E-Business
CAPDAN Raises Alarm, Says Computer Village Under Police Siege
Computer and Allied Product Dealers at Computer Village (CAPDAN), Ikeja, have sent ‘Save Our Soul’ (SOS) message to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over extortion and abuse of operational guideline by his men dispatched to secure or monitor the market environment.
Mr Ahmed Ojikutu, president of Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) in a telephone interview with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek alleged that the officer attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) are making lives miserable for their members, calling on the IG for a wide-range investigation.
According to Mr. Ojikutu, SARS officer make over N7million weekly from the market following indiscriminate arrests and harassment of traders and other technicians predominately young people.
He said that several frantic efforts to attract higher police authority’s attentions to the cases yielded no meaningful results.
In Mr. Ojikutu’s words, “The officers and men of the Force have turned Computer Village to an ATM which will not accept any longer. With racking technology, it is easier to dictate who stole a phone. Meanwhile, the buyer of such phone is traced to Computer Village, men of the Force would arrest anybody that, out of omission or Commission, touched the phone. Computer Village is made up of young people who are daily struggling to make a living.
“So, when a customer comes to shop one and the device they need is not there, the shop owner wouldn’t just allow the customer to leave. He will approach owners of shop two or any other who has such device and sell. We are not denying the fact that in a market of such magnitude there must be bag eggs.
“But, even among the Police officers there are bad eggs. So, what the Nigerian Police officers do is that when a phone is lost and tracked to Computer village, they would arrest about ten people who might have touched the phone in one way of the other; and they are bailed with up to N250,000.00.
“I have met with the Commissioner of Police in Lagos, the two Area Commanders, reported to the constituted authorities, but the officers in the field are not willing to change.
I think there will be imminent protect that will shake the town. We are awaiting to exhaust the last line to be aware of what is happening.
Have You Addressed Members to Shun Stolen Items?
“We have spoken to them, but the truth is that technology has advanced. People will still sell their used phones or swap it, so, the issue around genuineness of a phone will still be there. Therefore, if there was an armed robbery or kidnapping case, technology has so advanced that it will be easy to dictate who first handled the phone, the location and time. Let the police arrest the culprit and not rope in others just to enlarge their pockets.
“On our side we are working against illicit practices and have set code of conducts for our members. The Police should do their work with all sense of diligence and professionalism not the current self-serving and extortions in the name of arrests. It leads to a lot of frame ups. They do this daily. At this end, we are saying no it. In fact, we don’t know if they have collaborators who are more interested in seeing these suffering young people undergo series of harassments in the hands of the Police.
“Computer Village is made up of mostly young people; and where young people are, they are bound to commit crime, but that shouldn’t give anyone the impetus to one to abuse those genuinely going about their businesses.
“It is a burning issue, and technology has come to stay. So, let them arrest the criminals and prosecute them. Under one week we countered cases where the Police collected over seven million naira (N7million). Though, we have reported to the authorities it has continued. When you push people to the wall, when they turn against you it will be fierce and brutal.
“The Inspector General (IG) of Police is a good man, the Commission of Police in Lagos, a good officer, the Area Commander in Ikeja is doing fantastic job, therefore, we don’t know who are giving the corrupt and bad eggs in the Police force the audacity to traumatize us in our business area. Who are these bad eggs? If people want to revolute they will not consider those who are good, the general aphorism would be ‘Nigerian Police is Bad’”.
Fighting Crime, Substandard Devices and Perpetuators
He expressed CAPDAN’s readiness to work with relevant government bodies in the fight against crime, and riding the market of substandard products.
The CAPDAN president told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek whereas they are ready to collaborate, no cartel or interest can be above the government.
“So, if there were cartels cloning others’ phones, it wouldn’t be like they can’t be stopped, but without direct involvement of constituted authorities like the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to clamp down, it is not going to be very easy. Therefore, we need their direct collaboration to rid the country of these substandard or cloned phones which constitute problems to the innocent citizens. We are open to partnerships, needing the backing of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), etc., but the bureaucratic settings usually cause challenge to get effective collaboration. If you want to clamp down, we are ready to volunteer information that will assist you. When the cartel know it is not profitable any more to import substandard products, they will naturally leave the market and the public will be the direct beneficiaries.
Advice to End Users
“We are coming up with a product called ‘Phone-Range; an online platform to assist buyers check the genuinely or otherwise of any device they want to buy at the Computer Village. We will notify the public about the solution when it is unveiled”.
However, efforts to get reactions from the Police Public Relations Officer for Lagos State proved abortive.
Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.
The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.
The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.
In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.
“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.
Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.
“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.
He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework. He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.
According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.
Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.
“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”
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