Kidnappers responsible for 121 missing students from Bethel Baptist School in Maraban Rido, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, in the early hours of Monday, July 5, 2021, have reached out to school authorities to say the kids are fine. “They have called the school saying the children are alive and in good health. The children could be heard in the background crying and pleading to be rescued. The gunmen are yet to make any ransom demands,” writes BBC’s Mayeni Jones on Twitter. Kidnapping for ransom has morphed into a huge enterprise in Nigeria’s northern region. The Baptist school…
Author: Abiodun A.
The Niger State Police Command has arrested a Catechist of the Catholic Church for allegedly selling fake currency. The amount involved was over N15m. Equally important, the Catholic Cathechist, identified as Sebastine Dabu, 48, was nabbed alongside two others. They are Emmanuel Akazuwa, 42 and Umar Mohammed, 50. The suspects were arrested in a hotel in the Kontagora area of Niger State while trying to get a buyer for the N15.8million in their possession. While parading the Catholic Catechist and his alleged accomplices; spokesman of the Niger State Police Command, DSP Abiodun Wasiu, said the suspects will be arraigned in…
DATING APPS – Ever since the pandemic locked us in our homes, technology has become even more important in our lives. From ordering in essentials to finding someone significant, the apps are doing all the heavy lifting. The major thing to worry about in times like these is not whether your groceries might come an hour late, or if your date is catphishing you. It’s about online security and keeping your credentials, and yourself, safe. Kaspersky researchers conducted an in-depth study of nine popular dating apps to assess how safe they were and what they found was interesting. While dating…
Sir Richard Branson, after nearly 17 years of development and over a billion of dollars invested in Virgin Galactic; achieved his dream and reached space. Speaking from the spacecraft’s cabin, Branson called the spaceflight the “complete experience of a lifetime.” “I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid, and honestly nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” Branson said after landing. The company’s spacecraft VSS Unity launched above the skies of New Mexico on Sunday; with two pilots guiding the vehicle carrying the billionaire founder and three Virgin Galactic employees. VSS Unity –…
Justice C.L. Dabup of the Plateau State High Court sitting in Jos, today July 7, 2021, sentenced three internet fraudsters, Nbubuisi Kerian Ozomba, Paul Obide, and Samuel Chukwuebuka Nduchukwe to one-month imprisonment for obtaining money by false pretence through the social media platform, Facebook. The trio were arrested in a sting operation by the Abuja Zonal Office of the EFCC following intelligence on their alleged involvement in an internet-related scam. Investigation revealed that Ozomba created a Facebook Account with the name James Hicks with a profile picture of an American military officer and obtained the sum of $350 USD from…
The Vice-Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Samuel Kayode, popularly known as Ekpo Kinkin, has been killed at the Agboju area of Lagos State. Ekpo who was a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress was at a rally organised by the party at Oriade Local Development Area when the gunmen invaded the rally on Thursday and shot him dead. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the incident. Eyewitnesses said a gunshot was heard from the crowd outside while the meeting was on, forcing residents involved at the rally to scamper to safety.…
Three members of a cult group have been arrested in Ogun State for forcing an unwilling person to join their cult group. The suspects according to a statement signed Saturday by the spokesperson, Ogun State Police Command Abimbola Oyeyemi were arrested on Thursday, July 8, following a report lodged at Igbesa divisional headquarters. Celestine Oyebuchi reported to the police that he was abducted by the trio of Williams Omoori a.k.a Tension, Edet Godswill, and Emmanuel Dimgba, and taken to an uncompleted building and was tortured and forced to join their confraternity. “He stated further that, the suspects after torturing him,…
Short-video sharing app TikTok said on Friday it will use more automation to remove videos from its platform that violate its community guidelines. At present, videos uploaded to the platform go through technology tools that work to recognize and flag any potential violations which are then reviewed by a safety team member. If a violation is identified, the video is removed and the user is notified, TikTok said. The ByteDance-owned company added that over the next few weeks it will begin automatically removing some types of content that violate policy over minor safety; adult nudity and sexual activities, violent and…
TD Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading tech, lifestyle and distribution giant, has rolled out a mouthwatering offer to reward shoppers with a smart watch for every purchase of the 55-inch Infinix Smart TV. The offer is available to shoppers via e-commerce giant, Konga; while bulk buyers can take advantage of the offer by purchasing direct from TD Africa. The Infinix Smart TV comes with an exciting range of features; including hotspot screen mirroring which allows viewers the freedom to mirror their mobile device to the TV screen; using mobile hotspot without consuming mobile data. The device also comes with air mouse…
Apple has a lot of company rules but not all of them directly affect customers. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, recently spoke about one of them, the Right to Repair. Wozniak talked about this particular company rule following a request from Louis Rossman who is an advocate of the Right to Repair initiative. And it was a pleasant surprise for most users when they found out that Wozniak is in favour of it and said that it was time to fully recognise the Right to Repair. In case you are not aware; the “Right to Repair” is about the…
