Nigerian Police new LOOK: Nigeria Police To Wear New Uniform

As part of the on going reform process in the Nigeria police, the Inspector-General of Police Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday announced approval by President Goodluck Jonathan for a new camouflage uniform for the Nigeria Police.

Mr. Abubakar said his Tuesday public appearance in the new uniform signifies “a process of test running the uniform as one of the force’s operational outfits”.

Olusola Amore, the force spokesman said “the president and commander-in-chief of the armed force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, has approved a test-run of a camouflage dress for the Nigeria Police Force as one of its operational attires”.

Mr. Amore quoting Mr. Abubakar said “the new dress is in line with the transformation agenda of the Federal Government and the long desire of the police management team to reform and to launder an acceptable image for the police through the turn-out of its officers and men”.

“The camouflage which is an admixture of black, white and ash colours, will serve as an operational dress for the police with some inherent advantages when fully integrated and confirmed as one of the official police outfits”, the police spokesman said.

Enumerating the advantages of the new police camouflage Mr. Amore said the uniform is “cost effective to maintain; operationally durable; highly customized with security features to forestall impersonation and environmentally friendly”.

“The police boss is using this medium to call on general public to come up with constructive criticisms regarding the new police camouflage, so that public opinion will be given adequate consideration,” he stated further.

Woman in court for pouring faeces on husband's mistress

Agnes Olasehinde

A  28-year-old woman, Mrs Folashade Babatunde was yesterday Tuesday Feb 28th, arraigned before an Akure Senior Magistrate’s Court for allegedly pouring faeces on Agnes Olasehinde, (pictured above) a 27-year-old banker with First Bank Plc, Alagbaka branch, Akure.

According to the police prosecutor,  around 12.30 pm on Friday February 24th, Sade Babatunde allegedly entered the bank with a polythene bag full of faeces packaged in a can and allegedly poured the content on Miss Agnes, who was attending to customers, before security guards could stop her. When Sade was arrested, she accused Agnes of dating her husband.

Folashade Babatunde, a trader and Higher National Diploma student at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo in Ondo State was docked  on a two-count charge of act likely to cause breach of peace and assault. The accused pleaded not guilty to the two charges and was granted bail. The case was adjourned till March 27, for hearing.

Photo Speak! Mug Shot of James Onanefe Ibori (born 4 August 1958) Former Nigerian State Governor.

Ibori Admited being guilty of embezzling US$250 million belonging to the people of Nigeriai's oil rich Delta State in the Niger Delta Region. Ibori remains a PDP elder and godfather to selected militants in Nigeria. He is currently being held in a UK Prison awaiting sentencing.

Masturbation Not A Sin, says Oyakhilome

A shocking revelation by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers Love World, a.k.a. Christ Embassy, that masturbation is not a sin but a habit has reverberated on the internet including Youtube, with many people believing that the statement would draw different reactions from men of God in the coming days.
The video shows Pastor Chris and another Pastor of his church, Kwaku from Ghana,who asked Oyakhilome while he was preaching thus: “Pastor, how does one overcome masturbation?”
In response to his question, the clergyman, in the video believed to have been uploaded in 2011 but which has begun to spread like wildfire, said masturbation is a habit just like any other habit and that it is often misconstrued as a sin.
“The reason you are thinking of stopping it is because you think it has become a habit for you…masturbation is not more than a habit than any other habit.
“So once you make up your mind that you want to break a particular habit, you just do it, you make up your mind…in fact the best way to break a habit is to replace it with another habit.
“There is one thing I would like to bring to your mind that may be of help to you because the reason you are thinking of stopping this is because of what you think it is,” he said.
Using illustration, he said that if Kwaku was in the habit of playing football, he would not be asking how he should stop it.
He said: “No matter how wrong you think this is in your mind, get this straight, in itself, it is not a sin against God,” emphasising that as a result of this belief that it is a sin, Satan uses it to oppress people of God “making them feel ineffective an inefficient in the things of God.”
He said in Christianity as a religion, this habit has nothing to do with God but a lot to do with the body of the person practising.
“Satan uses his power to accuse you…so if you don’t like it, stop it, but God’s got nothing to do with it. It is your own body.
“Masturbation is about you and your body. God is not offended by it, He is only offended by any habit that takes hold of your mind and if this takes hold of your mind and dominates your body, God is offended.”
As expected of controversies, the video has generated varied opinions with some supporting the controversial preacher’s position on the matter, while others think the Pastor is wrong.

