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Former governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday in
Osogbo, Osun state restated his call for true federalism as the only panacea to
the nation’s political and economic problems. Speaking at the official
unveiling of the coat of arms of the government of Osun state and its flag, Mr.
Tinubu stated that the only path to economic growth was for the country to
return to a federal system of government.

“For this country to return to the path of progress, honour and
economic buoyancy; there is need for us to return to true federalism,” he said.
“This will allow every federating unit in the country to develop at its pace.”

The ACN leader urged the people of the state to give the
governor, Rauf Aregbesola, maximum support in his efforts at restoring the
state to the path of honour and economic independence.

“It’s about time for us the progressives in this country to
translate the country’s potentials into reality,” he said. “Let us show that we
can turn around the country for the benefit of all of us.”

The state governor, while unveiling the new coat of arms for
the state tagged “Ipinle Omoluabi” at a programme to commemorate the rebranding
of the state, called on the people to return to the old golden era and put the
interest of the state above theirs. He explained that the rationale behind
rebranding the state was to return the state to the old era of governance where
service was the hallmark of governance.

Mr. Aregbesola who recalled the achievements of the premier of
the defunct Western region, the late Obafemi Awolowo, stressed that the Yorubas
had always been at the forefront of development in the country. He restated the
commitment of his administration to good governance, democracy, due process and
rule of law.

Tinubu’s attack

In his speech, Mr. Tinubu faulted the reported claim by the
speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Adejare Bello, that the former
governor of the state and now the national chairperson of the ACN, Bisi Akande,
lost the 2003 governorship election to the People’s Democratic Party because of
Mr. Akande’s retrenchment of civil servants in the state.

Mr. Tinubu stated that Mr. Akande lost the election to the
PDP’s rigging which was bent on chasing out the progressives out of the
southwest by all means. The event was witnessed by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka
and the national chairperson of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Bisi Akande.
Others included the son of late human rights activist Gani Fawehinmi, Mohammed
and Akinwumi Ishola.

Nigeria’s largest
helicopter company, Bristow Limited, has said that the federal
government’s amnesty programme for militants has improved the level of
aviation safety in the area. Describing the amnesty initiative as one
that has “positively worked” for the aviation industry, the carrier
whose major operations in the country revolves around the Niger Delta
region explained that prior to the pardon for militants in the region,
its operations and those of other airlines were hampered as the
combative youths occasionally attacked their facilities with arms.

“The amnesty has
worked. Before the amnesty, we were concerned because we needed to fly
at a very high level to avoid arms fire. As long as our clients tell us
that it is a hot area, we don’t go there,” said Akin Oni, managing
director of the helicopter company, during a briefing at the company’s
head office in Lagos over the weekend.

Mr. Oni explained
that before the amnesty, Bristow and other helicopter companies and oil
firms within the region had been working together in the sharing of
intelligence in order not to fall victim to assaults from the
militants, adding that carrier, which has over 90 percent of its
investment in the Niger Delta often stayed away from the area whenever
there was trouble.

“Once again, I will
say that the amnesty has worked. The oil companies have been very
cooperative; we are not a military service. Once there is possible
trouble in the area, we don’t go there, so we work on the intelligence
to avoid losing our facilities,” he said.

Last year, the
federal government of Nigeria through the Niger Delta Development
Commission declared amnesty to militants in the region, who before the
official pardon from the government, engaged in the destruction of
lives and property in a bid to press home their demands.

“You will agree
that the level of unrest in the Niger Delta, which had drastic effects
on the economy of the country, was calmed after the government
intervened in the form of amnesty last year,” said Beggi Fidelis, camp
support staff and an ex-militant during the recent unveiling of 212
transformed ex-militants in Lagos being prepared for vocational
training in Ghana.

Meanwhile, Mr. Oni
disclosed that the airline was working to ensure that safety in the
industry is sustained, as he noted that the forthcoming safety and
security seminar being organized by Bristow would focus on the need to
guarantee an accident-free aviation sector in Nigeria.

