NPO commends Tinubu’s directive to FCCPC to investigate big tech, AI platforms over content exploitation - ITREALMS

The Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) has strongly commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following his executive directive ordering the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to launch a comprehensive investigation into global technology giants and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms operating within Nigeria, reports ITREALMS.

The NPO noted that this decisive presidential intervention is a direct result of a joint petition and high-level advocacy spearheaded by its constituent bodies, which include the Newspaper Proprietors' Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP).

MRA wants Lagos to obey court’s order, investigate reporter’s death, prosecute killers - ITREALMS

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Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has called on the Lagos State Government to comply with the order of a Federal High Court in Lagos directing it to ensure an investigation into the death of Mr. Pelumi Onifade, a 20-year reporter with Gboah TV, who was reportedly arrested by the Police while covering the #EndSARS protests in 2020 and later found dead, and to identify and prosecute those responsible.

In a letter written on the organization’s behalf by its lawyer, Mr. Kingsley Kenechukwu, of the law firm of Charles Musa and Co., dated August 22, 2024 and addressed to the State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, MRA urged the Government to “comply with the directives of the honorable court so that justice would be seen to be done and hope given to the common man that there is still justice in the judicial system.”

Tragic Ilesa accident shocks Gov. Adeleke, directs investigation - ITREALMS

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Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has expressed sorrow and sadness over the tragic death of a female staff of the University of Ilesa, reports ITREALMS.

Reacting to the unfortunate incident this evening, Mr Governor charges all relevant government agencies to follow up on the root cause of the accident and ensure that those responsible are brought to book.

Ekiti presidential results dated 20th: Senator Yusuf Datti asks INEC chairman to investigate screenshot - ITREALMS

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The Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Yusuf Datti Baba Ahmed has asked the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to urgently investigate the screenshot of Ekiti results uploaded some five days before the election, reports ITREALMS.

Reacting to the viral screenshot dated February 20, 2023 with the same Ekiti results as announced by INEC on Sunday evening, Senator Ahmed via his social media handle @YDBabaAhmed called on INEC chairman to investigate the screenshot immediately.

NIN machine @Niger Republic: Folayan tasks NIMC to investigate - ITREALMS

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An information technology (IT) expert and religious leader, Rev. Canon Sunday Folayan, has called on the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to immediately investigate the use of its machine at Republic of Niger for the National Identification Number (NIN), reports ITREALMS.

NIN, ITREALMS gathered is for all citizens and legal residents in Nigeria, from age zero, that is, at birth and above are eligible to enroll.

Journalist’s arrest: MRA asks Niger State Governor to investigate Noel-Barje - ITREALMS

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The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today called on Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello to launch an investigation into reports that his Chief Press Secretary, Ms Mary Noel-Barje, ordered the arrest of The PUNCH correspondent in the State, Mr. Adebayo Ayinde, and directed security men to bar him from Government House in the State for undisclosed reasons.

In a statement issued in Lagos by its Project Director, Mr. Segun Fatuase, MRA advised the Governor to immediately relieve Ms Noel-Barje of her office if it is indeed established that she engaged in the unconstitutional and illegal action of using law enforcement agents to intimidate, harass and prevent the journalist from carrying out his professional duties.

NCC, CPC investigate effects of call masking - ITREALMS Online

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The Nigerian Communications Commission and the Consumer Protection Council have resolved to investigate the effects of call masking in Nigeria on the directive of the National Assembly for the consumers, reports ITREALMS.

This saw to the review of the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the two government organizations and discuss how to work together to improve complaints resolution of telecommunications consumers.

Speaking at the meeting, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, said masking of calls with another number, especially international calls is a matter that has been trending and the NCC has been directed to address it as it has security implications.

Professor Danbatta said “The office of the National Security Adviser had directed the NCC to put in place, measures that will contain this menace even before the directive from the National Assembly to the NCC and the CPC.

“We have resolved to set up a joint committee to investigate call masking and filing and conclude within a month, and I am very happy with the outcome of the meeting.

“What has happened today is a testimony to an important item on NCC’s 8-point agenda which is strategic collaborations and partnerships with other agencies of government”

Babatunde Irukera, Director General, Consumer Protection Council said the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss consumer protection with respect to the telecommunications industry.

