigerians against opening their doors for neighbours at odd hours.

It had been observed that kidnappers, rather than heading for the house of their potential victim directly, use the person’s neighbour to knock on the door or gate of their potential victim. Their belief is that their target would open the door for the neighbour.

• Luring children with gifts

Two months ago, Bayo Adeyemi, a male pupil of a school in Okokomaiko area of Lagos State, was kidnapped on his way home after closing hours.

Bayo and his brother were on their way home when the kidnappers, who were in a bus, accosted them on the road and gave the elder brother N100 to buy candy and biscuits. The victim offered to run the errand with his younger brother but they ordered him to leave his brother behind.

While returning from the errand, he discovered that the bus was leaving. Being a child, rather than raise the alarm, he ran home to alert his mother and before they arrived at the scene, the kidnappers had disappeared with his brother.

Commenting on the development, a security consultant, Mr. Simon Udie, said every Nigerian should be extremely vigilant.

“Nigerians should observe every strange happening around them. The criminal mind is just as good as an intelligent mind, they try to use new tactics to lure their victims,” he said.

• Switching off generators

When kidnappers identify a house that is easily penetrable, especially at night, they locate where the electricity switch box is and disconnect the power source.  They wait for any of the occupants to come out to check what might have happened. In the process, he or she is kidnapped. They may also switch off generator to lure their target.

Mr. Tunji Ajayi who resides in Agbado/Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State could have fallen victim but for his suspicion.

He said his generator was switched off after some persons gained entry to his compound. He told our correspondent that when they noticed that he didn’t come out after they had waited for hours; they walked out of his compound.

• Pretending as relatives

The ninety-year-old father of Mr. Oluwole Adalumo, who owns a hotel in Ikole, Ekiti State, Ajagunna Adalumo fell victim to this technique. He was kidnapped from his house at Oke-Ijebu, Ikole Ekiti. Bimbo Ajayi, who is a relative of the victim, said the kidnappers came into the premises of the aged man around 8pm. Ajayi said a man entered the house of Pa Adalumo under the pretence that the victim’s son sent him to the old man. He later drove him away in a car he brought.

• Lifts

As much as many would want to offer help to persons in need, giving strangers a lift could be a wrong move.  There was a report last year of one Mrs. Abike Lawal who visited a popular shopping mall in Lagos. As she was about to leave, she noticed that one of her tyres had been slashed.

In her disturbed state, a friendly, well-dressed and articulate young man showed up like a knight in shining armour to help her. After assisting her, he asked for a ride to where he said he parked his car. Without waiting for her response, he entered the car but the woman suspected foul play and excused herself to buy something.

She went to a security guard and told him what happened. The security guard went with her to the car but the young man had left.

In 2013, a report by Sheriff Deputies Limited, a private Security Company in Nigeria, stated that the South-West had the highest incidence of kidnapping with five per cent, followed by the South-East and South-South with four per cent each.

It noted that North-West and North-East each had an incidence of three per cent, with the lowest being North-Central at two per cent.

The Lagos State Police Command said between January and June this year, there were 19 cases of kidnappings.

The spokesperson for the command, Dolapo Badmos, told SUNDAY PUNCH that 15 suspected kidnappers had been charged to court.

Badmos also said culprits involved in robbery and pipeline vandalism had turned to kidnapping.

She added that some of the communities vulnerable to kidnapping are those close to waterways, because kidnappers could quickly escape with their victims without encountering an immediate chase by residents or security officials.

A security consultant, Mr. Bunmi Odukoya, said kidnapping of Nigerians had increased.

Odukoya said, “Criminals know that police are rarely contacted after a kidnap and that families are quick to pay ransom for the release of their relatives. Kidnappers can be particularly brutal and can physically assault their victims and those delivering ransoms.”

Insufficient security agents

The current number of police officers is said to be about 370,000 to about 170 million Nigerians.This fell short of the United Nations recommendation of 222 police officers per 100,000 persons.

President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the recruitment of 10,000 policemen into the nation’s Police Force to reinforce the police for better service.

Another security expert and Chairman Mentorship Committee, American Society for Industrial Security, Abuja Chapter, Prof. Femi Adegbulu, said it appeared that the law enforcement agents had lost the battle to kidnappers.

“Most cases of kidnap are between you and your God. It depends on your negotiating power for your loved one to be freed, if kidnapped. We hear reports saying no ransom was paid, but those criminals are not foolish. These criminals risk their lives to kidnap an individual, and they know that if caught, they would be jailed or face death penalty. Why then would they kidnap someone and not get money?’’ he stated.

Badmos said parents have a moral and physical duty to protect their children.

She added, ‘‘People living close to waterways should be sensitive and extremely security conscious. We have foiled about two kidnap attempts in partnership with the communities involved.”

