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  • IRep to start Thursday, mourns Adesanmi, others

    The Irepresent International Documentary Film Festival, iREP, scheduled to begin on Thursday will recognize Nigerian born Canadian Professor Pius Adesanmi who until his death aboard the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines crash of March 10 was Professor of African Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa.

    iREP will also pay other members of the arts and culture space who passed on recently. They are Film historian-critic, Professor Frank Ukadike; the visual arts curators, Bisi Silva and Okwui Enwenzor and the theatre artiste and prolific TV drama scriptwriter, Paul Emema.

    The 2019 edition of iREP, with ‘Storylines’ as theme, will hold from Thursday, March 21 to Sunday, March 24, 2019 at the Freedom Park, Broad Street and the Nigerian Film Corporation, Ikoyi, both in Lagos. And in conjunction with co-curating partners; African World Documentary Film Festival (AWDFF), AGDOK, and German Documentaries, iREP will screen over 50 films from over 100 submissions by local and international filmmakers. And more films were submitted this year by Nigerian (Nigeria-based) producers than in past nine years.

    Some Nigerian filmmakers showcasing in iREP this year are Tam Fiofori, Tunde Kelani, Afolabi Adesanya, Beverly Naya, James Amuta and Aderonke Adeola.  Others are Adeola Osunkojo, Tolulope Itegboje, Ronke Macaulay, Toyin Ibrahim Adekeye and Gbenga Salu.

    iREP is conceived on the traditional framework of Africa in Self-conversation.

    Also, the festival features iREP producers’ Roundtable, paper presentations and panel discussions, training and workshop and of course, the iREP cocktail. Dr. Tunji Azeez, of the Department of Theatre and  Music, Lagos State University will take 50 participants on Scripting For Beginnners; Basic Course In Storytelling from Monday, March 18 through Wednesday, March 20. A second class, Advance Directing Masterclass, will be taken by director, Tolu Ajayi,

    The festival will also honour Mrs Bolanle Austin-Peters, the CEO of Terra Kulture,  a frontline promoter of arts and culture, on occasion of her 50th birthday anniversary because “essentially, she represents the spirit of progress and possibilities in our culture producing community; a major inspiration to many young people.” The honour will be presented to her at the Festival opening Cocktail event on Wednesday, March 20 at the amphitheatre of Freedom Park.

    Some resource persons are Prof Awam Amkpa, Prof Niyi Coker, Theo Lawson and Dr Paul Ugor.

    The iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival was initiated with the objective of promoting independent documentary filmmaking in Nigeria and Africa.

  • Adebule congratulates Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, others

    Lagos State Deputy Governor Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule has congratulated the candidates of  All Progressives Congress Party (APC) in last Saturday’s Governorship and House of Assembly elections.

    She described Sanwo Olu’s victory as the expression of the people’s wish and appreciation of good governance in the state.

    The deputy governor noted that governance of Lagos state would require requisite experience, intelligence and technical know-how, all of which she said Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Kadri Hamzat are blessed with.

    She assured Lagosians assuring that governance would be taken to the next level under the new administration.

    Read also: 18 die, 41 injured in Lagos Island building collapse

    She urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to continue to improve on their operations in future elections to earn more public confidence.

    Mrs Adebule thanked Lagosians for their confidence in the ruling APC and all their candidates.

    She solicited their support for the incoming administration.

    Mrs Adebule assured the governor-elect and his deputy that she would always be at the background to offer useful and professional advice that could help their administration to attain greater heights.

  • Cisco: dearth of cyber security personnel hits Nigeria, others

    Twenty-five per cent of organisations in Nigeria, Middle East and other African countries lack cyber security personnel, one of the biggest obstacles to cyber security, a new Cisco cyber security report has said.

    According to the report, 23 per cent of companies in the Middle East and Africa manage more than 21 vendors, while only 58 per cent of cyber security alerts in the Middle East and Africa are investigated. Of those, 39 per cent are legitimate, but only 53 per cent of legitimate alerts are remediated.

    For more than a decade, Cisco’s cyber security reports have been a definitive source of intelligence for cyber security professionals interested in the state of the global industry. These comprehensive reports provide detailed accounts of the threat landscape and organisational implications.

    “In February, the Cisco 2019 Threat Report was published. Our cyber security experts analysed prominent threats of 2018 for clues to new attack strategies and targets. It’s as close as we can get to anticipating future trends without a crystal ball.

    “Cisco has picked out five key stories from the last year or so, not just because they were big events, but because the company thinks these threats, or something similar, could very well appear again in the near future. They include: Emotet, a Trojan involved in malware distribution; VPNFilter, a modular internet of things (IoT) threat; unauthorised mobile device management; cryptomining and Olympic Destroyer, as an example of destructive cyber-attack campaigns,” the firm explained.

