Below The Headlines - 104
The commissioner for transport in Kano is not doing again and have you tried suya salmon?
This newsletter will be proceeding on its annual summer recess after this edition. The next edition will appear in your inboxes on September 6th. It bears repeating that this newsletter presents both the good and the bad about Nigeria and Nigerians so it is safer for you to not appear in it at all. While we are away, please refrain from any acts that can make you the subject of a story in Below The Headlines. A word is enough.
Our next podcast is out next Wednesday but in the meantime, you can catch Fola Fagbule’s episode before it goes behind a paywall
Enjoy the usual selection below and see you in September!
Nigerian Media
The supply of people looking to serve Nigeria selflessly is now so great that INEC can barely keep up:
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the deployment of its newly developed political party registration portal, following successful internal testing and approval.
This comes as the commission received 10 additional letters of intent from groups seeking registration as political parties, bringing the total number of applications so far to 144.
In a statement on Thursday, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said the commission is currently reviewing the submissions to determine which of the associations meet the criteria to advance to the formal application stage.
Fake customs officer. And the funniest part is what it reveals about the long running “tradition” of buying rice from customs officers:
A 59-year-old woman, Rakiyat Musa, was on Thursday arraigned before the Igbosere Magistrate’s Court sitting at Tinubu, Lagos Island, for allegedly impersonating a Nigerian Customs officer and obtaining over N34, 116,000, under pretence.
Musa, who appeared before Magistrate B. I. Amos, is facing a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing, impersonation, and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.
During the arraignment, the prosecutor, Inspector Cyriacus Osuji, told the court that the defendant, alongside others still at large, conspired to defraud unsuspecting victims between April and July 2025.
“The defendant fraudulently obtained the sum of N13,480,000 from one Mr. Damilare Sodiq, the President of Power House Cooperative, Kosofe, Lagos, under the guise of supplying bags of rice and groundnut oil,” Osuji stated.
He further told the court that Musa also obtained N5,350,000 from Mr. Chukwudi Joshua; N2,600,000 from Mr. Mathew Nworie, and N2,686,000 from Mr. Okereke Johnson using the same false representation.
“She posed as a Nigerian Customs officer and presented an identity card to her victims to convince them of her status,” the prosecutor added. “She knew all along that her claims were false.”
Osuji alleged that Musa also stole an additional N10m, from the complainants.
Quite a sad story here. What does one even say to this?
The State Controller, Federal Fire Service in Osun State, Femi Akinjobi, has lamented the ill-treatment meted out to his men while attempting to put out a fire from a burning vehicle in Osogbo, the state capital.
There was pandemonium at the Old Garage Area of Osun State capital on Thursday as a vehicle was observed burning near the MDS Road, as people ran in different directions, seeking fire extinguishers and water to suppress the flames.
Tempers, however, rose when operatives of the Federal Fire Service got to the scene and were about to disembark from their truck after the fire had been subdued.
Some displeased people at the scene, after hurling missiles at the firemen, also threatened to pounce on them if they should stop at the scene.
Reacting, Akinjobi, who witnessed the incident, said the mob misdirected their anger, adding that he deployed operatives to the scene of the incident immediately he got the distress call.
Further lamenting the attack on his men, Akinjobi said the police operatives present did not prevent the mob from venting their anger on the firemen deployed to the scene.
“We got information from the State Fire Service and immediately, we moved to the scene. We ran into a gridlock on the road.
The people concerned did not call us. It was an official of the state Fire Service who called my men.
“I followed my men with my private vehicle. Immediately we got there, the hoodlums started throwing stones at my men. My men quickly left the scene. They could not work there. There was no damage to our appliances. Police operatives were at the scene and they could not do anything. That was the most painful part,” Akinjobi said.
An interesting and perhaps unexpected protest here:
It was not expected to trigger any negative reaction. But the removal of speed breakers on the Oko Olowo Highway in Ilorin, Kwara State, is being blamed for the multiple deaths on the road.
For this reason transporters who ply the highway recently took to the street to vent their anger against the decision of the Federal Government to remove the speed breakers.
What members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers Union and allied unions involved in the road transport business in the country found most annoying and provocative is the fact that the speed breakers were installed by the Kwara State Government to force motorists, particularly commercial ones, to reduce speed and its attendant accidents.