Woman bags 4 months imprisonment for committing adultery on Val’s day

This year’s Valentine might have come and gone. But for Mary Haruna, she would be spending the next four months behind bars as an Abuja Court has found her guilty of committing adultery against her husband on Val's Day.

NLC sets for another strike, asks government to revert to N65/liter; queries Jonathan on failed promises

It appears that the Nigerian fuel subsidy brouhaha is far from being over as another round of total strike is lurking around the corner.

The Nigerian Labour Congress recently asked that the Government reverts back to the previous pump price of petrol of N65 per liter from its present rate of N97 per liter. The statement was made in response to recent reports in the media that stated that the President is rethinking the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme.

President Goodluck Jonathan had recently said the Nigeria’s SURE program no longer realistic.

The President’s justification for rethinking the SURE program was that the program was made with the expectation that the downstream sector of the oil industry will be 100 per cent deregulated. As this was no longer the case, the program needed to be redrafted.

In the President’s own words:

“This (SURE) is developed with the expectation that we were going to completely deregulate the Downstream sector of the oil industry, the 100 per cent removal of subsidy… We are working on a new document based on the reality, but we don’t want to promise what we will not achieve.”

Meanwhile, the President’s recent remarks have been backed by the senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba who recently said:

“The President said he wanted to remove subsidy, Nigerians said they don’t want it removed. Now that he was not able to realise his plan, where will he get the money to carry out that policy…”

What do you think about this recent development? Are you ready for another strike action by NLC?

Biu dismissed for the second time

The Police Service Commission has dismissed Mr Zakari Biu from the Nigerian Police Force after it indicted him following d escape of Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto from police custody. The PSC, in a meeting held in Abuja today, approved the appointment of seven officers to the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Police. The new DIGs are: Suleiman Dauda Fakai, Atiku Yusufu Kafur , Emmanuel Kachi Udeoji, Haruna John

The embattled Commissioner of Police, Zakari Biu, was dismissed over the dramatic escape of Kabiru Abubakar Dikko, a.k.a. Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged mastermind of the Christmas day bombing of St Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, in which over 40 lives were lost.

Biu had been dismissed from the Force once before, in 1999, and was reinstated into the Force only in 2010. He was also due to retire from the Force at the end of this month having attained the mandatory age of 60.

Thriving bulk SMS business

Slowly but gradually, bulk shortmessage service, SMS is becoming a cash cow as many Nigerians and corporate organisations adopt this relatively cheap electronic device to reach thousands of people

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi
For a long time, Bayo Akinloye, a 38 year-old teacher with one of the private secondary schools in Lagos would ever remain grateful to the technology savvy in town. Having dreamed of having a big wedding ceremony last month, Bayo had everything going for him except how to reach hundreds of people he had wanted to be at the ceremony.

Apparently, part of the problem he had was that, apart from the fact that he could only print few invitation cards, reaching out to the different guests who were at different parts of the country was a herculean task.
The fi rst option for him was to send SMS otherwise known as text message but when he considered the challenge involved in sending the SMS to almost a thousand contacts from his mobile phone, he quickly dismissed the option as too cumbersome and expensive. However, the advice given to him by his friends to make use of bulk SMS seemed to have done the magic. As he found out, not only was it cheap, faster and convenient, it also afforded him the opportunity of customizing the message.

Instead of the usual number of the senders number showing, what the receivers of the message saw was Bola weds Bayo . To his delight, the SMS did the magic as hundreds of people he had thought he couldn't have reached with his few printed invitation cards attended his wedding. "It has indeed been an exciting experience for me", Bayo recalled.

