TikTok, the short video social media platform owned by Bytedance, said that it has deleted 1.7 million recordings from Nigerian users during the fourth quarter of 2023. Explaining reasons for the action via its Community Guidelines Enforcement report, the platform said Nigeria was among the top 50 countries where videos violating its policies emanated from in Q4. The company said 176.5 million videos were removed globally in total for the period under review, adding that the top 50 markets which violated its policies accounted for approximately 90% of all content removals for the quarter. The removed videos were said to have violated one or more TikTok’s policies bordering on integrity and authenticity, privacy and security, mental and behavioural health, safety, and civility, among others. In the period under review, TikTok said it removed a total of 169 million accounts discovered to be spam or fake.   According to Tiktok, “From October 7 through to the end of 2023, we removed more than 169 million fake accounts globally, and we have removed about 1.2 million bot comments on content tagged with hashtags related to the Israel-Hamas war. “We remain vigilant in our efforts to detect external threats and safeguard the platform from fake accounts and engagement. These threats persistently probe and attack our systems, leading to occasional fluctuations in the reported metrics within these areas. “Despite this, we are steadfast in our commitment to promptly identify and remove any accounts, content, or activities that seek to artificially boost popularity on our platform. During the fourth quarter of 2023, we saw an increase in some of our fake engagement metrics.”. The company said it also removed a total of 1.03 billion likes from videos. Other actions taken by the social media platform included the removal of 720 million fake followers and 4.9 billion fake follow requests. According to TikTok, the removed likes, followers, and follow requests were discovered to have come through ‘automated or inauthentic mechanisms’. During the fourth quarter of 2023, TikTok said there was an increase in the volume of ads removed for violating its advertising policies and a decrease in the volume of ads removed due to account-level actions. The report shows that a total of 1.5 million ads were removed in Q4 2023 for violating its ads policies, an increase from 1.3 million recorded in Q3. “We are continually reviewing and strengthening our systems to identify new patterns and quickly and accurately remove ads that violate our policies. By upholding strict policies, leveraging advanced detection mechanisms, and continuously improving our systems, we strive to foster an advertising experience that is trustworthy, enjoyable, and aligned with the values of our vibrant TikTok community,” the company added.

  The UK on Thursday increased the income required to sponsor someone coming to the country on a family visa as part of the government’s plan to cut immigration. This was revealed by the UK home office via its official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday. “We’re delivering the biggest-ever cut in legal migration and an immigration system that works for the British people. “We have increased the family visa minimum income requirement,” the statement read. From Thursday, the minimum income requirement needed to bring a family member to the UK will go up to £29,000 ($36,800) from £18,600, rising to £38,700 early next year. The move forms part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to “cut unsustainable and unfair levels of migration, and ensure those arriving here do not burden the taxpayer”. Immigration, at record levels in recent years, is likely to be a key issue in a general election due later in 2024, with polling showing that Sunak’s Conservatives are due for a heavy defeat. “We have reached a tipping point with mass migration. There is no simple solution or easy decision which cuts numbers to levels acceptable to the British people. “We’ve acted to cut unsustainable numbers, to protect British workers and their wages, to ensure those bringing family to the UK do not burden taxpayers,” Interior Minister James Cleverly said. The income requirement is designed to ensure families are self-sufficient and can be met in a number of ways, including through savings and income from employment. The government unveiled a raft of measures in December aimed at cracking down on the record migration levels, including a 47-percent hike in the minimum salary for skilled work visas. The government intends to ultimately synchronise the threshold for family visas with that of skilled work visas. Tightened regulations for students and a 66-percent increase in the health surcharge for foreigners using the National Health Service (NHS) were also part of the broader immigration strategy. Cleverly said at the time that the overall plan was to reduce annual net migration to the UK, currently running at 745,000, by 300,000.

