NCC Takes Lead In Efforts To Identify, Eliminate Risks In Telecom Sector

December 13, 2022

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has embarked on a regulatory step to sensitize the industry about the need for proper and continuous risk identification with the view to managing such risks before they affect the health of the industry.

The Commission, in line with the initiative, hosted a two-day maiden conference at its headquarters in Abuja, where its Executive Vice Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta, said it has become imperative to minimize risks in the industry to ensure that services are not disrupted, and that consumers obtain the best services that are globally available.

The conference with the theme: “Nigerian Telecommunications Industry: Managing the Emerging Risks and Embracing Risk Opportunities,” called for collaboration between the regulator and other stakeholders in the industry, to achieve multi-stakeholder strategies aimed at identifying and addressing emerging risks in the telecommunications sector to ensure sustainable and impacting growth.

Director of Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis, Yetunde Akinloye, who stood for the EVC, said the essence of the forum was to examine myriads of issues that challenge the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030, and to enhance the development of a sustainable ICT sector in Nigeria.

“The focus of this conference is to bring to the fore the ever-rising uncertainties in the global economy and the attendant regulatory/operational risks in the areas of increased data security regulations, new partnerships and transforming business models, fast-changing mix of mounting capital expenditure (CAPEX) burdens, shifting market structures, newly emerging disruption scenarios, regulatory and policy challenges amongst others,” Danbatta said.

The Executive Vice Chairman told participants at the event, which also featured virtual participation, that the Commission has been at the forefront of ensuring that the telecoms industry is not adversely impacted by these uncertainties/risks.

He said that one of the Strategic Visions is to ensure a competitive market for the communications services that foster fair inclusion of all players, promote local content and innovative services in ways that facilitate new investment, job creation and consumer satisfaction.

Professor Danbatta said that the NDEPS is the guiding document for the Federal Government’s activities to maximise the immense opportunities that are inherent in digital technologies to nudge the diversification of Nigeria’s economy and attain the key national objectives of improving security, reducing corruption, and expanding the economy.

“While risk management has been critical in our regulatory service delivery, we acknowledge that all stakeholders must be concerned about the varied uncertainties that confront the Industry. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Information and Communication Technologies Sector is inherently filled with several business and technology risks,” Danbatta said.

“It is, therefore, important that regulatory risks be minimised to ensure that services are not disrupted, and consumers obtain the best and latest services that are globally available. The Commission in a bid to ensure that operators in the industry enjoy a conducive operating environment has had cause to seek government interventions and collaborate with other Agencies of Government in addressing major sectoral risks.

“These risks include cybersecurity and online fraud, regulatory burden, multiple taxation, vandalism of telecommunication infrastructure, right of way challenges, access to foreign exchange, inter-industry indebtedness, among others,” he said.

In his paper presentation titled ‘X-raying Telecommunications Risk Radar: The Operators’ Perspective’, a facilitator at the event, who spoke to issues of concern to operators, Eniola Olugboyega, said that risk-taking can have positive or negative impact on businesses. He also stated that most common losses from improper management of risk in the sector include customer dissatisfaction, fines and litigation, product failure, and loss of business opportunities, among others.

According to him, effective risk management aids effective decision making, prevents financial and reputational loss and addresses potential threats. Thus, telecommunication risk from the operators’ perspective includes regulatory risk, insecurity, data breach risk, foreign exchange risk, rising CAPEX risk, human resource risk, and the inability to take advantage of new business models.

2023: Our Main Headache Is Peter Obi, Not Atiku – APC Chieftain

Editorial staff

December 13, 2022

Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Chief Osita

A Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has said that the main challenger the APC considers to constitute problem in the next year’s election is the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.

Okechukwu, who spoke on Arise Television yesterday, December 12, said the APC is not bothered about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The VON DG claimed that the former vice president is no match for the APC candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, adding that the APC is worried about Obi’s growing popularity across the country.

“Atiku is not a match for our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He cannot eat his cake and have it.

“Our only worry as a party is Mr. Peter Obi and not Atiku”.

He recalled how in 2014, Atiku led his compatriots and walked out of the PDP at the Eagles Square, Abuja, when he and his friends insisted that it was the turn of the north to rule.

