TheNewsGuru

Tag: NPF

  • E-banking fraud: NCC wants better authentication processes for mobile apps

    As fraudsters continue to exploit the weaknesses of mobile apps, especially mobile banking apps, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said putting better authentication processes in place has become vital.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta stated this during a stakeholder’s forum on Financial Fraud Using Telecoms Platform the commission held on Tuesday.

    The event was organized as a response to the inundated public complaints on the unceasing cases of financial fraud via the use of telecom platforms and is poised at seeking initiatives aimed at creating greater awareness on the issue as well as creating ways of addressing these challenges.

    Danbatta, who delivered the welcome address, stated that the commission is poised for a robust infrastructure to support innovative technologies/services that will enhance the pursuit of excellence and development in all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

    “However, the malevolent use of this technology has become a growing concern in the industry, especially in the area of financial fraud.

    “As mobile apps integration with online payment platforms and other financial resources have improved over the years, the proportion of legitimate trade conducted using mobile phones and other portable devices has also increased.

    “Little wonder then that mobile channels have been seized by cyber-criminals as a new avenue for fraud.

    “Mobile apps as a whole are now quite easy for hackers and cyber criminals to hijack, corrupt, making them tools for fraudsters to steal credentials, impersonate genuine account holders and gain illicit access to funds.

    “Phishing tactics and social engineering ploys such as SIM Swap are part and parcel of the online fraud mechanism regardless of whether the transactions are conducted via mobile phone, desktop browser or point of presence.

    “Fraudsters continuing to exploit these weaknesses, putting better authentication processes in place is vital,” he said.

    Danbatta assured that the commission was collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and other relevant agencies in the fight against e-banking fraud.

    He said, “Effective collaboration and private organisation is a tool to tackling the scourge that has besieged financial and telecoms sectors”.

    At the panel discussion, telecom operators, financial institutions and regulators discussed ways to collaborate and prevent financial fraud.

    The forum drew participants from several regulatory institutions, ministries, department, agencies, telecom companies, financial institutions, industry players, security agencies and members of the press amongst several others.

     

  • New Year shocker: Housemaid, boyfriend connive to use teenage girl for rituals [Video]

    New Year shocker: Housemaid, boyfriend connive to use teenage girl for rituals [Video]

    By Kehinde Ajose and Ediri Oyibo

    A domestic worker and her plumber boyfriend have been apprehended and handed over to men of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), after preliminary investigations revealed that they were involved in alleged kidnap of 15-year-old Bella which they reportedly intended to use for money rituals.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) gathered that the domestic worker known as Tope [Surname withheld] and her plumber boyfriend, Sunday [Surname withheld] allegedly connived and kidnapped the victim, Bella on New Year Day.

    17-year-old Tope said she carried out the dastard act with 24-year-old Sunday, who is a plumber to Bella’s guardian, because he had promised her marriage, TNG gathered.

    Tope during interrogation said: “Sunday, my boyfriend called me on phone on the 30th of December 2018, saying he wants to be rich and that he is tired of wallowing in poverty”.

    Sunday and Tope all loved up
    Sunday and Tope all loved up

     

    She further said: “I asked him how he intends to become rich, knowing that he is a plumber”.

    “He then said he will do what his mates are doing to get money.

    “I then asked him if he wants to go into money rituals, but he said nothing,” Tope stated.

    “Thereafter, he convinced me that once he becomes rich, he is going to marry me.

    “He called me very early on the 1st of January to bring Bella outside the gate of our house, which I did,” she added.

    While explaining how she got Bella to Sunday, Tope said, “I woke Bella up and I took her outside in the guise of going to sweep the entrance of the house.

    “She succumbed and I left her outside with hope that Sunday would come to pick her.

    “I don’t know if Sunday came to pick her himself or if he sent someone to pick her”.

    In a chat with TNG, Bella’s guardian, whom Tope is working for, speaking on the incident, said that when Bella could not be found, they were compelled to question Tope, after discovering there had been communication between the plumber and her before and on the day of Bella’s disappearance.

    The guardian who reside in the Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos state said they had woken up with high hopes on the 1st of January 2019, getting set for their morning devotion when they found Bella was missing.

