Customs Eastern Marine Command Intercepts N12m Contraband, Intensifies Clampdown on Wildlife and Fuel Smuggling - ITREALMS

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The Eastern Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has significantly bolstered its enforcement and collaborative operations along the vital Oron and Calabar maritime corridors, a commitment recently underscored by the Area Controller, Comptroller AB JAJA, reports ITREALMS.

On November 13, 2025, Compt. JAJA undertook a series of strategic engagements and on-the-spot inspections across the Area of Responsibility (AOR), culminating in the showcasing of various seizures made by his vigilant operatives.

LASPA denies wrong doing in viral clampdown video, plus original clip - ITREALMS

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The Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA) has denied any wrong doing in a viral clamping video of a customer vehicle at Health Plus Pharmacy premises in Allen, Ikeja-Lagos, alleging the company was in default of parking permit, reports ITREALMS.

LASPA also claimed that the video in the imbroglio was a deliberate misrepresentation of facts to whip up public sentiments against against government officials on lawful duty.

Online media: MRA demands halt on clampdown

ITREALMS:

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has called on the Federal Government to halt its reported efforts to shut down online newspapers, blogs and websites perceived to constitute a “threat to national security” reports ITRealms.

Describing the move as a brazen violation of the Constitution and Nigeria’s international human rights obligations, MRA threatened to lodge a complaint against Nigeria before regional and international human rights bodies if the Federal Government does not put a stop to the plan.

In a statement in Lagos, MRA’s Executive Director, Mr Edetaen Ojo, said the surreptitious moves to clamp down on online media, attributed to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), acting on the instructions of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, constitute an affront to basic human rights norms and standards which guide the actions of all civilized nations.

Mr. Ojo said:  “The Nigerian government, represented by the NSA and the NCC, cannot constitute itself into an accuser, judge and executioner in violation of the rights to freedom of expression and fair hearing, guaranteed by our Constitution as well as regional and international human rights instruments to which Nigeria is a party. Their actions constitute a shameless abuse of power by the Federal Government as evidenced by the underhand methods that they have adopted in carrying out their nefarious activities.”

MRA said it is inclined to believe that the plan and its implementation are the handiwork of a few rogue officials of the Federal Government and that it does not have government-wide or presidential support, particularly in the light of the strong denial by the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, of any knowledge of the plan and his disavowal of the move.

It therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to unequivocally distance his Administration from such a brazen violation of the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression, access to information and fair hearing and immediately put a stop to the move.

MRA said if the Federal Government continued with the patently illegal plan, the organization would have no choice but lodge the appropriate complaints before the relevant regional and international human rights mechanisms, a course of action which may prove embarrassing for the government.

The media reported over the weekend that the Federal Government, acting through the NCC, had engaged the services of a private company in Lagos to block the domain names of “several identified websites threatening national security”. The government directive is reported to have come from the Office of the National Security Adviser who has compiled a list of at least 21 “offending” websites, blogs and online publications that should be blocked for alleged threat to national security.

But MRA insisted in its statement that the National Security Adviser has no authority to make such a determination as only a properly constituted court can determine whether any organization or person is in violation of any law for which punitive action should be taken against them.

The organization also stressed that NCC acting on the instructions of the National Security Adviser without the due process of law is violating the constitution and the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression including the right to receive information as stated in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which guarantees that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”

MRA argued that the NSA has no authority over the NCC which is an agency established by law. It noted that it is clear from the Nigerian Communications Commission Act of 2003 that the person duly authorized by law to supervise and instruct the NCC is the Minister of Communication, who has said that he is not aware that any memo originated from the NCC instructing any firm to gag the press, particularly online newspapers, Internet and social media users, or to shut them down. The Minister also stated that he had given no such instruction and that no instruction would be given to the NCC without such passing through him as the Minister supervising the NCC.

MRA therefore contended that any other instruction to the NCC coming from any other source, including the NSA, is illegal.

It called on the Federal Government to abide by its international commitments as a State Party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the ICCPR, and urged it to commit itself to following the due process of the law.

According to MRA, if the Federal Government has any reason to believe that any person or institution has committed an offense or is about to commit an offense under any written law in operation in Nigeria, its recourse is to bring that person or institution before a duly constituted court of law and not to resort to taking the laws into its own hands.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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South-east: FG denies genocide claims, says Python Dance II, a clampdown

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The Federal Government (FG) has denied claims by a section of sympathizers of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that deployment of the military to the South-Eastern Nigeria, code-named Python Dance II was genocide intended, and described it as a clampdown, reports ITRealms.

Disclosing this in a parley in Lagos, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told ITRealms that there is no genocide attempt in any part of the country but attempt to qualm some disgruntled elements backed by politician to bring down President Mohammed Buhari administration.

FG also accused IPOB of using fake videos to hoodwink international community, thus misleading the world so as to win their supports, hence, the Minister solicited the support and understanding of online media in nation-building.

According to him, ''We must warn the nation against IPOB's next line of action, which is to externalize their lies and propaganda. Now they are writing to the governments and the national parliaments of some Western nations to give the impression that they are victims of an ethno-sectarian violence orchestrated by the government, hence they need protection.

''Some of the tools that have been employed by IPOB include blatant lies and cheap propaganda, and the medium of choice for the organization is the Social Media. IPOB has harvested gory videos and pictures from other lands and the distant past, which they are now circulating via the Social Media, to deceive the international community into believing that the people of the South-east are being subjected to state-sponsored, ethno-religious violence.

''Such videos, which have very high emotive quotient, are circulating on the Social Media as we speak. These videos are doctored to make them look current. They are fake!'' he said.

Further he alleged that some ill-informed foreign individuals are already trumpeting IPOB's lies and propaganda and even reechoing the allegation of genocide, stressing: ''It is either they do not understand the meaning of genocide or are being mischievous. Either way, there is nothing like genocide anywhere in our country today. What we have in the South-east is a clampdown on a band of lawless people who have no regard for the laws of the land.''

He appealed to the Online Publishers to help counter the fake narrative on the social media on the situation in the South-east, insisting that ''In the interest of the nation and your own interest, you must counter this fake narrative, report the issues responsibly and without sensationalism and present the truth to the public. If the Social Media, your platform, is discredited because of the activities of quacks and Internet Trollers, you too will be discredited and your publications will simply go down.

''That is why you must distinguish yourselves, as trained and tested professionals, from the charlatans who have seized the Social Media by the jugular, those who have no regard for the truth and who do not care whether their fake posts set the nation ablaze,'' he said.

He reiterated his earlier statement that IPOB is being sponsored by a coalition of politically-disgruntled and treasury looters, and that the organization is a contraption against the Buhari Administration.

Chuks Egbune/GEE 

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