Okechukwu said that when Atiku contested the PDP primary in 2018, no contestant from the Southern part of the country contested against him because there was a general agreement among stakeholders in the party that power should remain in the north.

The APC Chieftain, therefore, queried why Atiku would want to continue as a northerner after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years as President.

Tinubu Grounds Kaduna, Promises National Industrial Revolution

Editorial staff

December 13, 2022

The Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has promised widespread industrialization across the country if elected President next year.

Tinubu, whose campaign train grounded Kaduna city today, December 13, with dizzying crowd, told his supporters: “Our industrial policy will make industries hum again. Meanwhile, we shall give the youth the training, access and policy support to explore new economic frontiers in the digital economy and other uses of technology to create new goods and services that benefit the entire population.

“Our infrastructural policy will promote nationwide road and rail transport, enabling small businesses to easily transport their goods across state-lines and engage in productive trade throughout the land. Federal roads, especially the Abuja – Kaduna – Zaria – Kano Road, will be turned into productive and safe highways for travel and commerce.

“Bringing jobs and cheaper power for your homes and business, the AKK gas pipeline completion will be a top priority, helping to literally fuel the region’s economy.

“We shall bring order to the mining industry discouraging illegal and dangerous mining, and promoting legal mining to bring better jobs, economic prosperity and security to Kaduna.”

Tinubu said that these will help achieve his administration’s goal of achieving a double-digit economy growth which will see “bringing the most talented hands on deck regardless of their gender, tribe, age or affiliation”.

He referred to his track record of bringing alive the hopes of the citizenry with “people-oriented governance.

“With your support, my team and I will improve the economy, secure the peace, promote industry, grow more food and create more and better jobs for the average person.

“Given the opportunity, we shall reform the power sector such that light is brought into every home and productive work afforded every pair of willing hands.

“My administration will improve the education system for all our children including those who seem to have been rejected and forgotten and renew hope nationwide.

“Those who till the soil and grow our food will be helped to produce more and earn more. You farmers who feed this nation, your dignity and pride will be restored.”

The APC flagbearer also spoke on his plans to improve the country’s security situation, promising to wipe out terrorism and make Nigeria safe for all.

The State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai thanked the people of the Northwest zonel particularly Kaduna State for massive turn out, saying that they have shown where they stand in the 2023 race.

Governor Lalong of Plateau State said also that it was in Kaduna that the Northern Governors sat and decided that power must shift to the South and Asíwájú Tinubu should be the next president, stating that on that Asíwájú mandate they stand.

National Chairman Senator Adamu said Kaduna is the heart of Arewa and the North, adding that “the North has spoken and there is no need for more turanchi (talks).”

The party’s gubernatorial candidate in Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani also thanked the people for turning out in their large numbers, saying this has shown that the state belongs to the APC.

He described Asíwájú Tinubu as the only candidate who can better pilot the affairs of the country having delivered in Lagos, adding that “when he gets there, he will never forget Arewa.”

The rally was held at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna, with the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Presidential Running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, host- Governor Nasir El-Rufai and members of the party’s National Working Committee in attendance.

Also in attendance were Governors Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi State), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa State), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano State), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara State) and Simon Bako Lalong (Plateau State). Lalong is the Director-General of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign.

Senate Threatens Permsec, Ministry Of Finance With Arrest Over Missing N113 Million

Editorial staff

December 13, 2022

Senate has threatened the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning with a warrant of arrest if the Director, Cash Departments fails to appear before it tomorrow to provide sensitive documents related to disbursement of Service Wide Votes and missing N113 million on salary adjustment for Joint Admission Board Matriculation (JAMB). Speaking in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said that the threat became imperative over the absence of the Director, having been invited three times and refused to honour the invitations.

Senator Urhoghide, who spoke at the commenced sitting of the Committee when the Director failed to come, but only the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, said the Committee had written a letter of appearance to the Ministry on 20th of October, 2022 and the letter was received on 21 October, 2022 by the Ministry to also give details of released to all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including Police and Armed Forces.

According to him, another letter was written to the Ministry on December 8, 2022, on the issue concerning missing N113 million of salary augmentation for JAMB. Meanwhile, the office of Accountant General of the Federation, (AGF) told the Committee yesterday that the N113 million was released to JAMB in May 2017 for salary augmentation.

