“Do you think that every fingerprint is actually unique?”

It’s a question that a professor asked Gabe Guo during a casual chat while he was stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdowns, waiting to start his freshman year at Columbia University. “Little did I know that conversation would set the stage for the focus of my life for the next three years,” Guo said.

Guo, now an undergraduate senior in Columbia’s department of computer science, led a team that did a study on the subject, with the professor, Wenyao Xu of the University of Buffalo, as one of his coauthors. Published this week in the journal Science Advances, the paper seemingly upends a long-accepted truth about fingerprints: They are not, Guo and his colleagues argue, all unique.

In fact, journals rejected the work multiple times before the team appealed and eventually got it accepted at Science Advances. “There was a lot of pushback from the forensics community initially,” recalled Guo, who had no background in forensics before the study.

“For the first iteration or two of our paper, they said it’s a well-known fact that no two fingerprints are alike. I guess that really helped to improve our study, because we just kept putting more data into it, (increasing accuracy) until eventually the evidence was incontrovertible,” he said.

A new look at old prints

T o get to its surprising results, the team employed an artificial intelligence model called a deep contrastive network, which is commonly used for tasks such as facial recognition. The researchers added their own twist to it and then fed it a US government database of 60,000 fingerprints in pairs that sometimes belonged to the same person (but from different fingers) and sometimes belonged to different people.

As it worked, the AI-based system found that fingerprints from different fingers of the same person shared strong similarities and was therefore able to tell when the fingerprints belonged to the same individual and when they didn’t, with an accuracy for a single pair peaking at 77% — seemingly disproving that each fingerprint is “unique.”

“We found a rigorous explanation for why this is the case: the angles and curvatures at the center of the fingerprint,” Guo said.

For hundreds of years of forensic analysis, he added, people have been looking at different features called “minutiae,” the branchings and endpoints in fingerprint ridges that are used as the traditional markers for fingerprint identification. “They are great for fingerprint matching, but not reliable for finding correlations among fingerprints from the same person,” Guo said. “And that’s the insight we had.”

The authors said they are aware of potential biases in the data. Although they believe the AI system operates in much the same way across genders and races, for the system to be usable in actual forensics, more careful validation is required through the analysis of a larger and broader database of fingerprints, according to the study.

However, Guo said he’s confident that the discovery can improve criminal investigations.:

“The most immediate application is it can help generate new leads for cold cases, where the fingerprints left at the crime scene are from different fingers than those on file,” he said. “But on the flip side, this won’t just help catch more criminals. This will also actually help innocent people who might not have to be unnecessarily investigated anymore. And I think that’s a win for society.”

‘A tempest in a teacup’?

Using deep learning techniques on fingerprint images is an interesting topic, according to Christophe Champod, a professor of forensic science at the School of Criminal Justice of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. However, Champod, who wasn’t involved in the study, said he doesn’t believe the work has uncovered anything new.

“Their argument that these shapes are somewhat correlated between fingers has been known from the early start of fingerprinting, when it was done manually, and it has been documented for years,” he said. “I think they have oversold their paper, by lack of knowledge, in my view. I’m happy that they have rediscovered something known, but essentially, it’s a tempest in a teacup.”

In response, Guo said that nobody had ever systematically quantified or used the similarities between fingerprints from different fingers of the same person to the degree that the new study has.

“We are the first to explicitly point out that the similarity is due to the ridge orientation at the center of the fingerprint,” Guo said. “Furthermore, we are the first to attempt to match fingerprints from different fingers of the same person, at least with an automated system.”

Simon Cole, a professor in the department of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine, agreed that the paper is interesting but said its practical utility is overstated. Cole was also not involved in the study.

“We were not ‘wrong’ about fingerprints,” he said of forensic experts. “The unproven but intuitively true claim that no two fingerprints are ‘exactly alike’ is not rebutted by finding that fingerprints are similar. Fingerprints from different people, as well as from the same person have always been known to be similar.”

The paper said the system could be useful in crime scenes in which the fingerprints found are from different fingers than those in the police record, but Cole said that this can only occur in rare cases, because when prints are taken, all 10 fingers and often palms are routinely recorded. “It’s not clear to me when they think law enforcement will have only some, but not all, of an individual’s fingerprints on record,” he said.

The team behind the study says it’s confident in the results and has open-sourced the AI code for others to check, a decision both Champod and Cole praised. But Guo said the importance of the study goes beyond fingerprints.

“This isn’t just about forensics, it’s about AI. Humans have been looking at fingerprints since we existed, but nobody ever noticed this similarity until we had our AI analyze it. That just speaks to the power of AI to automatically recognize and extract relevant features,” he said.

“I think this study is just the first domino in a huge sequence of these things. We’re going to see people using AI to discover things that were literally hiding in plain sight, right in front of our eyes, like our fingers.”

CNN

In 2000, Penny Bowers-Schebal was a 31-year-old “cash-strapped” single mother struggling to cover basic household bills.

She wanted to “build financial security” beyond the 401(k) program at her employer, Progressive Insurance, she tells CNBC Make It. So, at the advice of Suze Orman, she started putting $25 per month into a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP).

