Ghana president John Mahama visits Offa local government in Kwara State, Nigeria

Offa is a city and Local Government Area located in Kwara State, central Nigeria with a population of about 90,000 inhabitants. The vegetation in Offa is savanna vegetation and the town is noted for its weaving and dyeing trade, using vegetable dyes made from locally grown indigo and other plants. Offa is well known for cultivation of Sweet potatoes and maize which also formed part of the favourite staple foods of the indigenes in the town. Offa in one of her eulogy is being address as the home of sweet potatoes.

President John Mahama arrived at the Kwara State local airport, Ilorin on Saturday and he was welcomed by the Kwara State executive governor Abdulfatah Ahmed after which he proceeded on his journey to Offa the same day;

Indigenes of Offa were very happy and pleased to see the president of Ghana, JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA during his visitaion to the home of sweet potatoes last Saturday 24th October, 2015.

Many people will be asking the purpose of Mahama's visitation in Offa; the below is an excerpt from Mr. president speech:

“Actually I found it necessary to visit my home and pay respect to my father, Kabiesi, the Olofa of Offa. For those who did not know the history, many years ago, knowing the business acumen of the people of Offa, their business takes them far away across the world, and so, a very strong branch of Balogun family of Offa has established himself in Kumasi in Ghana. By that time he had a very beautiful daughter and my father at that time was also a very young man, he was a member of the parliament in government… his eyes fell on this beautiful daughter of Offa, one thing led to another and so Aunty Nusi Balogun became my step mother.. “ that is how Balogun and the Mahama’s family of Ghana developed a relationship. For many years I was here in Offa with Aunty Nusi and I know the town very well.”

“Then (late 70's), Ijagbo and Offa were separated, in the outskirts of Offa, there was bush before you reach Ijagbo, but when we were coming I realized as we passed along Ijagbo, it was just continuous all the way to Offa; the two communities have merged”.

President John Mahama is now the Aare Atolase Of Offa-- a befitting chieftaincy title in Offa

DPR shuts some filling stations in Sokoto

Recently the state has been experiencing shortage of petroleum products with many filling stations closed down leading to hike in the pump price by some station owners who still have the products.

The Zonal Operations Controller of the Department of Petroleum Resources in charge of Sokoto and Kebbi states, Alhaji Mohammed Makera, disclosed to newsmen in Sokoto on Tuesday shortly after a raid on some filling stations that six independent marketers' filling stations in Sokoto and its environs were sealed for various offences.

Makera said five of the filling stations were sealed for selling petrol above the official pump price of N87 per litre and fined N100,000 each.

The remaining filling station was sealed for hoarding and fined N200,000.

“All the sealed filling stations would not be reopened until they write an undertaking to sell petroleum products at the government-approved pump prices,” he said.
Makera warned the marketers against contravening the government regulations, vowing to duly sanction any erring filling station in the two states.

Oprah Winfrey partners with Weight Watchers

Oprah Winfrey just made a big bet on Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers International, Inc. is a leading, global-branded consumer company and the world’s leading commercial provider of weight management services, operating globally through a network of Company-owned and franchise operations.

In 2014, consumers spent approximately $5 billion on Weight Watchers branded products and services, including meetings conducted by the Company and its franchisees, digital weight management products provided through its websites, mobile sites and apps, products sold at meetings, licensed products sold in retail channels and magazine subscriptions and other publications.

In a press release on Monday, October 19, 2015; the weight-loss assistance company said she joined its board and purchased newly issued stock representing a 10% stake of shares outstanding. She also bought options to acquire an additional 5% of fully diluted shares.

According to the press release, Oprah became an adviser, as well as a regular member of the program who will "candidly share her experiences and perspective along the way".

"Weight Watchers has given me the tools to begin to make the lasting shift that I and so many of us who are struggling with weight have longed for" she said in the statement. "I believe in the program so much I decided to invest in the company and partner in its evolution."
Weight Watchers shares surged by as much as 38% in premarket trading.

The teen hacker breaks into CIA Director personal email

A hacker talking to The New York Post claims to have compromised the personal email account of CIA Director John Brennan.

In reference to the Post, the "teen" hacker operates with a classmate under the name "Crackas With Attitude." The two were tweeting under the accounts @phphax and @_CWA_, the latter of which has been suspended. Before it was shut down, the @_CWA_ account tweeted what it claimed was sensitive CIA information which showed what appeared to be a list of names, along with possibly matching social security numbers. The @phphax account has also been tweeting documents it claimed to obtain from the hack.

The Post reports that the hacker gained access to the account through simple social engineering techniques which convinced AOL to reset the password on Brennan's account.

According to the Post, the CIA says it has "referred the matter to the appropriate authorities."

South African prison releases Oscar Pistorius, put under house arrest

On Valentine's Day 2013, Pistorius fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria home. He said he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in the bathroom, but he was arrested and charged with murder. At his trial the following year, Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide. He received a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended prison sentence for a separate reckless endangerment conviction. In November, prosecutors asked the sentencing judge for permission to appeal the verdict. Permission was granted in December, and the case will next be presented to a five-person panel at the Supreme Court of Appeal. His release from prison to house arrest was announced for 21 August 2015 but this was placed "on hold" on 19 August 2015. On 15 October 2015 it was confirmed that Pistorius was to be released from prison on 20 October 2015; however he was released on 19 October 2015.

  

The handling of the actual placement is an operational matter of the local management, and how they handle it is their prerogative that is carried out in the best interest of all parties concerned, the victims, the offender and the Department of Correction Services," Wolela said in a text message sent to journalists.

Facebook says it will warn users of 'advanced and dangerous' attacks

In the recent notification posted to the official Facebook Security page, the company says it will begin informing users if their account "has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state." See what the notification looks like on the desktop version of the Facebook website;

"While we have always taken steps to secure accounts that we believe to have been compromised, we decided to show this additional warning if we have a strong suspicion that an attack could be government-sponsored," Facebook's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, wrote. "We do this because these types of attacks tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others, and we strongly encourage affected people to take the actions necessary to secure all of their online accounts."

In reference to the statement on the security page, the warning does not relate to any compromise of Facebook's platform or systems; so users should ensure that their computers or mobile devices are remediated and malwares cleared off having an account compromised in this manner.

Nigeria Army arrests fake Army General who sponsors Boko Haram

The Nigeria Army in a statement on Tuesday said that on suspected Boko Haram sponsor, Aliyu Hussaini, who was parading himself as a military brigadier general was arrested by soldiers of the 33rd Artillery Brigade in Bauchi State during a raid.

This is a landmark success recorded in the ongoing Operation Zaman Lafiyah as troops of the brigade recently arrested Hussaini popularly known as Colonel, a suspected Boko Haram terrorist and an Impostor who has been parading himself as a Brigadier General in the Nigeria Army.

Hussaini and one Ibrahim Mohammed, who is also known as Yuram were arrested during the raid operation.