Breaking News: Danbatta seeks IGP protection on telecoms infrastructure

ITRealms:

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has solicited the protection of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) on telecommunications infrastructure in the country, reports ITRealms.

NCC expressed concerned over increasing cases of illegal sealing up of telecoms Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) across the country by various persons, including organizations, communities, agencies of the Federal State and local government at times using law enforcement officers.

Danbatta made this appeal when he led a team of NCC Directors and officials on a courtesy visit to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase in Abuja recently, lamented that apart from the actions being illegal, they also violate Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, CAP C39, laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

He also said that sealing up of Base Stations has its social implication that is cutting off subscribers from communicating thereby degrading quality of service, which is already a major concern.

According to him, acts of willful destruction of telecoms infrastructure, such as cutting of fibre optics and general vandalism have become very worrisome, hence the proposal for the institution of a critical infrastructure law that will require the police to monitor and protect public infrastructure.

“While we seek your support for urgent actualization of this law, we wish to implore you to see to the use of the current provisions of the law to ensure that individuals found to be engaged in willful destruction of telecoms infrastructure are timely prosecuted,” Danbatta solicited.

ITRealms gathered that both agencies of government, recently pledged to collaborate on vital issues concerning security of telecoms infrastructure and capacity building for modern policing which the IGP, Solomon Arase, stressed, forms the bedrock of modern security practices.

IGP Arase in response expressed readiness of the Force to work with the Commission immediately proposed the setting up of joint teams, drawn from the Police and the Commission which will handle telecom related cases.

 

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Mystery helicopter creates panic in Benue community

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A mystery helicopter that landed briefly in the Opialu Village in Edemoga District of Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State, is creating panic among the indigenes, reports ITRealms.

Source close to the community, informed ITRealms that the security siege mentality in the highly populated village is not unconnected with the widely held belief that the appearance of a similar helicopter preceded the recent mayhem in Agatu District, also in Benue State. 

It was also reported that two occupants of  the helicopter who barely touched the grounds of the St Theresa LGEA Primary School at Opialu about 5 pm on March 10^th, 2016 left on-lookers, mainly pupils playing football on the mission ground and community worried. 

"But it did not land, although it was close enough for the observing pupils and others who ran towards it to observe that one of the pilots wore an orange dress. There were only two persons in the helicopter," a source said.

However, an eye witness account said it tried to land twice, but it came so close and then zoomed off, went as if to one of the nearby villages before coming back. It was at this point the pilots waved to the pupils.

ITRealms gathered that Chief Emmanuel Onuh, the Chairperson of the Opialu Community Development Association told the Divisional Police Headquarters at Okoga that ash color was reported to him, whereas other members of the youth association insisted it had navy blue colour. 

"There has been an  obvious confusion over  color  among the observers in the same way as the registration number was unclear. While the pupil mature enough to take any such number sticks to AB/ANA, one person who is though more educated claims it was written AB-ANA. No one reported seeing any number on the registration, prompting speculations that the helicopter must be one of the de-commissioned aircrafts, either of the Nigerian Air force or one of the charter companies," another source told ITRealms.

Further, Daniel Ojo, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Okpoga, the headquarters of the Okpokwu Local Government Area could not respond to phone calls after his phone rang twice, though after several attempts on Sunday afternoon, but police sources at Okoga confirmed a report to the station on the strange helicopter. 

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IANA Transition: Expect our response in 90 days - NTIA

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The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce has said the global internet stakeholders should expect their response no sooner than in 90 days on the proposed transition plan for the Stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), reports ITRealms.

At the just concluded 55^th public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Marrakech, Morocco at the weekend, ITRealms recalls that its chairman, Dr. Steve Crocker on behalf of stakeholders, submitted a proposal to transition the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to the global multistakeholder community IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).

This was in response to earlier call on March 14, 2014 by NTIA on its intent to transition the stewardship of key Internet functions to the global multistakeholder community, hence, NTIA asked ICANN to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal.

In acknowledging the receipt of the proposal, the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator, Mr. Lawrence E. Strickling, revealed that it could take up to three months, an estimated 90 days for a formal response to come, all things being equal.

This, he said, is because in considering the proposal, NTIA will be joined by the other agencies of the US government including the Congress and in line with the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommendations.

“NTIA will now begin the process of reviewing the proposal, hopefully within 90 days, to determine whether it meets the criteria we outlined when we announced the transition,” Strickling said.

He insisted that the proposal must support and enhance the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, in that it should be developed by the multistakeholder community and have broad community support.  

“More specifically, we will not accept a transition proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or intergovernmental organization solution,” Strickling asserted.