Under that plan, you invest in a single company — Bowers-Schebal picked Home Depot because Progressive didn’t offer DRIP accounts at the time — and all earnings are automatically used to buy more of that same company’s shares.

It seemed like a small, realistic option to Bowers-Schebal, who didn’t have the time, money or educational resources to track the stock market or hire a broker.

The monthly $25 felt like a “pittance,” she says, but it paid off: In 2017, Bowers-Schebal withdrew $25,000 from her Home Depot account and used it to launch a wedding gown shop in rural Geneva, Ohio, called Formality Bridal.

Her store became profitable after its first year, she says. She opened a second location in Erie, Pennsylvania, late last year, and the two locations brought in more than $441,000 in annual revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Ultimately, her Home Depot investment brought her an annual return of roughly 13%. That outpaces the S&P 500′s average annualized return of 10.26% over the past 67 years.

“I’m not a big investor, and this was a life-changing investment for me,” Bowers-Schebal, now 55, says. “It allowed me the opportunity to open a business without borrowing the seed money from a bank or putting my family in any financial peril.”

A bit of luck — and advice for first-time investors

Bowers-Schebal’s investment was somewhat lucky.

Home Depot’s stock split multiple times over her 20-year investment, which meant she owned twice the number of shares at half their initial price. That can benefit long-term investors: Once the shares went back up, she owed more shares at a higher value.

Investing in a stable company also helped, says Douglas Boneparth,certified financial planner and co-author of “The Millennial Money Fix.”

DRIP accounts were created as a practical way to invest, allowing newcomers to explore the stock market without paying broker commission fees. But broadly speaking, tying all your investment money to a single company is risky: If the company tanks, so do you, says Boneparth.

“It’s the opposite of diversification, it’s concentration,” he says. “What if she invested in a company that wasn’t around anymore, like RadioShack?”

His advice for first-time investors today: Look into sites like Robinhood, which allow you to invest in multiple stocks while only charging transaction fees. It’s less of an “administrative pain” than having multiple DRIP accounts, Boneparth says.

“All of the things that the DRIP offered, relative to brokerage, have all but faded,” he adds. “Technology has given the entire industry a huge life in terms of democratization and accessibility to investing.”

CNBC

Terrorists, bandits, and criminals of other hues took their inglorious activities in the country to a new dimension in the last 48 hours, wreaking mayhem in six states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

Their deadly operations across five of the six geo-political zones of the country left no fewer than six persons dead; 60 persons kidnapped, a corpse stolen and goods worth millions of naira also stolen. The only zone not affected by the attacks was the South-South.

However, neither Force Headquarters nor Defence Headquarters, DHQ, responded to calls on an inquiry about what they were doing to stem the tide of insecurity in the country at press time yesterday.

Kidnappers kill 3 of 10 victims in Abuja, raise ransom to N700m

But in Abuja, kidnappers, who abducted 10 persons from an estate, Sagwari Layout, Dutse, on January 7, yesterday, reportedly killed three of their victims to send a strong warning to their relatives negotiating ransom payment.

It was also gathered that the bandits had increased their ransom demand from the initial N60 million per person to N100 million, now totalling N700 million.

Residents said the victims were allegedly killed over the ‘delay’ in raising the ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

A 13-year-old high school student, identified as Folorunsho Ariyo, was among those killed.

On Sunday, reports emerged that the kidnappers who also operated in some villages in Bwari, had killed one of the six abducted persons to force the family into quickly raising the demanded ransom.

Dutse is a town under the Bwari Area Council of the FCT.

Pushed to the wall, residents of Sagwari Layout have perfected plans to stage a massive protest against perceived inaction of government and security agencies in rescuing their kith and kin.

Initially planned for yesterday, the protest was, however, shifted to today as a result of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration.

Bandits kill 3, abduct 50 including 36 women in Zamfara community

In Zamfara State, no fewer than 36 women in Magizawa community of Kaura Namoda Local Government Area, were abducted by bandits on Sunday night.

Local vigilantes alleged that they and some security personnel were overwhelmed by the bandits who invaded the community, killed three, including a vigilante leader and wounded two others.

The Police were yet to get details of the attack, according to the Zamfara Police spokesperson, Yazid Abubakar in a chat with journalists.

However, a vigilante, who survived the attack, said they were taken unawares when the bandits took control of the community, went from house to house and forced the locals, majority of whom were women, to follow them into the bush.

“They abducted about 50 people and 36 were women. We tried to fight them but they took us unaware and got mixed up with members of the community. In the process, they killed one of our bravest members and two others, they also injured two others. They broke into houses that were locked and abducted locals,” he said.

Bandits raid military camp, unleash mayhem on Katsina community

In like manner, armed bandits stormed a joint military camp in Nahuta village, Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State on Sunday night, leaving a trail of destruction and looted goods.

Sources in the camp said the attack occurred around 11:30 pm. The heavily-armed bandits wielding AK-47 rifles among other weapons reportedly set ablaze vehicles and other valuables.

Despite being outnumbered, courageous soldiers managed to repel the assault as no life was lost.

