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Pressure Buhari to take fight against insecurity more seriously, governor Ortom tells UK lawmakers

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Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue, has asked the United Kingdom to pressure the federal government of Nigeria to take more important steps to address insecurity.

Ortom said this on Tuesday at a meeting involving members of the UK parliament.

Speaking in Abuja at an interaction with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief — a group based in the UK parliament — the Benue governor said it appears that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is unwilling to take serious action against “murderous terrorist groups”.

According to a statement by Nathaniel Ikyur, his spokesman, Ortom said “the inability of the federal government to act swiftly to tame the rise of terror attacks on communities in the country for many years now by Islamic extremists with the sole aim of taking over the country must be put to an end”.

“The Governor stated that being a multi religious and ethnic country, the Federal Government which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the rights of the people as enshrined in the constitution are protected, ought to take the task more seriously than it is currently doing,” the statement reads.

“He noted that for the sake of national unity, cohesion, peaceful coexistence and promotion of development, the rights of the people to freedom of religion must also be respected by the Nigerian state, hence the need for the international community to intervene by putting pressure on the Government to do the right thing.

“Governor Ortom also told the visiting parliamentarians that due to the activities of these terrorist groups, over 1.5 million people have been displaced from their ancestral lands and properties worth billions of naira destroyed in Benue State as a result of the invasion.

“He recommended that, there was need for rehabilitation and return of IDPs to their ancestral homes as well as payment of full compensation to victims.”

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Abike Dabiri returns to Twitter after nearly a year offline – with numerous awards

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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.

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.

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Some youth trading crypto are unaware they’re being used to fund terrorism, says Olukoyede

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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.

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FCCPC seals warehouse with mislabelled, expired products in Ekiti

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The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says a warehouse selling harmful products in Ekiti state was raided and sealed on Wednesday.

In a post on X, FCCPC said the raid was carried out after receiving intelligence reports that there were unsafe and expired products in the warehouse located in Ado-Ekiti.

After confirming the reports, FCCPC said the place was sealed.

“Following intelligence reports, our operatives raided a warehouse suspected of selling harmful products, including vegetable oils, cereals and other fast-moving consumer goods,” the commission said.

“During the raid, the FCCPC found evidence of expired goods still on the shelves, deceptive labels on products, fake barcodes, and repackaged, potentially unsafe products.

“The warehouse is now sealed, and the owners along with a supplier are being investigated. Appropriate enforcement actions will follow.”

The commission said it would remain vigilant in protecting consumers and ensuring a fair marketplace in Nigeria.

On April 18, FCCPC raided two 4U Signature supermarkets in the Wuse area of Abuja.

The supermarkets were accused of overcharging customers by implementing prices different from those listed on the shelf tags.

Four days after the supermarket was sealed, FCCPC summoned the owners of Royal Choice, a Chinese supermarket in Abuja, for allegedly refusing to sell to Nigerians.

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Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others

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