News

Plateau Court Sentences Two to Death for 2010 Murder

Published

1 year ago

March 27, 2025

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A Plateau State High Court has sentenced two men, Thomas Danboyi and Pam Lang, to death by hanging for their roles in the killing of Chung Bot.

Delivering the verdict in Jos on Wednesday, the state Chief Judge, Justice David Gwong Mann, found the defendants guilty of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide in the case State vs. Thomas Danboyi & Pam Lang (Charge No. PLD/J112C/2010).

He said the offences were punishable under the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria, 1963 (then applicable to Plateau State).

According to the prosecution, led by the Plateau State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, P.A. Daffi and a team of lawyers, the crime occurred on April 26, 2010, at Tahai Gyel Bukuru in Jos South Local Government Area.

The prosecution had told the court that the victim, Chung Bot, and his family had gone to their farmland in Ta Hei, Gyel, to cultivate when they were attacked by the accused persons with other persons (now at large).

Evidence presented before the court revealed that the first accused, Thomas Danboyi, restrained the victim by holding his hands behind his back while the second accused, Pam Lang, repeatedly struck Bot on the head with a stick.

It was learnt that the victim was later rushed to the Plateau Hospital, Jos, where he succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment.

The court found both defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, leading to their conviction.

According to Justice Mann, the evidence before the court was “overwhelming” and that the prosecution through its witnesses and Exhibits tendered “established, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the defendants conspired to commit this crime and intentionally caused the death of the victim.”

Following their conviction, their counsel both pleaded that the court to temper justice with mercy, being that the convicts are responsible family men and had been of good conduct in the course of their trial.

Justice Mann exercised his discretion only in respect of the criminal conspiracy by handing out the sentence of three years imprisonment.

However, on the offence of culpable homicide, Justice Mann handed over the mandatory sentence, which is the death penalty as he had no discretion to reduce the penalty.

The case has drawn significant attention, given its prolonged duration since the crime was committed in 2010.

The judgment is seen as a strong statement against violent crimes and resort to self-help by the public in Plateau State and reinforces the commitment of the judiciary to ensuring justice is served.

Legal experts note that the convicts still have the right to appeal the judgment to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court as the case may be. However, unless a higher court overturns the verdict, the sentence will be carried out as prescribed by law.

Related Topics:2010 Murder Death by hanging Jos South LGA

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

Published

39 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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