Today, aside Bayo, there are thousands of people ranging from businesses, schools, churches, professional organizations, banks, estate agencies, marketing companies and others that now see the need in using bulk SMS services as the quickest way of getting messages across to their target audience. Often used in SMS marketing, as a matter of fact, Bulk SMS can be said to be the delivery of high SMS volumes from a server.
It is best used by clients who need to deliver messages to large groups of people either on a one-off or continuous basis. It is also effective where clients need to send instantaneous messages such as sports, community news or local information.

It can also be used to deliver contents such as marketing messages. Commonly used for alerts, reminders, marketing and also for information and communication between both staff and customers, people who are into the business of providing these services admit it is a lucrative one.
According to Muyiwa Ake, CEO of Zamar, while it is a common knowledge that today over 90 million Nigerians have access to phone facilities especially the GSM, many who are into the bulk SMS business are making over N300,000 monthly just sending text messages. Ake revealed that one of the reasons people now use the SMS frequently is the fact that while over 90 percent of mobile SMS marketing messages are read by recipients, generating average response rates of 15-30 percent or more, more corporate organisations are opting for the SMS as a way of breaking through advertising clutter especially for their promotions and marketing.

As he puts it, "This technique creates immediate results via SMS text message marketing to your target audience. Catch your clients at their cell phones. It reaches customers on the go, allowing them to get information, buy your product, enter contests or receive coupons instantaneously".
 Michael Udeme, an SMS retailer at Otigba in Computer Village, Ikeja Lagos said one of the people or organisations that make the business more lucrative these days based on their large patronage are churches.
According to him, quite a large number of churches patronize the business more often to send regular messages to their large number of congregation on a regular basis. 
"These churches have messages sent out to their members weekly, bi- weekly or monthly to remind them of services or special programmes. Based on this, I make a lot of money weekly providing them these services." Udeme told Naija Mega Infor.

However, getting into the business could be as simple as ABC, as it doesnt require much capital. Samuel Isa, CEO, Imax Communications explained that all one needs to do is to register and become a reseller. Becoming a reseller, he said, one gets his own Bulk SMS messaging application. Isa told Naija Mega Infor that a reseller needs to get registered with a vending company and get some marketing strategy that will help him win in the game of bulk SMS reseller's business in Nigeria.

According to him, while GSM service providers wholesale bulk SMSs to Content and Service Providers, who are connected to their networks, they in turn then offer this functionality to their clients to use. Some of the Content and Service Providers that offer bulk SMS services independent of the GSM operators include Cellulant Nigeria Limited, MobileXcetera Limited, Mtech Communications,SMSLive247. com, iTouch Global Concepts Nigeria Limited, GTS-Infotel Nigeria Limited among others.

To become a Bulk SMS reseller, - It's as simple as: sign up with a Bulk SMS Service Provider of your choice, have your portal confi gured for you (which they' ll do within minutes), add SMS Credit, and you're good to go! Prices charged for sending bulk SMS actually varies. Minimum start up SMS Units is 10,000 units at the rate of #1.50k. But in all cases, the more messages sent the cheaper.

For instance, in some cases, depending on the service provider, SMS between the range of 1000-9999 goes for N2 per SMS while 10,000-49,999 costs N1.80, 50,000-99,999 at N1.60, 100,000-999,999 at N1.50 and 1000000 and above costs N1.40. For the Bulk SMS business, essentially, software is required for sending and receiving bulk messages and various software packages are provided by the Bulk SMS Vendors.

These software packages are integrated into their system and provide users with the opportunity to add as many phone numbers as required as these phone numbers can be managed in a variety of ways. In most cases, most SMS software applications allow users to upload lists of mobile phone numbers using a TXT or CSV file.

Some sophisticated systems can automatically remove any duplicated numbers or the mobile numbers are validated prior to sending the messages. With enhanced software features, messages can be scheduled to be sent at specific times and or days and bulk messages can be sent on national and international mobile networks as long as the bulk messaging software provider sends internationally of which most Nigerian Bulk SMS Vendor's system allows.