Irukera said: “it was a very productive meeting and few key things we agreed on is that the CPC needs a good number of guidelines, directions, regulations and initiatives of the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC, with respect to addressing consumer issues.

“We are looking to concluding an existing negotiation on an MOU that will define how our relationship goes going forward, and we will open a mutual investigation into quality of consumer experiences in the telecommunications industry, to address a lot of consumer issues.”

The Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management, Sunday Dare, stated that NCC’s journey with the CPC started many years back with previous MOU’s. 

“We been trying to review the MOU for some months and we’ve come to the final part of it, and what has happened today is to make sure we create the kind of synergy that we need to go forward to protect the consumers”, he said.

Sunday Dare reiterated that the NCC under the leadership of Professor UG Danbatta prioritizes protecting, informing and educating the 154 million telecoms subscribers in Nigeria through various ways, including the interagency collaboration with other organizations like CPC that have a mandate to protect consumers across the country.

Cambridge Analytica scandal: CSEAN urges NASS to investigate Facebook, enact data protection law

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The CyberSecurity Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) has urged the National Assembly (NASS) to investigate the ongoing scandal of data-mining by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica as revealed by a whistle-blower, Christopher Wylie, reports ITRealms.

CSEAN also NASS to as matter of urgency, enact data protection law, according to its President, Mr. Remi Afon, at the weekend.

He told ITRealms that CSEAN is highly concerned at the news that millions of Nigerians data were allegedly harvested from Facebook and used in a targeted online campaign with the aim of influencing the outcome of 2015 election.

He noted that Cambridge Analytica, the analytics and marketing firm based in United Kingdom (UK) has been implicated in this scandal that also involved allegation of hacking of President Muhammadu Buhari’s email who was at that time the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The firm was allegedly paid £2 million ($2.8 million) by an unnamed Nigerian billionaire to “orchestrate a ferocious campaign” against President Muhammadu Buhari.

While it is now becoming common to use data analytic software to perform targeted online marketing campaign, CSEAN President noted that the recent revelation by Christopher Wylie the whistle-blower and former research director for Cambridge Analytical, is to say the least worrisome.

Wylie alleged while testifying before a committee of British Parliament that an Israeli company called Black Cube was engaged to hack private health data from President Muhammadu Buhari email.

ITRealms gathered that Black Cube has however debunked this assertion, while AggregateIQ (AIQ) a software development firm based in Canada was said to have handled the hacked data and also distributed threatening anti-Islamic videos that showed people’s throats being cut in an effort to intimidate voters and dissuade Nigerians from voting during the 2015 presidential election.

According to Wylie the “AIQ was handed material about Nigeria from Cambridge Analytica to distribute online - that is distribution of kompromat (compromising material) and of incredibly threatening and violent video content,”  AggregateIQ has meanwhile denied this allegation.

CSEAN president, equally noted that the Facebook Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has taken out a full-page advert in some selected print media in the United States (US) and UK to apologise for the Cambridge Analytica scandal but despite Nigeria being also a victim of the misuse of data, no such apology has been tendered in Nigeria.

“Such is the kind of treatment Nigeria has always received and will continue until we begin to hold organisations accountable for personal data of Nigerians they hold. While UK and US are busy investigating the key actors in this scandal, Nigeria is yet to react officially,” he said.

In order to continue to give Nigerian citizens assurance that their data will be managed securely and safely by organisations that hold and process their personal data, CSEAN therefore call on National Assembly as a matter of urgency to initiate robust investigation of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ and Black Cube to ascertain whether Nigerian Cyber Crime law has been breached and also look at the present gaps in the law with the aim of enacting a strong data protection law.  As 2019 general election is fast approaching, we will continue to witness online targeting using social media to influence voters.

“The time has come for the Federal Government to set up a Cyber Security Unit that will have capability of defending government systems from cyber threats and provide support to the existing security agencies in terms of cybersecurity investigations,” he said.

CSEAN, Mr. Afon said, has put together a technical session and table-top  exercise during its forth coming Cyber Secure Nigeria 2018 Conference scheduled to take place in Lagos on the 9-10th May 2018, to discuss “Election Manipulation Using Social Media Data to target Nigerians in 2019”.

A communique, he said, will be issued at the end of the conference and shared with relevant authorities, which has the theme for this year as “Mitigating Cyber Threats in Digital Age”.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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