With an impressive attendance, Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, is at press time playing host to who is who in the leadership of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) from both National and State levels for the all important National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

The meeting is coming some months after it’s last NEC meeting in Lagos, November 2021.

Addressing the NEC members, Board of Trustees (BOT) and Management of the Association in Lokoja yesterday, the ALGON National President, Hon. Kolade David Alabi welcomed the attendees who are representing various states from across the country and expressed happiness over the huge turnout at the meeting.

The meeting is a two-day strategic gathering with very robust deliberations on issues concerning the Association and national emergencies of which positions will be taken via an anticipated communique at the end of the gathering.

Some project sites executed by the Kogi State ALGON, Courtesy call to the State Governor, Yahaya Bello, and other project inspections at the Councils has been mapped out on the sidelines of the NEC meeting.

It will be recalled that the Kolade David Alabi led Exco has for over a year now held ALGON NEC meetings in the country’s geopolitical zones, a critical decision which it’s highest body has supported and is yielding fruits in terms of reaching out with the grassroots in line with it’s slogan “service to the grassroots”.

The meeting also affords attendees the golden opportunity to compare notes, identify with projects that are on-going as well as completed or commissioned projects in other areas and it’s cost components for better service delivery and accountability to the rural populace.

Other benefits of the zonal meetings, which members have affirmed, include the opportunity it provides in peace building and as a strong unifier for the heterogenous mix of the country as well as social engineering.

In attendance are about 27 ALGON State Chairmen representing various LGAs and Councils in their respective states.

Details coming soon.

… Bootcamp Begins in September

The Princewills Trust is sending another set of winners of the Princewills – Trust Vision and Success Opportunity Challenge, to Dubai.

The non-governmental organization was set up under the auspices of Prince Tonye Princewill.

It is focused primarily on the promotion of human capacity, by any means possible, and has a host of novel projects and uniquely adapted intervention programmes to point to, from 2002 to date.

The Trust is deeply committed to providing humane services and the sustainable empowerment of the talented, the skillful, the hard and the smart working people, particularly in Rivers state, with the motto of leaving no group behind.

Over the years its outreach has extended to women empowerment programmes, medical missions, disability interventions, disaster recovery, graduate and post graduate scholarships, adapted orphanage programmes, skill acquisition programmes, talent hunts and various forms of youth mentoring initiatives including this one.

Therefore, Princewills Trust, in partnership with the Dubai Department for Economy and Tourism (DET) and CLR education consulting, have teamed up to organize this opportunity for winners of the challenge so they can get a first-hand experience of the world’s most popular destination; Dubai, as named by TripAdvisor in 2022.

The winners of the latest edition are Loveth Chikanka Ichemati, a 1st year student of English & Literature in the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

She hails from Nkpolu in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Alex Tamuno Miegbam, a Phd student of History and International Diplomacy, also from the Rivers State University.

She hails from Iwoma Borokiri in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The final winner is Idoniboyeobu Omiete Opubo, a 4th year student of Mechanical Engineering at the Afe Babalola University, Ekiti State.

He hails from Buguma in Asari Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The trio will be heading to Dubai in September for a one-week bootcamp/ tour of Dubai.

The Vision and Success Opportunity Challenge is a forum created by Princewills Trust, where ambitious young leaders pitch ideas and strategies for furthering their vision and success in life.

The objective of the challenge is to enable Nigerian university undergraduates and/or postgraduates envision viable career models and explore how to change their environment, from ideation to practice, while still pursuing their studies.

Prince Tonye Princewill, the founder of Princewills Trust, said that he “always get excited when a new set of students embark on these bootcamps.

“The post-trip reviews we have had from previous trips were so encouraging that we are considering expanding the scope of the challenge to include students from other states in Nigeria.

“The exposure is great for the kids, opening their minds to endless possibilities.

“Experiencing Dubai was a life changer for me, I hope it will be for them. I’d like to thank the whole team at Dubai Tourism and particularly the Africa desk, led by Stella Fubara and Christian Romer and the ever reliable CLR, led by Nneka Oduah. It’s your passion for our tomorrow, that’s made this possible”, he said.