(PUNCH)

I’m happy Nigeria is broke - DG NOA

The Director General of the National Orientation Agency, Mr. Garba Abari, has expressed delight that Nigerians have been left with no option but to look inwards because of the economic recession.

Abari stated this in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, in Abuja, on Friday.

He explained that the fall in oil prices and the disappearance of what he referred to as “free money” will engender a home-grown response to the nation’s economic problems.

According to him, Nigeria’s economic problem was not peculiar to it because other oil producing nations like Venezuela were also taking a hit but that Nigeria under the Buhari-led administration was handling it better.

Abari said, “Happily, the country is broke, if we had lived a life of falsehood always guided by our crass appetite for consumption and lack of productivity because there was free money, now we are being confronted with the reality.

“It is a global economic challenge and every country is being affected one way or another. Venezuela is an oil producing country like Nigeria; perhaps in terms of production quota in OPEC, it may even be producing higher than Nigeria. It is not even as populous as Nigeria is and you have seen what has become of it.

“Oil that used to be the source of money is no longer bringing in the money. We are beginning to show a sign that we are positively responding to the reality.”

He explained that the contribution of agriculture to the GDP was negligible in the last few years but that it had improved considerably under the current administration because of the proactive measures, so far taken.

Commenting on the prevalence of hate speech by Nigerians on social media, the DG said, “We have all been victims of what I can call social media terrorism.

“It is quite worrisome the amount of hate especially the use of foul language. It tells you how much of our values we have lost that we simply cannot bring out issues and debate them and bring out the virtues in them.”

The NOA he said was partnering with sister agencies of government and civil society to reorient Nigerians towards making Nigeria better.

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s controversial marriage sermon

The General Overseer of Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has come under strong criticism from Nigerians on social media over his religious views on gender equality.

A Facebook post on the official page of the church’s online ministry, last Sunday, cited an excerpt of the clergyman’s message titled ‘Who is a husband and what is his role?’, in which husbands were defined as “masters” as opposed to “male partners.”

Oyakhilome’s ex-wife, Anita, had on February 8, finalised her divorce from the pastor and dropped his last name for “Obhodaghe.”

Her lawyers confirmed the divorce earlier this year, following months of speculation that there was trouble in their marriage.

Anita, who had cited irreconcilable differences while filing for divorce, also severed ties with the church.

But Oyakhilome, in his message on Facebook, said the reason for most problems in Christian marriages was a refusal of God’s definition of marriage by women.

He said, “They believe they are equal partners. (But) ‘husband’ does not mean the male partner in a marriage, husband means master.

“The Bible says the man is the head of the woman (1 Corinthians 11:3) so when you marry him, you come under his authority. You are not authority sharers, even though you are both heirs to the kingdom of God.”

According to the pastor, when one decides not to subject oneself to that authority, one becomes a rebel.

“God is not going to accept what you are doing because you are not functioning correctly. Why did God make the woman? If most women had fathers bold enough to talk to them, they would be very successful in their marriage and they would be very happy people.

“Most women have never been taught by their parents, their fathers particularly and that’s their biggest problem because they don’t know who a man is. They think he is another woman,” he said.

The message went viral on many platforms.

Oyakhilome’s stance received backlash from some Nigerians, who expressed their disagreement in the comments section of the post.

Blessing Meteke said, “Unfortunately, this is the type of preaching that millions of Nigerians listen to. ‘Making a woman was not God’s original plan. When a husband is angry, the wife is the victim.’

“This is what men adhere to and they make their wives and daughters-in-law slaves in their own homes. Misogyny has eaten deep into several Nigerians and they use the Bible as a cover-up. This is not only disheartening but exasperating.”

Babalola Olusegun added, “Can the pastor explain Genesis 1:27, because looking at the passage, God put women in His plan even before creating them. The man should remember that the woman is removed from his ribs, which means the man is not complete without the woman.”

Jane Onyejiaka also said, “Some points in this sermon are flawed, with all due respect. I will never teach my sons that a woman is an afterthought. God doesn’t do things for doing sake. Anyway, he is a pastor, not God. I always sieve what I read and I take the good and leave the rest.”

Similarly, Ekaette Essien said, “I didn’t see any advice for men here. Making a successful home should not be a one-sided thing. It should not rest on the shoulder of only the women. A man who loves his wife will surely earn respect from such a wife.

“If you are a boss-type husband, surely rebellion awaits you. Let’s be real, please. Even God who created us does not act like a boss to us. He loves us; that’s why His children have to obey and respect Him.”

Prelate Sunday Mbang: The wrath of God will visit the Children, Grandchildren of corrupt politicians

Former Prelate of the Methodist Church and one time President of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAND, Prelate Sunday Mbang, has said that the wrath of God will visit the children and grand children of corrupt politicians who steal from the treasury just to benefit themselves and their families. The clergy man who recently turned 80 years old, said this in a recent interview with Tribune.