President of United States, Joe Biden, has committed another blunder as he urged supporters to vote for him because he is in “20th century.” Biden said, “Elect me, I’m in the 20th century” in the latest Gaffe, while addressing US citizens at a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.   A lot of Americans are contemplating voting for the 81-year-old, saying he would be too old for the another tenure of four years. The NBC News journalist, Peter Alexander,, asked Biden to address the issue of abortion in Arizona. The state Supreme Court had ruled Tuesday that an 1864 law banning abortion from the moment of conception remains in effect, with only a narrow exception to save the life of a mother. In response to the question, Biden said, “Elect me. I’m in the 20th century.” Earlier, he had said “Why doesn’t everybody holler at once?” as journalists hurled questions at him. This is not the first gaffe from the American leader battling his predecessor and Republican rival, Donald Trump, in November 5 election. Among his several gaffes were mistaking Egypt for Mexico during the Israel-Hamas war, and referring to German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz as Helmurt Kurl, who died in 2017. The 77-year-old Trump has also taunted Biden many times publicly that he is unfit to continue to be the US president, vowing to unseat him.

  A prominent Ethiopian opposition official from the sensitive Oromia region was found shot dead on Wednesday, a few hours after being arrested by government forces, his party said. Bate Urgessa of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) party was released on bail last month following his detention alongside French journalist Antoine Galindo. The 41-year-old was arrested again late on Tuesday by “government armed forces” at a hotel in the town of Meki, 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, OLF spokesperson Lemi Gemechu told AFP.   “He was then briefly taken to a detention centre in the city,” Lemi said. “Bate’s family confirmed that he was found dead on a road in a place called Melissa, on the outskirts of Meki town,” he said, adding that he had been shot. The body was found on Wednesday morning, he said, adding that they could not tell if the forces who arrested Bate were from the federal or regional government. There was no immediate comment from the federal government but the regional authorities said attempts to blame it for the “assassination” were not acceptable. “The Oromia Regional State strongly condemns the killing of Bate Urgessa, which was carried out by an unidentified body,” it said on its official Facebook page. OLF, which considers itself the mouthpiece of the populous Oromo people, said in a statement that it had learnt about the death “with agony and grave sadness”. “The unwarranted and extrajudicial killing of conscious and active Oromo political and cultural figures has been a systematic and irresponsible act of silencing the Oromo throughout years and decades,” it said. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) — an independent state-affiliated body — on Wednesday urged both the regional and central governments to conduct a “prompt, impartial and full investigation” into Bate’s killing. Related News Italy returns Ethiopia’s ‘first plane’ after nine decades AU appeals for calm in Ethiopia-Somalia row Ethiopia becomes Africa’s latest sovereign default “Hold perpetrators to account,” EHRC chief commissioner Daniel Bekele said on X, formerly Twitter. Human Rights Watch also made similar appeals. – Conspiracy ‘to create chaos’ – Bate had been held in Ethiopian prisons on several occasions. On February 22, he was arrested in Addis Ababa in the company of Galindo, a journalist with the specialist publication Africa Intelligence. The two men were accused of conspiring “to create chaos” in the country. Bate was released on March 6, a week after Galindo. In 2022, he had been released on health grounds after a year in detention. The OLF renounced armed struggle in 2018, prompting the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) to split from the party. Federal forces have been fighting OLA rebels in Ethiopia’s most populous region Oromia ever since, while peace talks have failed to yield meaningful progress. The OLA’s strength, estimated at a few thousand men in 2018, has increased in recent years, though observers believe it is insufficiently organised or well-armed to pose a real threat to the government.   The Oromo ethnic group accounts for about a third of the 120 million inhabitants of Africa’s second most populous country. Classified as a “terrorist organisation” and referred to as OLF-Shane by Addis Ababa, the OLA has been accused by the government of orchestrating massacres, which the rebels deny. The authorities in turn are accused of waging an indiscriminate crackdown that has fuelled Oromo resentment. The OLF says Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has closed many of its offices, hindered participation in elections and imprisoned several of its leaders, some of whom have been in custody for years without trial.

  Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology under the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, is dead. Onu, a former governor of Abia State, died after a brief illness in an undisclosed hospital in Nigeria. Recall that the late 72-year-old former minister contested for the presidential flag of the All Progressive Congress (APC) during the 2023 general election, but lost to President Bola Tinubu.   Onu was a Nigerian politician, author and engineer until his death in April 2024. He was the first civilian governor of Abia State and was the minister of science, technology and innovation of Nigeria from November 2015 until his resignation in 2022. The Abia State governor was the longest serving minister of the ministry.