“The bandits outweighed us and invaded the camp, causing considerable damage,” a source revealed, and lamented lack of reinforcement throughout the encounter.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the bandits unleashed further mayhem on Nahuta town. They ransacked shops, broke into houses, and looted properties and livestock worth millions of naira, leaving residents traumatized and dispossessed.

As the time of this report, security agencies were yet to officially comment on the attack.

Police confirm abduction of mother, son in Zaria

In neighbouring Kaduna State, the Police Command confirmed the abduction of Halimatu Sa’adiya Bello and her 17-year-old son, Yusuf Bello, at Dogarawa area, Sabon Gari LGA.

Mansur Hassan, the command’s Public Relations Officer, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Zaria, yesterday, saying the police had swung into action in an effort to rescue the victims.

He advised the public to be more vigilant and report any suspicious movement to security agencies.

Gafai Katsina, Chairman, Security Committee of residents of the area, said that the bandits, who were 15 in number and armed with sophisticated weapons, stormed Dogarawa New Layout at about 2 a.m.

“They entered the house of Adamu Bello and abducted the victims, attacked Adamu Bello with matchets on his hand; Adamu Bello is receiving treatment at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, ABUTH, Shika, Zaria. The bandits did not abduct the two tenants residing in the house, they tied them and locked them in their rooms,” he said.

Gunmen abduct varsity lecturer in Kebbi

Also, gunmen on Sunday kidnapped Musa Sale Argungu, a deputy dean and lecturer in the Faculty of Physical Sciences, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero, Kebbi State.

The state branch chairman, Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, ASUU, Abubakar Birnin Yauri, who confirmed the abduction said that the lecturer was kidnapped in the night at gunpoint, forced into a waiting vehicle and whisked away to an unknown destination.

He added that till now the university management was yet to know the whereabouts of the abducted lecturer, adding that the university community is in deep shock over the incident and prayed for his safe return.

Kebbi Police image maker, SP Nafiu Abubakar, didn’t answer calls made to his phone line and was yet to reply to text messages sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

Kidnappers engage soldiers, overrun Enugu LG, abduct 4

There was palpable fear at Adani, Uzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu State following reported abduction of a former councillor of Ojor, Romanus Chikwelu, on Saturday.

Three others abducted with Chikwelu were the former transition committee vice- chairman of the LGA, Vitalis Okonkwo, his son, and a man, Nnalue Igwebuike.

It was gathered that the incident happened before the Community Secondary School in Adani.
Community sources disclosed that officers of the Nigerian Army engaged the suspected kidnappers in a gun battle but succumbed to their superior firepower.

It was equally learned that a stray bullet hit a road user in the shoulder during the cross-fire between the soldiers and kidnappers.

A community stakeholder in Adani, who confirmed this incident to Vanguard, said that the suspects are demanding a ransom of N25 million for their captives.

He further said that the traditional ruler of Adani Community, Igwe Patrick Okafor, was allegedly murdered in cold blood on the eve of Christmas and his blood was smeared on the wall of his residence by the attackers.

Community sources disclosed that no fewer than seven wedding guests were abducted in the local government area a few days ago, and that the former councillor’s abduction came a few weeks after he declared his intention to vie for the chairmanship position in Uzo-Uwani in the forthcoming local government election in Enugu State.

Hoodlums invade EKSUTH, steal corpse as doctors declare immediate strike

In Ekiti State, suspected hoodlums in the early hours of yesterday, invaded the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, EKSUTH, attacked doctors on duty and made away with a corpse.

Sources in the hospital revealed that the hoodlums attacked doctors and other health officers on duty at the accident and emergency ward, destroyed facilities and made away with a corpse suspected to be the father of one of the hoodlums.

In a swift reaction to the matter, the Association of Resident Doctors in the Hospital held an emergency meeting and directed its members to embark on an indefinite strike with immediate effect.

This was contained in a letter addressed to the Chief Medical Director, Kayode Olabanji and signed by the President of the Association, Famous Adeyemi.

The letter read: “The above-named association writes to notify you of the decision of the Emergency Congress held today to embark on an indefinite strike with immediate effect.

“This is following the actions of hoodlums who stormed the Accident and Emergency unit of the Hospital in the early hours of today and assaulted some members of the Association, destroyed several hospital equipment and properties and stole a corpse during the attack

“This attack is happening at a time when our members are showing understanding with the state government on the non-implementation of our demands on improved welfare vis-a-vis being faced with work overload and exhaustion as a result of poor remuneration, pay disparity and the attendant effect of local brain drain

“We wish to use this medium to call on the management of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, EKSUTH, and the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Abayomi to apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice for their actions

“We also implore the state government to, as a matter of urgency, attend to our pending demands which border on improved welfare of our members. We implore the management and the government to provide a lasting solution to these incessant attacks. The strike will not be called off until our demands are met”.

Poverty, hunger fueling insecurity in Nigeria, Atiku laments

Similarly, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, lamented that the increasing spate of hunger and poverty was fueling insecurity in Nigeria.

Reacting to the recent increase in insecurity across the country, the former vice president in a tweet via his official X account (formerlly Tweeter), said he was distressed by the escalating violence and lawlessness in the nation.

Recall that Atiku had urged the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to urgently address the dire security situation to regain the trust of Nigerians.

The former VP wrote: “The escalating violence and lawlessness in our nation deeply distresses me as bandits and kidnappers continue their reign of terror unchecked. Our youths and innocent citizens are being murdered daily. Just last Saturday, we lost Nabeeha to her captors.

‘’ Yesterday, the tragedy deepened with the murder of more victims, including Folorunsho Ariyo, a 13-year-old student. Folorunsho was one of ten people kidnapped from Sagwari Estate Layout in Dutse, Bwari Area Council of the FCT, on January 7, 2024.

“It is obvious that the worsening poverty and hunger in the land is escalating the level of kidnapping and insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, the federal capital.

“When the government fails to fulfil its constitutional obligations of protecting the lives and property of citizens, it is an invitation to kidnappers and other criminal elements to have a free rein, visiting houses and hotels in and around the capital city, kidnapping citizens without resistance. This is a sad development.

“It is imperative that the authorities address this dire security situation urgently to regain the trust of the Nigerian people.

‘’While I mourn with the deceased families, I pray to the Almighty to comfort them, grant the dead eternal peace and protect our nation.”

Vanguard

Some social media users are currently expressing anger following reports that one Miss Folorunsho Ariyo was killed alongside Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar by bandits in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to reports, kidnappers dumped the remains of four victims they executed, around a former military checkpoint behind Idah Junction along the Bwari-Jere SCC Road in Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Among the corpses so far identified include a secondary school student identified as the daughter of the Ekiti state-born chief legal officer of the National University Commission (NUC), Folorunsho Ariyo, and a 500-level student of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Nabeeha Al-kadriyar.

While Ariyo was abducted along with her mother and three siblings two Sundays ago, Nabeeeha was seized with her father and five of her female siblings on January 9.

They were said to be kidnapped in the Bwari/Dutse area of the territory.

In a chat with our correspondent on Sunday, Nabeeha’s uncle had said they found the corpses of three other victims – two females and a male – when they went to pick the remains of their daughter.

Ariyo’s corpse was released to her family from the Umaru Musa Yar’adua General Hospital, Sabon-Wuse, Niger State, where it was deposited by the police.

The teenage girl was buried on Sunday, January 14, 2024, in Dutse Cemetery, Abuja, while the other members of the family remain with their abductors.

A community leader in the area, John Alpha Dogo, had said the bandits dragged the victims to the location on Friday night and executed them. 

The situation has caused confusion at two communities –Bagye and Pashin– at Dnatan chiefdom, with residents leaving in droves out of fear.  

Dnata chiefdom, carved out from Kagarko chiefdom in 2022 by the Kaduna State Government, has been under series of bandits’ attacks lately.

Meanwhile, details of the killing of Ariyo have elicited anger from X users, with many calling for an end to insecurity in the nation’s capital.

Below are some Twitter reactions:

@PIDOMNIGERIA wrote: “Abuja is not safe. Repost for awareness.”

@AGINAS: “It has never been this worse in Abuja. Elections truly have consequences. Some people’s bad decision has plunged the nationa into a failed state.”

@ucheorji: “Abuja level of insecurity is alarming.”

@bamidele_oye: “A whole Federal capital territory is not safe, now imagine other states.”

@sweetbennyyy: “Yeah it’s not , last week there was an attack (kidnap ) close to my house, thank God sha.”

@harrizone98 said: “Everybody is talking about Nabeeha, who is bothered about Folorunsho Ariyo, daughter of Ekiti State born National University Commission Chief Legal Officer.”

@akintollgate: “Hearing about the murder of Folorunsho Ariyo alongside Nabeeha is just devastating & heart breaking! Two promising souls with a lot of life ahead of them murdered by some imbeciles. It’s so upsetting!”

@dayoisrael: “My prayers are with the Families of Mrs Folorunsho Ariyo and that of Najeeeba Al-Kadriya + her sisters. May the soul of the departed rest in Peace and may those still in the den of captors be safely released in Jesus name. I join other Nigerians in calling on our security agencies to do their best to rescue the remaining captives and increase security in and around Abuja, and Nigeria as a whole. May God heal our LAND.”

@enyola: “Folorunsho Ariyo, Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar…And the list goes on. To register a SIM, you need a NIN but terrorists are busy negotiating over phone lines, the @PoliceNG can’t track the calls and a former minister is the one raising fund for ransom. FCT Minister is busy chasing Rivers.”

This newspaper reported that former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, yesterday announced that a N50 million ransom had been raised for the release of Nabeeha’s five sisters.

The former minister said he spoke with “a friend and a brother” who wanted to pay N50 million from the ransom demanded by the criminals.

In a post via X, he wrote, “Alhamdu lil Laah! I am personally not in support of paying ransom to criminals. However, since it becomes clear, we lost our daughter, Nabeeha, yesterday and the 5 remaining daughters have been threatened, as I spoke with the father on the matter yesterday and today.

“Furthermore, I spoke with a friend and a brother who offered to pay the remaining N50 million of the N60m immediately. I conveyed the account number of the father of our daughters, Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, to the friend and brother to send the money directly. Any additional amount earlier generated from yesterday, the father can use to treat the daughters and other family members, in sha Allah.”

Daily Trust

A Nigerian slang that gained popularity in the New Year, signifying resilience against oppression, has sparked controversy after police cautioned that the slogan might carry a message of rebellion.

Though not entirely new, the pidgin English phrase “No gree for anybody” has gone viral as a rallying cry for self-reliance and toughness in the face of adversities since the year began.

With Nigeria grappling with economic challenges and security threats ranging from Boko Haram activities to kidnapping, the phrase has become a collective mantra for navigating the challenges of 2024.

Last week, the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, issued a warning against using the slogan, leading to a heated debate on social media.

“The new slogan for 2023 and 2024 for our young ones is ‘No dey gree for anybody’. We have been informed by intelligence that this slogan is coming from a revolutionary sector that may likely cause problems across the country,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“No dey gree for anybody is being seen as a normal talk, but in the security community, we have seen it as a very, very dangerous slogan,” he added.

Critics have, however, argued that the police should prioritise more pressing matters.

Local media reported that the term “no go gree” has its roots in an old Gospel song. Nigerians often mix English, pidgin and one of the country’s local languages such as Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.

Adejobi’s comments soon sparked discussion online with some critics saying the police had more serious matters to be concerned about than the latest slang.

Nigerian security forces are battling Boko Haram in the North East, criminal militias and mass kidnappings in the North West and a flareup of intercommunal violence in central states.

Aisha Yesufu, a government critic, said on X of the slang warning, “Nigerian police #PoliceNG has intelligence on the slogan ‘No Dey gree for anybody’ but have no intelligence on the terrorists killing citizens in Plateau and other states. It shows where their priority is and it is definitely not on the protection of lives and properties.”

J_Mknite said, “They’re afraid of the coming revolution. That day is fast approaching. Both Police, Army, Navy etc.. will become tired of their dirty jobs. The best option for the police and others in government is to do right with the citizens now that there is still time.”

SammyPrais18415 added, “To me this slogan is not the major problem for Nigerians. Let us not miss the focus. Poor masses are suffering.”

“This No gree for anybody has worked positively for me in the past few days of this year, therefore, I no go gree for anybody, any situation, terrible economy, poverty, complacency, ineffectiveness, inefficiencies etc.,” another X user, tomtomekanem added.

obaruene said, “Why is it that the political elite is always afraid of revolution? Clear conscience fear no wrong. Do what is right always.”

“That’s a misplaced priorities on the side of the Nigeria Police, we have so much security challenges the police ain’t tackling. My humble scrutiny sir,” patrimedia added.

Soon after the police statement, the Defence Headquarters urged Nigerians to prevent terrorists from having free rein in the new year.

“Make Nigerians no gree for terrorists this year. You see something, you say something and we assure them of doing something, ” the Director of Defence Media Operations, Edward Buba, said.

Responding to this, AdanniaT said, ‘The military is even trying to relate to the people while the weakling #PoliceNG is grandstanding to massage their absolute cowardice.”

DrEffiong_John said, “This is what #PoliceNG was supposed to do; catch in on a trending topic to sensitise the people on security but like their usual way, they rather chose the way of stifling people. We no go gree for una this 2024 o. Make everybody mind just dey! You can’t silence everyone forever.”

“Meanwhile police say that slogan na to cause revolution. Army and Police need to hold meetings and agree on one thing, meanwhile we nor go gree for anybody dis 2024.“ ehiokupa added.

egrego said, “While a force is trying to cash in on the “no gree mantra”!to help its operations, another is trying to criminalise it. Me, na siddon watch get me.”

Punch

Nigeria's inflation rate rose to its highest in more than 27 years in December as food prices surged, exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis and piling more pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates.

Consumer inflation rose for the 12th straight month in December to 28.92% year on year from November's 28.20%, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

Inflation in Africa's biggest economy and most populous nation has not climbed this high since mid-1996.

Food inflation rate, which accounts for the bulk of Nigeria's inflation basket, rose to 33.93% in December from 32.84% a month earlier.

The statistics office said prices rose for a broad range of food items including bread and cereals, oil, fish, meat, fruit and eggs.

Analysts say higher fuel prices and a weaker naira currency have also stoked price pressures.

David Omojomolo, Africa economist at Capital Economics, said "inflationary pressures are only likely to build from here," citing second-round effects from the removal of a fuel subsidy last year and naira weakness.

He predicted that inflation would breach 30% by the end of the first quarter and said it was unlikely to peak until the middle of 2024.

President Bola Tinubu last May scrapped a costly but popular fuel subsidy and devalued the currency to try to revive economic growth. But growth is yet to pick up while inflation has worsened.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso is yet to hold a rate-setting meeting since taking office in September.

"At the next meeting, we think that the CBN will need to raise rates by 400 basis points, to 22.75%, to show that it is taking the inflation fight more seriously," Capital Economics' Omojomolo said in a research note.

Reuters

Nigeria's state-owned oil company NNPC Ltd on Monday tendered for operators of its Port Harcourt oil refinery in the Niger Delta, which is expected to begin production in the first quarter of this year, the company said.

The refinery, which is undergoing an upgrade, will begin by processing 60,000 barrels per day (bpd), and NNPC expects to operate at the full capacity of 210,000 bpd later this year.

NNPC said in a public notice that it wanted to engage reputable and credible operations firms "to operate and maintain one of its refineries, Port Harcourt Refining Company, to ensure reliability and sustainability towards meeting the nation's fuel supply and energy security obligations".

The oil company said prospective operators should have a turnover of at least $2 billion since 2019, evidence of their latest credit rating and experience in running refineries.

NNPC said on Jan. 4 that it would complete test runs at the Port Harcourt refinery this month before resuming production.

The refinery, which was shut five years ago, is among state-owned refineries that have been mothballed for years, but which the government is trying to revive to end the country's reliance on imported refined products.

Reuters

Foreign airlines in Nigeria, under the aegis of the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria (AFARN), have threatened to go on strike over unrepatriated funds in the country.

The warning comes a week after Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the payment of $61.64 million to foreign airlines through various deposit money banks (DMBs).

Speaking to our correspondent on Sunday, Kingsley Nwokoma, AFARN president, expressed disappointment at the amount paid by the government.

Instead, he suggested a quarterly payment of the airlines’ blocked funds in the country.

He said the association hopes the government would look into and improve the situation.

“Like I have suggested, if they can do quarterly payment of these funds, that will help,” the AFARN president said.

“As you know, every operation of the foreign airlines is predicated on dollars (landing fee, catering, handling) and we cannot be using money from other currencies to be servicing Nigeria. That is not right.

“If it were like $300 million or $250 million, it is okay at least. But it is a situation and it is only the government and the CBN that can look into it.”

‘WE EXPECT $300M PAYMENT’

Speaking on the planned strike, Nwokoma said Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, had assured the union that the unrepatriated funds would be cleared.

“We have spoken to the minister and the minister has promised to look into it. It is a new government and if the government can do $61 million, we expect them to tell us tomorrow that they can do $300 million or they can do $250 million,” he said.

“The thing is nobody is in any business to lose so if we can’t repatriate our money, what are we doing here.”

Since July 2022, when the total amount reached $464 million, foreign airlines have struggled to repatriate their revenues.

Due to the unrepatriated funds, Emirates Airlines, in August 2022, suspended flight operations into the country.

British Airways (BA) also closed its inventory to Nigeria in the global distribution system (GDS) — an act that prevented local travel agencies from making bookings from their portals, preventing local travel firms from making bookings through their websites.

Subsequently, in August 2022, the CBN released $265 million to foreign airlines operating in the country to settle outstanding ticket sales.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as at April 2023, the blocked funds in Nigeria increased to $812.2 million, saying Nigeria now has the highest amount of unrepatriated airlines’ funds in the world.

The Cable

Hamas fights with a patchwork of weapons built by Iran, China, Russia and North Korea

Iranian sniper rifles. AK-47 assault rifles from China and Russia. North Korean- and Bulgarian-built rocket-propelled grenades. Anti-tank rockets secretly cobbled together in Gaza.

An Associated Press analysis of more than 150 videos and photos taken in the three months of combat since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel shows the militant group has amassed a diverse patchwork arsenal of weapons from around the world – much of it smuggled past a 17-year blockade that was aimed at stopping just such a military buildup.

Those weapons have proved deadly during weeks of intense urban warfare in Gaza, where Hamas fighters are typically armed only with what they can carry and employ hit-and-run tactics against lopsided Israeli advantages in arms and technology. Hamas propaganda videos posted over the past few weeks appear to show the shootings of Israeli soldiers recorded through the scopes of sniper rifles.

“We are searching everywhere for weapons, for political support, for money,” Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad recently said in an interview with the AP, declining to discuss specifically who has been providing its weapons or how they were snuck into Gaza.

Experts who reviewed the images for AP were able to identify distinguishing features and markings that show where many of the weapons wielded by Hamas fighters were manufactured. But such an analysis does not provide evidence of whether they were provided by the governments of those countries or purchased in a thriving Middle East black market, with weapons and components listed for sale on social media in such war-torn countries as Iraq, Libya and Syria.

What is clear, however, is that many of the images show Hamas militants toting weapons that appear to be relatively new, evidence the group has found ways of getting arms past the air-and-sea blockade of the Gaza Strip — possibly by boat, through tunnels or concealed in shipments of food and other goods.

“The majority of their arms are of Russian, Chinese or Iranian origin, but North Korean weapons and those produced in former Warsaw Pact countries are also present in the arsenal,” said N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services. 

Despite the buildup, Israel maintains a massive advantage, with a powerful array of modern tanks, artillery, helicopter gunships and an air force of U.S.-made fighter jets. Israel’s military says it has killed more than 7,000 Hamas militants, compared to the deaths of at least 510 of its own soldiers, more than 330 of whom were killed in Hamas’ initial attack. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 23,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, though it does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Imagery reviewed by the AP showed a Hamas arsenal featuring weapons ranging from small arms and machine guns to shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and craft-produced anti-tank projectiles.

Among the most distinctive is the oversized AM-50 Sayyad (Arabic for “hunter”), an Iranian-made sniper rifle that fires a .50- caliber round powerful enough to punch through up to an inch of steel. It has previously been spotted on battlefields in Yemen, Syria, and in the hands of Shia militias in Iraq.

Hamas fighters have also been seen carrying an array of Soviet-era weapons that have been copied and manufactured in Iran and China. They include variants of the Russian-designed 9M32 Strela, a portable heat-seeking anti-aircraft missile system.

Jenzen-Jones said a grip stock on one of the missile launchers a fighter was seen holding is distinctive to a variant manufactured in China and used by the Iranian military and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, a group closely aligned with Hamas.

Weapons recovered from Hamas fighters by the Israel Defense Forces include what appear to be Italian-designed TC/6 anti-tank mines. However, Seán Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert, said it too had been copied by Iran’s arms industry.

The Israel Defense Forces and U.S. officials have long accused Iran of supplying money, training and weapons to Hamas and allied militants in Gaza, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

Iranian representatives at the United Nations did not respond to emails from the AP about whether their government supplied weapons to Hamas, including AM-50 Sayyad sniper rifles. However, a week after AP sought comment, Hamas posted a video purporting to show militants in Gaza using machining equipment to make their own copies of the rifle.

Master gunsmith Don Fraley reviewed that Dec. 20 video and said it would be nearly impossible for Hamas to manufacture a safe and accurate .50-caliber sniper rifle with the rudimentary equipment shown.

“You’re going to have to be a rock star at machine shop work. And I didn’t see any of that,” said Fraley, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier and sniper for the Kentucky State Police. “These folks are just trying to cover their tracks.”

An Israeli military official familiar with Hamas’ arsenal said the group uses a combination of smuggled “off-the-shelf” weaponry, including AK-47s, RPGs and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as a large collection of home-grown weapons often made with easily accessible civilian materials.

For instance, the official said, the group uses lathes to shape metal into rockets and mortars, and fits them with explosives manufactured from fertilizers. Other home-made weapons include a launcher capable of firing 14 rockets simultaneously and the “Zuwari” drone, an explosives-laden aircraft that was used to strike Israeli observation towers and knock out cameras on Oct. 7.

“There is a huge military/defense industry inside the Gaza Strip,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules.

The official said most of the smuggled weapons are believed to have been brought in through Egypt and are generally easy to purchase and did not need to be supplied by the country of origin.

One such weapon seen in the hands of Hamas fighters is a version of Chinese machine guns known as the Type 80, a model that has also been copied by the Iranians and renamed as the PKM-T80.

Jonathan Ferguson, the curator of firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum in England, said from what he could see from the photos and videos, versions of the gun made in China and Iran were so similar as to be indistinguishable.

Ferguson was also able to identify a rocket-propelled grenade with marks showing it was made in Bulgaria. AP previously reported Hamas used RPGs with a distinctive red stripe indicating they were made in North Korea.

Among the more sophisticated Hamas home-grown weapons is a copy of a Russian anti-tank rocket called the PG-7VR, which is specifically designed to defeat reactive-armor systems like those used on Israel’s Merkava Mark VI main battle tanks. Such tanks are covered with explosive-filed plates that explode outwards to disrupt incoming projectiles.

In propaganda videos posted in October, masked militants are seen assembling a version of the Russian rocket that Hamas has renamed the Al-Yasin 105, in honor of the group’s founder killed in an Israeli air strike in 2004. While the original Russian version can melt through up to two feet of steel armor, experts say it’s not clear whether the home-brewed explosives in the Hamas knock-off are as potent.

Hamas has posted multiple videos of fighters firing the rockets at Israeli tanks and armored personal carriers. Those videos are typically cut off after the warhead explodes, making it impossible to independently verify whether the target was destroyed.

Also, in a tactic borrowed from the battlefields of Ukraine, Hamas appears to have obtained or copied Iranian-designed drones that pack warheads that explode when crashed into their targets. Off- the-shelf, Chinese-made quadcopter drones have also been adapted to drop explosives on tanks and troops.

“The availability of commercial off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicles, these light consumer drones, has radically changed warfare in recent years,” Jenzen-Jones said. “We’ve seen them, obviously, in Syria, in Yemen, in Iraq, in Ukraine, and now in Gaza.”

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine ground commander says his troops, now on 'active defence', can still surprise

His demeanour is dispassionate and his message is clear: Ukraine's ground forces are focused first and foremost on defence along the eastern stretch of the 1,000-km (600-mile) front under his command.

They should not be counted out, however, as an offensive force.

In an interview late last week, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi - a key figure in Kyiv's response to Russia's full-scale invasion - underlined the shifting realities on the battlefield that have tempered hopes of a major Ukrainian breakthrough.

Despite initial optimism for a much-vaunted Ukrainian summer counteroffensive, Russian defences largely held, limiting early advances to a few kilometres in some spots before Moscow's forces hit back elsewhere.

