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Tag: intelligence

  • Abiodun advocates intelligence sharing

    Abiodun advocates intelligence sharing

    Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has called for intelligence sharing among security agencies to enable them tackle the security challenges confronting the nation.

    Speaking at the 4th South West Conference of Directors of Security meeting held in Abeokuta yesterday, the governor said intelligence is one of the needed tools that will assist security agencies to perform their duties optimally.

    He noted that criminals have adopted new methods in carrying out their nefarious activities, hence the need for the security agencies, particularly those in the Southwest region, to up their game and share intelligence to nip crimes in the bud.

    He said: “It is important that as a region, we share intelligence and see how to better secure our region because there can never be any meaningful socio-economic development in an outmostphere of insecurity.

    Read Also: Tinubu expanding horizon of entrepreneurship in Nigeria – Alake

    “Nobody will come and invest in your state no matter the amount of road you build, no matter the amount of infrastructure you provided. As long as there is an air or a feeling of insecurity, all that will amount to nothing.

    “It is important we understand that the socio-economic development that we all desire in our various states and zones can only be achieved when we have peace and security.”

    In a goodwill message, the Chairman, South West Directors of Security, Mr. Bolade Olori, said the meeting was to review the general security situation in the region with the aim of tackling it.

  • Insecurity: APC stalwart tasks Buhari to do more on intelligence in second term

    As the first tenure of Buhari-led administration is winding down in just less than three weeks, a chieftain of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Stanley Osifo, has called on the President to do more in the area of intelligence in his second term to subdue the spate of insecurity that had plunged Nigeria into a dangerous adventure in the last few years.

    Speaking with The Nation in a telephone chat in Lagos yesterday, Osifo said in  view of myriad of security challenges inherited by Buhari administration in 2015, the President has done his best and deserves commendations from Nigerians.

    The business mogul turned politician noted that the issue of security is a collective effort of every Nigerian to join hands with government to ensure a safe society.

    Osifo warned that politicisation of security issue in Nigeria is one major problem that must be condemned by all Nigerians to let the nation off hooks of various degrees of crimes that bedevilled the nation.

    The APC stalwart noted that given the reports that were issued by the military, one may not be far from truth that security challenge in Nigeria has a political undertone.

    Responding to the case of unemployment and poverty which many adjudged as factors responsible for proliferation of terrorist groups in the country, he opined that those factors should not be yardsticks to join band wagon and unleash mayhem on society.

    He urged Nigerian youths on collaborative efforts with government  to harness opportunities waiting for them in an enabling environment which Buhari-led administration has been doing its best to provide.

    He tasked the President to look beyond party line for his cabinet members in second term and get the right persons for the right positions who will reflect the uprightness he is known for across the globe.

    “The issues of security challenge has always been in the country and most time politics usually comes in to create division among Nigerians along ethnic and religious considerations. “

     

     

  • Of what use is your intelligence without money?

    Life hasn’t exactly been a barrel of laughs lately, no thanks to the barrage of messages calling for help. I have been inundated with requests for money. Some of my fans actually think I could assist them financially (hmm..wahala dey oooo!). Silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give you..treasures of the heart poured on paper, aired on radio. A fan sent me an SMS after I offered him, a piece of advice, it reads: “Of what use is your intelligence without money?”. It’s obvious we do not think alike. I work to learn- I don’t work for money..instead of simply working to earn only money which I admit is important, I’m also learning to build wealth. As an investor,my eyes are fixed on growing my intellectual, emotional and financial assets. My dividends are incremental and I don’t need to show off like “Omo Baba Olowo”(son of a billionaire). I buy the words of Robert Kiyosaki “ Education is more valuable than money, in the long run”. My greatest asset is my sound mind and with it, I can never be poor! Some people think most journalists are billionaires..hmm..fat chance of that!! The profession is a call to speak and uphold “the” truth under any circumstance, but the bitter truth is that how many people are willing to buy the truth? I believe that whatever you receive through lies may stay for a season but it will never last..buy the truth and sell it not. These words are for men not men in the making!!!

    I refused to be distracted by such an ill- informed opinion, but I’m human.. I barricaded myself by switching off my phone for some hours. However, when I switched it on I got a call from another fan in Benin, a veteran journalist, his words of encouragement ignited a fresh fire in me. That reminds me of the timeless wisdom, be careful not to chase away good while trying to avoid evil. Switching off my phone, paradoxically, was a blessing in disguise. While the phone was off, I picked up a book from my library and came across a thought-provoking quote by Sun Tzu (Author of the book of proverbial wisdom; The Art of War); “The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple where the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.. (Paraphrased).