Arewa Voice reliably gathered that after the rehabilitation of the road by the Federal Government, the state government immediately installed speed breakers in order to drastically curtail speed and save lives along the Oko Olowo road which is situated within the Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State. The Oko-Olowo highway is a major route that links the Northern and Southern parts of the country.
But since the removal of the speed breakers, there has been a surge in fatal crashes, prompting calls for urgent intervention by relevant authorities.
Between January and June, no fewer than 100 motorists died in various auto crash incidents, a development that has sparked a wave of protest by transport unions in Ilorin.
During the peaceful protest, hundreds of members of the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, in Kwara State called for the immediate reinstatement of speed breakers along the federal highway to curb the increasing number of fatal accidents on the route.
The demonstration was led by Alhaji Abdulrahman Olayinka Onikijipa, Chairman of RTEAN, and Alhaji Abdulrazaq Ariwoola, Chairman of NURTW in Kwara State.
The market for “job slots” and the many victims it exploits:
In 2024, Fadila Mahmoud*’s cousin called to tell her about a job opportunity at Mentor Mothers, an initiative working towards preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, and she was ecstatic to apply.
The initiative was under the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), which has an office at the Kaduna Ministry of Health in the country’s northwestern region. The only catch was that the job ‘required’ a payment before processing. She and her sister didn’t hesitate to raise the money.
“I called the man supposed to be in charge, and he assured me of a job opportunity. All I had to do was pay ₦150,000 in instalments, and the job was mine,” she recounted. However, the requirements didn’t end there; a percentage of their salary was expected every month.
Before starting the job, she and her sister paid an initial fee of ₦75,000. They were then expected to pay the balance within the first three months. A monthly deduction of ₦15,000 from their salary was also required. This included ₦5,000 labelled as ‘miscellaneous’ fees, which was deposited into the team leader’s account, and ₦10,000 that went to a coworker’s account, allegedly the sister of the person who referred them for the job. This arrangement made it difficult to identify the actual beneficiaries of these payments.
[…]
“Since we needed the job, we agreed to the terms and got the job after a month of payment,” the 23-year-old explained. They signed a contract for the job, but it said nothing about the payment arrangements.
Her responsibility was to orient HIV-positive pregnant women and guide them to the hospital to obtain their medication during community outreach programmes. Each team is assigned to a specific hospital. “We attend antenatal days, sometimes twice a week,” she told HumAngle.
Things changed, however, when the company announced a salary increase from ₦75,000 to ₦120,000. The man who offered them the job demanded that they increase the monthly payment to ₦20,000, making a total of ₦25,000 monthly. HumAngle saw a record of the text that communicated this to her.
Tiktoker now in custody:
A Chief magistrate court, onFriday, in Abuja, remanded at the Keffi Correctional Centre, a social media influencer, Ghali Isma’il, who posted online videos purporting that President Bola Tinubu died as a result of a serous illness.
Department of State Services (DSS) operatives arrested Isma’il days after he posted the fake videos on the TikTok handle @bola_asiwaju.
Count one of the two-count charge, titled “Publication of false news with intent to cause offence against public peace, ” read: “That you, Ghali Ismail, Male, twenty-nine (29) years of Jogana village, Gezawa LGA, Kano State, on or about the 20th Day of July, 2025 and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, did publish false information by uploading a video clip on your verified Tiktok handle (“bola-asiwaju”) wherein you falsely claimed that you reliably confirmed from official sources that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was critically ill, having been poisoned through his meal, with intent to cause public alarm and disturb public peace.
“You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 418 of the Penal Code Act, Cap P3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
One shouldn’t laugh at this story:
Kano State Commissioner of Transport, Ibrahim Namadi has formally requested to withdraw as surety in the case of Sulaiman Aminu, a defendant in a federal drug-related case.
In a letter dated July 25, 2025, and addressed to the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano, Ibrahim declared his intention to no longer serve as surety for the accused.
The letter, titled “Application for Withdrawal of Suretyship of the Defendant in Respect of Charge No: FHC/KN/CR/93/2025: Federal Republic of Nigeria vs. Sulaiman Aminu”, was stamped and received by the court on the same date.
Namadi cited personal reasons for his decision and emphasized his concern for his public image and integrity as a government official.
“I hereby intend to withdraw as a surety of the above-mentioned person who is standing trial before this honourable court of the alleged offence,” the letter reads.
“My withdrawal is based on personal grounds and also to protect my image and dignity as a public servant. I hope my application will be considered accordingly.”
This comes amid backlash over the top public servant’s role in bailing a suspect in one of Kano’s attention grabbing drug case.
Nigerians have a very unhealthy relationship with the tortoise and something needs to be done about it:
Delta State Police Command has arrested two suspected herbalists who allegedly provided spiritual fortification for a notorious kidnapping syndicate operating across the state and Edo.
[…]
Following his arrest and subsequent interrogation, Benson led operatives to the residence of another suspected spiritualist, 63-year-old Joseph Saniyo, in Ajakorama Community, Ovia South-West LGA, Edo State.
Saniyo, identified as the chief spiritualist for the syndicate, was found in possession of three live tortoises and various fetish items believed to have been used in ritual practices intended to shield the gang from law enforcement agents.
Back to the future in Lagos:
Illegal waste collectors, such as cart pushers and wheel barrow operators, have returned to Lagos State despite being banned by the state government eight years ago.
This resurgence has led to an increase in dump sites due to the reduction of PSP operators in the state.
In 2018, the Lagos State government banned the operations of cart pushers and wheel barrow operators, citing their negative impact on environmental cleanliness.
Cart pushers were specially blamed for being responsible for illegal waste dumping in canals and road medians at night, leading to flooding and environmental issues.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, declared a zero policy for environmental infractions in June 2025.
He warned that anyone caught illegally dumping wastes or littering the environment would face fine of up to N250,000 or three months imprisonment under the Lagos Sanitation Environmental Law Provisions.
But despite arrests and threats, residents continue to create illegal dump sites, especially on unoccupied land.
Non-Nigerian Media
The most astounding thing for me here is that there were 3.6 million videos to remove. For context that is roughly the same number of videos that were removed in the UK:
We protect TikTok by investing in a combination of advanced moderation technologies and thousands of trust and safety professionals who work together to enforce our policies. Through ongoing enhancements to our safety technologies, we take a proactive approach to detecting violative content and restricting it at scale.
In the first three months of this year, over 99% of violating content was removed before someone reported it to us, and over 90% was removed before gaining any views. The vast majority of violations (94%) were removed within 24 hours. This was also a quarter where automated moderation technologies removed more violative content than ever—over 87% of all video removals. In addition, TikTok's moderation technologies helped identify violative livestreamed content faster and more consistently. Over 19M LIVEs were stopped this quarter, a 50% increase from the previous quarter. At the same time, we continued to prioritize moderation accuracy, with the number of appeals remaining steady amid the increase in automated moderation.
You may have heard that Nigeria is bidding to bring Formula 1 to the country. But who is behind the bid?
Nigeria has become the latest country to contact Formula 1 about the prospect of holding a grand prix in Africa.
Opus Race Promotions, with the former footballer Marvin Sordell as co-chief executive, is chairing a proposal that has “early support” from the Nigerian government. As well as a circuit in Abuja, the capital, it includes pledges to build a karting track, hotels, a technology hub, and a motorsport museum, among other infrastructure.
In April, the promoter was invited to Nigeria to present the concept of a Formula 1 race in Abuja, holding discussions with Shehu Dikko, the chairman of the National Sports Commission. A month later it was officially appointed to negotiate with Formula 1 and the FIA, the sport’s governing body, on behalf ofthe Nigerian government.
[…]
“We are exploring all possibilities to bring Formula 1 to Nigeria as soon as practicable — not just as a sporting event, but as a catalytic driver of tourism, infrastructure development, youth engagement, economy and indeed soft power for Nigeria,” Dikko said. “This vision aligns with the Renewed Hope and Shared Prosperity vision of our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The most likely new entrant to the calendar in the short to medium term is Thailand, after the country’s government agreed $1.2billion (about £890million) of funding for the race set to take place in Bangkok. That street circuit could debut as early as 2028.
More love for Amos Tutuola’s republished books:
Palm wine, one of the world’s oldest libations, comes from the sap of palm trees. Once extracted, the liquid ferments immediately, yielding a sweet, lightly alcoholic beverage that is popular in many tropical regions but especially in West Africa, where it is a staple of banquets and celebrations. But to get palm wine from its source is no simple task. Tappers must either cut down the tree or shimmy to the top of it, where they carve a hole and drain the fluid. Most trees give up less than 35 ounces a day so tappers with energy and expertise are invaluable.
I say all of this to offer some explanation for the fantastical quest in the Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola’s 1952 classic, “The Palm-Wine Drinkard,” which has been reissued by Grove Press in a standalone volume alongside Tutuola’s second novel, from 1954, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.” The drinkard, the book’s narrator, is a wealthy young man who practices folk magic and is renowned for his ability to imbibe more than 200 kegs of palm wine every day. When his tapster—another of this novel’s delightfully peculiar words—falls from a tree and dies, the drinkard sets out in search of “Deads’ Town” to retrieve him, eluding capture by spirits and monsters along the way. If you lost a favorite bartender, wouldn’t you go to the same lengths to get him back?
Today in globalised Nigerian food and spices:
A drawer full of spice blends is a palette for the palate, an array of flavors relied on by cooks around the world to add instant verve to all kinds of dishes. I’ve recently added a new hue to my spice drawer spectrum of garam masala, baharat, ras el hanout, Cajun seasoning and the like: suya spice, also called yaji.
Musky, earthy and complex, this Nigerian staple gains its heat from chiles, its pungency from onion and garlic and its distinct smoky richness from roasted ground peanuts. In Nigeria, it’s often used to season thin strips of skewered, grilled meats. But in her new recipe for suya-spiced grilled chicken thighs with nectarines, Yewande Komolafe pairs it with poultry and juicy stone fruit for an easy summer meal that’s filled with tangy-sweet flavors. Color me thrilled.
Crispy suya-spiced salmon: Another great use for your suya spice! Here, Kiano Moju sprinkles the fragrant mix over salmon fillets and adds panko for a crunchy crust. Serve it with a gingery salad made from all those lovely ripe tomatoes coming into season.
Sometimes returnees to Nigeria from abroad are not welcome. So says this piece:
When a Nigerian-American user recently asked others in a Reddit community if they were considering relocating to Nigeria because of Donald Trump, the feedback was swift and caustic. The question, which had been intended to spark a conversation, revealed a deep divide over migration, identity and belonging. While some users offered candid advice about navigating the journey home, cautioning about the hefty financial costs involved and the challenges of Nigeria’s infrastructure, a large majority responded with ridicule. Many struggled to understand the desire to abandon a seemingly prosperous life in America for Nigeria because of Trump’s anti-immigration blitz. One user alluded to the country’s intermittent electricity, writing casually, “It’s like you forget the pain when nepa [referring to Nigeria’s former electricity provider] take light before you can charge your phone.” Another, questioning the user’s sanity and insinuating that they were being controlled by evil forces emanating from their ancestral village, commented, “Your village people were working hard on you. Imagine having U.S. residency or citizenship and running away to suffer.” The criticism ramped up further down the thread, as another commenter labeled the user “a spoiled, westernised fool,” adding, “You have no idea how good you have it in America. Unless you are an ‘illegal migrant’ like all the Mexicans and Venezuelans rioting over there.”
This blowback is a rough barometer of attitudes to reverse migration, a trend that is increasingly visible across social media. A growing number of Nigerians are starting to make the move back home after spending many years abroad, in what is now colloquially referred to as “japada” (“return home” in Yoruba). Although relatively new as a term of social commentary, the word plays on “japa,” a more popular slang word that describes the mass emigration of Nigerians to foreign countries in a quest for better living conditions. Now, as a slice of those who previously emigrated to countries like the U.K., the United States and Canada turn toward home, many have adopted japada as a tongue-in-cheek reference for this emerging countermovement, highlighting the cyclical nature of human existence. Each day on social media sees returnees unpack their complex relocation experiences — from the long, arduous trips to the struggles of readapting to the local culture after years of being away. Along with a growing awareness that the grass is not always greener abroad, many cite emotional disconnection, pervasive racism and mental distress as reasons for reversing course. However, as these returnees renegotiate their place in Nigeria, they often face a reception marked by skepticism and outright judgment, souring their homecoming experience.
I had never heard of Steve Adeshina before this piece:
In October 2000, when electrical engineer Steve A. Adeshina joined Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as director of information and communication technology, the country had just held its first successful democratic general elections in 17 years. The 1999 elections were generally peaceful, if not entirely reliable, according to independent observers. They were also technologically old-school: “When I arrived, things were done essentially manually,” Adeshina recalls, with some voters being registered by hand and others by typewriter.
Adeshina, who had been running his own information technology firm, oversaw the transition to machine-readable voter registration forms across 120,000 polling units, many in rural, hard-to-reach places. To complete these forms, applicants fill in bubbles, the way it’s done on many standardized tests.
Now Adeshina, 63, is a professor of computer vision and engineering at Nile University of Nigeria, in Abuja, and his three sons are at the start of their own careers, all in engineering. Like many people his age, Adeshina has reached the point of dispensing advice to younger engineers, his sons included, based on his own long career. “The advice I have for them is to keep their minds open and be creative and innovative,” he says.
What the economic crisis has done to the village of Ngwoma. Devastating:
People here say they used to regularly leave Ngwoma, along its dusty roads lined with papaya and banana trees — to go to the doctor or visit the market in bigger towns nearby. But these days, the price of fuel is keeping many of the village’s 2,500 residents at home.
In the two years since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended Nigeria’s decades-old policy of subsidizing fuel, Blessing Onukogu, a self-taught nurse, has been seeing more and more patients at her makeshift clinic.
Some are sick enough that they should be treated at a hospital, Onukogu said. But the closest one is about eight miles away, and getting there costs three times as much as it used to.
How Chigewku Agu, who recently moved to the UK from Nigeria, manages his money:
My monthly income: I work as a customer service representative at Tasty African Food, a business in London. I handle both in-person and online customer orders, manage calls, process payments and ensure customers receive the service they’ve paid for. I also help prepare traditional African dishes and pastries in the kitchen. I take home around £2,000 each month. I used to work as support staff for people with additional needs, but recently left this role. My wife earns an income working in care.
My monthly outgoings: Some of my expenses like rent, groceries and electricity are shared with my wife. My contributions are as follows: rent, £750; council tax, £130; groceries, £150; gas and electric, £45; water, £53, broadband, £50; mobile, £37; subscriptions, £20; money into savings and investments, £500; money into pension, £60; spending on things like eating out, day trips, clothes and hobbies, £100
[…]
We’re currently renting and living in a one-bedroom flat in London. My monthly contribution to the rent is £750 per month. Having a stable place to live means everything. We have a proper home now, which is a big milestone for us.
Rental costs in London are incredibly high and continue to rise. It’s a huge challenge, particularly for working families trying to balance everyday expenses with saving and trying to set money aside for their longer-term goals.
Homeownership is something I aspire to. I’d love to settle in Kent one day. It is peaceful, family-friendly and still within reach of London. I wouldn’t mind anywhere outside of London. Looking at current market conditions, a suitable family home in Kent would cost around £350,000 to £400,000.
You have heard about the Jagaban of Borgu but what is going on in Borgu these days?
It’s game day at the village soccer field, and spectators bunch along the sidelines with banners and drums to support their teams.
They watch as the captains of the two squads walk to the center of the field for a coin flip to determine who kicks off first.
“Today you do not play as rivals, but as brothers,” a match organizer tells the men. “[You] were once divided by borders, but will always be united in blood.”
This match is part of a festival celebrating the culture of the Borgu, an ethnic group that straddles the border between Benin and its eastern neighbor, Nigeria. The teams and fans gathered here today have come from both countries, part of an effort to use soccer to bridge the divide imposed by colonial powers more than a century ago.
“I believe that football can reconnect us beyond those lines,” says organizer Adam Kabirou, who regularly hosts cross-border matches.
Mr. Kabirou grew up hearing stories about the Borgu kingdom, a civilization tracing its roots to the late 15th century. He also learned how colonial powers carved up his people’s lands in the late 19th century, splitting the Borgu between present-day Benin and Nigeria.
Today, the majority of Borgu, approximately 1.4 million, reside in Benin, with a smaller population in Nigeria.
As a child, Mr. Kabirou saw firsthand how that border created a rift between his community and the Borgu people living just 15 miles away on the other side. For one thing, the two groups often literally didn’t have the words to speak to one another.
Borgu in Nigeria learned English, the colonial language there, while Borgu in Benin spoke French, the language of their former rulers. These languages mingled with Batonu, the Borgu language, changing the way it was spoken on each side of the border.
What is Trenchtok?
The chants from the viral video sliced through the thick Ramadan heat last year, jagged and unpolished. They came from a cluster of street boys orbiting the gates of a car dealership, their clothes so undersized they resembled Hulk in a medium crop-neck. In the clip, Peller, the soft-followed influencer of a wave of aspirational Nigerian content called TrenchTok, beams his dream car out of a parking lot. But what silenced the boys wasn’t security, or even the price tag. It was something less tangible: the joy of seeing one of their own escape the mud.