“There are
insinuations that it is not possible not to have accidents, we believe
it is possible. Accidents don’t just happen, several things happen
before you get to that terrible situation where you have to go and
clean up blood,” he said. “What we are interested in is zero accident
and that is what we are doing.”

In a bid to boost the health sector of the country, the federal
government has promised to offer free loans to private medical institution
owners. It also said that it would encourage public/private partnership, and
give support too in the provision of modern facilities for the needs of
Nigerians.

The Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu made this known over the
weekend in Abuja during a free prostate cancer screening exercise organized by
a private clinic, Chivar Clinic and Urology Centre in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health in commemoration of the 2011 World Cancer Day.

Mr. Chukwu urged Nigerian men to test for prostrate cancer,
insisting that early detection can lead to a cure. He also said that the
ministry would embark on free public cancer screenings in all the local
governments in collaboration with the Association of Local Governments of
Nigeria. The minister and his entourage got screened for prostate cancer after
which they went on a tour of the clinic’s facility and equipment.

Earlier in the day, the minister had flagged of the public HPV
vaccination of girls from age 9-15 who received the vaccine freely at the
conference hall of the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, the chief medical director of the Chivar Clinic and
Urology Centre, Uzoma Azodo, said that figures showed that two new prostrate
cancer patients were seen every two weeks at the National Hospital, Abuja.

On a Thursday night
in early January this year, Pascal Adeniyi had just had dinner and was
getting ready to go to bed when his phone beeped, indicating that he
had received a text message. He picked up the phone and lay back on his
pillow to read the message. Very quickly, he sat up on his bed with a
broad smile on his face as he read the text message for the second
time. The message said that he has been selected to participate in a
contest where he could win N10 million and a car. To participate, he
was asked to reply “yes” to the text.

The message was
from a short code, 555, used by his service provider, Glo, for
promotional purposes. Mr. Adeniyi replied to the message quickly and a
simple question was sent back to him. He answered the first question
and was immediately pulled into in a maze of unending question and
answer texts which lasted five days and cost him a total of N35, 000 on
his contract plan.

Mr. Adeniyi, like
millions of mobile telephone subscribers in Nigeria, has been a victim
of what appears to be a new kind of fraud currently flooding the
largely unregulated but booming short code and mobile telephone
value-added service industry in Nigeria. Mr. Adeniyi feels cheated but
at least, his loss was to a legitimate game, the widely advertised “Glo
Text a Million Season 2 Promo” in which many people have been shown on
television to have won prizes. There are, however, many people losing
money to scores of other ‘not advertised’ scam mobile telephone
value-added services.

10 digit scam

Tochi Ude, for
instance, was defrauded on his MTN phone by a different type of
deceptive value-added service with a number longer than most short
codes. While at work in November last year, he got a text on his phone
from an unusual 10 digit number, 9609908918.

“Hi, I tried to
call you, call me back on this number. +9609908918,” the message read.
He quickly dialled the number and an automated voice answered, asking
him to wait while his service was sorted. He waited.

“I thought it was one of my friends in India, because the numbers looked like an Indian code,” Mr. Ude said.

It turned out to be
an unending Interactive Voice Response (IVR) leading him through a maze
of options and encouraging him to stay longer online. Eventually, his
air time ran out. He spent five minutes on the call but never got to
speak to anyone and could not find out who it was that wanted to reach
him. He hung up and checked his balance. He was billed N500 for the
five minutes he spent with the IVR.

“Each minute cost
N100, but the text never said that,” he said. “The number was strange
and there was no detail about the service provider and the cost. Just
the one sentence in the message.”

Later, he contacted
his three friends in India and all said they didn’t try to reach him at
that time. He got the same text three times that month but never called
it after the first scam. A couple of his friends also got similar
messages in December but in a different form and from a different
number.

Ojoma Ocheja was
scammed by a similar scheme. Last week, she got a text from a 10-digit
number, 6703302973. The message said a secret admirer had sent her a
love song. The text instructed her to call +6703302973 to hear the song
and the identity of the person that sent her the song.

