General
Nigerian Police Have Not Used Fingerprints in 53 Years—Fola Arthur-Worrey
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The reluctance of Nigerian policemen to conduct proper basic investigations into criminal cases is a major reason they drag unnecessarily, and in many instances, get dismissed on grounds of lack of diligent prosecution, a former Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and Solicitor-General of Lagos State, Mr Fola Arthur-Worrey has said.
He said that police officers were so accustomed to not going through the standard investigative process that all efforts to change their approach to doing things the right way have failed so far.
Addressing students at the launch of The Halogen School of Security Management & Technology, (HSSM&T)’s maiden Professional MBA in Security Management programme, (in partnership with Babcock University) the ex-prosecutor said, “The standard approach when someone is arrested is you take his photograph, then you take his fingerprints and then his height for the purpose of identification but I was DPP for two years and I didn’t see a single photograph in any file which I thought was weird.
“How do you find out whether this person has been involved in a prior for example? The most fundamental element of criminal investigation, is fingerprinting yet the last case where fingerprints were used to convict in a Nigerian court was in 1964.
“This was the case of a burglar who left his fingerprints on the louvre of the house he went to burgle. We have tried to get the Police to use anything, even if it’s the old model of pads and paper to document fingerprints but they just don’t want it anymore.”
Mr Arthur-Worrey decried the dearth of experts in the force, noting that it wasn’t always this bad with Nigerian Policemen as he recalled with nostalgia, his days as a public prosecutor in Lagos when according to him, Police Officers carried out their duties wonderfully.
He said, “We had wonderful experts in every field. We had great facilities like the lab in Oshodi which I relied on when I was a prosecutor in the early eighties. They were good at blood work, they were good at pathology and they knew their stuff. Then the Police had the best ballistician, I knew a guy who was a handwriting analyst, trained in Wales, he used to come to court in his blazer and he just used to intimidate the defense counsel. He was just good.
“Nobody does ballistics anymore. When last did you hear of a case that involved ballistics, unlike Oscar Pistorious’ case where the emphasis was on the science of it. It underscores the damage being done by the conflation of security with law enforcement.”
He commended the HSSM&T for taking the initiative as the first to offer a Master’s degree in Security Management in a University setting. He noted that programmes uniquely tailored to solve problems of security and law enforcement were long overdue as Nigerians could simply no longer depend on the Police alone.
He also urged the Halogen Security Company to go a step further as industry leaders to offer professional support to the Police in law enforcement through the deployment of different levels of scientific private detective strategies including fingerprint lifting/analysis, surveillance, evidence collection and preservation and many more.
Tracing the origin of the decline in Police efficiency, Mr Arthur-Worrey averred that the root of the problem was the military rule, which paid more attention to ‘regime security’, undermining the critical element of law enforcement in the process. This, he said, has systematically eroded the capacity of Nigerian policemen over the years.
“We eroded police capacity because of military rule, and its own perception of security and its inability to distinguish between security and law enforcement. This is a critical understanding.
“When we say national security in Africa, we mean to say ‘regime security’, they’re not really concerned with the regular people so all the resources go to the regime security which is why the convoy culture has become so dominant, taking one third of armed policemen off the streets into the houses, vehicles etcetera of not just the politically exposed persons (PEPs) but also private people, Chinese etc. Some people can just wander into the CP’s office and say ‘I need a policeman’ he will quickly acquiesce and those policemen love it. This is a deemphasise on law enforcement which is a very demanding, meticulous area that leads to convictions in court,” Mr Arthur-Worrey submitted.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has confirmed the collapse of five transmission towers along the Ikot Abasi–Eket 132kV Double Circuit Transmission Line.
This was attributed to severe acts of vandalism, as TCN disclosed that the structure collapsed after vandals removed critical structural bracing members.
The affected towers were N9, J4, N10, N11 and N12, the organisation said in a statement on Friday.
It explained that the extensive damage was discovered during a routine joint line patrol conducted on August 9, 2026, by TCN linesmen.
Further inspection revealed that structural members from seven additional towers along the same transmission corridor had also been removed and stolen. The towers, J3, N8, N13, N14, N15, N18 and N19, are now structurally compromised and pose a risk of further collapse.
TCN condemned this act of sabotage and reiterated its commitment to working hard to maintain a robust and reliable national grid.
The statement said that to mitigate the impact on electricity supply, the network has been reconfigured to prioritise supply to Ekim transmission station, leaving Ibom Power as the only station without supply.