If Peller – who currently holds the highest-viewed livestream in Africa – was the spark that caught the wind for TrenchTok, then Mafia, 28, is the scene’s slow-burning flame. For most creators, there is no sudden spike in popularity – only quiet persistence, the grind of building something out of nothing. No blueprint, no backing, just low ceilings, loud doubt and raw instinct. Even Peller started off as a carpenter in year 12. Today, with more than a million followers and a fast-growing brand, Mafia’s content reflects not just the hustle, but the voices of countless others in similar circumstances. Through his story – and the characters orbiting it – we see TrenchTok for what it really is: a gritty, chaotic, often misunderstood expression of life on the margins, transformed into art, laughter and (sometimes) a living.
“When I started creating content, it was the feedback – the WhatsApp messages saying, ‘You sabi this content thing o’ – that kept me going,” says Mafia, who is seated legs crossed on the floor of my barely furnished sitting room. “Without that, I probably wouldn’t be here today.” He doesn’t seem to mind the simplicity of the setting. In a way, it mirrors his own beginnings – quiet and uncertain, but steady.
Tolu Okanlawon is now ‘liquid’:
The winners sharing the £50,000 prize fund of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, were announced at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre on Monday 21 July 2020.
The top prize of £20,000 went to the debut play by British-Nigerian writer Tolu Okanlawon from Hackney, East London. Based on extensive research of real events, Shooters follows African American photojournalist Gordon Parks as he documents the lives of a group of teenage boys in 1940s Harlem for Life Magazine.
Air Peace is coming to Heathrow Airport:
Heathrow is proud to welcome Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace @flyairpeaceto Terminal 3. Starting 26 October 2025, a new 3-weekly service will connect London Heath row directly with Abuja, offering seamless access to West Africa and world-class service aboard a Boeing 777
Meet the professional black fly catchers in Nigeria:
Every Monday and Tuesday morning, Bosede Oluwaokere, 48, wakes up at home in Ilorin city in west Nigeria, gets dressed and walks to a nearby stream. She sits beneath a tree and pulls her skirt up around her thighs. For the next six hours she stays in the same spot waiting for a specific type of fly to land on her, so she can catch it using a small plastic tube.
Oluwaokere is a human flycatcher – or human landing catch, as the World Health Organization (WHO) terms it – which is considered the “gold standard” for collecting black flies. Black flies, which breed near rivers, are blood-sucking insects that spread the debilitating neglected tropical disease onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.
When someone is bitten by an infected black fly, the larvae of the parasitic Onchocerca volvulus invade their body and grow into worms that can live for up to 15 years. Female worms produce thousands of microscopic larvae that spread throughout the body. If the larvae reach the person’s eyes, it can cause permanent loss of sight.
When black flies suck the blood of an infected person, they can then pass it on to someone else they bite.
“I like this work,” says Oluwaokere, who was recruited as a volunteer by the health ministry. “I’m not scared to do it, because I love my community and I want it to be free from disease.”
She is paid a stipend of 10,000 naira (just under £5) a month by Sightsavers, an international health charity.
Black Axe is in the news again:
It is a sinister organised crime group whose bloodthirsty henchmen routinely engage in drug smuggling, human trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, rape and murder.
Bizarrely, the ultra violent Black Axe gang, whose secret rituals have seen it compared with a cult, started out as a university fraternity in Nigeria in the 1970s and where new members are forcibly recruited, while many volunteer.
Recruits, often male university undergraduates aged between 16 and 23, undergo a secret initiation ceremony that involves physical and psychological trauma including being stripped naked, tortured and having to take part in a blood drinking ritual, after which they are 'reborn' as an 'Aye Axeman'.
Now the mafia-style organisation's sophisticated international cybercrime network has turned it into a global threat - and shattered the lives of thousands of Britons who have been fleeced of their life savings.
The enterprise has an estimated 30,000 members operating in cells in dozens of countries around the world.
According to Pentagon analysts in the US, victims are conned out of in excess of $5billion (£3.8billion) every year through a range of elaborate online stings including romance and inheritance scams along with ransomware and phishing attacks.
Now law-enforcement agencies have warned that young people in Britain and Ireland are among thousands across Europe falling into the clutches of the gang after being recruited through Snapchat.
Graduates and young professionals have been targeted along with teenagers after being lured in by the ruthless criminals to often unwittingly take part in money laundering and data stealing operations.
Formula 1 in Nigeria???
Must be a joke...lol