    “Of what use is my intelligence without money” as an emotional intelligence practitioner, I recognized this as an emotional bullet shot at me and must be dealt with immediately. The words of Sun Tzu spurred me into action. In fact, the barrage of requests for money also became a burden of a sort so I had to do a lot of calculations. I would permit you to take a look at some: “If I earn more money, I could meet my urgent financial demands as at when due and then possibly assist those people with genuine needs with free mind empowering sessions and also follow up accordingly with the requisite information to raise funds for them. Good option, I thought but another thought came rushing in like a wind, “how would you earn more as a freelance journalist? Why not go back to paid employment?”. Before I could say, Jack Robinson, I was already salivating over the regular income I missed when I resigned from banking..hmm..the battle was getting bigger in my mind. Suddenly, my eyes snapped a line of words in the book: “There is no need for a general if there is no army…” Yes, I caught that! I understood immediately that the options flipping through my mind during this brainstorming session were an army. So I must take on the role of a general(psychologically). “ The general stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and discipline.”..Sun Tzu. These words opened my mind to the reality that I must deliberately exercise these virtues outlined by Sun Tzu and deploy the best strategy to combat this battle. I must protect my platoon (family, passion, relationships..) so that they successfully fulfill their mission with little or no casualties of war. Needful to say, generals, are made from soldiers who learn from their mistakes. In essence, the battle is on..and I’m learning to be a general over my army(of options). I will definitely celebrate my victory with you!

    I think that far too many people who aspire to be generals in their careers become spooky characters instead of men and women of great characters. You would agree with me that a general is not made from one successful battle but in many wars ( I say, many challenges). Some go out and fight one successful skirmish and think they are ready for promotion. True promotion comes from God(General of all generals)) through men/women. There is no crash course for becoming a general..you’ve got to fight and fight.. fight and be found standing after all. In fact, the primary accolades of a general are his/her experiences of failures and successes. While generals must eventually learn to command great armies, they often start as foot soldiers, first learning the disciplines and methods of commanding themselves.

    In a nutshell, making your mark in the world as a general (be it spiritual or secular)is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it takes patience, it takes commitment, much more zeal, with plenty of failures along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid the failures or not because you won’t. It is whether you allow them to discourage you and cause you to resign to a place of inactivity. I say to you, command thyself to arise and shine!

  • NAF neutralises scores of Boko Haram terrorists in Koleram, Borno

    The Nigerian Air Force ( NAF ), said it neutralised scores of Boko Haram terrorists in Koleram town in Borno. AVM Olatokunbo Adesanya, NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, who confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, said the operation was conducted on Monday.

    “The successful air strike by the NAF Alpha Jet aircraft followed calls from the General Officer Commanding ( GOC ), 8 Division of the Nigerian Army that troops conducting clearance operations at Koleram had come in contact with the insurgents.’’

    According to him, the NAF also provided Close Air Support ( CAS ) to ground troops.

    Adesanya said the GOC, therefore, requested for support from the NAF, adding that the Alpha Jet aircraft was immediately deployed to provide CAS.

    Read Also: ‘Boko Haram no longer holds our territory’ – Nigeria tells UN

    “On arrival over the location, there were exchanges of fire between the terrorists and our ground forces.

    “The crew of a NAF Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ( ISR ) aircraft established contact with the ground troops and guided the Alpha Jet aircraft crew to the major source of fire from the Boko Haram terrorists, which was seen coming from a particular settlement.

    “Consequently, the NAF Alpha Jet aircraft engaged the target with rockets and cannons, thus neutralizing the insurgents and destroying their weapons,’’ he said.

    The NAF spokesman said the Air Task Force would continue to conduct missions on request in support of the efforts of “our troops in the counterinsurgency operations in the North East.’’

    NAN

  • Amaeochi’s hometwn gets naval war college, intelligence school

    Amaeochi’s hometwn gets naval war college, intelligence school

    Ubima, the hometown of the Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, is hosting the temporary site of Naval War College, the highest naval training institution in Nigeria, as well as the Nigerian Navy Intelligence School.

    The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, who inaugurated the two facilities yesterday, said training is the bedrock of military professionalism.

    The inauguration ceremony was attended by the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice-Admiral Ibok Ibas; Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chief Kenneth Kobani; his Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson, also represented by the SSG, David Dokubo-Spiff; National Assembly members and other eminent personalities.

