Destroyers of Nigeria posing as saviours - Lai Mohammed

ITREALMS:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has challenged the media to contextualize their reporting so that those who destroyed Nigeria will not be made to look like the country's new saviours, reports ITRealms.

The Minister said this when the Chief Executive Officer of TVC Communications, Mr. Andrew Hanlon, led a team of top officials of the company on a courtesy visit to the Minister in his office in Abuja on Tuesday.

''We are on a rescue mission. However, the way a section of the media is reporting the challenges facing the country today does not reflect that understanding. They are making a corrective administration to look like the culprit, to give the impression that the rain started beating us in Nigeria only from 29 May 2015, to play down the challenges that this Administration has faced and which it issuccessfully tackling.

''For example, we did not get to where we are today in just three years. It has taken successive decades of bad governance, unbridled corruption, lack of probity, a culture of impunity and a near state of anarchy. These are the ills this Administration inherited and which it has set out to tackle. And this is what the media must reflect in their reporting,'' he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said but for the prudence, probity and the anti-corruption stance of this Administration, the situation could have been worse, adding: ''Instead of recession, we could have had a total collapse of the economy. The power grid could have collapsed altogether. Corruption could have overwhelmed the society. Boko Haram could have turned Abuja to Bama or Konduga. Food imports could have tripled what it was pre-May 29th 2015 and the Naira might have been worse hit.''

He, therefore, challenged the media to do more to educate Nigerians ''that it is hard to build but easy to destroy, that the same people who presided over yesterday's looting of our treasury are today posing as would-be saviours of Nigerians, that this Administration is rebuilding almost from the scratch with 60% less revenue, that the corrupt ones are spending millions of Naira to paint the government of the bad, and that Nigeria is not returning to Egypt''.

The Minister said when this Administration assumed office, the price of oil, the mainstay of Nigeria's economy, had dropped to around $30 from over $100, foreign reserves stood at a low of $24 billion, the Federal Government was borrowing to pay salary, some 27 states were owing arrears of salary, contractors were being owed over several years, infrastructure was in poor state, power generation was 2,690 megawatts, billions were being paid as 'fuel subsidies' to fat cats, corruption had emptied the treasury while 20 of the 27 local councils in Borno were under Boko Haram control.

''Today, the trend is being reversed and the results are showing: Foreign Reserves is now $42.8b, inflation has fallen for 12 consecutive months to 15.13%, 108 billion Naira has been saved from the removal of maintenance fees payable to banks pre-TSA, the nation is saving 24.7 billion Naira monthly with the full TSA implementation, the elimination of ghost workers has saved the nation 120 billion Naira, capital inflow reached $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2017, almost double the $908 million in the first quarter, while Nigeria’s stock market is one of the best-performing in the world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent.

''Nigeria has also jumped 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking and earned a place on the List of Top 10 Reformers in the world, the Administration has repeatedly given bailouts for states to pay salary, the Administration's Agricultural Revolution is a huge success, with agriculture export up year-on-year by 25%, rice import from Thailand dropping 644,000 Metric Tonnes to 22,000MT and rice farmers growing from 5 million to 12.3 million, the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme has created jobs for 61,352 cooks, and it is providing 6.4 million school children in 33,981 schools across 20 states with one meal a day,'' he said.

Alhaji Mohammed also noted that the N-Power programme has employed 200,000 graduates, that power generation has reached an all-time high of over 7,000MW, that infrastructural development is going on at a massive rate across the country, that corruption has been driven under the table and Boko Haram has been massively degraded.

He said a free press is indispensable to democracy, and assured that the Administration will not do anything to stifle the press.

Earlier, Mr. Hanlon had assured the Minister of TVC Communication's commitment to the country's audio-visual landscape, while announcing that a new radio station will open in Abuja in April as part of the company's aggressive investment programme.

Also on the entourage of the TVC Communications CEO were Mr. Ronan Redmond, TVC's Director of Commercial; Mr. Babatunde Kolade Otitoju, Head of News and Mr. Taiwo Amodu. the Abuja Bureau Chief.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Instagram fraud: How I duped 33 men posing as a lady – Oluwole

CyberSecurity@ITRealms:

Falope Oluwole Israel, a 22-year old suspect arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command, has disclosed that he duped over 33 men while pretending to be a lady on Instagram.

Falope it was revealed, was arrested when officials of the RRS decoy team, who had been monitoring him for some weeks, trailed him to a popular club in Ikeja City Mall on Thursday evening, before arresting him.

