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STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS
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NITEL BOSS IN ALLEGED N102m CONTRACT SCAM A former General Manager in-charge of NITEL’s operations, Mr. Solomon Ogundele, told the judicial panel probing NITEL that the company’s Managing Director, Dr. Emmanuel Ojeba induced fraudulent practices to the tune of more than N102.7 million. Ogundele, who testified at the Justice Daniel Adeniyi-led judicial commission of inquiry alleged that his former boss had once given a verbal contract worth N11 million through the Lagos Mainland Territorial Manager, who he simply identified as Mr. Ibironke. According to him, Ojeba, formerly NITEL’s Executive Director in-charge of Zonal Administration until his appointment as the helmsman last year, used Ibironke for all the alleged sharp practices. He accused the chief executive of NITEL of recycling bills on the External Line Plant (ELP) projects in Aba, Awka, Ondo, Lagos Mainland, Talata-Mafara and Malumfashi, thereby committing the company’s funds to non-existing contracts. "The Aba cable rehabilitation work was completed by the then South-East Zonal Manager, Mr. C.O. Walker at the cost of N1.7 million and was commended by Ojeba," he said, adding that "within two weeks after this commendation, the same Ojeba ordered the release of N10.2 million for the same project." Ogundele, who said that the company’s financial regulations included a survey to determine the scope of any project, drawings of the work and patronage of NITEL accounts for all programmes, informed the commission that "Ojeba violated laid down procedures in all of these projects. "There was also this Alaba Market customers’ fund scam in 1998, when Ibironke as Territorial Manager of Lagos Mainland collected N27 million from the traders and only N1 million was deposited in NITEL’s account," he further alleged. The former manager who said that he was sacked by Ojeba because of his opposition to the sharp practices, told the panel that NITEL’s chief executive insisted on purchasing used spare parts for the company against the advice of his predecessor, Prof. Buba Bajoga, "who told the board that it must not be seen patronising used items." Apart from diverting a $100,000 grant to NITEL by Immasat for frequency propagation studies, Ojeba caused the transfer of Alhaji Shehu Mohammed from Lagos to Kaduna for indicting Ibironke in the Alaba scam. "As a result of this transfer, Mohammed who was seriously ill could no longer have access to specialist medication in Kaduna and he eventually died while Ibironke who ought to be fired was sent back to Lagos Mainland as Territorial Manager," he argued. He further alerted the commission of a serious threat to his life by Chief Olu Adeyemi, Chairman of ICIC Directory Publishers Ltd., "because I blocked the plan by ICIC boss and Ojeba to commit NITEL money to the NITEL directory project, which was earlier given on contractor-financing basis." (source: http://www.nigeriatoday.com/nitel_boss_in_alledged_n102m_con.htm) RWANDA TRIBUNAL WANTS TO CONSTRAIN WEB SITES The United Nations tribunal for Rwanda said that it had appealed for U.S. legal help to curb potentially defamatory Internet sites maintained for two men on trial for genocide. At least one of the Web sites defamed judges and court officials involved in the trial of Rwanda’s 1994 mass genocide, officials of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said. "We are concerned that some of the statements on the web sites are nothing but false and scurrilous," ICTR spokesman Kingsley Moghalu said. "But our major concern is the potential to use this medium to reveal the identity of witnesses." Tribunal officials are trying to regulate the web sites by appealing to the countries and to the Internet service providers running the sites. Okali said the ICTR had asked the U.S. government "to assist us to look into this matter from the point of view of their laws." (source: Reuters via Politech MARCONI ASSISTS NIGERIAN TELECOMS ROLL-OUT Marconi is assisting Magenta, a subsidiary of General Telecom in Nigeria, with the roll-out of its Marconi Advanced CDMA Radio Access System. (source: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2001/0102280847.asp) PIERRE DANDJINOU ELECTED TO ICANN AT-LARGE MEMBERSHIP STUDY COMMITTEE Pierre Dandjinou who has been selected as a member of ICANN’s At-Large membership study committee. We wish him and all members of the Committee the best luck in trying to sort the issue out. (source: http://www.atlargestudy.org/members.html) SUN HELPS TECHNIKON