“There was no
information of the cost of the service in the text neither did the
service providers indicate their identity so I thought it was from
MTN,” Ms. Ocheja said. She called the 10-digit number. It turned out to
be an unending IVR. She dropped the call three minutes later, after she
sensed that there was something wrong.

“I didn’t hear both
the song and the identity of the sender,” she said. “Rather, the female
voice at the IVR continuously gave me options luring me on.”

Moneyed scheme

According to
statistics from the National Communication Commission, as at September
2010, there were 75.362 million active GSM lines in Nigeria; all of
them vulnerable to these scams which come in different formats across
networks of various service providers. If 0.1 percent of the active
subscribers spend at least a minute calling any of these services each
day, subscribers will lose N7.536 million daily, N52.753 million in a
week and N1.582 billion in a month. If 1 percent of the active
subscribers use the service at the same rate, they will be defrauded of
N15.82 billion in one month. All victims interviewed by NEXT say they
received the messages more than once and spent more than a minute on
the call.

“Curiosity will keep you on the call,” Mr. Ude said.

The telephone
numbers that were used to defraud Mr. Ude and others in November were
different from those other complainants got in December and yet,
different from the numbers being used in the scheme now. Each of them
is deactivated for the next scam — with new formats — a NEXT
investigation has revealed.

No regulation

Although this
segment of the mobile communication industry spins billions of naira
monthly, mostly for service not rendered, the sector is not regulated.
On April 8, 2010, Ernest Ndukwe, then executive vice chairman of the
NCC, which regulates telecoms and operations in Nigeria, met with his
fellow board members in Abuja for a public inquiry into the proposed
guidelines on short code operations in Nigeria. Eleven months later,
the guidelines are still in a draft form but millions of Nigerians have
been scammed and lost money and there is no way to trace the
perpetuaters of the scam. Basher Gwandu, the executive commissioner,
technical services at NCC, said the commission is still working on
regulating the short code industry. promising to “investigate further
including the Glo number”.

The only form of
regulation for the short code in the telecoms industry, currently, is a
non-legally binding code of conduct document offered by Wireless
Application Service Providers’ of Nigeria (WASPN). WASPN is a voluntary
organization based in Lagos and admits third-party content developers —
most of whom own the short code services and use traditional network
providers — who are willing to give them a platform.

“Not all content
developers are members of WASPN …neither are they obligated to join,”
Eunice Benjamin Ade, the business application manager of WASPN told
NEXT.

Mrs. Ade explained
that it is only members of the association that are bound by its code
of conduct. She disowned the various fraudulent service providers
mentioned in this story saying: “I want to assure you that it is not
emanating from any WASPN member, because they are bound by the code of
conduct,” she said.

As things stand, it
appears that the first line of security and protection from fraudulent
content developers is the service provider. The service provider is the
bridge between the subscriber and the content developer. The service
providers deduct money from the subscribers’ accounts and share this
revenue with the content developers.

However, since
there are no laws or guidelines for the short code industry,
subscribers are at the mercy of their providers’ ability to sniff out,
con artistes. At the moment, service providers don’t appear to be doing
a decent job at this. There are also, of course, promos that are
conducted by the service providers themselves, like the one Mr. Adeniyi
participated in. These come with the traditional “terms and condition”
for its use. However, a lot of its users like Mr. Adeniyi say they feel
cheated.

“I think it is a
fraudulent game,” Iyabo Oyelese, another subscriber said. She argued
that the game is “unreasonably too long” and does not provide
sufficient information about the cost.

Bode Opeseitan, the
spokesperson for Glo could not be reached for comments on these
allegations. He did not answer calls neither did he reply to text
messages from NEXT.

MTN promised to respond to questions concerning the fraud practised via its network, but the reaction never came.

While service providers drag their feet in providing protection to
their subscribers from fraudsters, and the NCC finetunes the short code
guidelines, experts advise subscribers to stay way from these schemes,
and when they feel they want to give it a shot, they should only to put
at stake telephone credit they feel they can afford to lose.