In the invitation letter written to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry was invited to make clarification on the matter at stake at the Committee’s room yesterday which the Ministry officials failed to honour.

The representative of JAMB, Director of Finance and Administration, Mufutau Bello told the Committee that the N113 million was not released to them, just as he argued that if the money was released, it would have cut across the whole year.

According to him, it would cut across all MDAs using CONLESS, if there is a shortfall in May, it will spread to the whole year.

Not happy with the Development and frequent shunning of the Committee by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance and the Director, Cash Management of the Ministry, Senator Urhoghide then gave the Permanent Secretary 48 hours to appear and provide the relevant documents to the Committee or face warrant of arrest by next week. According to him: “they have to appear before the Committee by Thursday this week since JAMB has denied knowledge of that release, we want to interface with them in your presence Cash Management Office has to come before this Committee, this payment was used to clear salary adjustment of 2017. He warned that failure of the Ministry Permanent Secretary to appear on Thursday will lead to warrant of arrest by next week.

Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday approved the 2023 budget of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC of N559,080,711,000.00

The passed budget was sequel to the presentation of the report by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, APC, Lagos Central. The NCC 2023 budget is N559,080,711,000.00 made up of total recurrent expenditure of N86. 7 billion, total capital expenditure of N5. 2 billion and special projects of N35 bilion.

In the report, the Commission is expected to transfer N416bn out of the projected revenue, to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The Senate also passed the Universal Service Provision Fund 2023 budget of N16bn which is made up of N2. 4 billion recurrent expenditure, N124.8 billion capital expenditure and projects expenditure of N13. 4 billion.

Scanty Crowd Welcomes Peter Obi To Kogi For LP Mega Rally

Greenbarge Reporters

December 13, 2022

Scanty crowd was recorded today, December 13, at the flag-off of the Labour Party (LP) mega rally in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

In attendance were the party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed. Other party chieftains and officials were also in attendance, with several empty seats at the venue.

Report reaching us said that the expectations that there would be a massive turnout at the rally were punctured by obviously low turnout of supporters.

The state Chairman of the LP, Suleiman Abdul Ahmed, had raised an alarm that Governor Yahaya Bello‘s government was frustrating the party, denying it the usage of the Lokoja Confluence Stadium for the rally.

2023: I Never Endorsed Peter Obi For Presidency – Olubadan

Greenbarge Reporters

December 13, 2022

Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Lekan Balogun has made it clear that he had never endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi as erroneously reported.
The monarch and members of his advisory council said in a statement today, December 14, that the throne does not get involved in politics and so cannot endorse a political candidate.
“The attention of the palace of Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Sen. Lekan Balogun, Alli Okunmade II has been drawn to the claim of endorsement of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi by the monarch and his members of Advisory Council, a claim described as false and self concocted one to mislead the general public.
“The palace could have ignored the report and dismissed it with a wave of hand, but with the torrents of inquiries by some of our credible media houses seeking clarification before publishing and the need to counter social media trending of the foul report without professional touch, this reaction becomes imperative.
“How could anybody would have in his or widest imagination assume that a presidential candidate of any political party would receive an open endorsement from a place like the palace of Olubadan? That must be a crude joke carried too far. It is preposterous to say the least.
“While discountenancing the claim of endorsement by the Olubadan Advisory Council, our politicians are counseled to please leave the palace out of their game. The campaign is just starting and the visits to the palaces are part of the itinerary of the candidates and how would they feel should the gates of palaces be locked against them?
“For the umpteenth time, let it be emphasised that Olubadan and his cabinet members do not and cannot belong to any political party and they would never express preference for any candidate or political party in the public no matter the degree of temptation. The palace of Olubadan belongs to all just as the occupier of the exalted stool remains father of all as well.”
Peter Obi had led his campaign team on a courtesy visit to the Olubadan last Saturday.
Some members of the monarch’s advisory council joined to receive Obi at the palace.
The attendees among the high chiefs were the Balogun of Ibadan, his Otun, Osi, Ashipa, Osi and Ekerin Olubadan namely high chiefs Owolabi Olakulehin, Tajudeen Ajibola, Lateef Adebimpe, Kola Adegbola, Eddy Oyewole and Hamidu Ajibade respectively.