  In a rare twist of events in Rivers State politics, former Governor Peter Odili has endorsed Governor Siminalayi Fubara as the political leader of the state, praising him for defending the interests of the people. Odili, who served between 1999 and 2007, stated that Fubara, having secured his electoral victory both through the ballot and the courts, is now the political leader of the oil-rich South-South state. Odili spoke on Thursday at the commissioning of a Primary Healthcare Centre donated by his PAMO Foundation in Ndoni, his hometown in the Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area. He emphasised the strategic importance of Rivers State, warning that if the state sneezes, the entire nation catches cold. He urged Governor Fubara to act with this awareness in all its decision. Assessing Fubara’s performance, Odili commended him for making significant strides in critical sectors within his first year in office, particularly focusing on the well-being of the people. He noted that Fubara’s administration is in alignment with President Bola Tinubu’s agenda, especially in the health sector, following the recent launch of the Primary Healthcare Fellows scheme by the Federal Government. Odili encouraged the governor to maintain this alignment with the President and his policies to attract federal government attention and support to the state.

  The Minister of Works Dave Umahi says the Lagos-Calabar coastal road construction will take eight years and cost N4bn per kilometre. Umahi spoke on Thursday while fielding questions about the project on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. “We are looking at eight years in the life tenure of Mr President [Bola Tinubu],” he said. The minister said each kilometre of the coastal road would cost N4b but said the government’s prudence made that possible. “You know, there are other projects not awarded by me that are also going for about N4 billion per kilometre,” the former lawmaker explained. “So, I will pride myself, to the glory of God, that this project is the most prudent project that I’m starting. Other projects I made, we are reviewing, we are fighting, and we’re trying to review, the cost,” he said. Umahi, however, said the cost is a tentative one. “Well, I cannot sign my signature on that because it can come down, it can go up,” the minister said. But there are plans to recoup the money via tolling, according to the minister. “Let me leave out the infrastructure along the corridor. Let me just concentrate on the tolls and I put 50,000 vehicles as an average passage on these toll points per day,” Umahi said on the breakfast show. “I put N3,000 as an average cost. N3,000 because the cars could be like N1,500, and the big trucks could be like N5,000,” he said. “So, we put an average”. “In 15 years, you make back the money,” he said, dismissing calls that the cost budgeted for the road was high. He said there will be security at the toll gates and also some facilities like filling stations. “At every point of tolling, we also have toll station where we have a kind of relief activities: the restaurants, filling stations, parking lots, and so on and so forth,” Umahi said. “So, people will now have confidence. In these sections, we intend to put CCTV all through.”

