₦airaland Forum

What?

What

Please nah which page my President Dey now?

More

Hahahahaha

K

K

Police hmmmm

Make him go low

Kool

Arase!

K

Hmmmm

We know the business of violence but we apply it professionally if the peace of the land is being threatened, so we are appealing to Nigerians who are bent on causing violence stay off,” he said.
The GOC however insisted that the Army remains the guidance of Nigerian democracy, but stated that, an attempt on the Chief of the nation’s Army is akin to an attempt on a sitting president.

What happened to other citizens when army kill civilians
That have no weapon?

K

What?

i dey come

Hmmm

K

Sorry

Good one

K

What I don't believe it next!

What

Ha

K

Hmmm

When Gbolahan Oke, the Managing Director of a prominent construction company in Opebi, Lagos, bought his brand new BlackBerry Passport in October, the thought of keeping it out of the reach of his employees never crossed his mind.

It was not until one morning, three weeks ago, that he realised that he should have taken greater care. Oke stepped out of his office briefly and returned to find his N130,000 ($650) smartphone gone.

The culprit was his 35-year-old office janitor with over five years under the employ of Oke. Only after the invitation of policemen did she own up to the theft. The janitor, whose identity Oke wished to keep private, confessed that she sold the phone for N25,000 ($125) at Computer Village, Nigeria’s busiest commercial hub for information technology.



Inside the ring

As Dotun, a hardware trader in Computer Village, explained to our correspondent, selling stolen phones is as easy as can be. He stated that the first port of call for the seller of a stolen gadget is a fence — any of several ‘free agents’ loitering about the seven entrances to the bustling market, calling out to customers interested in buying or selling mobile devices.

To sell a device, Dotun noted, one would need to provide a receipt of purchase for the item on sale. But what if one has no receipt? That is not a problem.

“When it comes to stolen phones, some fences will ask you to sign some documents for them just in case the police trace the stolen phones to them. When the seller and the fence agree on a price, the seller is taken to a shop where the phone is bought and resold as a second-hand phone,” Dotun, who is in his early 20s, explained.

In pricing the phones, he explained further, the first consideration for the agent-buyers is how “clean” the phone is.

“That is, does the phone have scratches and is the battery good? They would test the phone and charge it to confirm. The number of people who are going into the business of buying and reselling such phones is increasing on a daily basis because the people that come to us for second-hand phones are far more than those that want to buy brand new phones,” he added.

With over 100 gadgets-trading fences in Computer Village alone, each selling as many as five phones daily at an average of N20,000 per unit, the illicit trade in the Ikeja-based market is worth billions annually.

Our correspondent gathered that shop owners dealing in second-hand gadgets buy the phones off the sellers via the fences, who get about 15 per cent of the money, while the sellers take the remaining 75 per cent. The shops then resell the devices at whatever prices they choose.

A Computer Village shop owner, who did want his name in print, broke it down: “If the phone goes for N20,000 in the market, the fence that wants to buy will bargain down to about N18,000 so that he can make a gain of about N1,500 or N2,000. It depends on the bargaining power of the person that wants to buy it.

“There are more than 100 fences in this market that buy from thieves or other people who don’t want their phones anymore. They mostly target phones in demand, so that in one or two days, they can sell it off.”

Dotun confirmed this, adding that fences are known to sell phones that were acquired dubiously.

“The boys are many and they are everywhere. You would see them in large numbers at the entrance of Computer Village, at the back entrance to the market and under Ikeja Bridge.”

“They are the ones spoiling the image of the second-hand phone business,” he said.

Dotun, who has over eight years’ experience, further stated that some other notable places where stolen gadgets are sold and bought are in slow-moving traffic and on the streets of Agege market, another bustling market in Lagos.

It is a common sight to find fences selling used phones of different brands in traffic.

He said, “Apart from phones, some sell laptops, iPads and tablets that have been stolen, but they are not as many as phones. Unfortunately, there is no way to identify a gadget that was stolen. It is only when the police comes to arrest someone for selling a stolen phone that one would know.”

Caught in the middle

Phones theft in Lagos, the country’s most populous city of over 11 million inhabitants, has transformed from random, isolated attacks into a supply channel for retailers of second-hand phones in Computer Village.

Isaiah Adebisi, an undergraduate at Lagos City Polytechnic, recalled with trepidation, how he and fellow passengers unwittingly boarded a commercial bus and fell victim to thieves on his way home from work.

He told SUNDAY PUNCH, “I left Sango at about 11 pm and took a commercial bus to Oshodi and arrived there some minutes to 12 am. The man sitting by the door suddenly locked it and brought out a gun. He collected the phones of everyone in the bus which were mostly BlackBerry.”