    “We had to beckon on Tope to go upstairs to call Bella for the morning devotion.

    “Amazingly, she wasn’t found and that was how she became missing for 3 days,” the guardian narrated.

    “She didn’t even confess until after Bella came back. When Bella came back, she was shocked. She was even crying.

    “I was thinking she was shocked that she has seen her, but later I realize that the shock was not about that.

    “It was about the fact that everything has been exposed,” he further stated.

    TNG gathered that Bella was miraculously found in the neighbourhood January 3rd looking shabby, without footwear.

    However, when Bella was questioned by her guardian about her disappearance in the night of her return, she could not recall anything, and then lost consciousness.

    “She cannot remember anything,” family sources who preferred anonymity told TNG.

    According to the guardian, she was immediately rushed to a hospital for treatment, where she is said to be recuperating.

    After hearing Tope’s confession, the guardian reported the case to the police in Festac town.

    “The case is still there at the Festac police station,” the guardian said.

    Sunday and Tope at the Police Station
    Sunday and Tope at the Police Station

    The guardian revealed that the police is also following up on one Alfa that Sunday took Bella to for ritual purpose.

    He said the police saw communication between Sunday and the Alfa, but that when Sunday was interrogated, he denied he doesn’t know anyone like that.

    However, Sunday later agreed he knows the Alfa, whom he took Bella to for the ritual purpose.

    “The police are saying that Tope is just 17, a juvenile, therefore, should be released on administrative bail.

    “I have to call the DPO and told him I don’t understand what his men are saying, that they want to release a kidnap suspect on a weekend on administrative bail on age grounds without proper investigation of the case,” he said.

    When contacted, the DPO, did not immediately pick TNG’s call nor returned our calls as at the time of filing this report.

    Meanwhile, the guardian told TNG that “Sunday could not say much because probably he has sworn to an oath not to reveal anything on the matter”.

    “If we didn’t find this girl, today, it would have been a different story. If the girl didn’t come back or we didn’t see her, we will be running helter-skelter, she will be sitting down here eating, and be asking, “Have you found her?” You will think she is on our side.

    “And more danger in it is that, if Sunday should finish with the rituals and the money comes, and Tope is still here, God forbid, he might want to eliminate Tope since she knows the secret.

    “They will say, one got missing, another one died, this pastor, what is he doing with people’s children. So, I really thank God.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BsVyxS1BuKc/

    “We thank God that Bella is getting better at the hospital where she has been placed on admission,” the guardian stated.

     

  • Nigeria Police disagree over sex in a car position

    Nigeria Police disagree over sex in a car position

    Lagos State Police has countered the Head of the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Mr Abayomi Shogunle, who said having sex in a car in a public place is not a crime in Nigeria.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Shogunle was responding to a Twitter user when he said sex in a car in a public place is not a crime in Nigeria, provided the location is not a place of worship, parties are 18 yrs+, the act is consensual (agreed to by parties), and parties are of opposite sex.

    Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Imohimin Edgal, on Wednesday in a statement signed by spokesman of the Lagos State Police command, CSP Chike Oti, said having sex inside a car parked in public place is an indecent act and offence punishable by law.

    “Sequel to the development, the CP Lagos has been advised by the Director of Public Prosecution of the state Ministry of Justice and the Legal Department of the State Police Command, Panti, Yaba with relevant sections of the law as follows:

    “Section 134 (a) Criminal Law of Lagos state 2015, prohibits any indecent act in any public place without lawful excuse. The Law holds that such person is liable on conviction to 2 years imprisonment.

    “Section 136 of the Criminal Law of Lagos state, 2015 provides that any person who commits any act of gross indecency with another person in public commits an offence and liable on conviction to 3 years imprisonment.

    “It must be noted that section 134 which deals with offences against morality particularly section 134 (a) have it that indecent act in a public place makes both parties engaging in the act liable to imprisonment for 2 years.

    “In the same vein, section 231 of the Criminal Code Act which is a Federal law and applicable in states other than the northern states where Penal Code is applicable also make Indecent Acts punishable.