"In Christianity, the Bible makes it clear that when you commit a crime, it is to the third and fourth generations. The belief with us is that they have allowed the grace of God in the New Testament to seem to have covered what is in the Old Testament – the wrath and love of God – which is also reflected in the New Testament. If you don’t repent of your sin, the wrath of God will fall upon you. People suffer in this country and what they would do is to explain it scientifically. I said it earlier that I made a prayer and someone died. 

That death would be explained scientifically and so the main point would be clear to the people. The fact is that once you commit sin; once you loot public treasury; once you convert money belonging to the people for yourself and family, you will suffer, your children will suffer to the third and fourth generations. When these things happen, people explain them scientifically. 

Nowadays if anything happens to someone, it would be blamed on either the brother, father or the mother, not knowing that God’s wrath might have fallen on the person. Every sin has punishment. 

What I can tell our politicians is that all the sins they have committed – corruption, hatred, killings, kidnapping, false accusations – the wrath of the God will visit them one after the other to the third and fourth generations. My prayer is that all those seeking political appointments, because the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, God is the owner of the earth. He is not an absentee landlord. He is interested in this world. So when you come and do whatever you feel like, don’t think God does not see it. He sees everything we do and He gives us the grace for what we have done right and punishment, for our wrongs. 

My advice to the politicians is for them to remember that whatsoever they sow, they shall reap. If they escape it, their children will not. If they do, their grandchildren will bear the punishment, whether they like it or not. You can go to prayer houses to pray, unless you repent. When Zacchaeus, the tax collector in the Bible wanted to repent, he said he would return ten times all that he had taken unlawfully. Can any politician do that? If they can do so, God can show mercy because some of them might have ignorantly stolen. Even if Buhari decides to leave them unpunished, they can’t escape from God. 

That is my advice to all the Christians who venture into politics. God is watching them and their family every day. Every sin they commit against that person who has gotten food to eat in his house, God will not allow them to go scot-free" he said.

Source: Nigerian Tribune

Mode 9 on Why he has quit releasing music in Nigeria

When Nigerian rap legend, Modenine, announced that his latest project, ‘Insulin,’ would be his last album released in Nigeria, some thought he was joking while others believed the veteran rap artiste was about to hang his boot and retire from music.

However, while chatting with Saturday Beats, Mode 9 said that he was sticking to his decision and that he was no longer releasing albums on the shores of Nigeria.

He also debunked insinuations that he was retiring from music.

He said, “After this last album, ‘Insulin,’ I am done releasing albums in Nigeria. I purposely did not make too much noise about this album, I just released it and those who appreciate it have been giving me positive feedback. I don’t know if I would release more albums but I am very certain that I would not release any other album in Nigeria. I can release my album somewhere else but not here in Nigeria.

“I have not given up on Nigeria but did Nigerians not give up on me? Things are not like they were about seven years ago. Things are getting too difficult, so I decided to release this ‘Insulin’ album and I am done here. I already have my next chapter planned out. I am not retiring from music and Nigerians should not worry about me. I have left a lot of materials for them and they can always go and buy and listen to them. I am happy this last album made an incredible impact especially on my core fan base. This is the most airplay I have got in a while ever since I became an independent artiste. It is always good to step aside when the ovation is loudest.”

Man rips out girlfriend’s intestines for calling ex’s name during sex

A man has admitted to ripping out his 31-year-old girlfriend’s intestines with his bare hands after she called out her ex-husband’s name during sex.

Fidel Lopez, 24, cried hysterically down the phone to the police as his girlfriend Maria Nemeth lay dying on the bathroom floor, September 2014.

According to CBS Miami, Lopez, in a distressing call to the police said, “Hurry up, my girlfriend is in the bathroom.

“Like, I don’t know man, she’s not breathing! She’s gonna die, man! Come on, someone help her!”

24-year-old Lopez, later admitted he was enraged when his girlfriend, Nimeth mentioned his ex-husband’s name twice when they were having sex.

The report says that Lopez returned to the unconscious girlfriend, mutilated her with various objects and pulled out her intestines using his bare hands.

He has been charged with murder and sexual battery and being held in the Broward County Jail without bond .

Prosecutors are seeking death penalty.

Nigeria needs $142m to tackle global warming

Nigeria needs $142 million dollars between now and 2030 to finance its Intended Nationally Determined Commitment to reduce emission and low carbon for improved environment.

A statement from the Special Assistant to the Minister of Environment on Communications, Ms Esther Agbarakwe, announced the development on Saturday after a stakeholders’ consultation on pilot issuance of green bonds in Nigeria.

Quoting the Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, the statement said, “The resource needed to finance the INDC is put at 142 million dollars between now and 2030.

“The forum is part of a continuing collaboration between the ministry of environment and the ministry of finance to explore and develop a product that can leverage and channel resources toward viable green projects.

“Also, it can contribute to the achievement of the nation’s development objectives.’’

