The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) has kicked against an invitation by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) over alleged cyberstalking and defamation of character.

In a statement on Thursday, the ICIR said the police invited Nurudeen Akewushola, a journalist, and the managing director of the organisation for an interview over “cyberstalking and defamation of character” claims.

The media organisation said the invitation letter, dated April 16, 2024, was delivered to its office on May 15—three weeks later.

The ICIR highlighted the irregularities in the invitation, noting that the date for the interview, which was April 24, had already passed.

The organisation added that the invitation lacks details about the alleged crime, hindering its ability to prepare a proper defence.

“The Police did not provide any details of the petition leading to its investigation on “cyberstalking and defamation of character,” which would have enabled the centre and its reporter to prepare for an interview,” the statement reads.

“The invitation was received by the ICIR on Wednesday, May 15, whereas the reporter and directors were expected to have reported to the centre on April 24, several weeks before the invitation was received.

“The ICIR is also concerned about the invitation because of an emerging trend of harassment and crackdown on journalists in Nigeria by the nation’s security apparatus using the Cyber Crimes Act, a legislation that has been amended to make it impossible for it to be misused in harassing the media and civic actors, as has been done in the past.

“In the past weeks, at least two journalists went missing from their homes, only to be discovered later that they were arrested by the nation’s security agencies for cyberstalking.

“The ICIR is also concerned about the invitation because it has reasonable cause to believe it is related to an investigative report done by Nurudeen Akewushola, the reporter who has been invited to the Cybercrime Centre, and recently published by the ICIR.

“The report indicted two former Inspectors General of Police of corruption. One of the two former IGPs threatened the ICIR with a lawsuit and was rebuffed.

“We believe that the same person is now using the Police, which should be interested in holding him to account based on our reporting, to harass our reporter.

“As a law-abiding organisation that holds power to account, we are always willing to submit to accountability and would honour lawful invitations from law enforcement agencies but we have written to the Police to provide details of the petition against the ICIR and its reporter and write a new invitation letter before we honour the invitation.”

The Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa is back on Twitter almost a year after her account was hacked.

The broadcast journalist-turned-politician announced her return to the social media platform on Thursday, May 16, 2024.

It would be recalled that on June 15, 2023, the NiDCOM chairman informed Nigerians that her X account formerly known as Twitter, had been “hacked by some unscrupulous elements.”

She said the “obvious aim of the hackers is to spread falsehood and fake news in her name.”

In a statement by Abdur-Rahman Balogun, the commission’s Head of Media, Public Relations, and Protocols Unit, Dabiri-Erewa advised Nigerians to disregard any message from the account.

“Members of the public are hereby advised to ignore any message from the Twitter handle @Abike Dabiri-Erewa until normalcy is hopefully restored,” the statement read in part.

Announcing her return in a short video showing numerous award plaques, the three-term member of the House of Representatives said she looks forward to meaningful engagement on the social media platform.

Guess who's back on Twitter? After a long hiatus, I'm thrilled to reconnect! pic.twitter.com/0XozjFDuMt

— abikedabiri (@abikedabiri) May 16, 2024

She said, “Hi everyone, Abike-Dabiri-Erewa here. I’m back on Twitter. After my account was hacked, I did my very best to get my account back. I mean, it’s not easy to lose over a million followers, but hey, that’s life but I’m back on X. I am looking forward to meaningful engagements on the X platform. It’s nice to be back.”

Meanwhile, Dabiri-Erewa’s hacked account is still active on X. The account which is being used to propagate Islamic content has over 800,000 followers.

Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says some youths who trade in cryptocurrencies do not know that they are being used to fund terrorism in Nigeria.

Olukoyede spoke on Wednesday during a multi-stakeholders’ national dialogue on preventing terrorism financing and violent extremism.

The EFCC chair said some of the people who receive money to trade in cryptocurrencies do not know that their financiers are sponsors of terrorism.

He added that some of the 1,146 bank accounts recently frozen by the anti-graft agency were conduits for terrorism funding.

“Some of you are aware of our activities in the area of investigating virtual currency trading and the likes of cryptocurrencies,” he said.

“They are potential platforms to fund terrorism. A lot of us don’t understand that. Some of our discoveries during investigation of some of these platforms were mind boggling.

“We thought Binance was a major one. Yes, it was. We are prosecuting them. But there are other platforms we have discovered.

“They used some of these young men. Some of them don’t know that the people who gave them money to trade are people who fund terrorism.”

The EFCC boss said there is a need to adopt technology in tracking money used to fund terrorism in the country.

Olukoyede narrated how he was informed by a friend in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that dollar bills across the world can be tracked with technology.

“It is important for us to adopt the use of technology,” he said.

“I was comparing notes with an assistant director in the FBI — a friend of mine. He said: ‘My brother, from our systems in the US, we can track every printed dollar anywhere in the world’.”

The EFCC boss added that Nigeria must get to that stage where technology can be deployed to track naira notes used for terrorism financing.