The Management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has confirmed the death of a corps member, Okonta Dumebi Samuel with call-up number RV/15B/5539.
Reports gathered that Samuel who served at GCSS Ukpeliede was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Ahoada West Local Government Area during the Rivers State re-run elections on Saturday.
The NYSC in a statement issued in Abuja by the Director Public Relations, Abosede Aderibigbe said the murder of the corps member should be strongly condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians. “The murder of this patriotic young man, who was an orphan, is primitive, barbaric, and ungodly; and should be strongly condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians.
“The NYSC shall work with relevant agencies to ensure that the perpetrators of this heinous act are fished out and made to face the full wrath of the law.
“We consider Okonta Samuel’s death as a great loss, not only to his immediate family, but also to all of us in the NYSC family and the entire nation. The service then prayed for the repose of his soul and for the family to have the fortitude to bear the loss.
AMAA 2016 set To Hold In Lagos In April
The 2016 edition of the African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA is set to take place on Saturday, April 30.
The event, which is reputed to be one of the biggest movie award on the African continent, will be holding its 12th edition since it was founded in 2005.
This year’s AMAA will be preceded by a nominee unveiling in Dubai, UAE later this month as the awards seek to get more global partnership with prospective investors.
AMAA
The 2015 edition of the award was held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on Saturday, September 26, 2015 with top industry players turning up.
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FBI may have found way to unlock San Bernardino iPhone without Apple
A court hearing designed to force Apple into compromising its security systems for the iPhone was cancelled Monday at the request of federal authorities, who said they potentially had another way into the San Bernardino shooter’s phone.
Analysis Beyond surveillance: what could happen if Apple loses to the FBI
An Apple loss in the San Bernardino encryption case risks creating a world in which we can no longer trust the gadgets that track how we drive, when we’re home and whether the door is locked
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The astonishing reversal kicks the can down the road in what had become the climax of a two year battle over digital privacy between the US government and Silicon Valley. At the same time, the standoff between Apple and the Justice Department drew so much attention that policymakers or another court may weigh in soon regardless.
The government has until 5 April to determine whether it wants to pursue the case. Apple’s attorneys, in a conference call with reporters, said they do not consider the development a legal victory and warned they could be back in the same situation in two weeks. The attorneys spoke on the condition of not being quoted by name.
The company’s lawyers said they were as surprised as anyone and learned of the development in an afternoon phone call.
The government’s potential solution raises its own questions: if investigators figure out a way to hack into the device without Apple’s help, are they obligated to show Apple the security flaw they used to get inside? Attorneys for Apple, which almost assuredly would then patch such a flaw, said they would demand the government share their methods if they successfully get inside the phone.
On Monday evening, US magistrate judge Sheri Pym stayed her previous order that Apple help the government crack the passcode on the iPhone used by San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook, citing “uncertainty” on the part of the government.
In its filing, the justice department said it might have a different way to break into device – something cryptographers, leading data security experts and even Edward Snowden have said was possible without placing the cybersecurity of all iPhone users at risk through creating what Apple derisively calls “GovtOS”.
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Nevertheless, the government has stated repeatedly, under oath, that Apple alone had the technical ability to get inside the device. The government wanted Apple to use an official Apple software update to turn off some security features, including one that can cause the phone to wipe its storage if someone enters the wrong passcode 10 times.
The justice department request comes after more than a month of heated insistence that the only way the FBI could examine a locked iPhone used by the gunam was for Apple to write new software that would be missing some of its operating system’s security features.
US investigators said they have continued to look for new ways into the iPhone 5C used by Farook since the justice department took Apple to court. In 2014, Apple updated its iPhone software such that it could no longer download data from locked devices without the user’s passcode, which Apple does not know.
The White House, which has stood by the justice department in its feud with Apple, did not immediately comment on the reversal.
The FBI has been viewing security as an impedance rather than a necessity
Susan Landau
The forensic standstill caused many to question the FBI’s technical chops.
A law enforcement official who would not agree to be quoted by name said that the FBI was approached by an “outside party” unaffiliated with the government on Sunday who offered a prospective path into the phone that would not require Apple’s assistance. The official refused to identify the party, and said that many outside government had approached the FBI seeking to lend technical expertise.
