Nelson Ugwuagbo

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has given the Federal Government 48 hours to withdraw the 0.5% ‘cybersecurity levy’ imposed on Nigerians.

This is contained in a statement on its official X handle on Tuesday.

SERAP threatened to drag the Federal Government to court if the “grossly unlawful” directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria is not withdrawn.

The statement reads, “The Tinubu administration must immediately withdraw the grossly unlawful CBN directive to implement section 44 of the Cybercrime Act 2024, which imposes a 0.5% ‘cybersecurity levy’ on Nigerians. We’ll see in court if the directive is not withdrawn within 48 hours.’’

LeadingReporters recalls that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had in a circular on Monday, directed banks to levy a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity charge on electronic transactions effective May 20, 2024.

The CBN clarified that the levy would be separately “reflected in the customer’s account” as “Cybersecurity Levy” and “applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution.”’

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has released additional 531 results of the recently conducted Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME, taking the total number of results released to 1,842,897.

This is contained in a statement by the Public Communication Advisor of the Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Benjamin said the Board had proceeded with the screening of over 64,000 withheld results due to cases of examination misconduct.

“In the course of the exercise, other cases of examination misconduct were also established to make a tally of 92 from the 81 initially discovered,“ he said.

He said the Board is also looking at cases of unverified candidates and would soon come up with a position.

He added that the attention of the Board had been drawn to some fallacious publications purporting that an unknown candidate, who did not sit for the Board’s 2024 UTME obtained scores.

Mr Benjamin described this as fake, malicious and a calculated attempt to undermine the integrity of the Board, while urging the public to disregard such publications.

He said that the publication which levels such a grievous allegation, has no details of the candidate for proper verification.

“The Board is not surprised as this is the season of mischief makers, who would want to deceive gullible candidates.

“The examination template of the Board is designed with the highest sense of responsibility and is not an allocation platform where scores are doled out to candidates.

“It is most unfortunate that anybody could even believe such narration or that the story could even gain traction given the Board’s integrity.

“This again has gone to further vindicate the Board’s stance that candidates should desist from disclosing their classified details to third-parties,” he said.

He said that in investigating some of these allegations, the Board discovered that some of these mischief makers copy results sent to other candidates.

“They then edit the details sent to them and then parade this as emanating from the Board.

“The Board challenges any candidate, parent or anybody with such a claim to prove it wrong by coming forward with the details of such claims, and the phone number with which such results were conveyed,“ he said.

He said that this development would only propel the Board to further tighten the process of checking its results to make it more personalized.

Mr Benjamin said it would be stringent when it should actually be a simple and straightforward exercise.

“The Board reiterated that neither its results nor any of its processes have been compromised.

“Hence, it will continue to protect the integrity of its systems against such malicious actors, who are hell-bent on creating confusion where none existed,” he said.

Mr Benjamin said that the Board will add more features like registration number to the existing UTME Result checking process going forward, to make it extra difficult for anybody to edit.

He urged candidates to securely keep their details secure, noting that for if they were found associating with any of these mischievous elements, they would be treated as collaborators.

The spokesman said that the method of checking the 2024 UTME remained sending UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019 and not through any other process.

He, therefore, said the result at the moment is not on the Board’s website.

The Federal Government has announced plans to delist the naira from all peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms.

The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, made this disclosure in a virtual meeting with blockchain stakeholders on Monday.

This decision aims to tackle the manipulation of the local currency’s value in the foreign exchange market.

The country’s regulatory authorities have been investigating and scrutinising cryptocurrency exchanges in recent months.

On March 8, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, stopped its naira services.

Details later…

Six individuals were tragically killed by bandits in a brutal attack on the Ambe community in Kaduna State’s Sanga Local Government Area on Sunday night.

The spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command Mansir Hassan confirmed the incident , saying that one suspect has been arrested in connection with the attack.

According to Hassan, police operatives from Sanga Divisional Police Station and troops of Operation Safe Haven upon getting a distress call, rushed to the community and engaged the bandits in a gun duel during which one of the bandits was arrested while the rest escaped into the forest with bullet wounds.

Meanwhile, the member representing Jema’a/Sanga Federal Constituency Daniel Amos said in a statement that six people were killed in the attack while eight others sustained injuries and are receiving medical treatment at the hospital.

While condemning the latest attack aimed at destabilising the peace and security in his constituency, the federal lawmaker, called on all residents of Sanga Local Government Area to remain calm and peaceful as they work towards finding a lasting solution to the insecurity in the area.

“We must continue to promote peaceful coexistence among our diverse communities, irrespective of our differences.

“I also call on the security agencies to act swiftly to apprehend the perpetrators of this evil act and bring them to justice. The safety of our people must remain a top priority. We cannot allow the criminals to continue to operate with impunity.

“As your representative in the National Assembly, I assure you that I will continue to do my best to attract development to our constituency while working with relevant stakeholders to ensure the safety of our people.

“Finally, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones, Arak chiefdom, Sanga Local Government Area, and the government of our dear State. I also pray for a speedy recovery of those who sustained injuries”.

The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has debunked viral reports alleging that his administration has so far borrowed N10 billion from foreign bodies.

A report earlier emerged that the governor reportedly secured the sum of N10,022,382,348.40 billion in loans from different foreign bodies and organizations in 2023.

Reacting, Governor Adeleke in a statement issued on Monday by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed countered the report, saying he has not borrowed a kobo since his administration kicked off.

Describing the report as fake, the governor stated that he has not at any point since he assumed office, “taken any loan either through a resolution of the State Executive Council or that of the State House of Assembly”.

He explained that what the report referred to as loans, were World Bank Development financing which, according to him, were inherited from the previous administrations.

The governor insisted that all the projects executed in the state including the dualisation of roads, the overhead bridges, the school, health centre upgrades and several road projects were being funded through special project accounts created by the state government.

“No responsible government will abandon a series of World Bank projects which are already household names across the Federation and which have benefited so many residents.

“We reaffirm again that Governor Adeleke has not borrowed a kobo since assuming office. Inherited liabilities and contracts cannot be tagged on the Governor of the Year on Infrastructure”, the statement added.

The University of Abuja branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities has begun an indefinite strike to draw attention to developments bordering the union.

The union announced its decision to embark on the strike on Thursday at the end of its congress, held at the Permanent Site of the institution.

Members of the UniAbuja ASUU have been at loggerheads with the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’allah and the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman over the processes for the appointment of a new VC.

An advertorial that surfaced in a national daily on March 15, 2024, sought a replacement for Na’Allah.

However, ASUU members, in a conference, rejected the ad, declared it “illegal,” and stated that it was not from the governing council.

The Chairman, UniAbuja ASUU, Sylvanus Ugoh, said the Universities Miscellaneous Provision Act 1993 as amended; 2003 and 2012 (Section 3, subsections 1 and 2) empowers only the governing council to advertise the VC’s seat when declared vacant.

He argued that no other organ or individual is legally vested with the power to initiate the procedure of appointing a successive VC.

“You will recall that the university administration placed an advert on the vacancy of the post of a Vice-Chancellor on Friday 15th March 2024,” Ugoh had said.

Details later…

Hoodlums on Thursday clashed in Ile-Epo area of Lagos State, leaving many people injured.

It was gathered that a fight broke out in the market situated in the area on Wednesday night and continued till Thursday morning.

Some shops were set on fire while some goods were destroyed in the process.

It was also learned that an early intervention by the police was restricted by the hoodlums.

A fire service truck that drove into the market this morning was also forced to reverse after being pelted with stones.