"Our goals remain unchanged: holding our positions ... exhausting the enemy by inflicting maximum losses," Syrskyi, Ukraine's number two commander, told Reuters.

The 58-year-old, wearing combat fatigues and speaking cautiously at an undisclosed location in the eastern region of Kharkiv, noted how Russia was looking to seize the initiative as the invasion neared its second anniversary.

They were pressing in multiple directions along the eastern front, Syrskyi said, with the aim of wresting full control of the industrial Donbas region despite heavy losses in men and supplies.

Russia also hopes to claw back ground it lost in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he added.

Ukrainian troops, for their part, are staging smaller counter-attacks in what Syrskyi described as "active defence": keeping the enemy on its toes by seeking opportunities to strike while they look to regain the initiative.

Engagements on both sides are on a smaller scale to conserve ammunition and men, he added, suggesting Russia has also learned to react and stem losses.

"Offensives at the level of a battalion are a major rarity," said Syrskyi, adding that wider use of drones has forced the change in tactic.

Ukraine says it does not have enough ammunition to sustain the desired level of attacks, and has urged Western partners to do more to supply it.

'CUNNING AND COURAGEOUS'

Syrskyi has commanded troops against combined Russian forces since 2014, when he earned his call sign "snow leopard". They fought a Moscow-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine using "tactics that were similar to how this cat hunts," he explained.

"This creature is very careful, cunning and courageous."

He burnished his reputation in September 2022, leading a lightning counteroffensive to retake swathes of the Kharkiv region which stunned Russian forces into a retreat.

The operation capitalised on Ukraine's strengths, particularly nimble units capable of bypassing fortified positions to drive deep into enemy territory.

But Syrskyi's record as a commander is not unquestioned. Through much of early 2023, he led Ukraine's defence of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of soldiers on both sides are widely believed to have been killed in the deadliest battle of the conflict so far.

Some military analysts questioned whether fighting for a ruined city that was ultimately lost was worth so many dead and wounded. Syrskyi said Ukraine harmed Russia's war effort there by neutralising the Wagner mercenary group.

Moscow still considers him a threat, Syrskyi said, evidenced by more than one assassination attempt.

"Let's say this: we're familiar with rocket strikes," he said.

With artillery and trench warfare yielding few major advances, Syrskyi agreed with Ukraine's top commander Valery Zaluzhny that technology would likely play a major role if Kyiv wanted to win the war.

Electronic warfare has intensified over the past year, Syrskyi said, as the proliferation of drones and other guided weaponry has created more opportunities for jamming.

To gain an advantage, Ukrainian forces need higher quantities of advanced kit that works across multiple frequencies at once.

But there were still opportunities to advance by creating what Syrskyi called a "artificial advantage", just as Ukraine had done in the fall of 2022.

"No matter what, there will be certain areas that will be heavily defended, and other areas less defended," he said.

The key, Syrskyi added, was to concentrate forces at the most vulnerable point at the best time, a principle which "has not lost its relevance".

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘Time is running out’ for US aid approval – Kiev

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has warned that “time is running out” for US lawmakers to approve additional military aid to Kiev, claiming that costs for Western nations will be far higher if Russian forces are allowed to defeat the former Soviet republic.

Providing more money and weapons to Ukraine will help the US and its NATO allies avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, Kuleba said in an ABC News interview posted on Monday. “Whatever the price of supporting Ukraine is now, the price of fixing the mess in the world if Ukraine loses will be much, much higher,” he added.

Washington, the biggest sponsor of what some US politicians have called a “proxy war” in Ukraine, has run out of money for Kiev after burning through $113 billion in congressionally approved aid packages. President Joe Biden’s latest funding request, which includes $61.4 billion in additional military and financial assistance for Ukraine, has stalled because of increasing opposition from Republican lawmakers. Senator J.D. Vance and other Republican critics have argued that Biden lacks a strategy for victory in Ukraine and is merely prolonging the bloodshed by continuing to send aid.

Kuleba claimed that a Russian victory in Ukraine would send a dangerous message to other adversaries of the US. “If the West is not able to stop Russia in Ukraine, who else is it able to stop in other parts of the world?”he asked. The diplomat vowed that Ukrainians “will fight with shovels” if they run out of weapons.

ABC noted that Russian forces have made territorial gains in recent weeks and have taken the upper hand in terms of firepower. However, Kuleba argued that the gains were “minimal,” and he denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin is now in a stronger position. “Hitler pretended to be very strong for many years, and we all know how it ended,” he said.

Asked about drone attacks in Moscow’s territory, the Ukrainian FM said it was important to show that the conflict was having an adverse impact on the Russian people. “President Putin must explain to his people why all of this is happening,” he said.

Kuleba also brushed off a report last week showing that an internal Pentagon investigation found the US had failed to properly track more than $1 billion worth of weaponry sent to Ukraine. “Everything you give to us is used for the best purpose of ending this war with Ukraine’s victory as soon as possible,” he said.

The diplomat insisted that reports of US weapons being trafficked from Ukraine to other parts of the world were “fake,” adding “So don’t believe in fakes, believe in Ukraine.”

Reuters/RT