Secondly, he maintained that the proposal must ensure the security, stability, and resiliency of the domain name system (DNS).

His third outline, Strickling said, it must meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services, just as, it must maintain the openness of the Internet.

The NTIA administrator also disclosed that the U.S. Congress has a strong interest in this proposal, and they expect Congress to closely monitor and review the proposal as well as evaluate the plan.

While commending ICANN stakeholders for their contributions in making the transition easy, he expressed hope that eventually, with this transition plan, ICANN will be stronger as a result of this effort.

“… But a successful outcome here would serve as a powerful example to the world that the multistakeholder model can be used to address challenging Internet governance issues,” Strickling assured.

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Pix:  NTIA Administrator, Mr. Lawrence E. Strickling

NCC reiterates support WATRA

ITRealms:

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated support for the West African Telecommunications Regulatory Assembly (WATRA) in fulfillment of its activities to the body of Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), reports ITRealms.

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and chief executive officer of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, gave this reassurance last weekend while receiving the leadership of WATRA led by its Executive Secretary, Alhaji Maman Laminou in his office in Abuja, assuring that they are welcome to the Commission any day

“Take this place as your home”, Danbatta declared, adding that the NCC broadband plan will cater for everybody including those in the rural communities, as the Commission counts on leveraging WATRA’s expertise to actualise the recently unveiled eight-point agenda whose focus is on the turnaround of the telecommunications sector.

The EVC further assured WATRA team that the National Broadband Plan (NBP) will be pursued vigorously and that attaining the 30 per cent minimum coverage by 2018 is possible

In his early remarks, Laminou on behalf of WATRA congratulated Danbatta on his appointment as EVC of the NCC and pledged the support of WATRA to NCC at all times.

Laminou said that WATRA was in the process of harmonising the roaming activities of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with guidelines for a seamless interconnection and roaming of telephone users in West Africa up the stream in preparation.

He also said this and many others will form discussions at the yearly general meeting of WATRA planned for April, 2016.

Laminou said that WATRA has been taking its activities to several member countries in the last year or so. Some of these activities include Technology Conversion (in Senegal) and has been involved in the campaign for infrastructure sharing among operators. WATRA has also been involved in capacity building for members on Quality of Service (QoS). 

ITRealms gathered that WATRA team was received by the EVC in company of the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo, Director, Human Capital and Infrastructure Group, Hajia Maryam Bayi and Chief of Staff to the EVC, Mr Usman Malah among others.

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TVC named official media partner of Commonwealth Africa Summit 2016

ITRealms:

As the Commonwealth Africa Summit (CAS) 2016 kicks off on Monday, March 14, the Nigeria’s leading 24-hour pan-African news channel, Television Continental (TVC) has been named the official media partner for the event, reports ITRealms.

Affirming this development, the Chief Executive Officer, Continental Broadcasting Service (CBS) Limited, the owners of TVC, Nigel Parsons, said the theme for this year is on “Shared Prosperity, Mutual Security.”

According to a press statement made available to ITRealms by the Manager, Public Relations at CBS, Ms Mabel Aladenusi, the summit has been scheduled for London, United Kingdom from Monday, March 14th – Wednesday, March 16th, 2016, and designed to provide a space for high-level dialogue between business and government leaders in Commonwealth countries in Africa and their counterparts from other parts of the globe.

Also, Parsons was quoted as saying “This is the first time that a Nigerian media organisation would be given the official media title rights to partner on the event. We see this as another opportunity to reinforce that TVC News is the only Nigerian broadcast media outfit that has the capacity to cover and broadcast 24 hours a day across Africa.”

As the official media partner in Nigeria, Parsons noted that TVC News will also be responsible for covering, broadcasting and promoting the activities of the summit to its audience.

ITRealms gathered that the Summit Secretariat, in applauding the exclusive partnership with TVC for the coverage of the Commonwealth Africa Summit, described the outfit as credible in coverage, reach and reputation across Africa.

“We believe they have the reach to get the Summit’s activities to audience across Commonwealth countries in Africa and beyond through their online platforms,” a source from the Summit secretariat said.

The Commonwealth Africa Summit, ITRealms gathered, provides a platform for Commonwealth nations from Africa to showcase investment opportunities to a wider business community while learning best practices on securing their homeland and borders, even as over 18 heads of state, investors, security sector professionals, entrepreneurs and numerous leaders from business and society, have been invited to convene at CAS 2016.

While some of thematic issues such as Power Generation, Economic Development, Security, Sustainable Development, Counter-terrorism, Infrastructural Development, and Africa Development Agenda have been lined up for discussion at the event.

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