News

Plateau Accident: NGO Tasks Political Parties On Safe, Peaceful Campaign Rallies

Published

3 years ago

January 18, 2023

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AN Non Governmental organization, Youth Initiative Against Violence and Human Rights Abuse (YIAVHA), has advised political parties to caution their supporters against thuggery, reckless driving, and other forms of unsafe behaviors during campaign rallies.

Mr. Jacob Pwakim, the Executive Director of the organization, gave the piece of advice in a statement issued on Monday in Jos.

Pwakim was reacting to the road crash that claimed the lives of 16 supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on their way from a zonal rally at Pankshin in Plateau.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many other party supporters sustained various degrees of injury from the crash.

Pwakim, who condoled with the families of the affected people, called on political parties to put in place modalities that would ensure peaceful and accident-free rallies.

“YIAVHA Nigeria expresses sympathy with the immediate families, Plateau state, and all those who mourn the demise of these young Nigerians who in every sense have the potential that may have added value to the development of humanity in general.

“YIAVHA is also pleased with the role of young people in the 2023 elections where their actions shape the prospects of the elections to be peaceful and participatory.

“Precautionary measures should be put in place to reduce the vulnerability that comes with election campaigns in Nigeria,” he advised.

The executive director advised political parties to learn from experiences where party supporters die in road accidents during rallies due to reckless driving, adding that such an ugly trend could be averted if proper measures were put in place.

“If we are to learn from experiences, there should be adequate first aid equipment and medical provisions, safe driving measures, and car loading guidelines.

“Security personnel, among others, must ensure that elections are devoid of actions that threaten the lives of those campaigning.

“These safety measures should be monitored by the election management body and other stakeholders, political parties inclusive.

“While we know that there are natural occurrences, we like to be sure that all preventing measures have been observed by all parties involved in the election process,” he said.

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Business

Lasaco Assurance’s ₦18.47bn Rights Issue Closes May 13

Published

27 minutes ago

April 21, 2026

Preport

BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—Lasaco Assurance Plc has announced that v will officially close on May 13, 2026, marking the end date for eligible shareholders to participate in the capital raising exercise.

The offer is part of the company’s strategy to strengthen its financial base, boost underwriting capacity, and support its expansion plans within Nigeria’s insurance sector.

The offer comprises 9,236,321,546 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, priced at ₦2.00 per share, on the basis of five (5) new shares for every six (6) existing shares held. The Rights Issue is open to shareholders whose names appeared on the Company’s register as at the close of business on February 20, 2026.

The exercise is expected to raise approximately ₦18.47 billion, which will be strategically deployed to strengthen the Company’s capital base, enhance underwriting capacity, and support the expansion of its market presence within Nigeria’s competitive insurance landscape.

Meristem Capital Limited is acting as Lead Issuing House, while PAC Capital serves as Joint Issuing House on the transaction.

Commenting on the development, the Managing Director of Lasaco Assurance Plc, Ademoye Shobo, reaffirmed the Company’s commitment to maintaining a robust capital position to meet its obligations and deliver sustained value to policyholders and stakeholders.

This initiative aligns with broader efforts across the Nigerian insurance industry to meet evolving regulatory capital requirements, strengthen balance sheets, and position operators to underwrite larger and more complex risks across key sectors of the economy.

The post Lasaco Assurance’s ₦18.47bn Rights Issue Closes May 13 appeared first on Business Today NG.

News

AI research lab NeoCognition lands $40M seed to build agents that learn like humans

Published

1 hour ago

April 21, 2026

Preport

Investors are aggressively courting AI researchers to build startups that can make AI more reliable and efficient.

Yu Su, an Ohio State professor leading an AI agent lab, said he initially resisted the pressure from VCs to commercialize his work. He finally took the leap last year and spun out his work into a startup when he saw that foundational model advances could make agents truly personalized.

NeoCognition, a startup Su describes as a research lab developing self-learning AI agents, has just emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from Vista Equity Partners and angels, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica.

“Today’s agents are generalists,” Su (pictured left) told TechCrunch. “Every time you ask them to do a task, you take a leap of faith.”

According to Su, the issue lies in a lack of consistency. Current agents, whether from Claude Code, OpenClaw or Perplexity’s computer tools, successfully complete tasks as intended only about 50% of the time, he said.

Since agents are still so unreliable, they are not ready to be trusted, independent workers, Su told TechCrunch. NeoCognition intends to change that by developing an agent system that can self-learn to become an expert in any domain, similar to how humans learn.

Su argues that while human intelligence is broad, its real power is our ability to specialize. When we enter a new environment or profession, we can rapidly master its unique rules, relationships, and consequences.

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NeoCognition is building agents to mirror this exact approach.

“For humans, our continued learning process is essentially the process of building a world model for any profession, any environment,” Su said. “We believe for agents to become experts, they need to learn autonomously to build a model of any given micro world.”

Su views this capacity for rapid specialization as the critical missing link to getting AI to work reliably on its own.

While it is possible to train agents for autonomous tasks, they must be custom-engineered for a specific vertical. NeoCognition is different because it’s building agents that are generalists capable of self-learning and specializing in any domain.

NeoCognition intends to sell its agent systems primarily to enterprises, including established SaaS companies, which can use them to build agent-workers or to enhance existing product offerings.

Su highlighted that an investment from Vista Equity Partners is especially valuable for this reason. As one of the largest private equity firms in the software space, Vista can provide NeoCognition with direct access to a vast portfolio of companies looking to modernize their products with AI.

NeoCognition currently has about 15 employees, the majority of whom hold PhDs.

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