She said the issuance of green bonds, which had grown from 3 billion dollars per annum since 2012 to an estimated 100 billion dollars for 2016, presented a viable option.

The special assistant also recalled that in May, the minister was presented with a proposal by the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos on the issuance of green bonds in Nigeria.

Agbarakwe explained that thereafter, several consultations with the NSE, SEC and UNEP had been held to critically look into the potential of financing Nigeria’s INDC implementation through green bonds and other multi-lateral funding mechanisms.

She said, “Green bonds have been the subject of increasing government, investor and media interest and expectations, driven by the prospect of matching large low‑carbon investment requirements with the trillions of dollars in global bond markets held by institutional investors.’’

Agbarakwe said that participants at the forum were drawn from the federal ministries of finance, budget and national planning, trade and investment, the NSE, the Debt Management Office and the Central Bank of Nigeri.

Others, she said, were the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Assembly, the Africa Finance Corporation, the World Bank, UNEP, UNDP, McKingsey and Company, Chapel Hill Denham, Stanbic IBTC, DFID/NIAF and other private sector representatives. (NAN)

Hoodlums force 23-year-old girl to take India hemp before raping her

A 23-year-old girl (name withheld) has experienced one of the worst sexual attacks in Lagos in recent times.

The incident took place around 10pm on Sunday, August 28 at 106, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, around Pako Bus Stop.

The victim's aunty, a trader in the area, said the young woman had come to her stall around 9pm that day to collect some money.

“I told her to wait so we could pack up together later in the evening. She did. But around 9.30pm when I was still not ready, she said she would go home. She had been sick, so, I thought it was better. Some minutes after 10pm, I packed up and left,” the woman said.

But to her surprise when she got home, she was told Judith had not been seen since she left for the shop.

The family quickly mounted a search for her in the neighbourhood.

Her two brothers went in search of her on streets in the area and they did find her.

One of her brothers who spoke with our correspondent, explained that when he found the victim, he could not believe his eyes.

“Her slippers were all torn, the dress she was wearing was heavy with blood. She was unsteady on her feet. She could hardly stand up,” he said.

A picture of Judith taken soon after she was found showed the ivory-coloured skirt she was wearing blotted with large patches of blood behind and in front.

His brother told our correspondent that when he became frantic and started asking what happened to her, she could hardly talk.

“She said some men raped her. Two men now came out of the front of the house where I found her. One asked me what I was shouting about. He said, ‘Because she was raped, is that why you will not let people ‘hear word’? Is she the first person that will be raped here?’ After all, I gave her Igbo (hemp) and she took it.’

“I was shocked. I could not believe that he had the confidence to tell me he was even the one who gave her Indian hemp. My sister said they forced her to take the Indian hemp and two of them raped her on a chair in front of a shop.”

The victim told her family that the men grabbed her as she crossed the expressway on her way home.

She said when they covered her mouth and dragged her to house number 106, which faces the expressway, they took her inside and forced her to take Indian hemp three times before they raped her.

The two men who allegedly raped her were later identified as Wasiu and Monaco, the names they are popularly known by on the street, while the man who boasted of being the one who gave her the Indian hemp was identified as Olanrewaju Osinubi.

Wasiu and Monaco are currently on the run.

The victim's brother explained that while he argued with the two men, who initially came out, other men came out of the house and joined them, threatening that if he did not leave with his sister, he would be beaten up.

He said, “While we were arguing there, I luckily saw a patrol van of policemen from the Dopemu Police Division passing by and I quickly approached them and explained how my sister was raped.

“The policemen came down from their vehicle and because the crowd of boys in front of the house were threatening, one of the policemen cocked his gun and they all fled.

“But, I immediately grabbed the one who said he gave her Indian hemp to smoke (Osinubi) before he could escape. The police took him and we all went to the station.”

While at the station, it was learnt that the victim continued to bleed heavily as everywhere she sat was soaked with blood.

The police asked the family to take her to the Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre for treatment that night.

But by the time they got there around 12.30am, the centre was close.

But officials at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, where the centre is located, referred them to the Ifako General Hospital, where sexual assault cases are also treated.

After the initial treatment there, Judith was again referred to the Mirabel Centre the following day where she was eventually given comprehensive treatment.

It is unclear whether the centre has sent the report of tests conducted on the victim back to the police as is usually the practice.

However, the victim’s family alleged that they became like bystanders as soon as her case got to the police station.

Her brother told our correspondent, “Before we knew what was happening, a man had come and said he was the lawyer of the one that was arrested (Osinubi). I was shocked when the suspect and his lawyer demanded that the case be transferred to the Isokoko Police Division, Agege, instead. We who were the complainant had no say in the matter.”

It was learnt that the case was eventually transferred to Isokoko where two policewomen were detached to follow the victim’s family home.

Again, the family said they were shocked when they got home and the policewomen told The victim to take them to where the incident occurred.

