The Head of Protocol and Public Affairs of PSC, Mr Torty Kalu, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the promotion of Mr Funsho Adegboye from AIG to DIG was ratified at the third plenary meeting of the commission presided over by its chairman, Mr  Hashimu Argungu.

Kalu said the commission also approved the promotion of Danjuma Aboki and Dansabo Idi from the rank of Commissioners of Police to AIGs.

The PSC spokesman said the promotion of the senior officers followed a rigorous and merit-based process, including successful written examinations and oral interviews conducted by the commission.

“In a landmark decision reflecting its commitment to career progression, the commission also approved the promotion of 26,119 Inspectors to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police II (ASP II).

“This promotion is based on their outstanding performance in the recently concluded Departmental Selection Board Examination,” he said.

Kalu said the newly promoted DIG had served as the AIG in charge of the Police Mobile Force, PMF, Force Headquarters, Abuja.

According to him, with a distinguished career spanning decades, Adegboye has served in critical departments including Operations, Training, and Administration.

He said the new DIG had held command positions and had acquired international experience from the United Nations Missions in Kosovo, Liberia, Timor, and Somalia.

Kalu said Aboki, one of the newly promoted AIG was until his promotion, the CP in charge of the Police Command in Imo.

He said Idi had served as the Acting AIG in charge of Research and Planning, Force Headquarters, Abuja before his promotion.

Kalu said the PSC boss had congratulated the newly promoted officers, and pledged the commitment of PSC to transparency, meritocracy, and best practices in all appointment and promotion processes.

“The commission is dedicated to recognising hard work, dedication, and competence. These promotions are a testament to that commitment.

“I urge all the promoted officers to see their new ranks as a call to greater service, higher responsibility, and redoubled dedication to the safety and security of our nation,” Kalu quoted Argungu as saying.

Source: NAN

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For some reason, President Muhammadu Buhari instructed security operatives to shoot on sighting anyone found in the forest bearing an AK47. It was his own way of responding to the frustrating tales of armed men rampantly visiting Nigerians with death, kidnapping, raping and plundering. In 2020, records showed armed bandits killed 2,539 Nigerians in 654 attacks. Some believe the figure undercounted actual casualties.

The 16 Northerners, identified as hunters who were lynched and burnt to death by an irate mob in Uromi, the quiet town of PDP’s Late Chief Tony Anenih and the Late Chief Anthony Enahoro who moved the first Motion for Nigeria’s Independence, may not all have borne AK47 assault rifles. But they fit other profiles of Fulani terrorists who had turned life in Edo State into a nightmare that necessitated locals to organise a vigilante team to safeguard the town at midnight.

They were Hausa-Fulani, alias “Aboki.” Southerners label any man from the Hausa-Fulani stock from the North or his cousin from other Sahelian region an “Aboki.”

They were strangers.

They possessed guns.

Over two dozen in number, they were travelling in a group, every one of them lying low, quiet and hidden underneath the tarpaulin of a Dangote Cement long-bed trailer. They were said to be travelling from Port Harcourt en route Edo State to celebrate the Eid-Il-Kabir Muslim festival with their families in Kano. The driver and motor-boy initially swore their vehicle conveyed only goods, until vigilantes discovered the hidden human cargoes.

More than anything else, carrying guns compromised their innocence. Less sophisticated than the AK47, the hunting guns the “hunters” bore, at least to the untrained eye, provoked the natives’ conclusion that these were the usual Fulani bad boys, whose kidnapping activities had turned Uromi and environs to hell. Native logic would say: “Gun na gun!” Don’t dane guns kill? Eyewitnesses insist some of the guns found on them were AK47s. On being detected, one of these hiding wayfarers reportedly stabbed an Uromi vigilante. Things quickly went south thenceforth. In retaliation, an irate mob of indigenes gathered and dispensed jungle justice instantly. Sixteen “Abokis” were burnt alive. Even then, indigenes saved 10 others from the mob attack.