    The CDS said the military had been and would continue to place emphasis on training its personnel to ensure efficiency, greater productivity and effectiveness.

    Olonisakin said the approval of Ubima as the location of the Naval War College was given by President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the facilities must be used responsibly and property maintained.

    The CDS hailed Amaechi, former Rivers State governor, and his successor (Wike) for supporting the college and school.

    He said the schools would enhance security in the host community (Ubima), known for kidnapping, cultism, armed robbery, militancy and other criminal activities.

    Ibas said: “It is not surprising that premium is continually placed on improving the productivity and efficiency of our personnel. Nigerian Navy’s ability to discharge its mandate creditably is much of a function of available personnel quality, which in turn is governed by varied interplay of factors.

    “It is widely believed that from military organisation, a comfortable working environment, with the right working assets and equipment, is most essential and indeed indispensable to operational effectiveness. Nowhere else is the incorporation of such concept more required than in training structure, established to expand knowledge, to increase personnel confidence and raise productivity.

    “The Nigerian Navy fully appreciates this and, in tandem, naturally views training as our operational lifeblood. Training infrastructural deficit and decay are also being addressed. The centre is for specialised operational training, towards the promotion of national security.”

    The CNS hailed President Buhari for approving the war college and the stakeholders for their support.

  • Our operations are based on intelligence gathering —Customs CG’s team coordinator

    The Coordinator of the Comptroller General’s Compliance Team, Assistant Comptroller Musa Ibrahim Jalo, yesterday attributed his team’s success to coordinated intelligence with Customs Area Commands in the country.

    He explained that his team ‘’is not a parallel squad to the Customs Area Commands across the states of the federation. We are working in concert with the commands to nip smuggling in the bud.”

    Jalo explained that the team had recovered more than half a billion naira as revenue through the issuance of Debit Notes (DN) to importers who were not able to pay appropriate duties or who had the knack to evade such duties.

    “For instance, Comptroller Haruna is in charge of Federal Operations Unit (FOU), I am under him; we work hand in hand and we compliment their efforts, ”he said.

    He assured that all the logistics to make for a smooth operation had been provided by the Comptroller-General and his management team.

    ‘’Since the inauguration of the team in July last year, several goods have been intercepted and valued at millions of naira, they include thousands of bags of rice, vehicles including bullet proof cars, poultry products, vegetable oil, hides and skin as well as imported furniture.

    ‘’We trail smugglers right from the source. For instance, the importers or smugglers of these cars, are trailed from Benin Republic up to a safer area where we can arrest them. We are not to arrest anything that is not on Nigeria’s soil, so we devote time to trail the smugglers. It is not an easy job but we are attacking the challenges head on.’’

    Jalo said the war on smuggling is already a huge success with the coming of the CG Compliance team. According to him, his men are making great seizures across the country, while raising the bar in revenue generation. With the latest ban on vehicles importation form the land border, we have been intercepting new vehicles especially the SUV’s and other expensive cars like Hilux. He said more than 50 of such dainty cars were seized recently in Kano and Kaduna.

    He added: “I have commanders scattered all over the country; in the western zone, a Chief Superintendent leads a team of other sector commanders in sensitive land border routes. Unit officers in the Administrative, Revenue and Examination Unit headed by Chief Superintendent Nwokocha, has the capacity to seize goods, generate revenue which ordinarily would have been lost through the evasion of duties and ensuring provision of adequate day to day logistics to field officers.’’

  • Gambia’s ex notorious intelligence chief, deputy arrested

    Police have arrested Gambia’s former head of the national intelligence agency and his deputy, part of President Adama Barrow’s attempts to re-establish democracy in the small West African nation, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

    Spy chief Yankuba Badjie and director of operations Omar Jeng were detained on Monday and being investigated for potential abuses of power, spokesman Foday Conta told dpa.

    Badjie took over at the intelligence agency in 2013, with Jeng as his deputy.

    During this time, the intelligence agency carried out kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, torture, killings and rape, according to international human rights activists.

    Barrow has released dozens of opposition activists from prison since he took office on January 19, replacing Yahya Jammeh, who had ruled the Islamic Republic for the previous 22 years with an iron fist.

    Jammeh caused weeks of political impasse by refusing to accept the result of the December presidential election.