“She was sleeping when they came. She was still in a terrible state. The police brought the suspect to our home and told us to wake her up so that she could take them to where it happened. It was so ridiculous that they could make her go through that at that point. I was angry but we eventually agreed,” the victim’s brother said.

the victim’s aunty, who followed them to the scene of the attack, said they asked the victim to point to where it happened and she did.

“She showed them the place and even the chair on which she was raped. It was very wet as they had just washed off all the blood,” the woman said.

However, the family said they were surprised when the police charged Osinubi to court on Friday, September 2, 2016 for simply obstructing police work.

According to them, the police have not shown any sympathy for the victim in handling the case and they fear she might never get any justice.

It is not clear what the police are doing currently to track down the two suspects on the run as the Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, did not pick calls to her line.

However, an activist, Mrs. Esther Ogwu of the Esther Child Rights Foundation, whom the family has approached for help on the matter, said has notified the Sexual Assault department of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice about the case.

“We expect that an urgent step would now be taken on this matter.  This is not a case that  the police should even think of sweeping under the carpet.

“This case is not just about her, it is about other young women and girls who are in danger as long as those men are still on the loose. But I do not think the police have realised how terrible it must be for the victim that she may not get justice,” she said.

 
(PUNCH)      

Behold the Apple's new iPhone 7 - Contains 256GB of storage

Apple Inc. announced on Wednesday the upgrade of its flagship product, the smartphone known as iPhone, with new features such as water resistance, double-lens camera, stereo speakers and wireless headphone.

Along with the new iPhone 7, which will be available for pre-order on Friday and for delivery starting a week later, Apple said at an event in San Francisco, northern California, that it had upgraded its smart watch, known as Apple Watch, to be water resistant.

However, away from its description in the initial offering of the watch nearly two years ago, when Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook called the product "a collection," Apple renamed the previous version "Series 1" and the new wearable "Series 2", which includes global positioning system (GPS) function.

Apple Watch, once expected to catch up with the popularity enjoyed by iPhone, has extended its working with luxury brand Hermes and sports brand Nike by highlighting features of the two brand names.

About the iPhone, the new series has a new A10 central processing unit (CPU) chip with 4 cores to run hardware and software operations, improved battery life that is claimed to last two more hours on average than iPhone 6.

Significant changes to the hardware include the elimination of headphone jack; the introduction of AirPod, a wireless headphone with 5 hours of battery life on each charge; the two speakers imbedded to replay stereo sound; and the camera with a wide-angel lens and a telephoto lens to better suit different situations.

Compared with previous Apple events of the kind, the technology company headquartered in Cupertino, south of San Francisco, brought fewer executives onto the stage, and the response seemed to be less enthusiastic off the stage.

Cook, like in the past five years, did speak as a host at the two-hour event on Wednesday, but he and other Apple officials did not mention the company's other products, which include iPad tablet and MacBook notebook and Macintosh desktop computers.

In a video clip shown at the beginning of the event, Cook seemed to be in the passenger seat of a vehicle and on the way to Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, where the event was held, and the driver talked about the security of iPhone 7 and called it the best. Cook agreed. But he did not discussed the topic once within the auditorium.

Apple has bragged about security features of its products, especially iPhone. Earlier this year, when it refused to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to access an iPhone 5c used by one of the two gunmen in the San Bernardino, California, terror attack on December 2, 2015, Cook opened his speech at a similar event in late March by talking about data security.

"We believe strongly that we have a responsibility to help you protect your data and protect your privacy," he said then.

However, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which runs the FBI, on the same day scraped its request for Apple's assistance at a federal court and said a week later it had retrieved the data from the phone in question.

In the months thereafter, there have been reports about vulnerabilities in iPhone's operating system iOS that could expose users to hackers.

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Facebook Restores Iconic Vietnam War Photo It Censored for Nudity

The iconic image of a naked, 9-year-old girl fleeing napalm bombs during the Vietnam War, tears streaming down her face, is the picture from 1972, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography, has since been used countless times to illustrate the horrors of modern warfare.

But for Facebook, the image of the girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, was one that violated its standards about nudity on the social network. So after a Norwegian author posted images about the terror of war with the photo to Facebook, the company removed it.

The move triggered a backlash over how Facebook was censoring images. When a Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten, cried foul over the takedown of the picture, thousands of people globally responded on Friday with an act of virtual civil disobedience by posting the image of Ms. Phuc on their Facebook pages and, in some cases, daring the company to act. Hours after the pushback, Facebook reinstated the photo across its site.

“An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our community standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography,” Facebook said in a statement on Friday. “In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time.”

The reversal underscores Facebook’s increasingly tricky position as an arbiter of mass media. While the social network has resisted being labeled a media entity — its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, recently told a group of Italian university students that Facebook is a “tech company, not a media company” — many used the Vietnam War photo uproar to call upon the Silicon Valley behemoth to acknowledge its control over the articles, videos and images that people consume.