  The complaints of five banks’ customers in 2023 increased by over 63.54 per cent to over 10 million from 6.12 million in the previous year. According to The PUNCH analysis of their audited financial results filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited in recent weeks, more than half of the complaints came from the customers of one of the largest banks in the country. The financial institutions reviewed in this report include Access Holdings, United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Wema Bank. In the year under review, the customers’ complaints that AccessCorp, Nigeria’s biggest bank, received rose by about 81.26 per cent to 5,120,653 from 2,824,979 in 2022. The financial services group revealed that it was able to resolve 5,092,619 complaints, with the amount claimed to be N273.04bn, out of which N2.07bn was refunded. In dollar terms, Access Group recorded 28,801 complaints involving $2.79bn and resolved 28,277 of them out of which it refunded $2,161. In transactions involving the British pounds sterling, the group received 328 complaints, with £134.40m claimed, and 326 of the complaints were resolved. In euros, 335 complaints were handled and resolved within the year, with the amount claimed standing at €9.88m. For UBA, customers’ complaints more than doubled to 2,962,339 in 2023 from 1,408,062 in the corresponding year, with N178.08bn claimed. The group was able to resolve a significant portion of the complaints at 2,317,974 and N450m was refunded. During this period, no refunds were made in dollars or pounds sterling. However, the group said that 80 complaints were escalated to the Central Bank of Nigeria for intervention. Days earlier, UBA unveiled a quick response solution code, called the ‘Scan to Resolve Complaint‘ Portal, aimed at enhancing satisfaction and swiftly addressing customers’ disputes. The bank said that the ‘Scan to Resolve Complaint’ portal was a QR-code-based portal conceptualised by the bank to proffer timely solutions to customers’ challenges without them having to visit the bank branch. Last year, Zenith Bank Plc saw the number of complaints go down by about 25.29 per cent to 355,210 from 475,499 in 2022 with N16.92bn claimed. The lender had 169,797 pending complaints from 2022 and at the end of 2023, it was able to resolve 432,360 complaints and refund N15.486bn. Similarly, GTCO’s customers’ complaints dropped in 2023 to 946,169 from 1,006,380 with about N5.016bn claimed. It stated that the pending complaints brought forward were 9,217. At the end of the year, 953,548 complaints were resolved with N277.45m refunded. The financial group said that some of the outstanding complaints include dispense errors, uncredited NIP, erroneous transfers, etc. In other currencies, GTCO customers claimed $202,617, £7,128 and €10.01m in complaints. Upon resolution, the group said that it refunded $2.816. For Wema Bank, a tier 2 bank with tier 1 ambitions, the bank indicated that its customers’ complaints rose by about 54.03 per cent to 617,941 in 2023 from 401,179 in 2022. Pending complaints from 2022 was 13,642 with N10.27bn claimed. At the end of the year, resolved complaints stood at 621,609 with about N11.26bn out of which N11.26bn was refunded. The bank claimed that it “successfully reduced the average time taken to resolve customer complaints by 60 per cent compared to 2022, and the resolution rate increased from 93 per cent to 98 per cent demonstrating our commitment to improving the experience of our customers consistently and efficiently”. According to Wema Bank, the number of customers escalating unresolved complaints was significantly reduced and escalation from regulatory bodies, including the CBN reduced by 38 per cent. In October 2023, the complaints of customers of five banks rose by 117 per cent to 6,865,217 year-on-year as of June 2023 from 3,156,704. Financial claims arising from the various complaints in the review period stood at N326.11bn, up by 289 per cent compared to N83.78bn paid in claims in June 2022. The CBN, in 2022, directed all lenders in the country to expand their existing ATM help desk to handle all types of consumer complaints. Providing a guideline for bank customers to make a complaint, the apex bank asked them to start from the bank, “You must first report the complaint at the bank/branch where the issue originated and then allow two weeks (it might be less in some banks) for the issue to be resolved.   “If after lodging your complaint your bank still fails to engage you and resolve the complaint within two weeks or 30 days, as the case may be, as provided for in the ATM help desk circular, you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Consumer Protection Department of the CBN.” Recently, the CBN has educated Nigerians on their rights and responsibilities as financial services consumers. In a video on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, the CBN said, “You have the right to be informed on financial products and services. Choose from available financial products and services. Safety and security within the financial institution premises, privacy and confidentiality of customer’s details, seek redress on complaints and financial issues, quality customer service, equality without discrimination and free monthly statement of account.”

  Operatives of the Rivers State Police Command on Thursday announced the killing of Peter Chukwu – a notorious gang leader suspected to be behind the murder of the Community Development Committee Chairman, Mgboshimini in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state, Ndidi Livingstone. Livingstone, while coming out from the church, was rushed by the assailants who later shot him in the head and stomach after he attempted to flee. The hoodlum and his men dragged the late chairman from a church he was worshipping and shot him dead in the presence of his wife and children. The state Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Thursday. Disu also said the miscreant identified as Peter Chukwu, popularly known as Daddy Chukwu, and his gang had invaded the community in a separate attack and killed 22 persons on October 9, 2017, and escaped unchallenged. Disu said, “Officers of this command gathered intelligence and operatives comprising of Rivers State tactical teams, the Intelligence Response Team with the assistance of Delta State Police Command stormed his hideout in Ibusa, Delta State. “He was found hybernating in the residence of his herbalist where he went for spiritual fortification. He put up a fierce resistance, and in an attempt to escape, he was fatally wounded, and he succumbed to the injury before arriving at the hospital.” He said the suspected criminal who had been on the wanted list of the state police command since October 2017 fled the state. Details later…