Intensify oil exploration in Northern Nigeria, Presidency orders NNPC

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to increase the tempo on crude oil exploration activities in the northern part of the country.




Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, who disclosed this, yesterday, when governor of Bauchi State, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, also lamented that Nigeria was currently facing difficult times. Baru said the NNPC currently had exploration activities going on in the frontier basin in Chad and also in some areas close to the Kolmani River, located in Bauchi State, where Shell had made some indicative discovery of hydrocarbons.

According to him, the President has directed the NNPC to go into that area to improve and further explore the magnitude and prospect of those finds. In response to the directive of the President, Baru disclosed that the NNPC was currently taking steps to re-strategise and get into those regions to step up crude oil exploration activities. “We will re-invigorate the Frontier Exploration Services and see how they collaborate with the Northern Nigeria Development Company, NNDC.

‘’NNDC is holding bloc 809 where we have some of the finds and also the Department for Petroleum Resources, DPR, for the other blocs that have not been assigned,” Baru added. On the tough economic situation, Baru lamented that the various attacks on oil and gas assets across the country was making it difficult for the corporation to meet its financial obligations to the country. He said: “It is a very difficult time for us with all the leakages that we suffer, especially infractions on our infrastructure, in terms of pipeline vandalism and theft to be able to meet our obligations to the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.

Facebook Moves One Step Closer to Light-Based Wireless Communication

The internet is often called the “World Wide Web,” but it’s not actually accessible to residents of a large portion of the world. Today, four billion people are offline, and 1.6 billion of them live in sparsely populated areas around the world.

In recent years, a race to solve that problem has emerged among big tech companies like Google, SpaceX and Facebook. Now, Facebook has published research on an unconventional solution: using light to wirelessly transmit internet signals. The work comes from a Facebook-led initiative called Internet.org, which, according to the initiative's website, has so far brought internet access to more than 25 million people.

Most internet signals today are transmitted at high rates through wired optical fiber networks — which require expensive infrastructure — or at lower rates through wireless radio frequencies, which are limited in bandwidth, subject to regulations and vulnerable to interception.

In a paper published Tuesday in Optica, researchers from Internet.org’s Connectivity Lab have outlined a new type of light detector that can be used for free-space optical communication, a communication technique that uses light to send data wirelessly.

“It’s a completely new design,” said Julian Cheng, a communications engineer at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study. With a device that’s simpler than traditional light receivers, he said, the Facebook team was able to achieve wireless data rates on the order of wired systems.

Free-space optical communication works by encoding communication signals in laser beams. Transmitters on the ground or in satellites shoot that light through the air to receivers that can decode the data. (To understand this on simple terms, think of encoding and sending information through morse code using a flashlight.)

One longstanding obstacle to free-space optical communication is a trade-off between speed and size. To increase the number of laser signals hitting a receiver, one can increase the size of the receiver. But doing so makes the receiver slower.

Instead, many free-space optical communication systems use smaller receivers with complex pointing and tracking systems. Because laser beams are narrow and travel in straight lines from point A to point B, these receivers have to continuously maneuver to catch laser beams head-on.

Imagine trying to water a small potted plant with a water gun from different angles, said Alan Willner, an optical communications scientist at the University of Southern California and president of the Optical Society, the professional society that published Internet.org’s paper. To maximize the amount of water you catch, you have to constantly move the pot around.

The Facebook researchers’ solution to this problem is a light detector that doesn’t need pointing and tracking, but still allows for fast transmission. To do this, they took advantage of fluorescence, the process of absorbing light and re-emitting it at a lower energy.

Facebook’s detector contains a spherical bundle of special fluorescent fibers. The bundle, somewhere between the size of a golf ball and tennis ball, is able to absorb blue laser light from any direction and re-emit it as green light. Because that green light is diffuse, it can then be funneled to a small receiver that converts the light back to data.

In our hypothetical example, imagine that instead of a water gun, you’re pointing a blow dart gun at a water balloon attached to a funnel over the potted plant. As soon as you hit the balloon, it pops and releases water. With the addition of the balloon, you’ve eliminated the need to move the pot around. You can shoot at the water balloon from any direction, and the plant will get watered.

Facebook’s new detector is able to achieve fast data rates of two gigabits per second — several orders of magnitude higher than those from radio frequencies — because light has a higher frequency than radio waves, and because the fluorescence process is fast. Free-space optical communication can also carry more information than radio communication, and is more secure because narrow laser beams are harder to intercept than wide radio waves.

