The death has been reported by an All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Bauchi State.
The deceased who was the chairman of Bauchi Local Government Area, Husseini Musa Gwabba, was found lifeless in a hotel room in the state capital, Naija News learnt.
The cause of his death is yet to be determined but the state police command has ordered an autopsy.
Gwabba according to SaharaReporters, was found lifeless in a hotel room Saturday morning in Bauchi, the state capital.
The politician was said to have received a series of death threats from some persons suspected to be high-ranking members of the party who saw his emergence to the position as a threat to their survival in the party
Confirming the incident, the spokesperson for the police in the state, SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, said a thorough autopsy will be conducted on the remains of the politician to ascertain the cause of his death.
“The result of the autopsy as being awaited will be made public, please.
“Three suspects have been arrested in connection to the death of Gwabba and are being interrogated by the police,” Wakil said.
Meanwhile, Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has lost his Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters, Hon Tony Otokhine, in a fatal motor accident.
The sad development was confirmed in a Facebook post on Sunday evening by Governor Okowa’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Ossai Ovie Success, Naija News understands.
The government official disclosed with regret that Otokhine died in a ghastly crash while returning to Asaba after attending the traditional wedding of Nigeria Bar Association President, Olumide Akpata, on Saturday, May 14, in Benin City.
Success recalled their last conversation at the wedding event. He described the deceased as a humble and nice person to be with.
ISSAN Forum: Experts Raises Alarm Over Brain Drain Of Digital Skills In Africa
Experts have raised concerns over the growing shortage of general digital skills occasioned by the brain drain in Africa, stating that such development would further lead to rise in cyber-attacks and crimes with catastrophic consequences for businesses, governments, and citizens. This was the consensus of panelists that facilitated at the April edition of The Information Security Society of Africa – Nigeria (ISSAN) monthly meeting themed: ‘Addressing the Cybersecurity Skills Quagmire’. They opined that African countries must as a matter of urgency start Intentional development of digital skills at all levels, smart technology support, collaboration with the Diaspora and strategic supply of digital skills to Africa. Key speakers included President, ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe; Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Digital Jewels, Mrs. Doyin Odunfa; Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Stanbic IBTC, Abumere Igboa; CISO, Heritage Bank, Eduje Ighoakpo; CISO, First Bank, Harrison Nnaji; CISO, Standard Chartered Bank, Oghenefovie Oyawari and Tokunbo Taiwo, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Digital Jewels amongst several other speakers.
According to Mrs. Odunfa, the shortage of general digital skills at all levels is expected to become more critical as economies grows, noting that supply of digitally skilled labour must also increase to meet anticipated labour market needs. She observed that highly skilled African professionals have been emigrating African countries to pursue lucrative cultural and socio-economic opportunities on other continents leading to brain drain and skills gap on the continent. Whilst proffering solutions, she went further to recommend intentional development of digital skills at all levels, smart technology support, collaboration with the Diaspora and strategic supply to Africa and Western economies. “These young Africans are looking for higher-paying jobs outside Africa to escape socio-economic limitations such as poverty, limited infrastructure, and rudimentary jobs. They look for enabling environments in developed countries that provide rewarding businesses and obtain lucrative jobs, matching skilled individuals’ aspirations and expected socio-economic recompense. Many highly talented African students that obtain opportunities and scholarships of training abroad do not return home after completing studies.”
In his welcome address, President, ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe, said the brain drain in Africa as well as the digital skills shortage currently being experienced around the world calls for concern. According to him, “The cyberthreat landscape is still evolving. Cybersecurity space keeps getting very busy by the day. We have seen how daring cybercriminals can be, targeting both national assets and that of highly reputable firms. Even individuals are not left out. Consequently, it becomes imperative that organizations never relent in upholding and reinforcing information security best practices.”