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The government said it would like to test the method and then file a report with the court.
Susan Landau, a cybersecurity expert who in a recent congressional hearing lambasted the FBI for its poor understanding of digital forensics, told the Guardian that she “certainly” felt that the unexpected development demonstrated her point. Landau also said she was not the “outside party” who provided the potential breakthrough.
“The FBI has been viewing security as an impedance rather than a necessity. That the Bureau may not need Apple’s help to access the phone points up what’s been true in this case all along: the FBI needs to strengthen its own technological capabilities,” said Landau, a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.
The law enforcement official did not answer the Guardian’s question about what the apparently unsolicited outside guidance indicates about the FBI’s competence in digital investigations. James Comey, the FBI director who has made law enforcement access to encrypted communications a national issue, told Congress that sometimes the FBI does not have technical expertise to match its pop-culture portrayal as high-tech wizards.
FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on ‘The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy’, on 1 March 2016.
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FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on ‘The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy’, on 1 March 2016. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
Although the justice department had told the court that Apple had the “exclusive technical means” to provide the FBI with access to the locked phone, a second law enforcement official, who also would not be named, insisted the sudden breakthrough did not contradict the government’s earlier assurances.
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“The arguments in our pleading were that we needed Apple’s assistance as a last resort, as the FBI’s efforts to date had not been successful”, the official said. The official would not say if the “outside party” was solicited by the government or offered an unsolicited technical suggestion.
But attorney Alex Abdo of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a brief supporting Apple, lambasted the government’s reversal.
“This suggests that the FBI either doesn’t understand the technology well enough or wasn’t telling us the full truth earlier when it said that only Apple could break into the phone. Either possibility is disconcerting.”
On the one hand, the delay short-circuits a massive privacy battle between America’s most valuable company and its government that had been building for two years. National media were already descending Monday on southern California for the hearing in the federal courthouse in Riverside.
On the other, the government’s reversal seems to only postpone the inevitable. Both US officials and technology executives have said that if the San Bernardino case had not brought the two sides into court, another one surely would.
Melanie Newman, a justice department spokeswoman, said the department was “cautiously optimistic” that the proposed new investigative tactic would work, but testing was required.
“If this solution works, it will allow us to search the phone and continue our investigation into the terrorist attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 people,” Newman said in a statement.
Yet the FBI is, for now, spared a showdown with Apple that saw an unprecedented near-unanimity of leading tech firms, more than a dozen of which rallied to Apple’s defense in court. Even the US defense secretary, Ashton Carter, undercut the FBI in public by singing the praises of encryption in a recent San Francisco speech, suggesting a lack of government unity behind the FBI push. Thanks for reading.
Rivers Re-run: INEC Plotting To Manipulate Results, PDP Cries Out
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the seizure of result by the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a plot to manipulate and declare the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) winner of Saturday’s legislative re-run in Rivers State.
The PDP, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh on Monday stated that it will not accept any result that doesn’t tally with the figures from the polling units.
The statement reads: “Nigerians and the international community can now see the desperation of the APC, which has now arm-twisted INEC in the unholy bid to alter the results of the elections and subvert the will of the people.
Read Also: INEC Reveals Why It Suspends Rivers Re-run
“We want the APC and INEC to mark the salient fact that the PDP, the people of Rivers state and indeed all Nigerians are already aware of the results from respective polling centers, wards and local government areas and will in no way whatsoever accept any final result that does not tally with the actual and already established figures from the polling units.
“We wish to remind the APC and INEC that Rivers state is a known stronghold of the PDP and the results from the elections cannot show otherwise. INEC should therefore understand that Nigerians are aware that in withholding the final results, they are ostensibly preparing grounds for chaos in the state.
“While we invite all to note the avoidable growing tension occasioned by the desperation of the APC to steal the mandate of the people, we caution INEC to extricate itself from the evil web and immediately release all the final results of the ballot as cast by the people and nothing more”.