It is a quite unfortunate situation. Fatal errors were made. Criminal foreign Fulani constitute the enemy, not these local Hausa-Fulani. Foreign Fulani terrorise even the local Fulani, who have become victims to the terrorism of their immigrant cousins. If, as the Abokis claimed, they were truly en route to Kano, all the Uromi vigilantes should have done was escort them to the border to ensure the strangers did not disappear into the shrubs to wreak havoc. If in doubt, hand them over to the authorities.

READ ALSO: C’mon, let’s talk peace, By Tunde Akanni

Fears of reprisals in the North have set the country on edge. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not only issued a condemning statement, he ordered a manhunt for the Uromi mobsters. And they have been caught. Police say they have apprehended those behind the killing in a swift manhunt. No such manhunts have been launched or have unearthed Fulani terrorists killing in Niger, Enugu, Uzo-Uwani, Agatu, Edo, Kogi, Plateau and the entire Benue landscape. Not one.

Northern Emirs and governors have urged their citizens to show restraint even as they bayed for the killers’ blood for the shed blood. Edo’s Governor Monday Okpebholo immediately sacked the head of the state’s security outfit.

However, truth be told, Uromi-16 was an accident waiting to happen.

Like the rest of Esanland and Edo State, Uromi Town welcomes strangers. Hausa-Fulani “Abokis” rub shoulders with the locals as commercial motorbike “Okada” operators. They know the very nooks and crannies of the three traditional zones, Afenmailand, Edoland and Esanland. Hausas trade at their local markets, selling everything from onions, to beef, to goats, to torchlights, to textile. Locals patronise them indiscriminately in the spirit of one Nigeria and the global village. Up till this moment, locals would enter the bushes to make purchases of Fulani’s cows for ceremonies. Villagers randomly hire Northerners for farm labour.

However, as it happened in Ebonyi, Enugu, Agatu and other places, that fraternal symbiotic relationship quickly diminished. A few months back, Uromi women blocked the Benin-Auchi-Abuja highway to protest the dehumanising practices of the strangers. Locals were being raped in the farms. Abomination! Some women not only suffered rape, their rapists butchered them. Those resisting rape paid with death. Today, no Uromi or Esan woman goes to the farm alone. None! Some have abandoned farming altogether. Food prices have soared. Hunger bites like never before.

Like rampaging locusts, Fulani herders breeze into farms with their cattle and wipe out farmers’ sweat for an entire year. Their animals eat up plantings. As if that were not enough, these cowboys brazenly break down and break into barns of maize, yam, cassava, cocoyam and other stored produce that they feed to their cattle in a daredevil audacity. Farmers have been injured; many have been killed for resisting this wanton wastage of their plantings and harvests by these demons. News filters all over the place that if you touch these devourers, Nigerian troops and the Nigerian police, in the strangest twist to the entire affair, will swoop down upon the community, leaving the locals bathing in sorrows, tears and blood.

However, a violent country is not one Nigerians want. Their vision, as the words of the just discarded National Anthem said, is “one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.”

In fact, the thinking is rife that these hoodlums serve as foot-soldiers, an advance battalion for the Fulani hegemonists’ dream of conquering the entire Nigeria to create an Islamic Caliphate. That agenda some suspect informed the genocide in Christian-dominated Southern Kaduna.

That is the background to Uromi-16.

Not only do these terrorists thieve harvests, they steal people too. Kidnapping has become a nightmare. Locals are abducted at random on the roads, the farms and their beds. Not even palaces provide a safe haven.

One traditional ruler in Esanland, the Onojie of Uzea Kingdom, laments the brazenness of Fulani kidnappers. Narrating his and his people’s ordeal, Onojie Solomon Itoya Iluobe II said: “Our wives go to farm; they are raped by Fulani herdsmen and set ablaze.

“I have paid ransom multiple times to Fulani herdsmen. They kidnapped my sister and others from my palace. I don’t want Fulani herdsmen in my community and forest anymore.”

Such is the background to Uromi-16.

But the story is the same nationwide. It appears that the Fulani Sultanate in the North has exported its worst to other ethnic nationalities cohabiting in the Nigerian space. Allowed that the vast majority of Fulani keeps the law, however, bad eggs from that race have spoilt the whole basket. No one trusts the Fulani and the Aboki anymore. Time has come for Fulani kinsmen back home to summon these malevolent characters to return home for reorientation or for resettlement. Governor, Abubakar Ganduje nursed such a plan. It should be revived, adopted and implemented by Fulani majority states.

Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency worsened matters clearly. His eight years unfolded a Pan-Fulani agenda to invite his Fulani cousins from other nations to occupy Nigeria as their homestead. From 2015, under General “Pan-Fulani” Buhari’s regime, the Global Terrorism Index listed Fulani herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world.

Does anyone have a monopoly of violence? No. Will Nigeria’s other 349 tribes and 190-210 million peace-loving Nigerians fold their arms and wait to be pillaged, slaughtered, terrorised and completely annihilated? No. They will rise up to contain an existential threat. And trust me, with a level playing field and with the authorities taking a neutral pose, Nigeria’s long-suffering non-Fulani 349 nationalities have the capacity to dispense as much violence against the foreign Fulani as they have suffered. Even security chiefs have advocated self-help and self-preservation because “nobody is coming to help you.” They counsel Nigeria to liberalise access to arms in this undeclared state of emergency. Why? Not only are the regular troops overwhelmed, the Military institution is compromised. In response have been formed the various state and regional security outfits: CJTF, Amotekun, Ebubeagwu, etc.

However, a violent country is not one Nigerians want. Their vision, as the words of the just discarded National Anthem said, is “one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.”

Will a peaceful nation happen?

The answer boils down to the civilised Fulani telling their misguided kinsmen to lay down their criminality, their violence and their AK47s, and embrace peaceful coexistence with neighbours. Without that, as the Uromi episode shows, the Fulani, and any “Aboki” bearing any resemblance to him, might just end up as an endangered species anywhere he shows up. God forbid!

*Oboagwina is an author, journalist and publisher, reachable via: foboagwina@gmail.com

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Musa gave the applause in a statement by the Director Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Tukur Gusau, on Saturday in Abuja.

Musa commended the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in Counter Insurgency in the North East for exonerating the Armed Forces of Nigeria, AFN, from indictments regarding allegations on forceful abortions and other infractions in the sub-region.

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He recalled that the report of the panel specifically stated that the allegations of systematic abortions, torture, rape and extra juducial killings levelled against the military were false.

The CDS commended the 7-man panel led by retired Justice Abdu Aboki for painstakingly carrying out a thorough job since its inauguration in March 2023 by the Nigerian Human Rights Commission.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the armed forces to the defence of human rights and resolve to ensure that peace reigns in the country.

According to him, no amount of false accusations would distract the armed forces from exercising its constitutional mandate of protecting the territorial integrity of the nation.

Source: NAN

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The efforts will be aimed at combating rising wave of electronic frauds, and to standardise regional roaming tariffs in the sub-region.

The determination to carry out the modalities was the crux of a two-day meeting organised by WATRA in collaboration with the Economic Community of West Africa States, ECOWAS, which started on Tuesday in Abuja.

The meeting, which was attended by representatives of telecoms regulators from countries across West Africa, provided a platform for key participants and stakeholders to deliberate on building a unified market in telecommunications services in West Africa, to combat roaming and cyber-related frauds, and achieve the standardisation of roaming tariffs among ECOWAS member-states.

Addressing stakeholders at the meeting, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who is also the chairman of WATRA, underscored the centrality of the meeting by emphasising that, as businesses move online, the fraudsters were also going digital.

Danbatta, who was represented by NCC’s Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Bako Wakil, said based on this fact and in order to give West African citizens and businesses the confidence to fully take advantage of the enormous benefits of Information and Communications Technology, ICT, there was a need for regulators to tame and outpace the fraudsters.

“About 75 per cent of trade within ECOWAS is informal, and thus poorly recorded. Therefore, digitising this trade through employing many forms of electronic payments is a significant step towards formalising, governing and boosting intra-ECOWAS trade activities. Our ambitions are to formalise informal trade, including agricultural commodities as well as boosting intra-regional trade and this requires us to improve collaboration on combating electronic fraud,” Danbatta said.

Danbatta informed the delegates to the forum that electronic fraud was not just an African or a West African issue but a global phenomenon.

