News
Zinox Demands Apology from Falana over Alleged Defamation, Reputational Damage

Management of Zinox Technologies Limited, foremost African digital conglomerate, has demanded public apology from Mr. Femi Falana SAN, over alleged defamation and reputational injury inflicted on the company and its representatives by Falana and his client, Benjamin Joseph, the CEO of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm.
In a statement on Sunday, Zinox referenced recent news items in the media relating to certain charges filed by Falana, purporting to act on a fiat donated to him by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, attorney general and minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whom Zinox said may not have been properly briefed.
“We are sure that if the circumstances of this case were made available to the respected Honorable Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, he would not have granted the purported fiat to Femi Falana,” Zinox said in the statement.
In the news reports, Falana was said to have filed a suit before Honorable Justice A. O. Ebong of the FCT High Court in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 in November 2024, a suit Zinox said was based on the same claims which various courts had in the past dismissed as falsehood and baseless.
“Our initial reaction was to ignore these publications as the usual campaigns of calumny that have been orchestrated against Zinox since 2014 by one Mr. Benjamin Joseph, the Managing Director of Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd, the client of Mr. Femi Falana SAN. However, we are persuaded to respond by the consideration that once falsehood is sustained over time, it tends to acquire the garb of truth.”
Zinox said the case arose from a contract between Citadel and Technology Distributions Limited over the supply of computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), stressing that the matter has no bearing whatsoever with Zinox and its promoter, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh.
“Firstly, we are shocked that Femi Falana would include Zinox in his purported fiat/charges, a company that has nothing to do with the transaction or allegations. For the records, we want to state as follows:
“Zinox has never been invited by any investigative agency, including the police and the EFCC, on these allegations. There is no report either by the police or the EFCC or any investigative agency where the name of Zinox was mentioned as a suspect. There is no judgment or ruling of any court where Zinox was mentioned as having anything to do, whatsoever, with the transaction or the allegations, the basis of the fiat/charges. Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, the Chairman of Zinox, has never made any statement to the police in the course of any investigations and has never been mentioned in any court proceedings or judgment as part of any investigations relating to these allegations. Indeed, he has never met with Benjamin Joseph before,” the statement said.
Zinox cited instances in which Mr. Joseph lost the case and its adjunct suit. In a petition/case Mr. Joseph reported since 2013 and for which the Inspector General of Police charged him for false information in charge no.CR/216/16, he was unable to prove his allegations for more than 8 years .
In another case filed by the EFCC at his instance against his partner, Princess Kama, in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, Honorable Justice Danlami Z. Senchi of the FCT High Court (as he then was), dismissed as false all the allegations made by Benjamin Joseph, and imposed the sum of N20 million as damages against him for false petitioning in relation to these same allegations.
Zinox alleged that the current charges said to have been filed by Falana on the basis of a fiat from the Attorney General is the third in a row as he had earlier filed charge no.CR/469/2022, which was struck out by Honorable Justice C. O. Oba of the FCT High Court, by an order dated 8th November 2022.
In what appears to be forum shopping and abuse of court process, “he filed the same charges before Honorable Justice A. S. Adepoju of the FCT High Court, which charges were, once more, struck out by the Honorable Court on 19th March 2024, with Honorable Justice Adepoju holding that: “This matter was brought in dead, extinct and should be confined into the dustbin of history…I hold that the instant suit is an abuse of the process of court and it is hereby struck out accordingly,” the statement said.
Zinox said it was shocked that a “learned Senior Advocate in the person of Femi Falana, would, yet, proceed to file the same charges before Honorable Justice A. O. Ebong of the FCT High Court in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 in November 2024.”
The statement said: “It is, therefore, very clear that the deliberate intention for instituting this new charge by Femi Falana SAN, to include the name of Zinox and its Chairman and other persons who were never part of the investigations, is to embarrass them, harm their reputation, and thereby damage their businesses. In the circumstance, we hereby demand a public apology from Mr. Femi Falana SAN, if he is unable to produce the evidence demanded above.