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I helped create Donald Trump the politician. Now I bitterly regret it Christopher R Barron
In early 2011, the gay conservative organization I co-founded, GOProud, was embroiled in a fight over our inclusion in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Forces of intolerance within the conservative movement were boycotting CPAC because they allowed our group to serve as a co-sponsor. After a bruising few months of fighting, we wanted to find a way to make CPAC not about the boycott, but about uniting and energizing the conservative movement. I decided to reach out to my friend and longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone to see if Trump would be interested in coming to CPAC as our guest and speaking to the gathering.
Just before he climbed into the waiting limo I yelled out to him ‘Mr Trump, please run for President’
Trump agreed and over the next couple weeks I worked with him and his team to arrange for his first ever speech at CPAC. I gave the New York Times the exclusive story of his surprise appearance and the reporter told me it was the first time the political section of the Times had actually covered Trump.
He arrived at the Wardman Park hotel in Washington DC in typical Trump fashion – he insisted on making a dramatic entrance through the front door (even though I had recommended he be whisked in through a private entrance). Trump was greeted like a rock star by thousands of grassroots conservatives and he delivered a barnburner of a speech in front of an overflow, standing room only crowd.
I walked with Trump out through the back of the hotel after his speech, assuring him that it had been a huge success. Just before he climbed into the waiting limo I yelled out to him: “Mr Trump, please run for president.”
Man, I had no idea this is where we would end up.
I loved the idea of Trump running for president. The idea of a charismatic, successful businessman who wouldn’t be a captive to special interests and who could fundamentally shake up the broken political status quo.
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I thought Trump could follow in Reagan’s footsteps. I was wrong.
Instead of emulating Reagan, Trump has played to the political cheap seats. Instead of offering Republicans a positive vision for the future, he chose to play on some of our most base fears.
Instead of building the conservative movement, Trump has torn it apart. Reagan attracted disaffected Democrats and independents, while at the same time keeping the core conservative base. Trump, on the other hand, has turned off movement conservatives while attracting the political equivalent of the Stars Wars cantina. He has allowed his campaign to play footsy with xenophobes, white nationalists and unreconstructed bigots.
I expected that, like any good businessman, Trump would first and foremost figure out what he didn’t understand and surround himself with some of the best and brightest policy minds in the country. Instead Trump has surrounded himself with yes men and sycophants.
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I expected that Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, a man whose own personal life was far from the family-values-crowd version of perfect, would run a campaign that would be libertarian on social issues. Instead he has actively sought the support of anti-gay zealots like Jerry Falwell Jr.
I expected that Trump would push the envelope, indeed I hoped he would break the rules. I did, however, believe that Trump would be guided by some sense of common decency. Instead his campaign has been more Andrew Dice Clay than Ronald Reagan – belittling POWs, women and the disabled.
It didn’t have to be like this. Trump has a natural charisma and God-given political talent that is rarely seen in today’s political world. I suspect that like any good businessman, Trump is merely selling what we, the political consumers, want to buy.
And there’s the rub. Being president isn’t just about selling us what we want to buy. Being president is often about selling us what we need to buy.
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INEC Reveals Why It Suspends Rivers Re-run
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why it suspended the legislative re-run election in some part of Rivers State.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by Oluwole Osaze- Uzzi, Director, Voter Education and Publicity.
The statement reads: Pursuant to the Orders of the Court of Appeal, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted elections into various seats in both the National and the Rivers State House of Assembly yesterday, the 19th of March, 2016.
Rather unfortunately, some of these elections witnessed the disruption of the process, including the barricading of some of the INEC Local Government offices and Registration Area Centres (RACs) used for the distribution of Electoral materials which led to the late commencement of the exercise in some places and consequently, its smooth take off.
Of more serious concern was the level of threats, violence and intimidation of election officials and voters by well-armed thugs and miscreants allegedly acting on behalf of some politicians, which marred the elections in some areas.
There were reports of numerous attacks resulting in fatalities, kidnappings, ballot snatching, diversion of officials and materials, amongst others, which necessitated its suspension in 8 Local Government Areas.
Regrettably, such deviant behaviour has continued today. Several permanent and ad hoc staff engaged have been attacked, again resulting in fatalities, while some have been forcibly abducted and taken to presently unknown destinations.
Under such difficult circumstance, the Returning Officers were only able to collate and declare results in 1 Federal and 9 State constituencies where the disruption and malpractices were not so widespread.