He cited studies that revealed 54 per cent of consumers in the European Union said they were most likely to come across misleading/deceptive or fraudulent advertisements or offers on the Internet.

On the regional roaming service, the WATRA chairman said the Assembly had the vision of a ‘Digital ECOWAS’ where improved sub-regional roaming regulation can help to facilitate an economic integration in the region.

“Our citizens, traders and companies will trade better when they can use their telephones to call contacts in other ECOWAS countries and when they can use their data subscriptions at no extra cost while travelling or doing business within the region. So, reducing and eventually eliminating the cost of roaming will also be a very significant contribution towards boosting trade within the region,” Danbatta said.

The EVC expressed satisfaction at the level of collaboration among national regulatory authorities in the sub-region on the one hand; and between WATRA and ECOWAS, to achieve a common goal, on the other hand, describing such synergy as a great indicator of progress and internalisation of best global practices.

“I am very pleased to see the excellent collaboration and the sharing of workload between the telecommunications body and personnel within ECOWAS and WATRA. Their roles have become complementary and mutually reinforcing-policies legislative frameworks that have been designed at the ECOWAS level, while WATRA does the follow-up work of information-sharing, dialogue and learning dispersal amongst regulatory authorities. It is indeed becoming a well-articulated symphony,” he added.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of WATRA, Aliyu Aboki, emphasised the value of a trusted digital economy to any nation.

He cited a study by Accenture, which concludes that “a trusted digital economy would stimulate 2.8 per cent additional growth for major firms, with the new transactions generated totaling $5.2 trillion of value creation in the economy,” hence, the establishment and operationalisation of national and regional anti-fraud committee.

Aboki commended ECOWAS for “allowing this regional sharing of the enormous task of building Digital ECOWAS to work very well through WATRA, which is a regional manifestation of this collaborative structure”.

The WATRA chief restated that WATRA, as a mechanism for regional regulatory collaboration, will work in unison and ensure its vision is speedily executed by making sure that no nation in the region is left behind.

Speaking at the forum, the Acting Director, Digital Economy and Post, ECOWAS, Dr. Raphael Koffi, noted that while e-fraud in the provision of communication services had always been an issue being collectively tackled, variance in termination rates agreed in commercial roaming agreements had also constituted an obstacle to harmonisation of roaming tariffs which, he said, collaboration between WATRA and ECOWAS was set to achieve.

Participants at the event were updated on the status of the implementation of the Removal of Surcharges on International Traffic, SIIT, on ECOWAS countries; establishment of a uniform tariff cap for roaming call termination in the ECOWAS region, among others.

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The historical event took place in Maitama, Abuja, on 16th September 2021.

Danbatta, who is also the chairman of the Executive Council of WATRA, stated that the event was of such profound significance that it transcends the physical hoisting of the flag, noting that “it symbolises the cohesion taking place in WATRA” and giving concrete and louder expression to collaboration and cooperation among members states of the regional telecom regulatory body.

Prof. Danbatta also said that the increasing demonstration of cooperation and cohesion by WATRA member states signified the unflinching commitment to harnessing ICT resources to improve the quality of life of the people of the sub-region.

He noted that ICT remained an enabler for bridging the gaps in the pathway to development.

Strengthening Danbatta’s position, Ambassador Ndiaye, who is also Senegal’s Permanent Representative to ECOWAS, described the ceremony as a happy occasion.

He noted that it was gratifying to gather at WATRA secretariat to hoist the flag of Senegal alongside those of other member states.

He said Senegal had never relented in making remarkable contributions to ECOWAS and other regional bodies and indicated his country’s readiness to work within the political and economic framework of ECOWAS to streamline challenges facing regulators like WATRA.

Ambassador Ndiaye further stated that among the key challenges regulators face are the emergent Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, the convergence of networks and applications, the imperative of infrastructure sharing and the increasing needs of telecom consumers, dynamics of financial services, and electronic commerce in general.

Ndiaye asserted that the telecom regulator was central to the acceleration of growth in other sectors of the economy and therefore occupied a significant place in the socio-economic space.