Over 1,600 Nigerian Nurses Trooped To UK In 6 Months For Greener Pasture

Greenbarge Reporters

December 13, 2022

Information reaching us indicated that 1,670 Nigerian-trained nurses have, within the last six months migrated to the United Kingdom to begin new jobs in that country.
It is confirmed that about the same time last year, 2021, 1,334 nurses similarly left the shores of Nigeria for the UK, showing that the number has increased this year.
The latest mid-year data of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), showed the number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates from Nigeria grew to 1,670 as of September this year, highest in five years, from 1,334 in the same period of 2021.
“Active recruitment isn’t permitted from ‘red list’ countries, yet there are two countries: Nigeria and Ghana that are in the 10 most common countries of training for professionals joining our register,” it said.
It said that compared to the same period last year, there has been a 25.2 percent increase in professionals from Nigeria and a 61.6 percent increase from those from Ghana.
The rise in the number of Nigerian nurses migrating to the UK can be attributed to the cheap and easy entry migration requirements of the country, which is facing severe shortage of healthcare workers, especially in its National Healthcare system due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The staff shortages have been front and centre for the UK’s successive governments, making the country a net importer of healthcare professionals.
In 2020, the new Conservative government pledged to increase nurse numbers by 50,000 over the next five years, and offered additional cost of living support of £5,000.
Additionally, in that year, the country announced a Health and Care Visa policy, which aims to make it cheaper, quicker and easier for healthcare professionals to migrate to the UK.
Experts say that the growing migration of nurses could lead to negative consequences for the country’s struggling health sector that does not have enough nurses to cater for its expanding population.
The unavailability of nurses to cater for the population has put a strain on the quality of care that is administered at the different healthcare facilities in the country, consultants at Vesta Healthcare said in a recent presentation.
“There are about an estimated 125,000 nurses in Nigeria. This is almost six times lower than the recommended number of 800,000 by the firm.”
They added that patients are usually left unsatisfied with the care provided to them because the nurses available have to cater for several other patients’ simultaneously.
Nurses play an most important role in the healthcare system since they are always with patients at every stage of the care process, tending to them, counselling the ill and improving healthcare processes.
The shortage of nurses lead to errors, higher morbidity, and mortality rates. According to the World Bank, Nigeria has the highest under-five mortality rate in the world, with 117 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Nduka Obaigbena, ThisDay/Arise News’ Grandstanding On Morality, By Dele Alake, Bayo Onanuga

Editorial staff

December 12, 2022

It is laughably tragic that the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY and Arise News Television, Mr.Nduka Obaigbena, has the temerity to pretend to be a guardian of public morality in contemporary Nigerian media practice.

The fact that this character is an unscrupulous hustler and blackmailer who has done tremendous damage to the journalism profession in the country, is well known within and beyond the profession.

Hiding under his media houses so-called Board of Editors, Obaigbena, who is one of the most irresponsible media owners in the country, with scant regard for corporate good governance and ethics, issued a statement Monday accusing the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, and Adviser, Media and Communication, Mr. Dele Alake of attempting to silence independent media and bully the press ahead of next year’s general election.

This allegation is baseless.

The statement published on the front page of THISDAY is illustrative of the penchant of the two media houses under Obaigbena’s corrupting influence to peddle falsehood and engage in brazen political partisanship, contrary to the ethics of journalism practice.

It is instructive that Obaigbena’s media group is isolated in making this frivolous allegation against the duo. Not only does THISDAY newspaper publish unfounded rumours masquerading as truth, many of its columnists substitute vile and vulgar abuse for sound logic and informed analyses while its television anchors heckle and harass their guests, particularly those of the APC in their jaundiced, flagrantly unprofessional programmes.

We recall that both THISDAY and ARISE Television sought to bully and compel the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, into attending its Town Hall meetings with presidential candidates, despite the media team’s explanation that it would not attend such programmes organised in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner by individual media houses.

Each candidate’s campaign team has the right to adopt its own strategies for reaching out to and interacting with Nigerians. As we have repeatedly said, the Tinubu campaign will not succumb to the blackmail, intimidation and harassment of Obaigbena and his media group.