Uju-Amaka Ofili, an assistant manager at an advertising agency, also fell prey to a highway robbery incident.

“I was on my way to the office, walking along the road close to Agege bus stop when I felt a slight tug on my handbag from behind. A commercial motorcycle with two men aboard zoomed past me and the one at the back snatched my bag. I had my two phones in the bag — a BlackBerry Curve that cost me about N36,000 and a Nokia X3 of about N20,000. I was shouting for help but no one around budged.”

A thief’s delight


An iphone 6 displayed by a fence
BlackBerry Passport and Bold 5 are some of the phones most sought-after by users of second-hand mobile devices, but iPhone 6, the latest phone range from Apple whose market price ranges from N178,000 ($890) to N250,000 ($1,250), has the highest demand.

“Most customers that want to buy second-hand phones ask for the iPhone 6. Some sell the iPhone 4 at N10, 000. A 16-gigabyte iPhone 5 is about N35,000. The difference in the price between a new phone and a stolen or second-hand phone is huge,” Dotun said.

When our correspondent made checks from fence to fence, many of the second-hand devices were discovered to be selling at more than 400 per cent below their market prices.

One fence who approached this reporter holding an iPhone 6 initially gave the price of the mobile device as N80,000. He eventually agreed to collect N50,000. Other devices spotted included iPhone 5 (N35,000), iPhone 4 (N10,000-N15,000), BlackBerry Passport (N50,000-N80,000), BlackBerry Bold (N10,000), BlackBerry Curve (N10,000), iPad (N30,000), Samsung Tab (N30,000), Samsung S6 Edge (N60,000-N100,000) and Lenovo laptop (N36,000-N45,000).

According to CEO of Aviva Digital Limited, Michael Oseji, there is a certain level of prestige and value that is associated with using an iPhone.

He said, “This is why some thieves target that brand; they know its value.”

Aftersales drama

A trader in Computer Village, speaking on condition of anonymity, narrated his ordeal about getting caught in the police’s net.

The middle-aged man said, “A female customer called me to say she wanted to buy a phone. I told her to come to my office and when she arrived, I introduced her to one of my neighbours who sells ‘London-used’ phones. She bought the phone. One Saturday, after a year, the lady called me to say the phone had a problem and that I should come over to Shasha.

“I went to the place and was immediately picked up by the police; they didn’t even allow me to say anything. They took me straight to Ibadan, Oyo State from Lagos. It was when I got to Ibadan that I learnt that the phone was stolen with a car.”

The trader said the Divisional Police Officer at the station told him that if he would assist in arresting the reseller of the phone, he would be off the hook and he agreed.

According to Dotun, the story is the same for many other traders in the market under the scrutiny of law enforcement agents.

He illustrated how, in one instance, policemen traced a stolen phone to the seller using the BlackBerry Messenger application on the phone.

“When the lady’s phone was stolen, it was reset and resold to a new owner. Then one of her contacts on BBM sent a new invite to be re-added. After the customer accepted the invite, the contact found out the phone was stolen and arranged a meeting with the customer. Then policemen showed up at the meeting and seized the customer, leading to the arrest of the agent and the person who sold the phone,” Dotun explained.

Tracking phones

According to Oseji, the importance of activating or installing tracking features is two-fold.

He explained that most smartphones, like iPhone and Samsung products, come with in-built tracking features, which, if activated after purchase of the device, would automatically lock the device and wipe off all data in the event that it gets stolen.

“This does not mean the person who stole the device cannot use it. It simply means that if you have confidential information, it will be wiped from the device. That is one aspect to it: to protect yourself. The other is the criminal aspect. For those who go to buy these devices, it is criminal because if, for any reason, the police finds out, you will be arrested,” he said.

He explained that for non-Apple devices, though the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity technology may be helpful in tracking the device, its efficiency in terms of data destruction was uncertain.

Oseji said, “We all have confidential information on our phones, especially pictures. Once the phone is stolen, the priority should not be the phone itself, but what is on the phone. Even though the phones can be locked using the (IMEI) technology, I don’t know how efficient it is in terms of destroying the content of the phone. It is better to ensure that all your data is wiped off.

“Tablets, especially Samsung Galaxy and Apple, have the same tracking features as the phones. For laptops, people can buy independent tracking software to put on their laptops, especially Windows laptops, so that if one loses their laptop, it would at least wipe off sensitive information. It is very advisable.

“The same goes for Apple laptops; we install a third-party tracking software. If the laptop is stolen, the moment it comes online, it sends you a signal. But Nigerians don’t bother about all that; we don’t take advantage of those little security details of protecting our devices.”