    “Going forward, the authorities of the Lagos State Police Command hereby declares that the assertion that sex in a car in a public place is not a crime in Nigeria is misplaced as the provisions of the Criminal Law of Lagos State prohibits such acts in public even if it is done with consent of the other party,” Edgal said in the statement.

    The police boss, therefore, urged Lagosians to be guided by relevant sections of the law against such acts.

     

  • Breaking: Buhari approves enhanced salary structure for Police

    Breaking: Buhari approves enhanced salary structure for Police

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved Enhanced Salary Structure for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports President Buhari made the approval on Monday after meeting with Board of Police Service Commission at the State House, Abuja.

    The Board of Police Service Commission was led by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.

    Buhari assured of his administration commitment to continue to give attention to the welfare and operational needs of the Police.

    He regretted the inability of the Police in carrying out its constitutional role as the frontline force in the prevention of crime, which he said had led to military involvement in the maintenance of law and order throughout the country.

    “From Taraba to Sokoto, to the South-South, people don’t feel secure until they see the military.

    “I am pleased to make the increase in salary and allowances in the hope that it will increase the performance index of the police and strengthen Nigeria’s internal security system,” the President said.

    President Buhari observed that the more efficient the police is, the more confident the government and citizens will be.

    “The military should be reserved for higher tasks. The police should be able to cope well with the challenges of armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and such crimes.

    “In every town and village, there is the presence of the police. From all these places, they should be able to forward first class intelligence to you on which to act,” Buhari observed.

    He further observed that there is a need to amplify the question of more men of the police, “especially given the condition we are in – emergency in the North-East, pervasive insecurity and abduction for ransom and banditry in many parts of the country”.

    He congratulated the Police for the success recorded against what he described as criminals taxing people and stopping them from their farms.

    “We are expecting more from you,” the President told the police.

    TNG reports the Board of Police Service Commission, led by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, was on a “thank you” visit to Buhari following his approval of Rank Salary Structure Adjustment, by which salary, allowances and pension of policemen will be increased.

    Justice Clara Ogunbiyi (rtd), full-time Commissioner in the Nigeria Police Service Commission, who represented the Chairman, Musiliu Smith, had informed the President that the Rank Salary Structure Adjustment would enhance police welfare and morale.

    IGP Idris also assured that the police would redouble efforts, and also work to ensure free, fair and credible elections throughout the country next year.

     

  • Update: Police heed Senate order, vacate Akwa Ibom Assembly complex

    Update: Police heed Senate order, vacate Akwa Ibom Assembly complex

    Men of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and other security operatives barricading the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly complex have vacated the premises, following order by the Nigerian Senate.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the Police on Friday ended their siege on the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, as all entrances to the complex which had been barricaded since Tuesday morning are now open.

    The Nigerian Senate had on Thursday ordered the security agents, including the police, to vacate premises of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.

    The Senate gave the order after an extensive debate during Thursday’s plenary sitting.

    Senators put the matter to an open debate, before the resolution, for the police and other security operatives barricading the Assembly complex to vacate the premises, was reached.

    The Senate also ordered the police and the other security operatives not to prevent the State legislators from having access to the chambers.

    TNG reports a combined force of Police, Army and Civil Defense took over the entire complex of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, barring even staff from gaining access.

    Senator Bassey Akpan, representing Akwa Ibom North-East in the National Assembly, citing orders 42 and 52, first informed the Senate of the development during plenary on Wednesday.

    The Senate then directed its police committee to investigate circumstances surrounding sealing of the Assembly complex to find out what happened, and report back within 48 hours.

    During Thursday’s plenary session, Senator Akpan again drew the attention of the Senate to the situation.

    In his reaction, Senate President Bukola Saraki said, “This is a very serious matter and I think it is a matter that is non partisan. It is an action that is against the law that exists. Members of the parliament should have access”.

    He further stated that the “Police can provide law and order without necessarily preventing members of parliament to have access. The police has the responsibility to maintain law and order but at the same time, parliamentarians must have access to chambers.