With the ultimate vision of positioning Dubai as the world’s leading commercial centre, investment hub and tourism destination, Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) is mandated to support the Government in achieving its competitiveness vision to position the emirate as a major hub for global economy and tourism, and in boosting the emirate’s economic and tourism competitiveness indicators.

DET is the principal authority for the planning, supervision, development and marketing of Dubai’s business and tourism sectors.

It is also responsible for the licensing and classification of all types of businesses, including hotels, tour operators and travel agents, among others.

Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to end the inefficiency and endemic corruption in NNPC Limited, formally Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), if Nigeria will ever meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production quota in the near future.

The CNPP in a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, said that to continue to see the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as responsible for continuing crash of the naira against the dollar amounts to taking the blame game of appointees in the Buhari administration too far, insisting that “the CBN cannot be blamed when the country is not meeting its OPEC production quota as an economy that mainly depends on crude oil revenues.

The CNPP was reacting to media reports credited to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who confirmed that Nigeria was not meeting its OPEC production quota due to oil theft.

Faulting the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, who corroborated the Minister’s position and lamented that Nigeria was currently losing about $2 billion monthly to the activities of oil vandals, the CNPP noted that the “claim was aimed at shielding himself and the company’s management team from any blame.

“The country is obviously facing revenue challenges as a mono-economy and the only viable sector for earning foreign exchange is managed by corrupt appointees of the present administration.

“According to media reports, as at June this year, Nigeria has incurred an estimated petrol subsidy to the tune of N2.1 trillion in the first six months of of 2022. This is besides crude oil the NNPC illegally swap traditionally to sustain a corrupt subsidy regime.

“The World Bank had said in its recent Nigeria Development Update report that “due to the petrol subsidy and low oil production, Nigeria faces a potential fiscal time bomb.”

“In this 2022, the Federal Government initially budgeted N443 billion for petrol subsidy between January and June but the approval of the National Assembly in April to subsidise the product to the tune of N4 trillion this year.

“As we continue to fund corruption in the NNPC under the guise of petrol subsidy, recent data from NNPC presentation to the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) showed that the NNPC has continued to be handicapped in meeting its remittance obligations and blames it on subsidy burden.

“The NNPC paid N327.06 billion as subsidy in May, representing a 20.4 percent increase from the previous month and the highest on record this year, just as the now rebranded oil firm also paid N210.38 billion, N219.78 billion, N245.77 billion, and N271.59 billion as subsidy on petrol in January, February, March and April, respectively.

“It is unfortunate that NNPC Limited has since inherited a management team that has failed in all respects, including its inability to remit revenues in due season, lack of transparency in subsidy payments, and gross inefficiency in revenue generation.

“It is worrisome that NNPC, for over ten months, has been unable to meet OPEC production quota due to gross inefficiency and corruption but, as part of the blame game of President Buhari’s appointees, oil-thieves must be painted as solely responsible in order to remain in office.

“It has become very clear that we cannot continue to blame the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for continuing free-fall of the naira or the sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate against the dollar when NNPC has consistently remained incapable of meeting Nigeria’s OPEC production quota for months.

“The CNPP, therefore, urges President Muhammadu Buhari to take very decisive steps towards ending the endemic corruption and gross inefficiency in NNPC if Nigeria will ever meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production quota in the near future”, the CNPP stated.

The Head of Security Operations Centre at the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), Ifeanyi Jude Muonagor, yesterday said the bank’s deployment of cyber deception solution in 2017, has yielded positive results.

Muonagor, who spoke virtually at a one day event held in Lagos on the topic; ‘Importance of deception technology and identity security,’ said 80 per cent of system breaches have been linked to compromised credentials.

The event was organized by a Nigerian tech firm, InfoData Professional Services, in collaboration with Attivo Networks.

Muonagor said cyber-attack is so easy to conduct, making it hell for security personnel to deal with all the various incidents coming through with security protection mechanism that have not been full proof.

“But with deception solution, it helps the security professional to gain the knowledge of what the attacker was coming to do,” he said.

He added: “In 2017, we (CBN) identified the need for cyber deception technology and we moved with a particular solution. I will not mention names because I am not campaigning for any particular vendor. But we found out that there were fewer activities because of the deployment model.”