Microsoft will give out $1,500 bonuses to many of its employees after more than a year of impact from the coronavirus. The gesture is part of an effort by technology companies to keep employees happy during the pandemic and make sure they stick around while many are still away from offices. Such care could help reduce impact from a feared trend dubbed the Great Resignation as companies reopen facilities; and workers consider job changes. The bonuses will cost Microsoft about $200 million and are a gesture to show appreciation for efforts that employees made with customers and partners in the…
Ubisoft has officially confirmed the existence of a new Assassin’s Creed game codenamed “Infinity,” after a report from Bloomberg detailed the new online service-based game. While Ubisoft’s announcement doesn’t shed much light on what form the new game will take; Bloomberg reports that it will be an evolving online game similar to the likes of Fortnite or GTA Online. Infinity marks what is likely to be the biggest change in the franchise’s history since its debut in 2007. Until now, Ubisoft has tended to release a new standalone Assassin’s Creed game once every one or two years; each focused…
Thirty-seven US state and district attorneys general sued Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday; alleging that the search and advertising giant violates antitrust law in running its app store for Android phones. The lawsuit, one of a series that has been filed against Google in the United States, follows complaints from app developers about the management of its Play Store. Google did not have an immediate comment on the new litigation. Google requires that some apps use the company’s payment tools and give it as much as 30% of digital goods sales. “To collect and maintain this extravagant commission; Google has…
YouTube is possibly one of the first widely used platforms that offered dark mode. As it explains it, “Dark theme allows you to tone down your screen’s glare and experience YouTube with a dark background.” Dark mode or dark theme is also known to help in reducing power consumption on smartphones. At present, almost all popular apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter offer dark mode. On YouTube, dark mode is available for the desktop app, Android devices, iPhone and iPad. YouTube’s dark mode feature works similar to other apps. You have the option to switch between dark and light…
Former President Donald Trump sued Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and their chief executives, raising the stakes in his battle against social media giants who have blocked him. Billing the effort during a Wednesday press conference as a move to defend First Amendment rights; Trump filed three separate class-action lawsuits in federal court in Florida against the tech giants and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Google’s Sundar Pichai. The lawsuits seek court orders to restore his social-media accounts, along with punitive damages; to ensure other users can’t be banned or flagged by the tech giants. The…
Chinese tech giant Tencent’s WeChat social media platform has deleted dozens of LGBT accounts run by university students; saying some had broken rules on information on the internet, sparking fear of a crackdown on gay content online. Members of several LGBT groups told Reuters that access to their accounts was blocked late on Tuesday and they later discovered that all of their content had been deleted. “Many of us suffered at the same time;” said the account manager of one group who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. “They censored us without any warning. All…
OnePlus has confirmed that it deliberately reduces performance in “many of the most popular apps”; in order to improve battery life on its latest OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro phones. The issue arose following testing by Anandtech’s Andrei Frumusanu; who called the situation “rather baffling” after discovering slowdown in a wide range of prominent apps from Google’s Play Store. Anandtech’s conclusion is that OnePlus is “blacklisting popular applications away from its fastest cores; causing slowdown in typical workloads such as web browsing.” The site tested Chrome and Twitter performance extensively; but concluded that the slowdown “applies to pretty much everything…
OnePlus recently announced that it would merge its software team with Oppo’s in a bid to improve its resource sharing. Now it has just revealed that OxygenOS and ColorOS will move closer together; bringing a wider commitment to support OnePlus devices with three years or more of Android updates. Following the announcement that OnePlus and Oppo’s teams would combine; it was almost inevitable that OxygenOS and ColorOS would become more entwined. The good news is that a closer-knit relationship between OnePlus and Oppo should hopefully start to be a real boon to smartphone users after the announcement of new updates…
After a dramatic decline in traveling this past year, people are moving again. Yet, despite offering cash incentives, rideshare giants Uber and Lyft are still struggling to bring drivers back to full speed; leading to longer wait times for customers and soaring prices. Uber and Lyft have put millions into these efforts, but some former drivers aren’t even looking at these stimulus packages or trying to get in on surge pricing. A large percentage who are still holding out. “Drivers are in a low-key strike,” Nicole Moore, a volunteer organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, told CNBC. “Right now it’s a…
Hackers were on Monday demanding $70 million in bitcoin in exchange for data stolen during a “gargantuan” attack on a US IT company that has shuttered hundreds of Swedish supermarkets. Researchers believe more than 1,000 companies could have been affected by the attack on Miami-based firm Kaseya, which provides IT services to some 40,000 businesses around the world. The FBI warned Sunday that the scale of the “ransomware” attack — a form of digital hostage-taking where hackers encrypt victims’ data and then demand money for restored access — is so large that it may be “unable to respond to each…