Because of all these benefits, building on Facebook’s proof of concept holds tremendous potential not just for remote areas, but for meeting increased data demand all over the world, said Kamran Kiasaleh, an optical communications scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas who was not involved in the study.

The technology fits in with Facebook’s plans to beam internet access down from the skies using drones. With laser transmitters and arrays of these light detectors, drones could exchange data with one another and with ground stations. Indoors, these detectors could provide high data rates to mobile devices.

For now, the new light detector is still in early stages, said Tobias Tiecke, a communication systems scientist at Facebook and a co-author of the new paper. His team built their current device using off-the-shelf materials that are used for harvesting solar light.

“The performance of our system can still be increased much further by developing materials tailored for communication,” he said.

Adele kisses Nigerian fan on stage..

It was a most rewarding gesture to a Nigerian fan who travelled all the way from Nigeria to see his music model perform live on stage. It came as a surprise when the English singer and songwriter, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, popularly called, Adele, suddenly kissed him on stage and later said to him, “thanks for the kiss!” then laughed as the concert-goer got down on one knee in a mock proposal. She then added: “I love you too, thank you for coming to my show.”






It all happened when the Hello singer brought her fan up to the stage and was chatting with him when he revealed that he had travelled all the way from Nigeria. Touched, Adele went to kiss him on the cheek then burst out laughing after accidentally hitting his mouth. She then announced to the audience: “he just snogged me!” before taking a selfie with the delighted fan, while equally joking about the make of his phone as the audience cheered.

Benue Community Invaded by Herdsmen, 14 killed

NO fewer than 14 persons were killed on Monday, in an attack on Gaambe-Tiev, Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, by rampaging herdsmen, despite efforts by several parties to halt the unending invasion of Benue communities.













Vanguard learned that the invaders stormed the community at about 7:30a.m., shooting sporadically and razing buildings and farmland in the area.


According to an eyewitness, the invaders successfully razed several homes, killed and injured most of the victims at Adeyohor village along Uwer-Gov Sevav Road. He said: “The herdsmen, in their usual fashion, stormed Gaambe-Tiev this morning (yesterday), around 7:30a.m. in their numbers, shooting sporadically and shouting. The people never expected it.


“Everybody, including women and children, ran for their lives. Unfortunately, several persons lost their lives and many more were injured. Bodies of some of those killed are being recovered from the farms and we are still counting.” Reacting, member of the state House of Assembly representing Logo constituency, Dr. Kester Kyenge, who confirmed the latest attack, said the number of the dead could be far more than the 14 being circulated.


He said: “By tomorrow (today), we will have a clearer picture of the number of the dead. I plead with the government to act fast to stop these attacks and killings.” Contacted, Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent Moses Yamu, said he was yet to be briefed on the matter.

NO fewer than 14 persons were killed on Monday, in an attack on Gaambe-Tiev, Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, by rampaging herdsmen, despite efforts by several parties to halt the unending invasion of Benue communities.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/herdsmen-invade-benue-community-kill-14/

NO fewer than 14 persons were killed on Monday, in an attack on Gaambe-Tiev, Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, by rampaging herdsmen, despite efforts by several parties to halt the unending invasion of Benue communities.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/herdsmen-invade-benue-community-kill-14/

#Bring back the other girls

 Interestingly, there are people who think the publicised May 17  rescue of one of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists may well be a stunt to credit the President Muhammadu Buhari administration with an important achievement ahead of its first anniversary on May 29. These doubters provide a significant sign of the government’s public rating close to a year after the wind of change that blew the Goodluck Jonathan administration out of power.

This thinking that the Buhari government may have stage-managed the report of teenager Amina Ali’s return amounts to not only a discredit to the government’s credibility, but also a dishonour to Buhari’s advertised integrity. It is food for thought that things have come to such a pass, considering the high public optimism that greeted Buhari’s ascendancy.

It is clarifying that news of Amina’s rescue was corroborated by Chibok Girls Parents Association Chairman Yakubu Nkeki, and the spokesperson of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy group, Sesugh Akume.

It is enlightening that Presidential Villa watcher Olalekan Adetayo in a report captured what he called “A presidential treatment for a rescued captive”: “A presidential jet was sent to Borno State to bring her. She came with her mother, her brother and her baby. She arrived the Villa in a convoy of vehicles under tight security. She was driven straight to the forecourt of the President’s office through the Service Chiefs’ Gate. Only privileged few persons are driven through the gate that is reserved for the high and mighty.”