In his presentation, a Cyber Security Expert and Lead System Engineer at Attivo Networks, Osama Al-Shatnawi, said cyber-attacks do more damage than conventional warfare.

“Everything can be done literally. A single bank lost $70 million dollars through a cyber-attack. I can tell you about electricity companies. Just look at what happened to Ukraine. Power cut for the whole nation because of cyber-attack. Any damage can happen due to cyber-attacks and that is why we need to take security seriously.”

Al-Shatnawi said based on different market analysis that have been done by different entities using Attivo with other solutions in place, their detection and protection capability has enhanced by 42 per cent.

Wayne Forsman, the Territory Manager at Attivo Networks, explained why cyber security breaches were on the increase.

“Conventionally, we set up a wall around our network, web security, email, next generation firewalls. But effectively, by not protecting Active Directory (a Microsoft tool used to access networks and other applications), you’ve left the door open.”

He said 80 per cent of current attacks are through Active Directory, the reason why it must be protected.

“In order to secure something, you really need to know about it. First we have Active Directory assessor which gives you full visibility into Active Directory. It will give you all the vulnerability and mitigation steps to effectively make Active Directory more secure.

However, you also need to protect your information, the various profiles created for a user to have rights to a system – passwords, username. You need to protect that information. As for the current gaps, no solution is protecting the information on the Active Directory, which is the gap Attivo has closed.”

According to the President of Infodata Professional Services Global, Chuks Ulu Udensi; “Our commitment to delivering security solutions that are intuitive, intelligent and relevant to the realities of today’s business critical infrastructure is further bolstered by our partnership with Attivo Networks”.

He said Solutions such as identity detection and response (IDR), IEV and others within the Attivo ThreatDefend®️ Platform gives users the ability to deploy decoy and deception technologies as well as an expanded portfolio of solutions that address the challenges of increased attack destructiveness for a global distributed workforce as cloud based solutions drive enterprise business productivity, profitability and efficiencies.

Mr. Ulu Udensi further reiterated Infodata’s commitment to the African Technology Landscape noting that; “We will continue to build , adopt and develop resources and solutions that ensure that our customer’s enterprise infrastructure are stable , secure, predictive and adaptive to the realities of today’s global constantly-evolving threat landscape.

Info Data Regional Solutions Manager, Eze Osiago, explained why the partnership with Attivo Solutions, saying “Attivo deceptive solution is one of its kind.

“We have EDRs that do prevention but scenarios where the attacker is already inside, we currently do not have solutions that will detect the malicious insider or the attacker who is already inside.

“So, Attivo is that missing gap that comes in to say let’s do a scan around and spot anomalies to spot people who are misusing privileges,” he said.

Among the participants at the event were security professionals for various Nigerian financial institutions and other firms.

Michael Nnamdi, a systems security expert with Polaris bank said he gained so much about identity protection and Active Directory security. “I will say that the idea by Attivo is really an interesting one. The idea of trying to protect this credentials, knowing that it is actually the gate to the kingdom,” he said.

Another participant, Kingsley Ozokwo from information security department at Stanbic IBTC, said learning about how better to secure the Active Directory, is a very valuable experience.

“Active directory is a major asset for any organization. The fact that there is a lot that can go wrong in that space is the reason we are here.

“I enjoyed the fact that this is moving us away from the traditional block and restrict, which is virtually what security is all about, to learning from the attackers themselves,” he said.

SunCity Africa Crime watch reports that the Chairmanship Candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr Emmanuel Ajah for 2022 Ivo Local government election in Ebonyi State, has been indentified as one of the culprits in the murder of Mrs Catherine Chukwu Okorie.

Mrs Catherine Chukwu Okorie from Amaonye Ivo LGA was murdered on 18th January, 2017 by her kidnappers who eventually forcefully took away her life.

According to a police investigative reports, Mr Emmanuel Ajah was among those arrested over his connection to the crime. He was later remanded in the Abakaliki correctional centre until sometime in 2019 when he was granted bail following induced actions of high profile politicians from the Ishiagu community of Ivo LGA.

This media organization gathered that the tempo which Mr Ajah was released from the correctional centre was based on ill-health leaving many to wonder why would a bail be granted on such a heinous crime with sufficient evidences on his association to the murder of late Mrs Okorie.