    “We cannot allow this to happen now or in the future. A situation where the police can seal the chambers for more than 24 hours, is not something we should be a part of and not something we should support — irrespective of whoever is involved, I think we should stand for prosperity on the right side of history.

    ”The parliamentarians should still have access to the chambers there, or in any part of the country where we have a parliament.

    “The police should vacate but still provide necessary security”.

     

  • Police return N11m extorted money, dismiss 10, sanction 81 officers

    Police return N11m extorted money, dismiss 10, sanction 81 officers

    The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on Tuesday said after two years of setting up Police Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU), it recovered N11.1 million of extorted money and sanctioned 81 of its officers for various offences.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the PCRRU received 7,216 complaints and resolved 5,927 of them. 560 false complaints were received by the PCRRU.

    According to the NPF, the N11.1 million recovered by the PCRRU was returned back to owners, and the PCRRU also recovered USD800 that was returned to owners.

    While 10 Police officers were dismissed from service, a total number of 81 offers were sanctioned, 4 officers reduced in rank, one officer got severe reprimand, 2 officers got suspension and 64 officers were awarded other punishments.

    According to the NPF, from 13th November 2015 to 13th November 2018 the PCRRU was set up, the unit received 278 distress calls, had 1,820 cases requesting money for bail, 328 cases of benefit/next of kin, and 729 total pending cases.

    The PCRRU said it received 87,600 total incoming phone calls, with 5,175 registered and/or processed as complaints. Also, the PCRRU received 4,207 emails and processed 370 as complaints.

    State commands with the highest complaints are Lagos, Rivers, and the FCT; state commands with lowest complaints are Sokoto, Yobe and Kebbi, according ot the PCRRU.

    “Data are from only cases reported and processed by the PCRRU,” the Police stated.

     

  • Force HQ denies Police protest in Maiduguri

    Force HQ denies Police protest in Maiduguri

    The Nigeria Police Force has said no police personnel protested as a result of non-payment of special duty allowance and that police officers and men in the State are on their duty posts ensuring public peace and law and order in the State.

    Force Public Relations Officers, Ag. DCP Jimoh O. Moshood of the Force Headquarters in Abuja stated this in reactions to reports that policemen are protesting non-payment of allowances in Maiduguri.

    “The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to media report that Policemen protested in Maiduguri over non-payment of their Special Duty Allowance.

    “The Force wish to categorically state that it is not correct that police personnel protested in Maiduguri today, 2nd July, 2018,” the Force said in a statement.

    According to the Force Headquarters, “Some of the Police Mobile Force personnel on Special Duty in Maiduguri went to the Borno State Police Command Headquarters on enquiry over the delay in the payment of their special duty allowance in the early hours of today and not on protest as reported in some media”.

    “The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, NPM, mni promptly directed the Commissioner of Police, Borno State to address and inform them why there is delay in the payment of their special duty allowance, and also assure them that since the budget has been approved, the allowances will be expeditiously processed and paid without any further delay. They subsequently returned to their duty posts.

    “Consequently, the IGP has ordered the Commissioner of Police, Police Mobile Force (PMF) to proceed to Maiduguri, Borno State and other States in the North East where PMF personnel are deployed on special duty; to lecture and inform them on the efforts being made by the Force to ensure timely payment of special duty and other allowances to police personnel in the North East of the country.

    “The Police Mobile Force personnel that went on the enquiry are not those attached to Operation Lafiya Dole in the fight against insurgency in the North East but those on the category of visiting Police Mobile Force units deployed in Maiduguri on Crime Prevention and other Police duties in the State,” the statement further read.

     

  • Remuneration not a major problem of Police – ex IGP

    A former Inspector General of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba said on Sunday that what men and women of the Nigerian Police Force urgently needed was more than their remuneration.

    Abba told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the payment of the salaries of the Nigerian Police Force should not be allowed to disregard their needs during service and after their retirement.

    “Remuneration is not a major problem of the Nigerian Police today. One of the major problems of the Police is getting the trust of the public, so that they can work together in fighting the common enemy, which is crime.

    “As the largest Police Force in Africa, remuneration should not be used in assessing the welfare of the Nigerian Police.