Having reviewed the situation, the Commission is compelled to suspend all further action concerning the exercise in all the other constituencies in the State pending the receipt of a comprehensive report from its Field Officials and Monitors.
For the avoidance of doubt, it should be noted that the suspension does not affect the constituencies where the exercise has been completed and the results declared by the Returning Officers.
'Living in hell': mentally ill people in Indonesia chained and confined
Almost 40 years after Indonesia banned the practice of shackling people with mental health conditions, nearly 19,000 are still living in chains, or are locked up in institutions where they are vulnerable to abuse, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The study says that although pasung – shackling or confining people with psychosocial disabilities – was banned in 1977, enduring stigma and a chronic lack of mental health care and community support services mean its use remains widespread.
People subjected to pasung can have their ankles bound with chains or wooden stocks for hours, days, months or even years. They are often kept outside, naked and unable to wash.
Mental illness one of development's 'invisible crises', says IMC expert
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Recent figures from the Indonesian government suggest that more than 57,000 people in Indonesia have endured pasung at least once, while an estimated 18,800 are currently chained or locked up.
In 2014, 1,274 cases of pasung were reported across 21 provinces and people were rescued in 93% of cases. There is, however, no data on how many of those were successfully rehabilitated and how many were later returned to their shackles.
HRW researchers spoke to one man who kept his daughter shackled for 15 years because he feared she had been bewitched and didn’t have the money to take her to a doctor.
“She became destructive, dug up other people’s crops and ate raw corn from the plant. I was ashamed and scared she’d do it again,” he said.
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“First I tied her wrist and ankles together with cables but she managed to untie herself so I decided to lock her up because the neighbours were scared.”
Although he released his daughter two months after the visit from HRW, he told the group that, for a decade and a half, she had been left to defecate in her room, which was never cleaned. She was not bathed in all that time, and was neither clothed nor visited. Her only contact with the outside world, beyond the meals pushed twice daily through a hole in the wall, came when local children pelted her with stones.
“Shackling people with mental health conditions is illegal in Indonesia, yet it remains a widespread and brutal practice,” said Kriti Sharma, disability rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report.
“People spend years locked up in chains, wooden stocks, or goat sheds because families don’t know what else to do and the government doesn’t do a good job of offering humane alternatives.”
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The report recognises that the government has taken action to address the practice through initiatives such as the “Indonesia free from pasung” programme, which aims to eradicate the practice by 2019. But it says progress is being stymied by the decentralised nature of the governmental system and by inadequate resources and infrastructure.
The study says that Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago country of 250 million people, has only about 800 psychiatrists and 48 mental hospitals, more than half of which are in just four of its 34 provinces.
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Noting that the ministry of health’s budget is 1.5% of Indonesia’s central government expenditure for 2015, the report describes mental health spending as negligible, adding that the latest data shows nearly 90% of those who may need to access mental health services are unable to do so.
Those locked up in institutions, meanwhile, can fall prey to physical and sexual violence, or find themselves subjected to involuntary treatments such as electroshock therapy, seclusion, restraint and forced contraception.
HRW found some of the facilities were overcrowded, while personal hygiene levels in many were “atrocious”, with people “routinely forced to sleep, eat, urinate and defecate in the same place”.
The organisation also documented the use of “magical” herbs, Qur’anic recitation and electroconvulsive therapy without anaesthesia and without consent. Cases of physical and sexual violence were noted by researchers: in seven of the institutions visited, male staff were either responsible for the women’s section or were able to come and go as they pleased, raising the risk of sexual violence.
The report calls on the Indonesian government to make mental health a priority by putting an end to pasung, ordering immediate inspections of state and private institutions, and instigating regular monitoring.
Other recommendations include amending the 2014 Mental Health Act to give people with psychosocial disabilities the same rights enjoyed by their fellow citizens, training mental health workers, and developing community-based services.
Equally important, however, is listening to the voices of those affected by mental illnesses, consulting them over their treatment, and seeking their informed consent.
“The thought that someone has been living in their own excrement and urine for 15 years in a locked room, isolated and not given any care whatsoever, is just horrifying,” said Sharma. “So many people told me, ‘This is like living in hell’. It really is.”
Thanks for reading.