THISDAY’s attempt in the said statement to justify its false news report on the purported death of one Mueez Adegboyega Akande and the attempt to insinuate mischievously that he died in suspicious circumstances failed abysmally. Rather than apologise for this professional lapse, it resorts to tendentious rationalisations. Its futile attempt to link Asiwaju Tinubu to a drug case in the United States, even when as far back as 2003, the United States government had categorically stated that the candidate has no criminal records in that country, shows the depths of mischief the newspaper is willing to descend in its bid to bring down the APC candidate at all costs. This campaign of calumny is doomed to fail as it always has.

Our candidate is focused and will not be distracted by this diversionary tactics to throw mud at him simply because he is the obvious front runner in this race and some believe that the only way to stop him is to peddle falsehood against him.

While pretending to be a public trust, THISDAY and ARISE descend into the political arena by publishing lies in a way that does such a great disservice to journalism. Last month the paper was sanctioned by NBC over a fake report that INEC had ordered a probe of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over the platforms’ equally fake narrative about our candidate.

Nduka Obaigbena tries to cast aspersion on the professional and personal integrity of Mr. Alake and Mr. Onanuga. They stand on a higher moral and professional pedestal than he can ever aspire to. It is astonishing that a man like Obaigbena can even pretend to be protecting public morality and the public interest. How does this media owner run his media outfits? He is notorious for not paying the salaries of his staff or fulfilling his pensions’ obligations, forcing most of the journalists in his stable to resort to the most unethical practices to survive. This model of media practice, which he exported to South Africa in 2003-2004, failed spectacularly as he had to flee that country as a result of his unethical business practices. His short-lived THISDAY left unpaid debts to staff and the printers and the South African tax office.

He exported the same irresponsible business practice to the UK where he operated his Arise TV as a registered company since 2012. In 2021, judge Raquel Agnello disqualified Obaigbena from serving as a company director in the UK for seven years; in a case brought by the official receiver of the Insolvency Office in the country.

The application for disqualification was made under Section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 and arose from the compulsory liquidation of Arise Networks Ltd of which Obaigbena was the sole director since its incorporation.

According to the judgment, the company by 2016 had garnered a total debt of £25,671,167, which included debt to trade creditors and staff, estimated at £5,850,730. Judge Agnello found Obaigbena’s conduct as sole director of Arise TV to be unfit and that the company had continued to trade despite “complete uncertainty” about its funding.

In Nigeria, Obaigbena is notorious for owing his staff their salaries. He is also notorious for owning newsprint suppliers for years without payment. This sharp practice led to the ill-health of one of his suppliers, Afilaka, who suffered massive stroke.

While Alake and Onanuga, were known to have endangered their lives in the struggle against military dictatorship and the enthronement of the democracy we enjoy today, Obaigbena was known to have collected substantial sums of money from the military junta to campaign against the June 12, 1993 elections, widely acknowledged as the freest and fairest polls in the country’s history. He even featured on the CNN to justify the annulment of the election and the continuation of military dictatorship. Yet, this man dares to preach on public morality and the national interest. He even claims that Alake and Onanuga are envious of him! How preposterous!! What is there to be envious from a man whose business practices and personal lifestyle offend every known decency. Mr. Alake and Onanuga can never be jealous of a man who uses extortion, subterfuge, and cheap blackmail as his working capital. Here is a publisher who deployed his media group in aid of the immoral and illegal presidential ambition of a sitting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) even when this flagrantly violated and threatened the integrity of that critical institution.

It is absurd when Obaigbena uses his media outfits to push the false narrative of Tinubu’s link with narcotics in the US, when a member of his Board of Editors and Arise TV anchor, Dr. Reuben Abati, was a running mate in 2019 to the governorship candidate of the PDP in Ogun State, the late Senator Buruji Kashamu; a man who had been indicted for narcotics trafficking in the US and was a fugitive from the laws of that country until his death. The same Abati remains a card carrying member of the PDP and yet, shamelessly pontificates and postures on ARISE TV as a dispassionate analyst.

Lest it be forgotten, Abati was Media Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan and was detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2015 for reportedly collecting N500 million from ex – National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki purportedly on behalf of the media.

Obaigbena himself was detained for weeks and made to refund N600 million by the EFCC, which was part of the diverted funds for arms purchase for the Nigerian military under Jonathan. Obaigbena as president of NPAN also collected millions of Naira meant as compensation for the media owners whose papers were seized by overzealous security agents during the Jonathan presidency. Many newspapers reported that they did not get the money.

