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The encrypted messaging app, Telegram, has registered 25 million new users in the past 72 hours, its Russia-born founder, Pavel Durov, said Tuesday, on the heels of WhatsApp announcing a change to its privacy terms, AFP reports. Durov, 36, said on his Telegram channel that the app had over 500 million monthly active users in the first weeks of January and “25 million new users joined Telegram in the last 72 hours alone”. The surge in downloads comes after WhatsApp, which boasts over two billion users, introduced controversial changes to its privacy conditions that will allow it to share more data with its parent company, Facebook. “People no longer want to exchange their privacy for free services,” Durov said without directly referring to the rival app. WhatsApps’s new terms sparked criticism as users outside Europe who do not accept the new conditions before February 8 will be cut off from the messaging app. Telegram is a popular social media platform in a number ...

Reuben Abati The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was in the news for all the wrong reasons in the year 2020. The agency that was established 20 years ago to bring development to the nine oil-bearing communities of the Niger Delta became an embarrassment to the Nigerian government. In 2019, President Buhari had ordered a forensic audit of the agency’s accounts, a move that was hailed as long overdue by many Nigerians. This was also said to be consistent with the administration’s anti-corruption campaign. What should be a smooth administrative process however, became a battle for the soul of the agency itself. The conflict was in the shape of controversies over the appointment of a Board for the NDDC. A Board was constituted only to be suspended and replaced with an Interim Management Committee. While the President opted for Interim Management Committee and urged the team of auditors looking into the books of the NDDC to do a thorough job, the National Assembly also launc...

A gospel musician, Biodun Badejo, popularly known as Jovani, accused of rape by his female friend, has been arrested by police officers in Ipaja, Lagos. Badejo, who was arrested by the police on Saturday and currently in police detention, had told SaharaReporters that he did not rape the young woman. He described what happened between them as a ‘lovers’ quarrel’.  Speaking with SaharaReporters on Monday, Chief Operating Officer, Advocates For Children And Vulnerable Peoples Network (ACVPN), Ebenezer Omejalile, confirmed the arrest, stating however, that the victim was delaying the case as she had refused to show up for further investigation to be done. He also said there were speculations that the victim was negotiating a settlement with the family of the accused though the claims could not be verified. “We have heard a rumour that there are negotiations ongoing to pay her N30,000. The Divisional Police Officer called me and explained to me that she had asked the lady t...

Indian authorities have deported two Nigerians for not possessing valid visas. According to a statement posted on Delhi police Twitter page on Monday, the two were among 10 Nigerian nationals recently arrested in the country. The 10 Nigerians were picked up by the police at the Uttam Nagar area in New Delhi’s Dwarka district on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.  “Their visas have also expired but they are continuously staying in India which is a gross violation of the Indian visa norms. They have not provided any suitable reason and supportive documents for their overstay in India,” said Santosh Kumr Meena, DCP Dwarka. Due to visa violations, the Nigerian nationals were sent to the Lampur Sewa Sadan in New Delhi’s Narela area pending when their travel arrangements would be made. #ActionsMustHaveConsequences 2 #Nigerian nationals were deported, who were found staying illegaly, without having valid Visa & Passport, by the staff of PS Uttam Nagar during #Patrolling duty...

An auto accident involving a Toyota Camry car, Sino truck and a motorcycle around Odogbara, on the Sagamu-Ogijo Road, has killed two persons suspected to be husband and wife. Babatunde Akinbiyi, Spokesperson, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps in the state, reported the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria in Abeokuta on Tuesday. Akinbiyi said the accident occurred at 7.40 am.  He said it was caused by speeding, recklessness and brake failure on the part of the motorcycle with no registration number carrying a man and a woman. He stated that the motorcycle hit the car marked FKY-733 GF at the rear end and the two passengers on the motorbike were crushed to death by an oncoming truck. The rider was said to have survived, but with severe injuries. Akinbiyi said, “According to an eyewitness, the motorcyclist was going to Sagamu from the Ogijo axis, when in an attempt to overtake the Camry car, after already overtaking three trailers, hit the car from behind before...