The officers were reported to have monitored him, and those that he was interacting with at the club before arresting him and a colleague late in the night.

It was gathered that the suspect recently celebrated his birthday at Hard & Rock, Lekki, Lagos, week before his arrest, where he lavished over half a million on foods and drinks.

The suspect, a 100 level part time student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, who confessed committing the crime, said that he has been in the business for more than two years.

The Police revealed that Falope’s activities on Instagram was placed under investigations when it received a complaint about an Instagram handle @blackberbiedoll, used for criminal activities, which was later traced to him.

Apart from @blackberbiedoll, which he prominently used for fraudulent activities, he maintained @froshwhite007 and @froshwhite separately for same purpose.

The complainant, Bernard stated that he got a friend request from @blackberbiedoll. “Apparently, the picture on the account was that of a lady. The lady in question messaged me on BBM. Honestly, I thought I was chatting with a woman who claimed to be in Nigeria at the time.

“She lied to me that her father was a Nigerian and her mum, a Kenyan, and so we got talking. At a point, she lied that she was building a beauty outfit in Ikota Shopping Mall, VGC and that she was in need of some money to complete the mall,” Bernard added.

He explained further, “I had to transfer N1 million to her. Weeks later, I got suspicious of the account name Olawole Israel Oluwaseun Falope. I ran a search on Google, and then discovered it was all scam.... Immediately, I reported the incident to Instagram and that account was blocked and later suspended to prevent others from falling victim.”

Another victim, who did not want his identity disclosed said he paid N100,000 into her account to support her bogus fashion outfit.

Admitting the allegation, the suspect noted that since he started the fraudulent act about 2 years ago, he had duped no fewer than 33 men pretending to be a lady on Instagram and that the least amount he received from any of them was N80,000.

“When I started, much as I pretended to be a lady on phone, some men on the other side didn’t believe me. I then downloaded an app on Google which transformed my voice into that of a lady whenever I am having conversation.... I got several pictures of Shayla, a pretty United States based lady on my profile. Since then, men have been disturbing me and calling to request for a date,” he stated.

He said, “What I do is that I assess people based on their appearance on Instagram, add them and thereafter open up conversations with them before I start bringing up all manners of stories in order to dupe them.... At a point, I lied to most of them that I had an accident and I lost my ATM. I told them that I need some money. Some of them were generous enough to drop money into my account.”

“I lied to them that I was putting up a  boutique and saloon at Ikota, VGC and Lekki, and that I need money to finish setting up.... I know I made a mistake downloading Shayla’s pictures and used them for fraudulent purposes. I am telling you the truth, those that I have collected money from cant be more than 33,” he explained.

Investigations revealed that the owner of the profile pictures the suspect used, @Shayla had complained to Instagram that some Nigerians were using her profile pictures to scam unsuspecting members of the public.

It was also disclosed that the suspect claimed to be a friend of Toke Makinwa, Tonto Dike, Don jazzy, Peter Okoye, Toyin Aihmaku, Tee Y Mix, Oristsefemi, Timaya, Sean Tizzle, Dami Adenuga, Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga jnr, Ramsey Noah e.t.c.

“I know all of them. I attend a lot of shows, I meet them, take photographs with them, even exchange numbers. Like sister Toke Makinwa, Tonto Dike, Uncle Ramsey Noah, these are the kind of celebrities I look up to and I want to be like them,” he stated.

But RRS investigators confirmed that he was following a lot of Nigerian celebrities on Instagram but they could not confirm if any of them fell prey to Falope's antics, as many his Instagram chats with them got no response.

They added that a Ghanian business man who Falope claimed to have met at a popular club in Nigeria rebuffed his request to engage him in a chat.

They noted that Falope claims of been a half-cast, Fashion designer, stylist, cosmetologist, model were all part his fraud to make people fall for him. He was never a trainee or a specialist in any of this.

Our source added that he is not an half-cast as he claimed to be, rather he bleached his skin.

"He didn’t deny this claim. He admitted bleaching his skin to escape the taunting of girls that he was a very ugly guy,” the source stated.

Items recovered from the suspect included, an iphone 6, 1 Samsung Galaxy A5, an Apple tablet, hand and neck chains, some new notes and a handbag.

Confirming the development, the Police Public Relations Officer, Suprintendent Dolapo Badmos, warned Nigerains to be careful on the internet because scammers are on the prowl worldwide.

The suspect has been transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigations.

Courtesy: RRSLagos

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