20 "Yahoo-Yahoo" Boys in EFCC Net.

Twenty suspected internet fraudsters also known as Yahoo-Yahoo boys in local parlance have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) in Benin, the Edo State capital. The arrest was carried out in a joint operation with officers of the 4th Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Benin, following intelligence report on their activities a statement from the agency's acting Media and Publicity head,Wilson Uwujaren, said. The suspects were nabbed in a surprise raid on their Cyber office tucked in an old building located on Siluko Road, Benin City. According to Uwujaren, at the point of arrest, the fraudsters had in their possession forty five (45) laptops of different make, 28 telephone sets, eight internet mobile modems and one Nissan car with registration number USL 375 AG. The suspected fraudsters who are mostly in their twenties includes: Idehen Obabueki, Adesa Lucky, Usuagu Uche, Eloghosa Olikiabor, Larry Edomwonyi, Amowie Maike, Francis Ezegbede, Itua Samuel and Endurance John Egbeifo. Others are Amego Ovenseri, Iyen Ighodaro, Philip Agbodori, Lucky Robinson, Nnadi Obinna, Osabuohien Osahon, Chinenu Eze, Peter Sunday, Solomon Ogu, Niyi Femi and Osagie Aghedo. The suspects have made useful statements. Most of them confessed to be engaged in online dating of foreigners particularly widows. They also confessed to using different pseudo names and faces to deceive their prospective victims. They will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded. Recently, the US government said that money lost by United States citizens from advance fee fraud otherwise known as 419 in Nigeria has decreased astronomically from $487m (N73b) in 2001 to $50.4 (N7.5b) in 2011 and that Americans lose over N855,000 ($5,700) per hour to Nigerian scammers and about 15 complaints hit the Internet Crime Complaint Centre per day from Americans who fall victims. The “success rate" of the scammers is also hard to gauge, since many are operating illegally and not keeping track of specific numbers. One individual estimated that he sent 500 emails per day and received about seven replies, citing that when he received a reply, he was 70 percent certain that he would get the money.

Boniface Mwangi: From Street Photography to the World Stage.

Boniface Mwangi, a self-taught Kenyan photographer who risked his life to capture shocking images of Nairobi’s post-election violence in 2007-2008, has been honored with the prestigious Prince Claus Foundation award. Mwangi started making a name for his social-political activism under the banner, Kenya Ni Kwetu (Kenya is our Home) and is popular for his stunning images on the post-election violence that hit Kenya in 2007-2008. He is also the founder of Picha Mtaani.

Born on July 10, 1983, Mwangi, then 17, reviewed his life and decided he had to change his ways if he was to survive the vicissitudes of life when his mother died in 2000.

He joined a Bible school and secured a diploma in Bible Studies. It was while at the school that he would discover he had an interest in photography. One of his teachers, having noticed Mwangi’s interest in photography, gave him two texts that would alter the direction of his life. These were the biographies of Mohamed Amin, the Kenyan photographer hailed as one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century.

Mwangi joined the East African School of Journalism, he was studying in the morning while rushing back to the streets to sell books in the streets at night so that he could pay his fees. The school had no cameras to train students and the photography class was a mere two hours of theory class twice a week. He hired a camera and started practicing what he learned in class. He focused his work on the poverty and the deprivation in Kenyan slums, the resilience of the vendors on the streets, the brutality of policemen and women on ordinary citizens.

Mwangi started contributing to The Standard newspaper on a freelance level before he eventually secured employment at the newspaper, which is the oldest newspaper in Kenya.

The next few years were productive for Mwangi; he tracked a police crackdown on the unlawful gang, Mungiki, winning his first, and Kenya’s CNN African Photojournalist of the Year Award in 2008. In the event, the Mungiki pictures proved to be only a dress rehearsal for the chaos that followed in the aftermath of the disputed Kenyan presidential election, 2007. Gang warfare in the slums, as well as their clashes with the police – with innocent Kenyans caught in the crossfire – transformed the impoverished hamlets into rivers of blood. Mwangi captured the horrific scenes on film, as well as the pogrom in other restive parts caught in post-poll mayhem.

The images shocked and troubled the world, from Europe to North America, where leading media houses splashed Mwangi’s images. Mwangi’s own newspaper used his images selectively, a form of self-censorship that motivated Mwangi’s next course of action. Mwangi has won several awards including the prestigious CNN Multichoice African Journalist Awards for Photography on two occasions.

The prize Prince Claus Foundation award was delivered to Boniface Mwangi along with 10 other prizewinners in Amsterdam, Netherlands this week.

PDP loyalists mob Shekarau in Kano

The immediate past governor of Kano state, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, escaped being lynched by a mob yesterday when his motorcade was attacked in Garko, the headquarters of Garko local government area of the state leaving over 20 vehicles destroyed and several people injured. Also,an Islamic centre, built by Shekarau when he was governor, and ANPP offices in the town were burnt during the attack. Shekarau, who was together with several other leaders of the All Nigeria Party (ANPP), had led top chieftains of his political party and thousands of their supporters to Garko town for a campaign rally for the February 2 bye-election into two vacant seats in the state House of Assembly. In the convoy of the former governor, who is also the Sardaunan Kano, were Hon. Kawu Sumaila, Alhaji Salisu Sagir Takai, Senator Kabiru Gaya, Alhaji Ghali Sadik, and thousands of women supporters of ANPP from Kano and Garko. An eye witness told Blueprint that on Monday, when leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) went to Gaya town, a stronghold of the opposition ANPP, they were ambushed, several of their vehicles were destroyed and their party offices and several houses of their supporters were destroyed or burnt. What happened in Garko, a stronghold of the PDP, is regarded by pundits in Kano as a reprisal attack. The former governor later invited reporters to his house in Kano to brief them over the incident, but after he held a meeting with the state commissioner of police he cancelled the briefing and postponed it to 12:00 noon today. Some ANPP chieftains warned that if the state police command did not provide adequate security on Saturday, then the by-election is going to be bloody, as tension is already high in Garko and Gaya. It would be recalled that members of the state House of Assembly representing Gaya and Garko, Danladi Kademi and Abba Garko respectively, were killed recently by unknown gunmen. This is also coming on the heels of an attack on the convoy of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, in which six people were killed and several others injured.