“Mark Zuckerberg can resist the definition all he wants, claiming Facebook is a white hot tech company, not a media company,” said Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. “But it is now possible for a company to be both.”

In an open letter to Mr. Zuckerberg, Espen Egil Hansen, the editor in chief of Aftenposten, said Facebook played a dominant role in how people around the world view information and that it should not set limits on what types of journalism could be seen online.

“Mark Zuckerberg is the most powerful editor in chief in the world,” Mr. Hansen, whose newspaper has a print circulation of 200,000, said in an interview on Friday. “Tomorrow, there will be another photo. Facebook will have to respond to that.”

Ms. Phuc did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nick Ut, the photographer who took the iconic image for The Associated Press, was traveling; the news agency said it was “proud of the photo.”

“We are always looking to improve our policies to make sure they both promote free expression and keep our community safe, and we will be engaging with publishers and other members of our global community on these important questions going forward,” a Facebook spokeswoman said.

The frequency with which Facebook needs to respond to questions over its media role has increased over the past 18 months. In May, the company had to grapple with reports that some editors working on its “Trending Topics” section — a portion of the site in which Facebook displays some of the most-talked-about stories on the network — were suppressing conservative political content.

Facebook last month laid off the Trending Topics team and said it would rely solely on algorithmic decision-making to surface trending stories across the site. In the weeks since, some have called for Facebook to rethink that stance, as several fake news stories have more prominently appeared in the section.

Last year, Facebook also had to revise its community standards after photos of women breast-feeding were removed from their Facebook pages. And the company apologized in May after it blocked a photo of a plus-size model for being “undesirable.”

Facebook’s editorial influence reaches far beyond Trending Topics. The company, with 1.71 billion members worldwide, is continuously refining and updating the algorithms that control the News Feed, the stream of status updates, news articles, photos and videos that most of its users spend the most time interacting with. Those changes affect the type of content people see more frequently — photos from friends and family, for instance, instead of news stories — which can have an effect on what people are sharing across the network.

Many of the world’s largest publishers, from The New York Times and The Guardian to Vice and BuzzFeed, also increasingly rely on Facebook to communicate with the social network’s users. A growing number of media companies and analysts have raised concerns that Facebook may hold too much sway over how information is distributed.

Almost half of American adults rely on Facebook as a source of news, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

The commotion over the photo of Ms. Phuc, also known as the Napalm Girl picture, began when Tom Egeland, a Norwegian author, wrote a Facebook post in August that included seven photographs about the history of warfare. One of those was the image of Ms. Phuc, which was then removed by Facebook, citing its standards policy.

Facebook uses a combination of algorithms and human moderators to review photos that can potentially break its rules. In this case, the photo was tagged for removal by one of Facebook’s algorithms, which was then followed up by a human editor, according to a person at the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly.

After Mr. Egeland criticized the removal of his post, he was barred from posting on Facebook for 24 hours. On Wednesday, after he republished the photo on his Facebook page, Mr. Egeland said he had been barred from Facebook for another three days.

Mr. Hansen of Aftenposten, taking a stand on behalf of Mr. Egeland, asked his journalists to report on the author’s case this week and also posted the Vietnam War photo on the newspaper’s own Facebook page. Mr. Hansen said he received an email on Wednesday from the social network requesting that the image be taken down. Before he could respond, he said Facebook removed the newspaper’s post without asking permission.

On Friday, Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, and cabinet ministers also posted the Vietnam War photo on their Facebook pages in a show of solidarity. “Facebook gets it wrong when they censor such images,” Ms. Solberg wrote in her post.

Yet soon after Ms. Solberg published that Facebook post, the social network also removed it, citing the company’s standards policy.

When the picture’s takedown went viral, the photo went into wide circulation on the social network, including on the Facebook page of Mr. Ut, the photographer. Facebook later said it would take some time for the photo and posts that contained it to reappear across the site, perhaps as much as a few days.

Mr. Egeland, the Norwegian author whose Facebook post kicked off the global protest, said the company’s reversal underlined how people can come together to force a tech giant to change its ways — even though he could still not post on his own Facebook page until his three-day exile expired.

Court Martial demotes Maj.-Gen. Patrick Falola

A Special Court Martial has demoted Maj.-Gen. Patrick Falola, to Brigadier-General for admitting students for clinical training without permission from higher authorities.

Falola, Director, 68 Military Reference Hospital, Yaba, Lagos State, was arraigned on a two-count charge before a court martial presided over by AVM James Gbum.

Faloola admitted international students from Espan Formation University, Cotonou, in Benin Republic between July and September, 2016.

Gbum, the President of the court martial, held that Falola’s conduct amount to fraudulent use of property of the armed forces.

He discharged and acquitted him on charges of conduct to prejudice the service but convicted him on fraudulent misapplication of the hospital’s property.

