A serving Deputy Director in the Enugu State Water Cooperation, Mr. Emeka Edoh, has been arraigned before a Magistrate Court in Enugu North Magisterial District over alleged false pretence with intent to defraud some residents of Enugu the sum of N150,000.

• We’re deploying technology to fight insecurity – Mbah

Faculty and participants in the Executive Intelligence Management Course 17 of the National Institute of Security and Strategic Studies, drawn from Nigeria, Chad, Cote d”Ivoire, Ghana, Gambia and Rwanda, have lauded Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State for what they described as very visible improvement in security of lives and property in the state.

This came on a day when the governor stressed that his administration would continue to deploy technology to fight insecurity in all nooks and crannies of the state.

The syndicate members made the observation during a courtesy call on Mbah at Government House, Enugu, during which they also toured the state’s Command and Control Centre being put together by the governor.

Speaking, a directing staff at NISS as well as syndicate supervisor and leader of the delegation, Bolarinwa Adekunle, said the syndicate, which was drawn from 29 agencies and five African countries, was in Enugu to “understudy how the state government is leveraging AI to advance the security and economy of the state and also governance in general.”

“I was in Enugu in 2022 as a participant of this prestigious course. We arrived in Enugu on a Sunday, and on Monday, we were made to stay in our hotel. We could not go anywhere. But today, the situation is not the same. That has been stopped. Things have improved in the state.

“Artificial Intelligence, Security and Emerging Economies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects,” was choosen by the institute, as Artificial Intelligence was fast evolving globally and permeating almost every facet of human endeavor, including agriculture, health, security, manufacturing, transportation, education, and authority.

“Africa can not stay aloof and watch other continents of the world take advantage of artificial intelligence. It is therefore imperative that we appropriately interrogate the theme of this course, such that we leverage the opportunities that abound in artificial intelligence, while we also strive to mitigate the risk and the ethical issues that are associated with it. That is why we are here,” he said.

In his response, Mbah said that his government prioritised security from the outset, knowing that his vision to grow the state’s economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion, eradicate poverty and make the state the preferred destination for investment, business, tourism and living would amount to a pipe dream without it.

Mbah also said that the administration owed the security and order enjoyed in the state to the commitment, sacrifices, and cooperation of the security agencies as well as the deployment of technology to track down criminals.

“We recognise that under the fundamental objectives and the directive principles of state policy in our constitution, the primary purpose of government is the provision of security and welfare for our citizens. So it means that you lose your reason for existence as a government if you are not able to guarantee the safety of your people and which is why it was almost like we had to set forth on this when we took office.

“We have deployed technology to deal with the challenges of insecurity. In fact, you are actually seated here in the command centre, which we regard as our Command and Control Centre. We will take you around shortly to see what we are doing in terms of the deployment of security surveillance cameras where we monitor what is going on around in our state. We are also able to again deploy this around Artificial Intelligence to be able to nip some of these things in the bud,” Mbah stated.

He added that the state was investing heavily in education to ensure that the young people were imbued with the necessary and relevant digital and entrepreneurial skills that they needed to be able to deal with the future. That way, he said, they would be positively and gainfully engaged and have no reason to go into crime.

A man in his mid-30s, popularly identified as Baale or Radical, has reportedly committed suicide after he was issued a notice to quit his apartment for not being able to pay his annual rent of N35,000 increased to N60,000.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Baale, who lived in a room apartment on Moshalashi Road, Egan, in the Igando area of Lagos State, died on Sunday night after drinking a poisonous substance suspected to be an insecticide.

Speaking with our correspondent on Monday, a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter said the deceased had reportedly told his wife that she would soon cry because of his inability to pay for their house rent.

“He had had an altercation with his wife after his landlord issued a quit notice to him for not meeting up with the increased rent of N60,000 for their one-room apartment.

“The rent was initially N35,000, and he struggled to pay it. This made him tell his wife that he might lose him soon as pressure was mounting up for him already.

“He came home from Iba yesterday (Sunday) where he went to chill with his friends only for him to call a young man (name withheld) that he would commit suicide with the bottle of insecticide he was holding. The young man immediately ran to his wife after luring him to stop, and they all called for help.

“Before they could return to where he was, he had already taken the substance and was given antidotes to make sure that he was stable and taken to a hospital for proper treatment.

“They got a bus and when they got to the hospital at 11 pm, he was confirmed dead,” he added.

The deceased was survived by his four children and wife.

Meanwhile, the wife declined to speak with our correspondent when she was called on Monday for a reaction.

However, when contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said he had not received a report of that from the area’s Divisional Police Officer and said that  he would brief our correspondent when he received the report.

“I will get back to you when I get the report. But I have yet to get anything from the area’s DPO,” he said.