    It said Olympic Destroyer was created with the pure intention to watch the world burn. “We saw a number of threats like this in the last year, but none grabbed the headlines like an a ttack whose sole purpose appears to have been to disrupt the Winter Olympics while VPNFilter was an IoT-specific attack, hitting a vast number of routers and devices riddled with known vulnerabilities.

    E-mail remains a key delivery method for attackers and users continue to be the weakest link; education is therefore, paramount.

    “Revenue generation is the key motivation for attackers: malware follows the money. Crypto-mining threats are laser-focused on this goal. They have grown to become the most common threat in this category, due to the repeat revenue they offer and the low risk if caught spreading it.

    “As we prepare for major events across the region and as businesses continue to digitally transform, adopt the cloud and Internet of things (IoT), we’re prioritising cyber security above everything.

    “It’s impossible to predict everything that will occur, but the safest bets are usually the ones you most often come up against. Addressing those early can free up time to deal with the unexpected and zero-day attacks,” Cisco said in the report.

    Since coming onboard, Cisco has become a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Firewall. “Gartner specifically recognised the strength of our threat intelligence team, Talos, the largest threat research team in the world.” In addition, Cisco said it continues to enhance its integrated portfolio via acquisition.

  • Supreme Court upholds N1b judgment against Okorocha, others

    The Supreme Court on yesterday put an end to the over 10-year old dispute between the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, three others and a firm – E. F. Network Nigeria Limited – over a contract debt of N1billion.

    A five-man panel of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment yesterday, ordered the Imo State Governor and three others to pay the firm and its promoter, Gideon Egbuchulam the N1billion, which was the outstanding amount left unpaid in a contract awarded E. F. Network sometime in 2008 under the administration of Ikedi Ohakim.

    The court, in its lead judgment prepared by Justice Kayode Ariwoola, but read by Justice Amina Augie, held that the appeal, marked: SC/1001/2016 filed by Okorocha and three others, was unmeritorious.

    The apex court proceeded to dismiss the appeal and awarded N500,000 cost against the appellants, and in favour of the respondents – E. F. Network and Egbuchulam. Other appellants include the Attorney General of Imo State, Environmental Transformation Committee (Imo Entraco) and The Ministry of Environment, Imo State.

    Okorocha and others had appealed the July 4, 2016 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Owerri, which upheld the February 11, 2014 judgment by Justice Ijeoma Agugua of the Imo State High Court, in which it was established that the defendants (the Imo State Governor and others) were indebted to E. F. Network to the tune of N1b, having breached terms of the contract agreement between them.

    In the trial court’s judgment, Justice Agugua noted that the Ohakim administration in Imo State, which Okorocha succeeded, had contracted E. F. Network in the implementation of the state government’s Clean and Green Initiative, in pursuit of which the firm was awarded a contract to supply 10 million refuse bags and 40,000 plastic rolling containers at N42 per bag and N20 per plastic container.

    She observed that by the contract, the Imo State Governor and others, listed as appellants in the appeal, guaranteed payment through an irrevocable mandate of the payment of N35million monthly to the contractor.

    The judge noted that after the execution of the contract, the Imo State Government kept to the agreed schedule of payment for 12 months and subsequently stopped, leaving an outstanding balance estimated at N800m.

    The judge further observed that E.F. Network resorted to the court action in an effort to recovered what the Imo State Government and its agencies owed it and gave judgment in favour of E. F. Network and, in the February 11, 2014 judgment, ordered the defendants to, among others, pay the firm N1b, a judgment the Imo State Governor and others appeal up to the Supreme Court and lost yesterday.

  • Patricia unveils Nedu, Woli Agba, others as brand ambassadors

    To push its brand in Africa, online Gift-card and Cryptocurrency exchange company, PATRICIA, has unveiled 14 entertainers and influencers as brand ambassadors.

    Among those unveiled includes On-Air-Personality and TV Host Nedu, Instagram influencer, Janemena, WoliAgba, Oluwadolarz and Xploit Comedy. Others are Funny Toheeb, Demgohearword, Steve Chuks, Ogbeni Adan, HolySwagger, Datwarrigirl and BabaAlariya.

    At the official signing at Patricia HQ, Lagos, the founder of the company, Mr. Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, reiterated his commitment and desire to making the e-commerce ecosystem a safe place for Nigerians to do business. He also said that more products would be rolled out in the coming months and years.

    “At Patricia, innovation is a core value and is the main reason why we embarked on this journey with the influencers, just like Globacom did with musicians, we do the same with the influencers,” Agbodje said.

