The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has directed all law enforcement agencies, regulators, businesses and stakeholders to begin the full implementation and enforcement of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act 2024.

According to a statement released by the Head-Strategic Communications Office of the NSA, Zakari Mijinyawa, Ribadu said all operationalization of the full implementation of the Cybercrimes Law has been addressed.

As a result, the NSA said a 0.5 percent levy on all electronic transactions valued by the specified businesses in the Second Schedule to the Cybercrimes Act would be paid and credited to the National Cybercrime Fund.

“Arising from the high-level African International Counter Terrorism Meeting in Abuja between April 22 and 23, 2024, African leaders stressed the urgent need for the improved deployment of greater support and resources towards strengthening cybersecurity activities in Africa and taking concrete steps to prevent the use of social media and other platforms by terrorists and organised criminal groups.

“In view of the need to secure Nigeria’s digital space and safeguard national security and economic interests, as well as deploy additional resources to counter terrorism and violent extremism as provided in section 44(5) of the Cybercrimes Act, all law enforcement agencies, regulators, businesses and stakeholders have been communicated by this office to put in place mechanisms for the full implementation and enforcement of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Amendment Act 2024.

“By this amendment, all impediments to the full operationalization of the Cybercrimes law have been addressed.

“Consequently, a levy of 0.5 per cent of all electronic transactions value by the specified businesses in the Second Schedule to the Act shall be paid and credited into the National Cybercrime Fund.”

It would be recalled that on July 6, 2022. Nigeria joined 66 other countries that have signed and ratified the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime to enhance international cooperation and provide common platform and procedural tools for efficient and safe cyberspace under section 41(2) (a) of the Cybercrime Act 2015.

The Police Command in Lagos State says it has arrested a gang of 10 suspected ritualists, who specialise in killing people and selling their body parts to ritualists.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed their arrest on Friday, while parading them before newsmen.

Hundeyin said that the leader of the gang, a 33-year-old man, Ademola Akinlosotu, used to exhume corpses from cemeteries and sell the parts to money ritualists.

He said those arrested included a community chief, an Ifa priest, an Osun priestess, an Islamic cleric and a trado-medicine practitioner.

He said they were arrested through intelligence reports from members of the public.

Hundeyin said that report obtained by the police also revealed that the suspects usually bring in people to their hide-out, adding that those people never came out alive again.

He said exhibits of different human parts were recovered from the suspects.

He said the police were on the trail of other suspects.

The spokesperson of the Police Command in Lagos State said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were completed.

Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of the parade, the leader of the gang, Ademola, said he got the human parts from dead bodies buried at the cemetery, before he graduated to killing – a job he had been doing for years.

Ademola said he moved to killing people to harvest parts because his clients requested for fresh parts and not dead body parts.

He said while he and some members of the gang would do the killings, he supplied the parts.

Ademola said he usually supplied the parts to a 52-year-old man, Ahmed Wahab, aka Alfa Bororo, who operated from Badagry in Lagos State and Ogun, to supply his clients.

According to him, a fresh human head is sold at N45,000 or N50,000 while a dry human head sells between N30,000 and N35,000; heart for N70,000 and hands for N50,000.

Ademola also said that he had only killed two persons, which included a friend he met through the social media, before he was arrested.

He said before they killed anyone, the herbalist would be contacted to consult the oracle if the killing would be successful or would bring trouble.

The suspect claimed that a traditional ruler in Badagry requested him to kill his son that was giving him problems.

He also said that the day they were to carry out the killing was the day his online friend visited him and he was killed.

The suspect said all he needed was the head, the heart and the hands.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Dr Philip Ugbodaga, as the substantive Medical Director the newly established National Orthopaedic Hospital in Benin City (NOHB), the Edo State.

Consequently, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, has presented a letter of appointment to Ugbodaga at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja.

It would be recalled that the Maxillofacial Surgeon was last year appointed as the Acting Medical Director of the Hospital by the immediate past Minister of State for Health, Hon Joseph Ekumankama, and was subsequently confirmed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Formal issuance of a letter of appointment to him was, however, delayed due to some administrative and bureaucratic issues.

But, few days ago, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, finally presented the letter of appointment on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Ugbodaga for an initial term of four years with effect from 1st August, 2023.

Alausa charged him to work hard to ensure that the Hospital provides quality healthcare services, in line with Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda.

The Minister reminded Ugbodaga of the enormous responsibilities of the office and the expectations of the government and people of the south-south geopolitical zone from him.

He urged him to justify the confidence reposed in him by the President, by working with all stakeholders for optimal quality service delivery in support of the Federal Ministry of Health’s 4-point agenda, which has the improvement of governance at the core of Mr. President’s renewed hope agenda of revamping the health sector towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

In his acceptance speech, Ugbodaga promised to deliver a strategic plan for the development of the Hospital within a reasonable time to the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare for his approval in line with the National Strategic Health Development Plan to make certain that effective, efficient and patient-centred care are delivered to Nigerians.

He is a life member of the West African College of Surgeons as well as a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons and had held several administrative positions in the past.

Ugbodaga, a former Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Edo State, also served as Medical Director, Central Hospital, Benin City; Special Assistant on Administration, Social Development, and International Cooperation to the immediate past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning.