News

Suspected Kidnapper Apprehended in Jos North After Collecting N1.5 Million Ransom

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2024

Preport

Residents of the NEPA community in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, have captured a suspected kidnapper who allegedly extorted N1.5 million in ransom from the families of his victims.

The Plateau State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Alabor Alfred, confirmed the incident, stating that the suspect is currently under investigation by the anti-kidnapping unit.

According to a vigilante member from the NEPA community, who requested anonymity, the suspect was caught by residents and immediately handed over to local vigilantes. The vigilantes then transferred him to the Laranto Police Station.

The vigilante explained that the suspect had kidnapped two children, aged four and five. Despite receiving the ransom of N1.5 million, he refused to release the minors. When the suspect returned to the unoccupied building where he was holding the children, passers-by heard their cries and quickly moved to investigate.

As the suspect attempted to flee by jumping out of a window, the community members responded to the commotion and managed to apprehend him. The suspect was then handed over to the vigilante group, who took him, along with the sum of N1,492,000 that he had collected from the victims’ parents, to the Laranto Police Station.

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Business

NCC Pushes for Presidential incentives to attract smartphone manufacturing to Nigeria

Published

17 minutes ago

June 28, 2026

Preport

The Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Idris Olorunnimbe, says he will seek presidential incentives to encourage global smartphone manufacturers to establish production facilities in Nigeria.

Speaking after the Digital Africa Summit Roundtable in Shanghai, China, Olorunnimbe said investors that begin factory construction before November would receive government backing, with the NCC helping to facilitate the necessary policy and regulatory support.

He said domestic smartphone production would reduce dependence on imported devices, create employment opportunities and strengthen Nigeria’s manufacturing sector while making smartphones more affordable.

According to him, producing devices locally would also reduce the impact of foreign exchange volatility on handset prices, improving access to smartphones for millions of Nigerians.

Olorunnimbe stressed that locally made phones must match international standards in quality and remain competitively priced to gain consumer confidence and compete with imported brands.

He added that stronger device regulation and expanded instalment payment options would protect consumers, improve smartphone ownership and support the country’s digital economy growth.

The post NCC Pushes for Presidential incentives to attract smartphone manufacturing to Nigeria appeared first on Business Today NG.

News

Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short

Published

19 minutes ago

June 28, 2026

Preport

Ford executives said they have hired 350 veteran engineers — some of them were former employees, while others had been working at suppliers — after artificial intelligence and automated systems failed to deliver the desired quality level.

Bloomberg reports the company’s chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told journalists that Ford had been “relying more and more on automated quality systems” with disappointing results. So the company “brought back technical specialists,” and those specialists “hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.”

Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, added, “Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.”

To be clear, this doesn’t mean Ford is abandoning its AI plans entirely. Instead, it’s using the rehired employees — referred to as “gray beard” engineers — to train younger staff and reprogram AI tools.

This rehiring seems to be paying off, with Ford anticipating that it will lead to $1 billion in reduced costs this year. The automaker also claimed the top spot among mainstream brands in the JD Power Initial Quality Survey released this week.