The Nation Newspaper

Tag: cyber cafe

  • Magistrate’s absence stalls cyber cafe operator’s trial

    The absence of a magistrate yesterday stalled the trial of a cyber cafe operator, Emeka Anuguo, charged with allegedly impersonating a Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) official and defrauding candidates, who wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exams.

    Anuguo was first arraigned on May 5 at an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on a two-count charge of fraud and impersonation.

    He pleaded not guilty and was granted N100, 000 bail.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on the last adjournment on June 22, hearing was also stalled, following the absence of two JAMB officials — Sunday Aladegbaye and Badaru Jubril — who reported the case.

    The Magistrate, Mrs. O. G. Oghre, then adjourned the case till July 27 for hearing.

    At the resumed hearing, both parties were in court, but the magistrate had proceeded on vacation.

    Consequently, the registrar gave October 17 for the next sitting after the magistrate would have resumed.

    Police Prosecutor Inspector Okete Ejime told the court that the accused committed the offences between May 1 and 30 at 7, Ojora Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    He said the accused deceived and cheated 70 JAMB candidates by collecting N3, 000 each from them.

    The accused said the money was for change of age, courses, institutions and to generate Remittal Code for them.

    He said the accused obtained the money without the consent of JAMB officials and also impersonated a JAMB official.

    The offences contravened sections 323 and 376 (2) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

  • ‘Cyber cafe fraudsters ‘ll face prosecution’

    The National Coordinator of the Cyber-Protection Corps of Nigeria (CPCN), Longe Olarenwaju, at the weekend said hard time awaits cyber cafe fraudsters in the country.

    He cautioned Nigerians against the abuse of social media to prevent cyber menace.

    Olarenwaju, who spoke at a forum on Cyber Crime in Akure, Ondo State capital, noted that it is dangerous for people to give information about their daily activities on the social media for security reasons.

    The agency chief said social media should be used for positive interactions and information sharing.

    He said cybercrime is an illegal activity committed on the Internet with the use of the computer or similar electronic devices.

    The CPCN coordinator said the cyber protection corps investigates issues on cybercrime to expose cybercriminals.

    According to him, the agency has been assisting law enforcement agents to arrest cybercriminals.

    Olanrewaju said CPCN recently trained some members and deployed them in each state in the Southwest to assist in fighting cybercriminals.

    He urged Nigerians to be wary of the antics of cybercriminals, adding that their actions could include spoofing, blackmail, sports betting, child pornography, prostitution and copyright infringement.

    Another Information Communication Technology (ICT) expert with CPCN, Godspower Otali, said people should desist from getting involved in internet financial scheme that make them lose substantial amounts of money.

    Otali cited the Ponzi scheme as an example of scams on the internet, saying it had made many people lose valuables and caused negative effects on the economy.

  • UTME: JAMB arrests cyber cafe operators for selling information to candidates for N10,000

    UTME: JAMB arrests cyber cafe operators for selling information to candidates for N10,000

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) yesterday said it had arrested operators of cyber  cafés for defrauding candidates of the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for N10,000 to access information on their e-mails.

    Its Head of Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said this yesterday in a statement issued in Abuja.

    He said the operators  deliberately changed the e-mail addresses and passwords of candidates to ensure that messages sent to the candidates by JAMB get to them (operators of cyber cafes) and in turn sell such information.

    “We also appeal to candidates not to allow cheats to defraud them as we have arrested cyber cafe operators who changed candidates email addresses and passwords  and ensure that all messages send to candidates get to them and in turn sale such information like examination notification for N10,000.

    “It’s our humble expectation that a candidate aspiring to be a student in any tertiary institution should be able to operate an email. All information are send to their email addresses and also on our site for the public use,” he said.

    He said the organisation did not post candidates out of their preferred towns as was reported in the media.

    “Again we want to reiterate that we did not post any candidate outside his or her town of choice as expressed in their application, contrary to reports in some quarters. Candidates are always allowed to make a choice of examination town while we allocate centres within the examination town chosen by a candidate,” he said.