Alternatively, If you have your own application and just looking for a simple SMS API connection, then you can set up an SMS API with an SMS services provider that allows you to send bulk SMS messages through a number of different API interfaces, HTTP, SMPP, SMTP or SOAP. This will require more capital and more technical knowledge.

For instance, setting up your own SMS website right away goes for between N15,000 and N20,000. Steps to be taken when registering include fi rst going to the website then click on the Sign up button to register. Subsequently, you go to your email to verify your registration and log on to your account with your email and password. The second step is to click on reseller button and send them 1000 SMS credit which is the cost of setting up your own website. An expert, Adeola Aberuagba noted that there are price rules one must have in mind.

According to him, while as a Gold reseller, you make sure you are buying from a company that is selling nothing more than N1, you also avoid seller who sells for higher price above N1.20 for silver a nd 1.30 for bronze packages as they are called by some of the users. Aberuagaba advised that the bulk SMS Website any user is getting must be APIs enabled as according to him, creating bulk sms website without API Swap option would only make you become a slave never having the option to swap to better service providers. How and where can one buy sms credits? Once you determine how much SMS credits you need, you can purchase SMS credits either by paying with your interswitch ATM card, or by paying cash or cheque directly into the vendors bank account.

ATM Card payment, experts note, is the fastest because it is instant as your account would be credited immediately ATM payment is made. However, you must login to your account and click the Buy Now link to make ATM Payment. While bank payments is said to roughly take 30 minutes if you paid in cash, Cheque payments are usually not credited until the cheque clears. In the bulk SMS business, as there are no fi x prices, there are also no form of rigid service which one might get across board. Different providers set out with different plans so as to attract resellers.

For instance, SMS Grace designs site like theirs for N10,000, exclusive of SMS UNITS and gives customers the complete freedom to send sms messages from anywhere in the world where you have access to a Web browser and Internet connection. At infor@50kobo.com, the pricing system is such that offers customers the advantage to get more SMS units for as long as they buy more. Besides, there is no maximum limit or expiry date for units while the minimum number of units that can be purchased at anytime is 100 units.

For Explorer SMS, their Bulk SMS Reseller's Package include getting your own branded Bulk SMS Application which gives you admin access and thus allowing you to manage your users, and credit SMS to your clients and so on. While users can proceed to make payment via any payment option he has confi gured in the admin end, it offers them services such as Compose SMS which is a standard sms composer. With this, resellers users can choose a Customized sender ID, send to multiple recipients and it comes with an sms length counter.

It also offers advance SMS, a facility which allows users send bulk messages, each to specifi c mobile contacts with a single click. With voice broadcast, your users can send bulk voice calls/robocalls while a transfer unit allows users transfer units to one another.

With the schedule option, reseller's users can schedul e sms/voice calls for future delivery as the message will be sent on the exact day and time, whether they are online or not. Meanwhile, the bulk SMS business is however, not without its own shortcomings especially for senders and receivers of messages. While in most cases, recipients do not have access to the phone number of the sender, what this means is that it does not give room for interaction in form of feedback.

But today, many have now devised a means of adding their numbers as part of the messages sent. Many recipients of bulk SMS messages are sometimes at a loss as to where the sender might have got his or her number as in most cases, he or she might not have had any contact with the sender. Adeoye Faseyi, a journalist, is a victim of bulk SMS messages with a harrowing experience.


Apart from the fact that he keeps on getting regular unsolicited bulk text messages, a particular one he gets from one of the private cab operators in Lagos has almost ruined his marriage as his wife has been accusing him of infi - delity. According to Adeoye, "There is this particular regular bulk SMS I get from Metro Taxi always thanking me for riding in the cab and ultimately urging me to take them for a ride again. Whereas I have not even gone near the taxi before, my wife has been accusing me of using the taxi to take my supposedly girlfriends out. It is very embarrassing to me because I don t know where they got my number from."