It is a sad commentary on the state of the Nigerian media that a man with no moral scruples whatsoever like Obaigbena will boldly pose as a publisher who can preach morality to others.

Here is a man who has done such grave damage to media practice in Nigeria, posturing as defender of free speech.

Unless media practitioners begin to treat him like the plague and cancer he constitutes to the industry, the future of the industry will be endangered.

It is well known that many private sector corporate executives pay him huge sums of money as retainership to avoid being blackmailed by him. It is also a pity that many of the journalists who work as his employees pose as self-righteous saints who criticise others and keep mum on the unhidden moral deficits and shenanigans of their boss

DELE ALAKE and BAYO ONANUGA wrote in from Abuja, on behalf of the APC Media and Communication Directorates, December 12, 2022

Many Boko Haram Fighters Don’t Know How To Observe Muslim Prayers

Editorial staff

December 12, 2022

File photo of The repentant Boko Haram members | Credit: ChannelsTv

“I can tell you that many of these (Boko Haram) fighters don’t know how to perform simple ablution (ritual purification), not to talk of how to do prayers.

“We have to start teaching them after we brought them to Maiduguri.”

These revelations were made by the Special Adviser to Borno State governor on Security, retired Brigadier General Abdullahi Ishaq while speaking to newsmen.

Ishaq said that many of the fighters regretted their action against Nigeria, saying that they were misled by Abubakar Shekau.

“Let me say this: many of his commanders were bitter after he committed suicide because that act contradicted what he preached.”

The fighters who had since surrendered to government forces, said that late Shekau left behind 83 concubines.

According to the special adviser, some of late Shekau’s associates told him about his concubines after they surrendered and embraced peace.

“We started this non-kinetic approach 16 months ago; the model started shortly after the death of Abubakar Shekau and the state government didn’t want Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) to continue using the Shekau’s fighters. “We know it would be deadly.

“So, the first set of fighters that I received in Bama told me that Shekau had 83 concubines. Just imagine he left behind 83 concubines.

“They said he is now in hell because he committed suicide during his clash with other fraction. He always told them to go out and fight and that if they die in the process, several virgins are waiting for them.”

Shekau was killed in May 2021 during a supremacy fight with ISWAP at the Sambisa Forest, Borno State.

NDLEA Names NCC Boss, Danbatta, Special Ambassador In Narcotic War

Editorial staff

December 12, 2022

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has named the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta as its Special Ambassador in its renewed war against narcotics and use of other dangerous substances leading to addiction in the country.

Commander for Narcotics at the NDLEA Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammed Ajiya, who announced the Ambassadorial recognition by the agency during a courtesy visit to the Commission in Abuja weekend, said that the objective of the NDLEA’s visit was to partner with the Commission in order to reduce the number of drug addicts in the country through sensitization programmes.

He said that one of the aims for the collaboration is to explore the use of telecom platforms to disseminate information about its activities to sensitize the citizens.

He said that this has become strategic as nearly all Nigerian youths are telecom subscribers who interface with telecom platforms from time to time. Ajiya said NCC comes readily to mind as a good partner to the NDLEA to achieve the latter’s mandate of reducing cases of drug addicts among the Nigerian youths.

“The NDLEA has rehabilitation centres across the country. This shows that we do not only apprehend the drug addicts, but we have rehabilitation centres where we monitor and guide them until they are fully rehabilitated” he said as he expressed appreciation that the NCC boss considered and accepted this role in the fight against drug addiction in Nigeria.

NCC’s Director, Human Capital and Administration, Usman Malah, who received the NDLEA’s delegation on behalf of the EVC of NCC, assured the visiting team of the Commission’s commitment to supporting the drug agency in eradicating drug abuse and sensitizing the citizens especially the young generation, majority of whom are telecoms consumers, on the effect of drug.

“Strategic collaboration and partnership is one of the key pillars of the two regulatory roadmaps of the Commission, the Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2020-2024; and the Strategic Vision Implementation Plan (SVP) 2021-2025 and we would convey the NDLEA’s message to the Commission’s management to see how we can explore the areas of collaboration being requested by your agency,” Malah said.

1...386387388...2,493 Page 387 of 2,493