Enforcing the law

When contacted to react to the increased incidence of phone-targeted robberies, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Joseph Offor, told SUNDAY PUNCH that nothing extra needed to be put in place in addition to the already laid-down structure for combating such a crime.

“There is no difference between phones and other valuables that robbers dispossess people of. We’ve been telling people that important gadgets should not be displayed where these crimes have been occurring. The arrangement we are making and the strategy we have is one that will prevent crime generally.

“When you want to cut corners and buy something from someone who does not deal in a particular property or line of business, you are on your own. So when you are arrested, the person must go in,” he said.

According to the police spokesperson, for every second-hand gadget sold, a receipt should be issued. For sellers, he said transactions must be done only with genuine documents associated with that particular item.

“But when somebody has no genuine document and he forges another document to sell the device, the police will know,” Offor added.

National crisis

The past President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, Dr. Chris Uwaje, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the issue of phone theft was multifaceted and attributed the trend to poverty, frivolity of the users and technology dumping in Nigeria.

“The attitude of mobile phone users is such that most of the time, they use it frivolously. The narrative would change when people start keeping their devices in their bags and pockets. Some even leave them open in the car, and then these hawkers come along and are enticed.

“There is also the issue of business models. Ordinarily, phones are supposed to be a tool on contract; that is, you sign on (with a network operator) and the phone is free. If a phone is on contract, it wouldn’t work for any other person because the phone would have been configured to you,” he said.

According to Uwaje, there is also the issue of technology dumping in Africa as a whole.

“Gadget dumping has been on for a long time and these are recycled commodity phones. Ordinarily, the normal thing is for the Nigerian Communications Commission to prompt network users (operators) that, in addition to their license, they must have a partner that manufacturers and assembles mobile phones in Nigeria. When they want to renew their license, they must show the partner and the plan. The phone production and assemblage will eventually create millions of jobs.

“In terms of technology dumping, when these phones are stolen, they can be sold to terrorists and when that happens, they would be using it as if they are the people who originally owned the phone. That is what is called misplaced identity. It is a national security Issue. It is a national employment issue.

“The hazard of these gadgets, because they are being imported from all over this country, and get spoilt so quickly, constitutes a nuisance that can cause cancer. We have millions of phones in this country that have been dumped. There has to be tight approval for phones, but there also has to be tight approval of software in the phones. There has to be indigenous software that would be capable of residing in the phone when there are phone manufacturing plans, prior to the license of mobile network providers.”

Source www.Punchng.com/inside-nigerias
-booming-stolen-phones-trade/


Watford striker Odion Ighalo scored 30 goals for the Hornets in 2015 to emerge the top scorer in the English league football but his wife insists the 26-year-old is even a better husband than a scorer, writes ’TANA AIYEJINA

Behind every successful man, there is a woman, so goes a popular saying. Watford striker Odion Ighalo is not an exemption.

Ighalo was the top scorer in English league football in 2015, finishing the calendar year with 30 goals, three goals ahead of Tottenham Hotspurs’ Harry Kane.



The Nigerian helped fire the Hornets into the Premier League in 2015 after an eight-year absence and has continued his fine form in the English top tier, netting 14 times in the 2015/16 campaign to take his total to 30 last year.

His astounding performances has earned him several awards and accolades, the most recent being the inaugural Edo FA awards, where he was named the 2015 Player of The Year (overseas-based) on December 30, 2015 at an elaborate ceremony at the Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre, Benin City, Edo State.

Ighalo couldn’t make the trip from England to Nigeria due to club commitments, but his wife, Sonia, was present at the event to receive the award on his behalf.

Beaming with smiles, Sonia was in ecstatic mood after collecting the award. And she didn’t hide her joy in receiving the award on Ighalo’s behalf.

“It’s a privilege as a wife to receive this award on behalf of my husband and I’m so happy about him winning it. Odion is very happy that he is being appreciated in his home state and he will continue to do his best to project the state in good light,” Sonia, who flew in from London to receive the award, told SUNDAY PUNCH.

Sonia has been a staunch supporter of her husband. During the Super Eagles 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Chad in Kaduna, Sonia was in the stands, watching with keen interest.

The stubborn Chadians had frustrated the Eagles attempts at grabbing the curtain raiser at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, until erstwhile coach Stephen Keshi brought on Ighalo for Aaron Samuel early in the second half.

Not many people knew the lady with a black gown, but they would soon get to know her. Nineteen minutes into the second half, Ighalo found Gbolahan Salami who fired into the roof for the opening goal.

In the 81st minute, Ighalo earned a penalty for the Eagles, after he was brought down inside the area. The ex-Udinese man seemed to have heard Sonia’s scream from the stands after he was felled and he dusted himself up, picked up the ball and slotted home the penalty for his first international goal.