“We, therefore, assure all our business partners, stakeholders, and friends, that we are not ruffled by these spurious allegations. While our lawyers are set to defend the present charges purportedly filed by Femi Falana SAN, we shall not fail to explore all legal remedies against persons associated with the orchestration of these false allegations and publications against us,” Zinox said.
News
GSK to Slash Cost of Malaria Jab to Less than $5

The manufacturers of the world’s first malaria vaccine are set to slash the price by more than half by 2028 to less than$5 per dose.
The manufacturers of the shot, known as RTS,S, said a phased reduction in cost would begin immediately, with an ultimate aim to reduce the price to less than $5.
The announcement could hardly come at a more critical moment.
Gavi, a major vaccination initiative which funds immunisations in the world’s poorest countries, is facing a major budget crunch.
In Brussels on Wednesday, Gavi’s replenishment event raised $9 billion to fund immunisation programmes over the next five years. While this sounds like a huge sum, it’s significantly less than the $11.9bn the group had been aiming for.
Governments around the world are cutting development spending dramatically.
The UK, for instance, cut its contribution to Gavi by 40 per cent in real terms, telling The Telegraph it was prioritising defence, while the US has pledged nothing at all.
Though America previously gave Gavi roughly $300m a year, the country’s new health secretary claimed without evidence that the organisation was ignoring vaccine safety.
The announcement from the British pharmaceutical giant GSK and Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech will therefore be a relief to those trying to balance the books.
In a statement the companies said the price reduction demonstrated their “commitment to Gavi”, and was “driven by process improvements, expanded production capacity, cost-effective manufacturing, and minimal profit margins”.
By the time the price has fallen to below $5 per dose, a technology transfer agreement means Bharat will have taken over production, though GSK will continue to supply the adjuvant piece of the shot.
“For us, this is more than a cooperation, it’s a promise,” said Dr Krishna Ella, executive chairman of Bharat Biotech International Limited.
“By joining forces with GSK, and working closely with Gavi, and the WHO [World Health Organization], we are taking a real step toward closing the gap between vaccine supply and the urgent needs of children at risk of malaria.”
Each year, malaria still kills 500,000 people – the vast majority of them children aged five and under in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to WHO estimates, cases and deaths fell significantly between 2000 and 2015, but progress has since stalled.
Some have high hopes that RTS,S, as well as another vaccine called R21 developed by Oxford University, could prove critical in efforts to turn the tide.
In clinical trials, RTS,S reduced hospitalisations for severe malaria by 30 per cent.
But critics say the shot is too expensive and not as effective as existing tools, such as bed nets and antimalarials.
The reduction in price will bring it more in line with the cost of R21, which is priced at around $4 per dose.
Yet the cost will still add up, as both jabs require multiple shots. For RTS,S, this means four doses – the first three doses are given monthly, starting around five months of age, while the fourth dose is administered 15-18 months later.
Both jabs “provide reasonable short term efficacy – over about a year – so are a useful addition to other measures,” said Professor Nick White, a professor at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit who specialises in malaria.
“In the past GSK had limited production capacity – one of the reasons the R21 was developed. So reducing the price will be good and the two comparable vaccines can fight it out in the market place.”
A spokesperson for Gavi said the alliance’s goal is to “create sustainable demand backed by predictable financing so that companies – like GSK and Bharat – can continue investing in technology transfer and other efficiencies that bring down costs, thus making critical vaccines more available and affordable.
GSK’s decision to lower its prices, the spokesperson added, is “an important step for the global malaria vaccination programme, and our ability to make this lifesaving tool more widely available to those who need it the most”.
Gavi plans to help fund RTS,S in 12 African countries by the end of this year.
Previously, GSK has said it will supply up to 18 million vaccine doses between 2023 and the end of this year.
The company plans to supply 15 million doses annually from 2026-2028, a spokesperson told Reuters.
News
Rack Centre Signs Collocation Deal with TelCables Nigeria

Rack Centre, West Africa’s Tier III carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre, has struck a collocation agreement with TelCables Nigeria, an Angola Cables subsidiary.