Adetayo also reported: “Amina… was accompanied by the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima; the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali; the National Security Adviser, Babangana Monguno; and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonishakin, among other top government officials.”

Buhari perhaps needed the photo opportunity more than Amina. Pictures of the President carrying Safiya, Amina’s baby girl, helped to project a powerful message about state capacity. It is noteworthy that the latest official information indicated that the military had recaptured 20 villages from the Islamist terrorists in 22 days under Operation Crackdown, and had rescued 150 civilians, including Amina.

 

Although Buhari spoke with reassuring optimism on the possibility of bringing back the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State, over two years ago, there is no question that it will take more than positive thinking and expression of hope to get the girls back. “Amina’s rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity to vital information,” Buhari said.  Borno State Governor Shettima sang the same tune, saying, “… 218 girls are not accounted for, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, the recovery of Amina Ali, is a sign of greater things to come…”

Apart from Amina’s case, the question concerning the fate of the victims of the outrageous kidnap of April 14, 2014, remains tragically unanswered. Out of the 276 seized students of the Girls Senior Secondary School, Chibok, 57 managed to escape. It is a cause for concern that only Amina has been rescued out of the remaining 219 girls, despite an international campaign that resonated across the world, involving United States First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

Lamentably, the strident demand for action, particularly political action by the political authorities, which was formulated as #BringBackOurGirls, has not yielded any significant progress in locating and returning the girls. This amounts to governmental failure.

Indeed, the unresolved kidnappings call for political will and fresh creative approaches.  As things stand, there is a seeming paralysis that hinders the desired action to get the girls back. In this matter, the government of the day must demonstrate that it is conscious of its institutional and moral responsibilities.

Notwithstanding initial footdragging by the Jonathan administration that was in power when the terrorists struck in Chibok, and the associated complications, President Buhari must rise to the challenge.

It is heart-warming that Buhari said: “Although we cannot do anything to reverse the horrors of her past, the Federal Government can and will do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course. Amina will get the best care that the Nigerian government can afford. We will ensure that she gets the best medical, emotional and whatever care that she requires to get full recovery and be integrated into the society.” This is a promise that must be kept.

Importantly, the occasion also yielded what may be considered as a policy position on girl-child education. It was positive that Buhari made a fundamental assertion: “The continuation of Amina’s education so abruptly disrupted will definitely be a priority of the Federal Government. Amina must be able to go back to school. Nobody in Nigeria should be put through the brutality of forced marriage. Every girl has a right to education and their choice of life.” Buhari should take a further step on this issue by officially intensifying the promotion of girl-child education and discouraging forced marriage across the country.

 

This is where Mohammed Hayatu comes in. He is the suspected Boko Haram terrorist who was found with Amina and who claimed to be her husband. Lagos activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) was helpful in defining Hayatu’s status. Falana argued: “The captured terrorist who was arrested with Amina is not her husband but an abductor and a rapist. The media should therefore desist from further referring to the criminal suspect as the husband of the girl…The Attorney-General of Borno State should proceed to charge the terrorist with abduction and slavery, torture and rape without any further delay.”

 

It is a thought-provoking irony that Baby Safiya bears a name that is contradicted by the circumstances of her birth. Safiya is a Muslim name meaning “pure”. The terrorism that resulted in Amina’s abduction and her subsequent violation by an alleged member of a violent group was not a reflection of purity. It is equally important to protect this baby from possible stigma, and help her to rise above the unfortunate context of her birth.

The celebration of Amina’s rescue and return is not inappropriate. But the other Chibok girls still missing deserve to be brought back too.

Five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually molest students if…

Lecturers that engage in sexual relationship with students would henceforth bag a five-year jail term if a bill in the Senate, seeking to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between them and their students is passed and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari. The bill on Wednesday, passed for first reading in the Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 46 other senators, seeks to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. Briefing journalists after plenary, Omo-Agege said the nation’s institutions of higher learning must be sanitised to rid them of lecturers who saw female students as “prize’.” According to him, when the bill is passed and signed into law, any lecturer found guilty will be liable to a jail term of up to five years but not less than two years with no option of fine.

“When passed into law, it makes it a criminal offence for any educator in a university, polytechnic or any other tertiary educational institution to violate or exploit the student-lecturer fiduciary relationship for sexual pleasures. “The bill imposes stiff penalties on offenders in its overall objective of providing tighter statutory protection for students against sexual hostility and all forms of sexual harassment in tertiary schools. “The bill provides a compulsory five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually harass students.

“When passed into law, vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and other chief executives of institutions of higher learning will go to jail for two years if they fail to act within a week on complaints of sexual harassment made by students. “The bill expressly allows sexually harassed students, their parents or guardians to seek civil remedies in damages against sexual predator lecturers before or after their successful criminal prosecution by the state,” Omo- Agege said.

Lol..!! Police detain men for eating late, demand N15,000 bribe

 The Surulere Police Division, Lagos State, on Tuesday arrested four men, who were accused of eating late in the night around the Ojuelegba Bridge in the Surulere area.
Our correspondent learnt that the suspects – one of them identified as Sango Svengali – were eating noodles at a shop on Ogunlana Drive around 11pm, when the policemen, said to be about eight, rounded them up.

The policemen, who reportedly brought three vans, were said to have accused the men of eating late and queried why they did not eat in their houses.
It was learnt that the suspects were subsequently whisked away to the Area C Command, Surulere.

It was learnt that the policemen at the counter allegedly demanded N15,000 ‘settlement’ from the men, threatening that they would sleep in the cell overnight if they failed to settle.
Our correspondent gathered that Svengali and his friends, who were not made to write any statement, offered N5,000 but the policemen refused.

Our correspondent learnt that on Wednesday, the suspects were brought before the area commander, who noted that they resembled Boko Haram members, ordering them to shave their beards.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Thursday after regaining his freedom, Svengali said the policemen did not ask any of them for identification before forcing them into their vans.
He said, “I had a stressful day at work on Tuesday. There was a lot of traffic. Instead of going home through the Third Mainland Bridge, I decided to spend the night at a friend’s place in Ojuelegba. Some other friends came to my friend’s place. Later, around 11pm, we were hungry and we decided to go down the road to buy noodles.

“The Mai shai are basically night-food people. So we knew they would still be selling food. We drove to Ogunlana Drive and saw a woman selling noodles by the roadside. The three of us decided to buy noodles and eat. We sat on the trunk of the two cars we brought and ate the food. As we were about to go, three police vans stopped by our vehicles. There were about eight policemen in the vans.
“The policemen dragged me into one of their vans. I was confused and wanted to resist. But when I saw the young man selling recharge cards beside the woman being slapped several times, I knew it was useless resisting. The policemen did not ask us any question. They did not ask us to identify ourselves.”

Svengali added that when they got to the station, they met eight others who had been arrested.
He said, “While in the van, the policemen sitting beside me collected my phone and started searching through it. He checked through my electronic mail, and when he did not find anything, he said, ‘Sometimes you go dey pray say you no dey road when devil dey pass.’ He added that we would ‘sort it out’ at the station.

“As we moved on, I noticed that my other friends – except one – were in the other vans. When we got to the station, we found that eight people had been picked up too. The policemen at the station said, ‘Why una no chop for house?’ One of my friends started negotiating for us at the counter. The policemen said they wanted N15,000 to let three of us go. He was begging them to take N5,000. They refused.

“The cell stank like a gutter. There were about 18 of us  there. We endured the stench till morning. When it was around 7am, we were brought before the area commander. We were lined up like criminals. He said our misdeed was that we ate at an unholy hour. He said we looked like fanatics and Boko Haram members.

“He ordered them to lock us up again. After some time, some of our friends came, one of them is a lawyer. He spoke to the area commander. He said the only way to release us was to shave our beards. The police bought shaving sticks and made us shave at the counter. I was so embarrassed. All this while, we never wrote any statement. We were not accused of anything. When I finally left, it was some minutes before 10am.”

Our correspondent learnt that one of the suspects communicated with the Complaints Response Unit, Abuja, through Twitter, to report the alleged bribe the policemen demanded.
 The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, had yet to reply to a text message sent to her phone on the incident.

The Head of the CRU, Force Headquarters, Abuja, CSP Abayomi Shogunle, however, replied on Twitter that a team of policemen had gone to the police station to ascertain the claim of the complainants.

He said, “A special monitoring team from the Force Headquarters on nationwide patrol is at the police station in Ojuelegba to verify this report. The complaint is acknowledged and the tracking number is CRU 359117.”