Sonia screamed again, this time jumping from her seat to celebrate, to the astonishment of the other fans.

“Sometimes it’s not that easy for me watching him play football. For instance in Kaduna, when he won that penalty and wanted to take it, I was nervous but when he took it and scored, I jumped up and celebrated. It’s not that I’m afraid he will get injured but sometimes, it’s not just easy as a wife,” she added.

Ighalo undergoes a ritual before every game. He dedicates each game to God and hopes to come out unscathed even in defeat. Sonia plays her role too before her husband’s games.

“Anytime, before he goes out to play a game, I always pray for him and wish him the very best. It’s been God, He has been so faithful to us and we give Him all the thanks. There’s nothing much that I really do behind but I do encourage him as my husband anytime he’s out there playing.”

Before the game against Liverpool in December, there were questions about Ighalo’s ability to impress against the big sides. After all he had only scored against Sunderland, Norwich City, Newcastke United, West Ham United and the other ‘smaller’ clubs.

But he took the Reds to the sword as his brace and Nathan Ake’s opener helped the Hornets to an emphatic 3-0 win against the visitors. Next for the Hornets were Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Interestingly, Sonia is a staunch supporter of the Blues but her husband grabbed a goal as the faltering English champions held the visitors in a 2-2 draw. And Ighalo proved he could shine against the big boys.

Sonia said about the Chelsea game, “I was happy watching him play at Stamford Bridge because it was a dream come true for him but scoring against Chelsea was amazing, even though it was against the club I support. I was happy he scored against big teams like Chelsea and Liverpool. It’s not easy scoring against these sides because they have some of the best players in the world.

“My aim is for him to score anytime he goes out to play; I don’t mind whether it’s against my club or not. It brings me joy whenever he scores, so I will always support him to score.”

Ighalo acknowledges his wife’s support. Earlier in the season, Ighalo had hailed his wife for his remarkable displays in English football.

“My wife has been very crucial to my impressive career. She has been able to build a good home and she makes me and the children happy. She is everything to me,” the Edo-born footballer told goal.com.

Ighalo’s rise from humble beginnings in Ajegunle, a Lagos ghetto noted for crime and violence, to the topflight leagues of Europe, is amazing. He knew if he had to play at the top level and make a name for himself, he had to maintain a disciplined lifestyle.

Joining bad gangs was a choice he never contemplated; rather he turned to football for help. He wanted to follow in the paths of great stars like Sam Nwobum, Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amuneke, Jonathan Akpoborie, Ikpe Ekong and others, who were discovered from the ghetto.

His perseverance paid off and Ighalo was scouted from Julius Berger by Lyn Oslo as a 17-year-old, and he left for Norway, a country where temperatures were often 70 degrees colder.

After 10 months, he joined Udinese before being loaned out to their Spanish club, Granada, where he scored the winners in consecutive play-off finals as Granada gained promotion to La Liga.

But he had to stoop to conquer, when he left La Liga, where he rubbed shoulders with the world’s biggest stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Messi, for the English second tier with Watford. On arrival from Spain, he scored a remarkable 20 goals to help steer The Hornets back to the English Premier League.

But it was while at Udinese that he married Sonia and the fashion designer said it was the footballer’s humility that caught her attention.

“His humility endeared me to him; he is also a devout Christian. He is romantic but importantly, he is a humble guy and he is calm,” she said.

Having watched Ighalo score goals in Serie A, La Liga and the EPL, Sonia says England has provided the right platform for him to excel.

She said, “I prefer him in the EPL. I’m happy with him in the Premiership because he is really showing what he knows how to do and he is playing with the best players in the world. The EPL is a big platform for him just like La Liga or Serie A.”

Back home, fans are yearning to see Ighalo transfer club form to the Super Eagles. The striker has largely struggled to impress in national colours since he made his debut in March 2015, managing just two goals in seven games.

But Sonia said it was just a matter of time before he starts scoring regularly for Nigeria.

“I don’t think there’s any problem. All games are not the same. Sometimes, he’s unfortunate not to play well or score goals but I know he will surely do his best for his country too. He is always looking ahead to every Nigeria game, so that he can make Nigerians proud with his goals.”

Sonia, who describes herself as “a dedicated housewife”, said her husband is a fashion freak, who is in love with shoes

“He loves shoes. I think the most expensive things in his closet are his shoes,” she added.

She disclosed that the first of their two sons is already learning the tricks of the game in England.

“Daniel, who will be six in February, is already training with Watford’s kids’ team,” she added.

Source www.Punchng.com/ighalo-not-only-good-at-scoring-hes-romantic-wife/

Me don tyre for this gragra govt ha-ha 2day na im 2morow another sickness why?

Another madness

Mmmm