The Information Security Society of Africa – Nigeria (ISSAN) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection of Nigeria’s cyberspace. They are significantly involved in ensuring the security of Banking Systems and applications, ATMs, e-government systems, and the entire cyberspace in Nigeria. ISSAN also seek to achieve its objectives through awareness heightening measures including the promotion of appropriate legislation and best practices. Membership cuts across both public and private sectors of the economy including Banks, Telecommunications Operators, Government parastatals, switching companies, IT and IT Security Consultancies, Legal Practitioners with a keen interest in cyber-related matters, Regulators.
ISSAN, which has existed for over 10 years in Nigeria, has proven to be a veritable platform for collaboration and exchange of ideas by members of the Banking and e-commerce public especially regarding safekeeping of PINS, controls over passwords, access to the internet as well as steps organizations should take to always keep their systems healthy and safe. ISSAN, therefore, performs a critical role in ensuring that Information Security professionals find their voice on matters of Information Security and that all stakeholders are duly informed of the steps to take to contribute their little quota towards ensuring a safe society for us all.
Zahra Buhari, daughter of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has advised Muslims on the way to act when faced with a blasphemous individual.
The mother of two took to her Instagram story to share a video of an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Assim Al-Hakeem teaching Muslims on how to respond when people insult the prophet.
He said: “This depends if you are in a Muslim country. This is a major offence that requires the intervention of the Muslim ruler. You simply report these individuals to the court or to the Muslim ruler.
“It’s the duty of the Muslim ruler to execute after going through the legistrative processes and going in front of panel of judges.
“You must not take matters into your own hands because this will turn the community into a jungle.”
This is coming two days after the gruesome murder of a female student, Deborah Samuel in Sokoto for alleged blasphemy.
Meanwhile, Deborah Samuel’s parents have described her death as tragic and heartbreaking, stating they have left her killers to God.
Deborah’s corpse was laid to rest in her birthplace of Tungan Magajiya in Niger State’s Rijau Local Government Area on Saturday evening.
Naija News recall her classmates stoned her to death and set her ablaze on Thursday for reportedly making a derogatory statement about Prophet Mohammed on a WhatsApp group.
In response to their daughter’s death, the heartbroken parents stated that they had nothing to say or do about it and that they have opted to put everything in God’s hands. Read more
The United Arab Emirates Government has announced a 40-day state mourning over the death of the country’s President, Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Friday.
The official news agency of the United Arab Emirates tweeted on Friday that he passed on at the age of 73.
“The Ministry of Presidential Affairs mourn the people of the UAE, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the whole world. The leader of the nation and the patron of its march, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, passed away to the Lord’s side today, Friday, May 13.
“The Ministry of Presidential Affairs also announced that the UAE will observe a forty-day state mourning with the flag flown at half-mast starting today, and suspend work at all ministries, departments, and federal, local and private entities for three days,” the agency tweeted.
Prior to his death, Al Nahyan served as the Emir of Abu Dhabi and led the territory’s modernization.
Elon Musk has announced that he will be putting his $44 billion dollar Twitter acquisition deal on hold.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk said he took the decision pending when he’s able to confirm Twitter’s claim that spam and fake accounts indeed represent less than 5% of total users of the microblogging platform.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he tweeted.
Following the pause, Twitter shares fell by 17.7% to $37.10 in premarket trading, reports Reuters.
This is the lowest price the shares have fallen to since Musk announced that he had purchased a large stake in the company back in April.
This means that the likelihood that the deal will close at the agreed price of $54.20 per share may fall below 50%.
It was reported that Twitter had earlier estimated that fake or spam accounts on the platform represented less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter of 2022, when it recorded 229 million users.
The Tesla CEO has earlier pledged to remove “spam bots” and authenticate all humans on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Musk had revealed that when the deal closes, he would reverse Donald Trump’s Twitter ban, calling the decision to ban him in the first place “a morally bad decision”.
“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake. It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.
“It was a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme”, he said.
Trump’s account was ‘permanently suspended’ from the microblogging app since January 2021, after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the United States’ Capitol building on January 6th, due to the ‘risk of inciting further violence’.
THE WHISTLER reported that Twitter agreed to Musk’s offer to acquire the company for $44 billion last month. Musk was excited about the development, saying that he wanted to make Twitter better than ever before by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans.