    After weeks of regional pressure and the threat of arrest by West African troops that had entered Gambia, Jammeh eventually conceded defeat and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea.(dpa/NAN)

  • How to know if you are really Intelligent

    How to know if you are really Intelligent

    What exactly does it mean to be intelligent? Quite a number of ways have been proposed for assessing intelligence, like the Intelligent Quotient IQ theory aka IQ, while another school of thought uses measures like intuition, job and academic success. In spite of the range of opinions available, comprehensive research shows that intelligence is hardly a fixed trait. Here is a list of traits that indicate true, undisputed intelligence, rather than bravado or self-confidence. 

    Being a voracious reader

    People who read a lot tend to have information that translates to knowledge in different areas of interest, and so when they make an assertion, they are more likely to be speaking from a standpoint of knowledge that can be referenced. People who doesn’t cite their sources, but insist upon an opinion regardless of evidence, are very likely exaggerating their expertise. The best way to confirm this is to casually ask what they like to do in their spare time. Research has proved that reading increases memory function, communication skills, and focus, apart from being a good way to gain knowledge about history or experiences that are different from your own.

     

    Being Able to See Both Sides of an Issue

    Anyone who can convincingly and articulately argue every side of an argument is really intelligent. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 author Travis Bradberry shows the problems with assumptions; a person who is well informed and thoughtful is very likely not pretending to be smart to succeed. If they are extremely passionate and knowledgeable about a topic from their own point of view, but have not evaluated every side of an issue, they neither understand it, nor know how to effectively respond to it.

     

    Being Able To Learn From Your Mistakes

    People who are smart accept their failures and use them as lessons for building future success. A recent study of decision making skills reports that important feedback from past mistakes leads to better performance the next time. This means that as frustrating as setbacks and mistakes can be, very smart people see them as opportunities to grow.

     

    Having Few Friends

    Intelligent people have fewer friends than other people, reason being the smarter you are, the more selective you are in choosing your friends, not to mention the fact that you prefer being on your own.

     

  • Mastercard deploys artificial intelligence

    Mastercard deploys artificial intelligence

    Mastercard has un-veiled  fraud management solution named Decision Intelligence (AI). The solution, it said, would use artificial intelligence technology to help financial institutions increase the accuracy of real-time approvals of genuine transactions and reduce false declines.

    This is the first use of AI being implemented on a global scale directly on the Mastercard network. Decision Intelligence claims to go beyond focusing primarily on risk assessment by taking a broader view in assessing, scoring and learning from each transaction. That score then enables the card issuer to apply the intelligence to the next transaction.

    “We are solving a major consumer pain point of being falsely declined when trying to make a purchase,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk and security, Mastercard. “By using AI technology on our global network, we’re helping financial institutions and merchants improve approval rates – and the consumer experience.”

    Building on other proprietary services, Decision Intelligence claims to use sophisticated algorithms to provide a predictive score to the issuer, based on intelligent analysis. Issuers then incorporate that information into their existing fraud mitigation efforts. Alternatively, issuers can activate a Mastercard tool, which makes data-driven, real-time decisions tailored to the account, including defined alert and decline thresholds.

    Decision Intelligence examines how a specific account is used over time to detect normal and abnormal shopping spending behaviors. In doing so, the product leverages account information like customer value segmentation, risk profiling, location, merchant, device data, time of day, and type of purchase made.

    “We estimate that in the U.S. alone, the value of false declines is more than 13 times the total amount lost to actual card fraud,” said Al Pascual, senior vice president, research director and head of fraud and security at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Applying machine learning to decision-scoring is a new way of creating a positive consumer experience, while also minimizing fraud.”

    The addition of AI as a core component of the Mastercard network is expected to deliver an enhanced fraud score for every transaction.

  • NAF destroys new Boko Haram camp, repel attack on troops

    NAF destroys new Boko Haram camp, repel attack on troops

    The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Tuesday destroyed a new camp being operated by the Boko Haram sect between Malam Fatori and Kangarwa in northern Borno State.

    The attack which was conducted overnight followed an intelligence report that survivors of a similar NAF Mi-17 helicopter attack on August 20 had converged at the new location.

    According to the Director, NAF Public Relations and Information, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, the post-strike Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) mission also revealed that surviving Boko Haram insurgents converged at the new location.

    This was followed up by series of follow-up Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions that led to the latest strike.

    Famuyiwa said: “The air assault is expected to further degrade the capability of the insurgents while fostering the creation of the necessary enablement for own ground troops to operate.”

    In another operation, NAF Alpha Jets have helped to repel an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on troops of 153 Battalion who were on fighting patrol at Ala Lumshe.

    The troops had come under attack from the insurgents about 4km south of Marte when the Alpha Jets were called-in to dislodge the insurgents.

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