“This court is compelled to award a higher punishment under sections 103 and 66 of the Armed Forces Act Cap A 20 laws of the Federation 2004.

“The court has taken into consideration the service record of the convicted senior officer, the touching plea in mitigation by the defence council as well as the demeanor of the convicted officer

“But we have also taken into consideration the senior officer’s seniority, rank, experience and the regimental tradition of the armed forces.

“This court has discharged and acquitted the convicted officer on the first charge, on the second offence, the sentence is reduction in rank to Brigadier General.”

Gbum said that the filing and sentences were subject to confirmation by the Nigerian Army Council which was the confirming authority.

He, however, said that the convicted officer would maintain his rank until the council concludes the confirmation process.

The prosecuting counsel, Lt.-Col. Ukpe Ukpe, told newsmen that the convicted was arraigned for using the Nigeria army property to train students from neighboring Benin Republic without following the necessary procedure.

Ukpe said the judgment was a balanced one as the court was very liberal in metting out punishment.

“If you check Section 115 of the Alarmed Forces Act, the offence falls under Section 68, punishment that could be metted out included dismissal,imprisonment or even death but the court went down to reduction in rank which is balanced enough.”

The defence council, retired Wing Cdr. Enokela Onyilo-Uloko, said the conviction had no legal backing and was an attempt to tarnish the clean record of his client.

Onyilo-Uloko said this was because there was no law stating that senior officers must take permission from the higher authority before allowing such training.

He said his cleint only did what his predecessors also did, which was no crime, adding that his client would appeal.

“No such law was tendered in evidence but they are saying he should use his initiative when there is no law finalising an act it does not amounted to criminal offence that my cleint is being tried for.

“So, the conviction is based on nothing and cannot stand the light of day in the eye of the law.

“And when we go higher to the Court of Appeal, I assure you, this conviction will be thrown out,” he opined.

(NAN)

Photo of a malnourished child being treated at a health centre in Maiduguri

6-year-old Ajija is pictured being screened for acute malnutrition at a UNICEF Nigeria-supported health centre in Maiduguri.

Are the Igbo Politically Marginalised Under Buhari's Government? I think the anwser is yes

The Igbo have not grounded words in describing how marginalized the Igbo are in Buhari’s government. In addition, former Anambra State governor, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, believes that President Buhari, with his actions, is pushing the Igbo hard to leave Nigeria.

The UN has also added its voice to this debate: it says Nigeria is deeply divided. Apart from the economic numbers coming out from the country, foreign investors pay attention to these divisive narratives: serious foreign Pension Fund managers might not want to leave their assets in a country that looks like it’s going to fall apart anytime soon.

But the President thinks differently. Hear the President: “If I select people whom I know quite well in my political party, whom we came all the way right from the APP, CPC and APC, and have remained together in good or bad situation, the people I have confidence in and I can trust them with any post, will that amount to anything wrong?”

Many are angry with the President’s argument. They believe that he should be the father of Nigeria, including those that didn’t vote for him, especially now that the elections are over.

But a close and objective look at the President’s political profile doesn’t suggest he really has anything against any ethnic group in Nigeria. (This is actually an evidence-based conclusion which I’m struggling to accept, considering the fact that I sympathize with the Igbo).

In 2003, the President embraced the south east – just as he embraced the south west in 2015 – by selecting Senator Chuba Okadigbo to be his running mate.  The thinking in Buhari’s camp was that his party, the ANPP, would easily get block votes from the Igbos with the hugely popular Okadigbo.

In 2007, the ANPP believing it won the 2003 elections, which many believe was a hugely flawed election, went on to play the same ethnic card by selecting Edwin Ume Ezeoke as Buhari’s running mate.

Then, many of the President’s closest allies were from the south east. For example, Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN) had been Buhari’s lawyer at the election tribunals (from 2003 -2007). In fact, junior lawyers working for Ahamba told reporters that their boss didn’t make money from representing Buhari. This was very unlike most senior advocates in election petitions.

Unfortunately, he left Buhari’s CPC in 2011. Ahamba would later claim that he left Buhari – a man he loves so much – because ‘opportunists have surrounded Buhari and hijacked his mind’. He even said that four men had hijacked the CPC and that Buhari was at their mercy. He also claimed that no one could dare challenge the actions of these ‘hijackers’.

At that point, not even Buhari’s widely publicized letter appealing to him to remain in the CPC could make him stay. (Maybe Ahamba could have been Nigeria’s attorney general today).

Many analysts say the same of Buhari’s government today. Perhaps, this prompted Obasanjo to say, a fortnight ago, that no individual nor group could claim that they brought Buhari to power. Many suggest, including prominent Buhari supporters like Dele Momodu, that ‘professional power hijackers’, who claim to have helped the President into office, are presently calling the shots in Abuja. And this doesn’t necessarily mean that the President is weak – the presidential system of government makes this kind of hijacking possible. This is topic for another day!

