INEC promotes 471 junior staff, reaffirms commitment to merit, welfare - ITREALMS

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved the promotion of 471 junior staff across the country, reaffirming its commitment to merit-based career progression and staff welfare, reports ITREALMS.

The decision was taken at the Commission’s regular weekly meeting held on Thursday, September 25, 2025, chaired by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. 

World Environment Day: Airtel promotes plastic reduction @employee session - ITREALMS

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Leading telecommunications network, Airtel Nigeria marked World Environment Day by hosting an insightful session aimed at educating employees on the practice of tackling plastic pollution. 

The event was held on Tuesday, 4th May, 2024, at Airtel Head office, Banana Island, Lagos.

Danbatta: NTICE promotes indigenous innovation – ITREALMS

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The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has declared that the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE) promotes indigenous innovation, reports ITREALMS.

Danbatta in his welcome address at the weekend during the NIICE 2023 held at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, recognised NTICE, as one of the achievements of NCC through Nigeria Office for Development of Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS) because it has served not only to promote Pillar number 5 which is the ‘Strategic Partnering’ of the Strategic Management Plan (SMP 2020-2024) of the Commission but has also become the flagship indigenous content event for the industry.

Digital Expert Academy promotes U.S.-Nigeria tech collaboration - ITREALMS

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The United States Consul General, Mr. Will Stevens, on Monday joined representatives from leading American and Nigerian technology companies, as well as business leaders for the official opening of the Digital Expert Academy in Lagos, reports ITREALMS.

Founded by 21st Century Technologies, the Digital Expert Academy seeks to create opportunities to train and upskill young Nigerians in artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, machine learning, cloud services, data science, data center management among other tech fields.

Guild promotes Isah to acting president, cautions FG against regulating social media - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has promoted its Vice President, West, Mr. Mustapha Isah to the post of acting president, to fill-in the gap created by the exit of the immediate past president, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, who was recently appointed the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, reports ITREALMS.

This is coming as NGE cautioned the Federal Government against regulating social media, describing it as inimical to the growth of press and defiles democratic tenets.

Announcing this development, the Standing Committee of NGE, ITREALMS gathered, had constituted itself into an Electoral College to effect the promotion and relaying on Article 13(4) of the Nigerian Guild of Editors Constitution.

Thus, they elected Mr. Mustapha Isah as Acting President of the Guild, to fill the vacant position of Mrs Funke Egbemode as President, upon her appointment and acceptance of offer as Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation in Osun State.

The communique arising from the meeting personally endorsed by the acting president, Mr. Mustapha Isah and General Secretary, Mrs Mary Atolagbe, the Standing Committee also revealed it discussed the state of the nation and the media and took particular note of the ongoing plans by the Federal Government of Nigeria to ‘sanitise’ the Social Media space and thereby resolved as follows:

That the Federal Government should rescind the decision to regulate the Social Media, as such measure is in clear contravention of Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution (As amended), which guarantees every Nigerian citizen the right to “freedom of expression, including the right to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”

The Guild reminds the Federal Government of the dire consequences of similar attempts in the past to gag freedom of speech, as such initiatives were usually misconstrued by security agents and some public officials to harass, arrest and in most cases, illegally detain journalists and other Nigerians for holding their opinions.

Advising the Federal Government to seek ways to maximize social media to disseminate information on the activities and policies of government, rather than its current attempt to stifle it: the Guild urges the government to engage the founders and promoters of social media, namely: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter among others – to creatively find ways of sieving information disseminated through their respective channels, to curtail extremisms of violence and hate speech.

Recognising that Nigeria is already in the red zone of nations with very poor record of Press Freedom and Freedom of Speech, the Guild notes, for instance, that the 2019 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders places Nigeria in a distant 120th position among 180 nations under review. Also, in the 2019 Global Impunity Index published by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), which chronicles countries where criminal groups, politicians, government officials, and other powerful actors resort to violence to silence critical views, dissent and particularly the media, Nigeria ranks as high as the 12th position, sharing the top bracket with impunity-prone and conflict-riddled nations like Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mexico, Pakistan etcetera.

Sadly, this is not a good profile and the Federal Government of Nigeria should not take further actions that would add to this unpleasant tar on the nation by seeking to ‘sanitise’ Social Media but, should rather build bridges and collaborations with the Nigerian media and promoters of social media. Such synergy and partnership in an Information Age, is the best way to make the most of the advantages of social media which far outweigh any perceived disadvantages.

The Guild notes that Nigeria has enough extant laws, including the Cyber Crime Act 2015, to deal with issues of ‘hate speech’ and ‘Fake News’. It urges the government to test such laws in the courts of competent jurisdictions in accordance with due process of the law rather than create another legal instrument and atmosphere that would give agents of state the latitude to harass and criminalise citizens especially journalists.

The Guild observes that in most cases, it is the officials of governments at all levels that push out Fake News and hate speech by their words and actions; stressing that it behoves government actors to check their actions and utterances.

The Guild uses this opportunity to call on government and security agencies to release forthwith all journalists being detained nationwide, as their continued detention run contrary to the grains of the Constitution.

Further, the Guild congratulated Mrs Egbemode on her appointment and wished her well.





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FRSC promotes 8 Assistant Corps Marshals, 12 Commanders - ITREALMS:

ITREALMS:

The board of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has approved the promotion of eight Corps Commanders (CC) to the position of Assistant Corps Marshals (ACM) and the promotion of 12 Deputy Corps Commanders (DCC) to the position of Corps Commanders (CC), reports ITREALMS.

Confirming this to ITREALMS, the Corps Public Education Officer, FRSC, Bisi Kazeem, said the approval came after the board meeting on Friday, 7thSeptember 2018, to deliberate on the exercise, just as the newly promoted staff will be decorated Tuesday, September 11, this year.

Kazeem listed the names of the newly elevated ACMs as PO Osadebamwen, Abayomi  Olukoju, M. Shehu, MI Garba, DD Sayi, SU Umar, Yekeen Salami, and Sunday Maku.

For the newly elevated CCs, he listed O Kalu, JI Dagwa, MA Jatau, EA Asaniyan, RN Monyei, TD Sifawa, SO Adepoju, U Wihioka, P Olaye, KM Kabo, R Ogom, and S Akinyemi.

The chairman of FRSC board, Barrister Bukhari Bello was quoted as expressing satisfaction on the transparency of the promotion exercise and urged them to put in more efforts in ensuring that the highways are safe for all categories of road users.

Congratulating the elevated officers, the Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, encouraged them to continually put in their best in the course of their duties.

The Corps Marshal promised to continue to improve the welfare of the Corps’ personnel in general to the satisfaction of all, just as he advised those who did not get promoted to keep faith and hope for the best in the next exercise.

Kazeem disclosed that the promotion exercise began with medical examination, physical exercises, computer based examination, and oral interview which took about a week to conclude.

Further, he affirmed the elevated officers will be decorated on Tuesday 11 September 2018 at the FRSC Headquarters situated at No 4 Maputo Street, Zone 3, Wuse Abuja.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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