    “Take care of their fall-back positions when they retire; take care of their children’s education, take care of their accommodation while in service and after service,’’ he said.

    Abba said that it was imperative for someone who was or had been engaged in crime prevention, like the Police, to work in service and retire with confidence and empowerment.

    The former IGP said that the necessary equipment, benefits and work conditions should be given to men and women of the Nigerian Police, as was being done in other parts of the world.

    Abba, who maintained that the current salaries of the Nigerian Police could not provide their needs, said that the provision of their additional needs would make them more efficient.

    He enjoined States agitating for State Police to know that the Police all over the world was expensive to maintain, adding that there was nothing wrong in establishing State Police when such States could maintain them.

    Abba said that it was only Lagos State that had showed signs of operating a State Police, and not some other States who could not even pay teachers’ salaries.

    “There is nothing wrong in States establishing their own Police, but we must know that the Police is expensive to maintain.

    “The Lagos State Government to some extent is prepared to sponsor the Police in its State, if they are handed over to it.

    “Many other States agitating for State Police are not in position to provide for such now because some of them cannot even now effectively pay the salaries of their teachers,’’ he said.

    Abba worked in various capacities in the Police Force. He served as Commissioner of Police in Lagos and Rivers States, and was a one-time AIG in charge of Zone 7, Abuja.

    He also once served as Aide-De-Camp (ADC) to Maryam Abacha, spouse of Nigeria’s former military leader, Sani Abacha.

     

  • Dino Melaye: Resume plenary on Wednesday even on crutches

    Senator Dino Melaye has been charged to resume plenary on Wednesday even on crutches as the National Assembly has been said not to feel the same without him.

    Senator, representing Bayelsa East in the Senate, Ben Murray-Bruce, who made the charge with an early morning tweet via his official Twitter handle on Monday, said Melaye should resume in whatever condition he is.

    “I want Dino Melaye to come to the Senate on Wednesday even if he is on crutches,” he tweeted.

    TheNewsGuru reports the Kogi West Senator has been away from the red chambers following his travails after allegations emerged he was involved in certain crimes.

    Following efforts by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to address his case, the Senator jumped from a Police moving van conveying him to Kogi state; but he landed in hospital instead.

    He has been arraigned, granted bail, and recuperating, but his colleagues want him back at the Senate sooner than later.

    “The Nigerian Senate is not the same without Dino,” Murray-Bruce stated in his tweet.

    “We miss him. I know he is on crutches but I want him to come on Wednesday and I will stand with him,” he added.

     

  • Again! Police parade over 50 vicious bandits, criminal militias [PHOTOS]

    Again! Police parade over 50 vicious bandits, criminal militias [PHOTOS]

    After the arrest and parade of notorious armed gang terrorizing Benue, Taraba and neighbouring States, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has yet again paraded fifty six vicious bandits and criminal militias.

    TheNewsGuru reports the fifty six vicious bandits and criminal militias, according to the Police, are responsible for several killings of innocent people, kidnappings and armed robbery in Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna state, to other villages and towns in Zamfara State.

    Following the killing of over 40 persons by suspected bandits at Gwaska in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State, last weekend, President Muhammadu Buhari approved a new military battalion, a new Police Area Command and two additional Div Police HQs for the Birnin-Gwari area.

    The Kaduna State Police commissioner, Austin Iwar, said the police deployed over 150 personnel to the area as directed by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Sunday.

    With the enhancement of security, the Police arrested and paraded vicious and notorious suspects responsible for selling and supply of AK47 rifles and other firearms and ammunition to armed bandits, militias and criminal herdsmen/farmers in Benue, Taraba, and neighbouring states.

    TheNewsGuru reports the major breakthrough in the arrest of the notorious gang of dealers in prohibited firearms and ammunition in Benue and Taraba states was made known on Tuesday when the suspects were paraded at the Benue State Police Command Headquarters.

    However, the fifty six vicious bandits and criminal militias arrested were paraded on Thursday at the divisional police headquarters in Katari, Kaduna state.

    See photos:

    Again! Police parade over 50 vicious bandits, criminal militias

    Again! Police parade over 50 vicious