He said he looked forward to continued collaboration to address the myriads of challenges in the telecom sector, and noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 and the envisioned post-COVID-19 relations had compounded the challenges of telecom regulation.

The Senegalese envoy seized the opportunity of the occasion to convey the gratitude of the government and people of Senegal to the Federal Government of Nigeria for hosting WATRA.

He also thanked the NCC for the support it had continued to offer WATRA and for promoting greater cooperation among member states towards harnessing the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Aliyu Yusuf Aboki, the Executive Secretary of WATRA, in his welcome address, expressed extreme delight at having the ambassador and the chairman of WATRA at the flag presentation and hoisting ceremony.

Aboki noted that the presence of the duo underscored the importance that “policymakers and political authorities in Africa attach to the digital economy as a means of promoting investment, jobs and growth”, even as the meeting also signified the sub-regional determination to work together in order to improve telecommunications regulations in a manner that enabled “operators and investors to deliver more affordable, higher quality and more innovative services” to the people of West Africa.

Aboki who also recalled the rare strides made by the government of Senegal in promoting digital economy amplified the voice of Ndiaye by expressing the gratitude of the 16 member countries of WATRA to the Nigerian government, which, through the NCC, has continued to support “the Assembly and for hosting WATRA.”

The West African Regulators Assembly, WATRA, is made up of ECOWAS member states and Mauritania.

The hoisting of the flag of member states of WATRA at the secretariat, an initiative of the Danbatta-led Executive Council, commenced after the last AGM where Aboki and Danbatta emerged, respectively, as Executive Secretary and Chairman of the Executive Council.

Thirteen member states had their respective flags hoisted at the AGM while Mauritania later sent a representative to perform the flag hoisting ceremony.

With Senegal’s symbolic presentation of its flag and its hoisting, WATRA looks forward very excitedly to The Republic of Ghana to present and hoist its flag soon, in order to complete that process to further consummate the bonding among members of the Assembly.

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Also voted in as Executive Secretary, ES, is the Nigerian candidate, Engr. Aliu Yusuf Aboki, whose emergence followed a keenly-contested election by member states.

Aboki scored the highest number of total votes cast, ahead of contestants from Liberia, Guinea, and Benin.

He succeeds the outgoing ES, Elhadj Mamman Laminou of Niger Republic, who held sway at WATRA for two terms.

Elated by the development, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, expressed optimism that the emergence of Nigeria as both Chairman and Executive Secretary of the sub-regional Assembly, would offer a new impetus for greater collaboration among member states to further drive the rapid development of the telecommunications industry for the benefit of the sub-region.

In the last 17 years, Aboki has worked in the Information and Communication Technology, ICT, industry and has the lofty agenda to work with member state regulators and other stakeholders to make WATRA play a more strategic role in shaping the regulation of the telecoms sector in the sub-region.

His agenda as the new ES of WATRA includes harmonisation of technical standards, connectivity with societies across borders, ensuring sound regulatory framework for telecommunications service delivery in West Africa, increased focus on ICT as a tool for socio-economic development as well as ensuring closer collaboration amongst member countries.

Speaking on behalf of the Nigerian delegates, Barrister Adewolu Adeleke, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, ECSM, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, congratulated the new ES on his emergence, and praised the outgoing ES for the satisfactory record of performance during his tenure.

He also congratulated other candidates for their participation in the process.

Adewolu also appreciated the delegates for the confidence to vote Nigeria as both chairman for 2021 and for the position of executive secretary.

He assured the members that Nigeria was committed to enhanced cooperation among members and pledged that the country would continue to work to advance the development of telecommunications in the sub-region.

The ECSM charged the new ES “to note all the comments and observations made by member countries during the AGM and tasked him on the need to be ES for all member states and not only for Nigeria.”

While pledging NCC’s support to ensure his success in office, Adewolu, however, stated that the commission, as a foremost regulatory organisation, would hold Aboki accountable to the highest standards, to deliver on WATRA objectives.

WATRA, an organisation of 16 independent National Regulatory Authorities was established to promote an efficient, adequate, and cost-effective ICT infrastructure and services in the West African sub-region, while fostering rapid telecommunications development across member states.

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