Obviously, had an Igbo, like Ahamba, been in that cabal, the story would have been different. And this is tragedy of the Nigerian state – ethnicity and tribalism is the order of the day.

Well, this didn’t start today and cannot be stopped by people of Buhari’s generation. Maybe the generation Mark Zuckerberg visited last week might be able to stop ethnic and tribal tendencies in business, civil service and politics in Nigeria, when their time comes.

But fundamentally, many lessons can be learnt here.

One, Nigeria’s politics is a winner-takes-all game. Thus, political parties and ethnic groups should form strong alliances with other ethnic groups. Perhaps, Okadigbo’s thesis, in 2003, that his running with Buhari was the only way Nigeria could have a president from the Igbo extraction, in the years to come, had some merit. But more importantly, as bonds between all ethnic groups in Nigeria get stronger in political parties, the occurrence of ethnic cabals in Aso Rock might reduce

Two, no particular ethnic group can run Nigeria successfully without the genuine support of other ethnic groups, including the minorities. Why? Take the ridiculous pronouncements by various groups that they are going to declare their own republic on the 1st of October. This, of course, is very unlikely to happen, but such news sends very negative signals to the international community and investors, as well. And this of course suffocates the ruling party, financially and politically.

The takeaway from this, is: Buhari might not really hate the Igbo, but the nature of Nigerian politics, even politics in general, is what is actually strangulating the Igbo and other ethnic groups. This ‘bitter’ experience should spur all ethnic groups to form genuine national alliances because any of them could be ostracized politically if they are not ‘involved.’

Chinese consortium want Hull takeover to make it 'strongest in England'

The Chinese consortium keen on buying Hull City are still interested in the club and want to make it one of the best in the country.

The club announced in July that takeover talks would be put on hold until after the transfer window had closed in September, after initially opening talks with several interested parties in May.

Representatives of a Chinese consortium watched Hull's opening-day win against Leicester at the KCOM Stadium and it has been reported that current owners the Allam family will sell to a brother and sister partnership of Dai Yongge and Dai Xin Li.

"We have a Chinese club and many years of football experience," Li told the Daily Mail. "We have a love for the game and we want to learn about European football and share the passion of the Premier League.

"We still want Hull City and our ambition is to build the club and make it one of the strongest in England."

The club was put up for sale in 2014 after the FA rejected chairman Assem Allam's bid to change their name to Hull Tigers, a move which was vehemently opposed by the majority of Hull's fans.

The Allam family have since come under increasing pressure from supporters, whose discontent with how the club was being run reached new heights following the departure of former manager Steve Bruce in July.

Bruce had grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of new signings after Hull had won promotion back to the top flight in May and had expressed doubts about his future before Hull's playoff final win against Sheffield Wednesday.

70 year old man robs bank to escape living with his wife

A 70 year old man in Kansas, Lawrence John Ripple, reportedly told authorities that he had just robbed a bank because he wanted to go to jail instead of continue living with his wife. According to Ripple's affidavit, he wrote out his demand note in front of his wife and told her he’d rather be in jail than continue living in the same home with her, then walked into a Kansas City, Kan., bank last week and handed a teller a note that read, "I have a gun, give me money,". According to the Kansas City Star, the teller handed over a bag of cash and Ripple, rather than run away with the cash, sat in the bank lobby until police arrived minutes later.
He is said to have told a security guard who approached him that he was the "guy he was looking for."
Ripple, who now faces federal charges, later told FBI agents that he and his wife had been in a fight and he did not "want to be in that situation."
Should this poor man be punished by sending him to jail or sending him back home to his wife?

Hull City's Mike Phelan crowned August's Manager of the Month

Mike Phelan has beaten Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte to the Premier League Manager of the Month award for August.

Phelan, the caretaker manager at Hull City, won two games out of three to start the season, including an unexpected victory against champions Leicester City and a 2-0 win at Swansea, before narrowly losing a third, 1-0 to United.

The Tigers' feat has been all the more impressive considering they started the campaign with just 13 fit senior players.

"I am honoured," Phelan said of winning the award. "It's an honour you don't expect, being caretaker manager. It's a credit to the football club and to the players for all their endeavours that have given me this achievement.

"It's been a turbulent summer. We had a small amount of players available to us but, to all intents and purposes, they stuck to their task really well and it has got us off to a decent start.

"The players needed some support; we have that now, to some degree. I think that the quality of the players brought into this football will lift the standard and we are hoping we can have a successful season."

Manchester United boss Mourinho, Manchester City manager Guardiola and Chelsea's Conte all made perfect starts at their new clubs winning all three games.

However, at least one of those records will come to an end in the next round of fixtures when City travel to Old Trafford for the Manchester derby on Sept. 10.

Each Premier League captain had a vote for who should win the award, alongside a panel made up of former footballers and managers.

Manchester City's Raheem Sterling was named the Premier League Player of the Month.