ASUU finally called off its protracted strike in December on the platter of nothing, only promissory notes. As I write this now (11. am, 12th January, 2021) only two months of the outstanding salaries of 5 to 9 months was paid in December, shortly after the strike had been called off, as if the reason for the strike was to get two months salaries paid. Again, salary payment for a majority of university lecturers who are not on IPPIS has stopped: December salary is yet to be paid and the outstanding ones are there. January is going going! And promises litter everywhere. While addressing the press after ASUU suspended their longest strike in the history of the union, Hon. Minister Chris Ngige made a statement that aroused my curiosity: Government will never give ASUU the opportunity to embark on strike again.  ASUU and Nigerians should ponder on this cryptic Ngigean aphorism. What does it mean? Many people including ASUU have taken it to mean that the FGN would answer A...

Prof. Ishaq Akintola, Director of MURIC Some Nigerians have lambasted an Islamic organisation, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), for asking President Muhammadu Buhari to impose a travel ban on US President, Donald Trump. MURIC had in a statement on Monday by its director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, asked the Nigerian president to sanction Trump’s key allies “for their ignoble roles in the US 2020 presidential elections, particularly the storming of the Capitol”. Prof. Ishaq Akintola, Director of MURIC Akintola berated Buhari for being silent on the Capitol riot, noting that the US government might have imposed sanctions on Nigeria if such had happened in the country. MURIC’s statement read, “We strongly denounce the role played by President Donald Trump in the last US general elections. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat shows acute desertification of the spirit of sportsmanship. “His insistence on electoral fraud despite several court declarations to the contrary is a manifesta...

Uganda’s communications regulator has ordered the shutdown of social media and messaging applications, ahead of a highly-charged election on Thursday. The vote will come after one of the bloodiest campaigns in years, as Yoweri Museveni seeks a sixth term against popstar-turned-MP Bobi Wine, who has managed to fire up a youthful population that has mostly known only one president. Wine, who has spent most of the campaign in a bulletproof vest and combat helmet facing teargas, bullets and numerous arrests, on Tuesday, urged his supporters to “protect” the election from rigging. Despite the 38-year-old’s popularity, few observers believe he can pull off a victory against Museveni, a 76-year-old former rebel leader who has ruled since 1986 and effectively crushed any opposition. Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter were down in the East African nation on Tuesday, after the communications regulator ordered a social media shutdown. In a letter seen by AFP, Uganda Communications Commiss...

File photo used to illustrate story. The Oyo State Police Command has alleged that the state security network, also known as Amotekun Corps, usually assaults suspects and extorts money from them. The state police command on Tuesday advised Amotekun to desist from assaulting suspects. File photo used to illustrate story. The police said some of the suspects arrested and brought to the station by Amotekun were in poor health conditions not admissible for detention. The state Commissioner of Police, Joe Nwachukwu Enwonwu, in a statement issued through the state public relations officer, Olugbenga Fadeyi, said, “A case to buttress the above is an incident reported at Igbo-Ora Police Station involving one Alhaji Umoru Salihu; Amotekun operatives reportedly stormed Alhaji Umoru’s residence. They were said to have been about 30 in number.             “According to the report, they allegedly ‘shot sporadically into the air, carted away the sum of #...

The Oyo State Ministry of Justice has revealed that the state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo (SAN), has been discharged from the Infectious Diseases Hospital Isolation Centre at Yaba, Lagos. He was said to have been taken home, where he is expected to continue with his treatment in isolation for 14 days. The ministry, through a statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, on Tuesday, which was made available to journalists in Ibadan, said Oyelowo was rushed to Lagoon Hospital on January 2, 2021. The statement said he later tested positive for COVID-19. Olatubosun added that a chest CT scan revealed the possibility of the presence of the COVID-19 virus in his system and that he was immediately transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital Isolation Centre in Lagos for treatment. It read, “On January 2, 2021, the Honorable Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General was r...