    Fabian hailed the organisation for the successful conduct of the UTME, which began on Saturday across 642 computer based centres (CBT).

    He said: “We are happy that the 2017 UTME, which kicked off on Saturday, May 13, has been hitch-free so far and in line with the arrangements put in place for candidates to write the examination without stress.

    “All negative speculation of shift, change of schedules etc over the ongoing 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examinations (UTME) are from mischief-makers, who are desperate to create confusion before or during the exams, owing to personal and selfish interests that are detrimental to the development of public examination and education.

    “We thank all Nigerians who supported this drive. We promise that we will continue to fine-tune the process for the better. From the reports across the federation, there has not been any major hitch on the ongoing UTME with over 1.7 million registered candidates captured for the examination.”

    He advised candidates to check JAMB’s website as well as its official twitter handle for information concerning the conduct of the examination.

  • UTME-CBT: JAMB short-changes cyber cafe owners, others

    UTME-CBT: JAMB short-changes cyber cafe owners, others

    MIXED reactions have trailed the recently held 2014/2015 Joint Addmission and Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations-Computer Based Test (UTME-CBT) as praises and condemnations are coming from various quarters on its conduct.

    Aside  the ease, flexibility and capability to minimise examination malpractices attributed to it, many institutions and cyber cafe operators whose centres were used for the exercise appear not to be too happy with a deal which made them to lose everything to JAMB. According to them, it was a ‘rip off’.

    Director of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Oto/Ijanikin, Lagos, Mr. Victor Akinola, who shared this sentiment, urged JAMB to up its financial commitment to resource centres used for the last examination for subsequent editions of the examination to be more successful and encouraging.

    Akinola, who spoke to The Nation, said a situation where a candidate obtained the form at N4.500, but JAMB paying only N600.00 per candidate to the centres, is not fair and is capable of discouraging institutions that would want to offer their services to JAMB.

    The examination body, its bid to minimise examination fraud and introduce technology in line with global best practices, introduced the Computer-Based Test (CBT), the Paper-Pencil Test (PPT) and the Dual-Based Test (DBT) a few years ago. The Registrar of the board, Prof Dibu Ojerinde, announced in 2013 the phasing out of other mode of writing the examinations and endorsed the CBT, which has become operative.

    Counting AOCOED losses, Akinola explained why the institution has to deploy over N3 million on re-equipping its ICT centre ahead of the examination.

    “The money JAMB gave out to centres, did not even provide for the diesel used to power the computers during the examinations. The fund could not even provide for the servicing of computer and internet connectivity in the various centre,” he lamented.

    Under the new arrangement JAMB provided N600 per candidate (depending on the capacity of each centre) in addition to the Visat software for uploading JAMB question papers. Similarly, designated centres must provide other facilities ranging from CCTV monitor(for security), computer desktops, power and venues, among others.

    Using AOCOED as an example, Akinola said the college ICT centre not only gave away their facilities, but had to deploy more cash for facility upgrade.

    “We (AOCOED) acquired 80 new desktops and 20 laptops. The laptops were to support the desktops in the event of any failure. In all, we spent over N3m to get our centre perfectly okay despite that what we received (from JAMB) was not up to N3m,” he said.

    Akinola said those who officiated during the exercise were not given any financial motivation. He said  the institution had to provide over 120 litres of diesel daily to enhance uninterrupted power supply and mitigate the effect of epileptic power supply.

    “We have 3870 candidates in this centre, and we ran 180 students per session; that simply translates to 180 desktops per session. In addition, we have 20 laptop computers to support the 180 desktops in case any of the desktop malfunctions,” he said.

    “We had about 18 centres, and that is three sessions every day for 16 straight sessions except the last two on the last day, ‘’he added.

    Showing The Nation some of the burnt circuits during the exercise, Akinola lamented how the college server shot down due to heavy pressure from the computers being used, saying that it resulted into a fresh financial burden on the college in fixing them.

    Akinola’s joy, however, lies in the fact that despite pockets of technical hitches, AOCOED ICT centre scaled the hurdles.