    “We are happy having influential personalities associate with our brand and joining this great family of repute with an amazing track record of professionalism. We have worked with Yung6ix and Erigga in the past and it has been very successful, and now we want to make it bigger by taking it to a new level. We are happy to start a brilliant journey with these influencers, we can only see nothing but a brighter future for all.”

    Patricia, which started business in 2017 as the first gift card trading company in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, deals in converting unused gift-cards for cash and other forms of crypto like bitcoin and has attracted customers across Africa.

  • Lawmaker urges Lagosians to vote for Sanwo-Olu, others

    The lawmaker representing Mushin Constituency 1, Olawale Abdulsobur, has urged Lagosians to vote for the Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and other APC candidates on Saturday.

    Àbdulsobur, who spoke yesterday in Ikeja, said Lagosians would benefit more from the government of continuity initiated by former governors Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola and actualised by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode by electing Sanwo-Olu as the next governor.

    The legislator, who also solicited votes for himself to return to the legislative chambers, listed some giant strides he had achieved during his first term at the assembly to include creation of jobs for Mushin youths, purchase of 200 GCE forms for pupils in the area every year, free computer training programmes, Yuletide gifts to Muslims and Christians, as well as presentation of buses to motherless homes.

    “I can assure Lagosians that once they vote for Sanwo-Olu, his running mate,  Obafemi Hamzat and other APC candidates, including myself,  on March 9, there is no doubt that the privileges and dividends of democracy hitherto enjoyed by all and sundry will be increased,” he said.

    Abdulsobur appealed to registered voters to come out en masse and exercise their franchise.

    He said issues relating to logistic supplies, smart card readers, conduct of electoral officers and safety of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members should be addressed if the March 9 elections are to be successful.

  • Pension funds, others oversubscribe Series-1 Green Bonds by 60%

    North South Power Company Limited (NSP), through NSP-SPV PowerCorp Plc, has issued its first N8.5 billion 15-year 15.60 per cent Series 1 Guaranteed Fixed Rate Senior Green Infrastructure Bonds (“Series 1 Green Bonds”).

    The bond is due in 2034 under a N50 billion Debt Issuance Programme.

    The Series 1 Green Bonds is the first certified green corporate bond and the longest tenured (15 years) corporate bond issued in the Nigeria debt capital markets.

    Its Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Olubunmi Peters, who spoke in Abuja, said  the success of the bond issuance is a significant milestone in the company’s long-term corporate strategy, demonstrating its market leadership, innovation and commitment to the highest standards of environmental, social and corporate governance.

    He said: “With the completion of the Series 1 Guaranteed Green Infrastructure Bonds issuance, the Company has established a long-envisioned link with a more sustainable long-term, local currency financing required to implement its ambitious strategic power generation expansion plan through the capital markets.”

    The Series 1 Green Bonds was oversubscribed by 60 per cent with firm commitments from 12 institutional investors including nine pension funds, and priced at 70 bps spread to the comparable 15-year sovereign benchmark bond (FGN 2034) using the closing yield on the reference date of February 4 adopted for the book building.

    The Series 1 Green Bonds was certified by TUV NORD CERT under the Climates Bonds Standard, in accordance with the International Capital Market Association’s (ICMA’s) Green Bond Principles, Federal Ministry of Environment’s Nigerian Green Bond Guidelines, and the Green Bonds Issuance Rules of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).

    The development of the Green Bond Framework and the pre-issuance verifications was obtained through technical assistance and support from the African Local Currency Bond Fund, an initiative of KfW Development Bank.

    The board received approval on September 26 last year to raise additional capital and got regulatory approval from SEC in December 31 of same year.

    Commenting on the appointment, of United Capital Plc’s  as the lead issuing house and financial adviser of the first Corporate Green Infrastructure Bond by NSP-SPV PowerCorp Plc, Group Chief Executive Officer, of United Capital Peter Ashade said: “United Capital is always exploring ways to provide innovative investment banking solutions to our clients.

  • NAHCO, FAAN partner on ground handling, others

    THE Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc  and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) are collaborating to improve  ground  handling.

    NAHCO Group Managing Director, Mrs. Olatokunbo Fagbemi, said the handling firm has set up modalities to defray its debts to the airport authority and other organisations as part of efforts to keep its accounting books clean.

    The NAHCO  boss spoke at a meeting with FAAN Managing Director,  Saleh Dunoma, in Lagos.

    She said plans were underway to pay FAAN  monthly to ensure that the debt was defrayed quickly.

    ”Our journey from Lagos is very simple. Our story is simple but essentially first, it is to say thank you. We have received substantial support from FAAN in the last few weeks on an issue that has been pending for a while and I believe we’d be able to find common grounds. It has to do with safety and security around the air cargo complex.