TCN said it is mobilising an urgent intervention to complete the reconstruction of the affected sections of the line, with security agencies also notified to aid investigations and prevent further acts of vandalism along the line route.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, has urged all relevant government agencies to promptly initiate actions for the full implementation of the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency Act, 2026, following its signing into law by President Bola Tinubu.
The bill, sponsored by Speaker Abbas, was aimed at repealing the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act, Cap. N133, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and establish the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency to ensure effective economic regulation of Nigerian ports while safeguarding the interests of shippers, service providers, and users of regulated port services. With the President’s assent, it has now been enacted as an Act of Parliament.
The legislation represents one of the landmark achievements of the 10th National Assembly. It reflects the Speaker’s commitment to legislative excellence, institutional reform, and sustainable economic growth, according to a press statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Speaker, Mr Musa Krishi.
The bill underwent a rigorous and inclusive legislative process, including extensive stakeholder consultations and a public hearing. It was passed by both Chambers of the National Assembly and subsequently assented to by the President.
The Act provides a robust legal and institutional framework to ensure effective economic regulation of Nigerian ports by fostering transparency, competitiveness, and efficiency in port operations; protecting the rights and interests of shippers, service providers, and other port users; and aligning Nigeria’s port regulatory system with global best practices, thereby enhancing the ease and cost-effectiveness of doing business.
Despite receiving presidential assent, the Act has yet to be fully operationalised.
He warned that any further delay would undermine the legislative intent of the reform, prolong the exposure of port users to arbitrary charges and operational inefficiencies, and deny the nation the anticipated benefits of increased revenue, improved trade facilitation, and stronger investor confidence in the marine and blue economy sector.
The Speaker urged the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, in collaboration with all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government, to take the necessary administrative, institutional, and financial measures for the prompt implementation of the Act.
He said this should include the formal transition to, as well as operational empowerment of, the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency to discharge its statutory mandate effectively.
The full implementation of the Act is critical to unlocking the economic potential of Nigeria’s ports, reducing the cost of doing business, strengthening trade competitiveness, and positioning Nigeria as the leading maritime and logistics hub in West and Central Africa.
The statement noted that the Speaker reaffirmed the 10th House’s commitment to exercising the necessary legislative oversight to ensure this landmark legislation, along with others assented to by the President, is fully implemented and achieves its intended goals for the benefit of the Nigerian people.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYD), through the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA), has partnered with Cascador, a Nigeria-focused platform for growth-stage founders, to provide funding and support for the next generation of Nigerian youth entrepreneurs.
The announcement coincides with International Youth Day 2026, whose global theme this year — Different Contexts, Common Aspirations — calls on institutions to close the gap between young people’s circumstances and their opportunities. The pilot is an early step toward NiYA’s broader ambition to train and empower 7 million Nigerian youth within two years.
The NiYA and Cascador Founders Programme will begin with a pilot cohort of 20 early-stage Nigerian youth founders, including entrepreneurs without formal business registration or established financial records.
Over four weeks, participants will undergo intensive training focused on business fundamentals, investment readiness and pitch preparation. At the end of the programme, the eight top-performing founders will receive non-dilutive funding of up to N5 million each from Cascador, alongside an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to help them structure, manage and scale their businesses.
The funding and support will be presented at a Pitch Day organised by NiYA and the Federal Ministry of Youth Development.
The Minister for Youth Development, Mr s Ayodele Olawande, said the partnership would enable NiYA to move beyond training by helping young people transform ideas into investable businesses and achieve sustainable economic participation through business preparation and access to capital.
“The pilot is deliberately designed to test a model that can go beyond one cohort. If young founders can be identified early, prepared properly, connected to credible capital and supported to build stronger business systems, then access to opportunity becomes less dependent on background or existing networks. That is the larger objective: to build a youth entrepreneurship ecosystem in which readiness, ideas and execution can increasingly determine who gets the opportunity to grow.”
The pilot will run in-person in Abuja with virtual touchpoints and 1:1 mentorship. All 20 graduates retain NiYA alumni status, with priority consideration for future opportunities.
NiYA and FMYD have already shown what real commitment to Nigeria’s youth looks like — the platforms, the reach, the ambition to train millions. What we’re building together now is the missing piece, a practical bridge from the ideation stage to real capital-readiness. When a Ministry so dedicated to its young people asked Cascador to help build that bridge, it was an easy decision,” said Trish Thomas, CEO of Cascador.
Ms Oyin Solebo, COO of Cascador and former Managing Director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, highlighted the partnership’s impact, saying, “This is what innovative capital deployment looks like: a government building real investment readiness at scale, and a partner meeting that foundational work with non-dilutive funding at exactly the moment it’s needed. Partnerships like this open doors that neither of us could open alone.”