PRETORIA OPEN INTERNET CAFE Making the internet more accessible to students, Technikon Pretoria has set up an internet cafe in partnership with Sun Microsystems and outsourcing company Cyber Connections. At a cost of R8 an hour (less than half the standard price), students at Technikon Pretoria are given access to computer packages, e-mail and the internet. Many other tertiary institutions can expect the same access and facilities in the near future. (source: Boot http://www.boot.co.za/news/feb01/tertiary27.htm ) SOUTH AFRICA’S AMORPHOUS NEW MEDIA TAKES MR DELIVERY ONLINE Mr Delivery, the innovator of multiple restaurant delivery and the largest home and office delivery operation in SA, is set to go online. Amorphous New Media, a digital design agency, was recently awarded the account to handle the design, online branding and e-commerce solution for MrDelivery.com. (source: Boot http://www.boot.co.za/news/feb01/mrdelivery27.htm ) M-WEB UNBLOCKS ACCESS TO ITS CONTENT Following ITWeb’s report late last week that sa.internet.com’s Web site was not available to non-M-Web subscribers, the problem appears to have been fixed.Tests conducted by ITWeb last week revealed that sa.internet.com was only available to dial-up users dialling in to the Internet through M-Web and leased-line users. When M-Web was asked for comment regarding the situation, it was unaware of the block, and promised to look into the situation. Other sites, like sa.internet.com, that are hosted by, but not affiliated to M-Web, such as the student Web site GetALife (http://www.gal.co.za/www.gal.co.za) were similarly affected. The closest estimation is that until Friday, the sites were inaccessible via the Web, and e-mails sent to the site owners routed through the M-Web server were bounced back to the original sender. In an unexpected turnabout, ITWeb is now able to access the M-Web portal, having previously been blocked along with dial-up users. Although the original restrictions block users dialling up through other Internet service providers, the exceptions were LAN users, people connected through corporate networks and international users. M-Web personnel have to date been unavailable for comment on how the denial of access affects M-Web client relations, especially in terms of how the restriction may have contravened any hosting agreements reached between M-Web and its clients. (source: http://www.itweb.co.za) BRAIN DRAIN GETS ORGANISED - HOLLAND RECRUITS SA TALENT Following the signing of a strategic alliance in the fourth quarter of last year with Cape IT Solutions, an employee consultancy based in the Netherlands, leading IT recruitment consultancy, Abacus Recruitment, has announced that Cape IT Solutions "has taken another 20 high level IT personnel" from South africa for deployment in the IT industry in the Netherlands. (source: Boot http://www.boot.co.za/news/feb01/netherlands23.htm) UN SEEKS TO COMBAT CYBERSQUATTING Internet domains representing individual countries should be subject to the same rules that govern names registered with international domains like dot-com, according to the United Nations. Francis Gurry, assistant director-general of the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization, said a common set of rules would help prevent "cybersquatting" where people register a famous name to which they have no rights in order to sell it for a huge profit. There are 244 "country code top-level domains," based on an international standard which attributes a two-letter code to countries and territories.Those codes include dot-uk for Britain, dot-fr for France, dot-jp for Japan and the seldom used dot-us, which has been mostly ignored in the United States in favor of "generic" domains such as dot-com and dot-org.Gurry said different rules apply in different countries. Most domains are administered by private companies but others such as in Argentina are government-controlled. The lack of overall control leads to concerns that the flourishing country domains will increasingly be the haunt of cybersquatters. WIPO is trying to persuade administrators to sign up to a "uniform dispute resolution policy" which sets rules on who is entitled to own a certain domain name. WIPO has issued a proposed set of guidelines for the administration of country-code domains, including a recommendation that the uniform policy is adopted even if it is not handled by WIPO. (source:Wired News http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,41923,00.html )
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This page last updated on January 28 2004.
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