    ‘’The other thing is, before I got in, we were owing a lot of money, but I said we need to know that we can’t ask for things if we are not paying; so we are saying thank you for that support. We have been able to work out something with the director of finance, so we pay some amount every month. Hopefully, we believe that by the end of this year, we will not owe. We will keep our books current. We have to say thank you because unto whom much is given much is expected.

    “We are going to clear the backlog so that it doesn’t continue because if you want a lot of things” from FAAN, you should also pay.

    She, however, highlighted some key areas of mutual development to the FAAN boss, seeking his assistance to correct certain trend that could hamper both their businesses, including crowd control and others both at Lagos and Abuja airports.

    “We need to safeguard our business and we need to operate at an international standard,’’ she said.

    She also commended the FAAN management for the rapid changes ongoing at the nation’s airports stating: ”A lot of things have been done at the airport and no one can go around any of the airports and walk away without noticing a positive difference.”

    FAAN MD congratulated the new GMD. She went down memory lane, stating what the airport authority would do to support NAHCO, especially since  it was a part of FAAN before privatisation.

    He also said FAAN would look at NAHCO’s  requests on the Lagos and Abuja cargo areas critically, adding that the ground handlers were critical to safety and security around the airport.

    Dunoma said: “NAHCO  and FAAN  used to be one and so whatever NAHCO brings to the table NAHCO is an attachment of FAAN. FAAN created NAHCO  and in the wisdom of the government, they decided NAHCO be privatised. Privatisation is done, NAHCO is a success story till date so whatever NAHCO requests, we have little reason to say no because you started with one statement, our success is your success and your success is our success. So it has to be a win-win situation. We continue to support you and do everything possible to assist you improve your business because if you look at your operations of NAHCO,  it is critical to the operations of FAAN.

    “You cannot separate the two; if you fail, we fail because you handle so many things at the airport. So, we have to look critically at areas where FAAN needs to come in and support you.”

    “We need to work together. I know there are some requests that would require some processes. We can fast-track those processes and if there are huge calls in terms of implementation, you can come back to us and we will surmount this.”

  • Uti Nwachukwu, Chioma Akpotha, others attend Alita premiere

    NOLLYWOOD actors, Uti Nwachukwu, Tope Tedela, Chioma Akpotha, Ufuoma McDermott were among other celebrities present at the Nigerian premiere of Hollywood movie, ‘Alita: Battle Angel’, at the Filmhouse Cinemas, Lekki, Lagos, recently.

    Written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis and directed by Robert Rodriguez, ‘Alita’ was shot in 3D and not converted to 3D according to Keean Johnson who played Hugo (Alita’s love interest) in the movie.

    ‘Alita’ is about a cyburg trying to remember her past but eventually became a leader. It however revolves around an abandoned cyburg girl (Alita) found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido, a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic. When Alita awakens, she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious past.

    Rosa Salazar stars as the titular Alita, a cyborg who sets out to learn about her past after she awakens in a new body with no memory of who she is. Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson also star in supporting roles.

    The Robert Rodriguez-directed film has been a passion project for James Cameron for over 20 years. Adapted from Yukito Kishiro’s manga graphic novel, ‘Alita’ is a cyberpunk sci-fi thriller about a young cyborg trying to survive in a morally compromised world and learn the truth about her past.

    ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on January 31, 2019, and was released in the United States on February 14, 2019 by 20th Century Fox in Real D 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX 3D formats. The film has grossed over $137 million worldwide.

  • Obi campaigns in Obosi, Nkpor, others

    The Atiku/Obi campaign yesterday went round major towns in Anambra State to convince people on the need to vote Abubakar Atiku as president.

    Obi who walked around markets on foot with his followers, appealed to voters to be part of the “new dawn sweeping across the country like harmattan fire, the dawn of Atiku presidency”.

    The former governor regretted the near absence of Federal Government in towns visited, and told the people that like other major cities in Nigeria, they would be taken care of by Atiku’s Presidency.

    In Nnewi, Obi said: “I can tell you that during the study of the problems of different towns in Nigeria, which Atiku commissioned for over three years, it was discovered that the major problem of Nnewi is power, and I can tell you that going by Atiku’s work plan, that problem will be solved.”

    He thanked people like Innoson, Cutix Cable and Chikason for remaining steadfast in industrialisation despite harsh policies, and assured them of better deals under Atiku. According to him, the revival of of power would help to resuscitate many Nnewi moribund industries

    In Obosi, Obi told traders at Ngbuka that the Federal Government under Atiku would reduce tax and introduce other measures to encourage them.