The recent and unending crisis that has rocked the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, has prompted the President of Nigeria to approve the withdrawal of the country’s basketball team in all international competitions for two years.
Mr Sunday Dare, the Minister of youth and sports, disclosed Buhari’s decision.
This withdrawal gives the Government a big opportunity to address the internal crisis and power tussle within the federation and to revive the domestic league which has been put on hold.
The government will also use this time to set up an Interim Management Committee who will supervise and manage the domestic league and address other internal issues involving the Basketball Federation.
The Presidency has said ministers and political appointees who are seeking elective office but refused to resign would be sacked.
Naija News reports that Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, made this known in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed members of his cabinet and other government appointees nursing political ambitions to resign before May 16.
According to Shehu, any political appointee who has political ambition but continues to stay in office “would have someone decide for him or her”.
The presidential spokesman noted that the presidential directive is clear and straightforward, stressing that the appointees have to obey the order.
He added that the circular of the government to the effect was issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and duly approved by the President.
“We are dealing with a government policy, a government directive, a circular of the government issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation duly approved by the President [which] clearly states who is to go.
“So, I think that in a few occupied offices like that, you make the decision by yourself otherwise, someone would decide for you. So, that’s the point,” he said.
Speaking further, Shehu said the furore about the cost of the presidential nomination and expression of interest forms for the All Progressives Congress (APC) was unnecessary.
The presidential aide stated that aspirants can source money by various means such as donations from their supporters, associates and well wishers.
Shehu, however, said it is not the place of the presidency to direct the various anti-corruption agencies in the country to investigate the sources of funding of the aspirants.
He also suggested that the APC should not refund monies used in the purchase of the forms even if an aspirant makes a U-turn in their pursuit.
A yet-to-be-identified female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto was on Thursday beaten and burnt to death for alleged blasphemy.
The school has announced its shutdown over the crisis.
The treatment of those deemed to have insulted the prophet of Islam (Muhammad), or the religion itself in Nigeria’s northern region is a source of concern.
In 2020, a Shariah court in that axis condemned Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a 22-year-old Muslim gospel musician, to death for committing blasphemy in a series of private WhatsApp messages. The same court found a 16-year-old boy, Umar Farouk, guilty of blasphemy for reportedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad while arguing with a friend and sentenced him to 10 years in prison with manual labour.
Farouk’s sentence has been overturned, and Sharif-Aminu’s case has been sent for retrial. But these sentences critics consider harsh, are only examples of the problematic application of Shariah law in some states in northern Nigeria.
More worrisome is the latest mob action against the tertiary institution student.
A gateman with Mabila Hotel in Ikorodu, Lagos State, was killed in the early hours on Wednesday by some unknown gunmen and robbed some officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that lodged there.
The Police spokesman for Lagos Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said that the JAMB officials had been relocated to a safe place.
The PPRO said, “One Prof. Odunsi, an official of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) who lodged at the hotel was robbed of his two phones, one HP Laptop and N20,000 cash.
“Similarly, two female officials of JAMB, who lodged at the hotel, were robbed of their phones and jewellery,” he said.
The spokesman said that the hoodlums shot the hotel’s gateman, simply identified as Peter, 40, who attempted to prevent them from escaping.
He explained that the gateman was rushed to an undisclosed hospital where he later died, adding that the corpse had been deposited at the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary.
Hundeyin said that the police got a distress call at about 2.40 a.m. on Wednesday that some hoodlums had invaded the hotel located at No. 60, Omodisu St., Asolo-Owutu, Agric area in Ikorodu.
He said that based on the call, the police from Owutu Division went to the place immediately, adding that when the hoodlums sighted the police van coming, they all fled in a Lexus SUV.
“The Commissioner of Police for Lagos State, CP Abiodun Alabi, has assured that no stone will be left unturned. He has ordered a serious manhunt for the suspects,” he said.
![BREAKING: Female student burnt to death in Sokoto ‘for insulting Muhammad’ [VIDEO]](https://www.societygazetteng.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/images-2022-05-12T143255.198.jpeg)