TelCables Nigeria is delivering its high-capacity network and cloud infrastructure, as well as four international subsea cable systems (SACS, MONET, SEBRAS, and EllaLink), directly into Rack Centre’s regional carrier ecosystem as part of the agreement.
According to Angola Cables, the move provides reliable, low-latency south-bound routes to Europe, the Americas, and Latin America, reducing the danger of future cable disruptions along West Africa’s coast and enabling next-generation cloud services across the continent.
“Our unique Africa – to – Latin America route via SACS, combined with MONET, SEBRAS and EllaLink, gives customers the lowest – latency paths to the Americas and Europe,” said Fernando Fernandes, CEO of TelCables Nigeria.
“Businesses in latency sensitive sectors: financial services, content delivery and real-time communications will experience faster transactions, reduced lag and an enhanced user experience.
“By hosting at Rack Centre we also localise Clouds2Africa resources, price them in naira, and remove expensive ingress/egress charges or FX exposure.”
Rack Centre said its 13.5MW data centre campus designed with its recently launched LGS2 facility that delivers a design PUE of 1.35 and powered from sustainable energy sources, already hosts 70+ carriers, ISPs and network operators.
Lars Johannisson, CEO of Rack Centre, commented: “Adding a global operator of Angola Cables’ calibre through TelCables Nigeria dramatically deepens our connectivity fabric.
“We can now offer 99.95 % SLA routes to more destinations, enabling enterprises, governments and cloud providers to meet performance and data-residency requirements while keeping traffic local.”
News
Lagos Plastic Ban: MAN Warns of Job Losses, Closure of Businesses

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has expressed concerns over the impending ban on Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) by the Lagos State Ministry of Environment.
It warned that it could lead to job losses and and lead to economic, operational, and social consequences for manufacturers, traders, recyclers, and end users.
Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director general, MAN, in a statement called on the Lagos State government to reconsider the ban, citing a lack of credible data and stakeholder engagement.
According to Ajayi-Kadir, a recent study revealed that 100% of manufacturers surveyed expressed fears of job losses and workforce restructuring if the ban is implemented.
He said, “A recent MAN-supported study evaluating the possible impacts of the Lagos State SUPs ban revealed significant adverse economic, operational, and social implications across the value chain, from manufacturers to wholesalers, traders, and end users. It has been noted that only poor and developing countries often tilt towards plastic ban as a strategy to combat environmental problems.
“A hundred percent of the manufacturers consulted expressed concern over a ban-induced workforce restructuring. Thus, several jobs will be lost in the industry if this ban were to be implemented.
“It is noteworthy to mention that there is no form of arrangement for social protection for the employees who will lose their livelihoods as a result of this ban.
“Also, there has been no form of social dialogue on the part of the government with these workers or the industry on the potential job losses.”
According to him, findings showed that 89% of operators in the plastic value chain rely on SUPs as their primary source of income with no alternative source of livelihoods, over 75% of end users, including SMEs, depend on plastic packaging with no affordable or practical alternatives, and 93% of dealers, many of whom are women, reported no prior information or social support mechanisms to cushion the impact.
Ajayi-Kadir emphasised that banning SUPs would not resolve pollution issues but merely substitute one problem for another, especially without scalable alternatives or infrastructure to support the transition.
He urged the government to focus on improving waste management infrastructure and promoting recycling, rather than imposing bans.
- General News2 days ago
OpenAI Unveils New AI Agent for Software Developers
- Telecom2 days ago
15 African Startups Using AI Selected for Google Accelerator Cohort 9
- Telecom2 days ago
MTN Nigeria Receives UN Women Award for Empowering Women Nationwide
- E-Financial1 day ago
Fidelity Bank Clears the Air: MD Not Linked to Woobs Case
- Telecom2 days ago
US Bans Use of WhatsApp on Official Devices over Security Concerns
- Telecom2 days ago
MTN Nigeria Launches “Mega Billion Promo” to Reward Customer Loyalty and Drive Financial Inclusion
- Telecom2 days ago
MTN Nigeria Donates Medical, Digital Equipment to Lagos Primary Healthcare Centre
- General News1 day ago
SEC Advocates for Advanced Financial Inclusion by 2030