Mr Emmanuel Ajah recent emergence as the Candidate of APC for Ivo Local government area for the council election has raised dust in the area. Already, the Ivo Youths Forum has rejected his nomination and Candidacy stressing that he is made to be in the prison and not in the exalted office of chairmanship.

In a communique issued at her meeting held recently, they called on the governor of the state to immediately and change his nomination stressing it will further jeopardize the security of the area

The communique read in parts “That we are not oblivious of the relative peace, tranquillity and harmony we have experienced and enjoyed since around 2017 (when Emmanuel Ajah and others alleged to be members of his gang) were arrested, detained and subsequently charged for murder, kidnapping and armed robbery until recently when some of them were released on bail.

“That we are also very aware of the travails Ivo Local Government Area especially Ishiagu Community had gone through in the past; wanton killing, kidnapping and armed robbery. Very recent cases are; the killing of one Comr. Chibuenyi Stephen Okorie, a final year student of Political Science, Abia State University; the kidnap and subsequent gruesome murder of Mrs. Caterine Chukwu; the attack and armed robbery of Mr. B. P. Osita just to mention but a few;

“Worried that all these heinous crimes from police report following from their investigation fingered Mr. Emmanuel Ajah as being actively involved in omission and or commission of which he is still facing trials in various courts in Nigeria for the said crimes;

“Disturbed by the fact that Mr. Emmanuel Ajah confessed in his voluntary statement to the police that he benefited from the proceeds of crime from armed robbery of Mr. P. B. Osita to the sum of one hundred thousand naira only (N100,000.00) as his own share for linking and giving the armed gang necessary information to execute the said armed robbery”.

“Perturbed, disturbed and baffled that Mr. Emmanuel Ajah is only on BAIL ON HEALTH GROUNDS; as he was only granted bail on the ground that he has a COMMUNICABLE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE (TUBERCULSIS) and may infect other inmates if allowed to stay at the correctional centre;

“Surprised at the rumour making the round that the All Progressive Congress, APC nominated and subsequently adopted Mr. Emmanuel Ajah as their consensus candidate;”

“Considering the fact that Mr. Emmanuel Ajah is still sick with COMMUNICABLE DISEASE and facing series of criminal trials within and probably outside Ebonyi State”;

“Conscious of the fact, implications and or likely embarrassment the probable conviction of Mr. Emmanuel Ajah may cause us as Ivo people having regard that APC is the ruling party in our dear State, if eventually/ unfortunately Mr. Emmanuel Ajah is elected as the Chairman of Ivo Local Government Area”

“That we are aware that the Governor of Ebonyi State attended the burial of one of the victims alleged to have been committed and or supervised by Mr. Emmanuel Ajah, wherein the Governor promised to do everything within his powers to ensure that those behind the said kidnap and gruesome murder of Mrs. Okorie were brought to book, prosecuted and brought to justice”.

“The governor went further to honour the said victim by constructing and naming a road after Mrs. Okorie”.

“We are shocked that those fingered and indicted by the Police investigation report to the said crimes and that are still facing criminal trials rather appears being rewarded or better still ‘compensated’”

“That we are convinced that the emergence of Mr. Emmanuel Ajah as Ivo Local Government Chairman, criminals will be emboldened and crimes which had since 2017appeared to have been diminished, shrank and truncated will sure reinforce itself and fight back.”

“It is our finding that Mr. Emmanuel Ajah is facing trials in the following cases;
Case No: HSC/3C/2017 – Murder
Case No: HSK/4C/2017 – Kidnapping
Case No: HSK/7C/2017 – Armed Robbery”

“We therefore resolve that we shall bring this communique to the further notice of all the security agencies requesting them to investigate the facts of this communique and give security advice and or reports as maybe appropriate with respect to the matter in issue”.

“It is our further resolve to write to the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State as the leader of the APC in Ebonyi State. Also, we shall notify the Executive Chairman, Ivo Local Government Area for them to reconsider their position in this matter and save the live and properties of our people”

“That we shall be left with no other option than to use other legitimate conventional means to pursue our demand starting from the National body of the APC if we are not satisfied with the response emanating from this communique. A stitch in time saves nine”.