FocalPoint Reports

Nigerian Professor of artificial intelligence, Celestine Iwendi has received the HerbertSimon Award for Outstanding Contribution in the International Journal of Information Technology and Decision Making (IJITDM). The award is coming for his research paper presentation in 2022 titled ‘Pointer-Based Item-to-Item Collaborative Filtering Recommendation System Using a Machine Learning Model’ on IJITDM alongside another Nigerian, Ebuka Ibeke, and other other co-authors namely Harshini Eggoni, Sreerajavenkatareddy Velagala, and Gautam Srivastava. They will be honoured in August 16, during the forthcoming ITQM conference holding in USA. Reflection on Receiving the Herbert Simon Award for Outstanding Contribution in IJITDM, the Head, Centre of Intelligence of Things, University of Greater Manchester, Bolton, said is both a deeply humbling and profoundly motivating recognition of my work.  He also said, to have their paper selected by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board of IJIT...

former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, says rotating the office of the president between the north and south is imperative to keep Nigeria one and united. Sani made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja. He said that Nigerians should accept the reality of their history and continue with the rotational presidency arrangement, for now. “We are a country of experience. There are many African countries that never had the kind of experience we had. “We had been through a period of violent military coup, civil war, different democratic governments and military rules, and we all survived. “Now we are experiencing banditry, terrorism and I believe we will survive. “If you look at the multi-ethnic/religious nations such as ours, people feel more comfortable when they see someone from their part of the country in power,” he said. Sani said that things might change with time but that at the moment, the arrangeme...

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has confirmed that one person was killed and three others injured during a gun battle with armed robbers in the Apo Resettlement area of Abuja. Spokesperson of the Command, SP Josephine Adeh, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday, providing clarity on the robbery incident which occurred at Zone E, Apo Resettlement, at about 10:30 p.m. on 23 June 2025. “Upon receiving a distress call from a motorcyclist reporting an ongoing robbery in the area, police operatives promptly responded and engaged the armed assailants in a gun duel,” Adeh stated. “During the encounter, three individuals sustained varying degrees of injury. Regrettably, one later succumbed to injuries at the hospital. A vehicle belonging to one of the victims was recovered from the scene.” She said a joint manhunt involving police operatives and local vigilante groups is ongoing to apprehend the fleeing suspects and ensure they are brought to justice. The Command als...

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to Nigeria’s 36 state governors urging them to “promptly account for the spending of public funds in the name of ‘security votes’ by your states since 29 May 2023 to guarantee and ensure the security of life and property of Nigerians resident in your states.” SERAP also urged the governors to “urgently invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to jointly investigate, track and monitor the spending of security votes by your states.” In the FoI requests dated 28 June 2025 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “In the wake of the Benue massacre and well-documented ongoing cases of insecurity in several states, there is a legitimate public interest for governors to account for how they spend security votes.’” SERAP said, “the escalating insecurity i...

Breaking News: Abdullahi Ganduje Resigned as APC National Chairmam, See Reasons  Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has resigned from his position as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing health reasons for his decision. The former Kano State governor announced on Friday that he needs to step down to focus on his well-being. Following his resignation, the APC’s National Vice Chairman is expected to assume leadership in an acting capacity pending the party’s national convention scheduled for December.