Connect with us

News

Nigerian Diplomats, Politicians Involved in Organ Sales- French Police

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Reports by international bodies made available to Nigeria’s security agencies now suggest that top Nigerian politicians and diplomats have been major players in the illicit businesses of human trafficking and organ sales.

 

Going by the Independent findings, the businesses involve Nigerian victims and others from the West African sub-region.

 

The reports – mainly from Italian, French, and International Police (Interpol) – detail how diplomatic channels are used to integrate illegal immigrants into countries like Italy, France, and Spain.

 

Independent investigations revealed a highly cohesive network where politically exposed persons (PEPs) are involved in ambassadorial/diplomatic appointments solely with a view to promoting the criminal cross-border trade.

 

Informers have also disclosed that the uncanny practice involving human organ trafficking – with emphasis on warehousing needed human parts – may have berthed in Nigeria.

 

The intelligence, in addition to the gorier details concerning the sale of human organs, fingered well-connected politicians and diplomats.

 

As gathered, the operation begins with ambassadorial appointments/lobbying.

 

This, according to presidency sources, explains President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of ambassadorial nominees.

 

There had been misgivings over the ages of some Nigerian ambassadors, with some being over 80 years old.

 

In the Senate, too, lawmakers have decided in favour of career diplomats ahead of politically exposed persons.

 

“The effort is meant to stem these clandestine and illegal cross-border operations,” a presidency source explained.

 

An Italian secret police source from Rome hinted that reports detailing Nigerians’ involvement in this criminal enterprise have been made available to Nigeria’s security agencies and government in several instances.

 

“We have made our findings open to them after much interrogation of some Nigerian suspects in the operations upon request from your country, as I am aware of, and there was also a joint security report by my country, Spain, and France at some point, too,” the foreign source said.

 

The source said the matter is difficult to handle because it involved highly powerful PEPs not only in Nigeria but also in the countries of destination of these trades.

 

“Powerful people are involved on all sides and, honestly speaking, the trade sustains some sectors of the economies in these countries,” the source added.

 

Currently, there is a global outrage after the death of twenty-six Italy bound Nigerian women, believed to be illegal immigrants on the high seas, recently.

 

The matter almost sparked a diplomatic row after Italy buried the women without duly notifying Nigeria and properly identifying the corpses.

 

Even more, the United Nations reacted recently to reports and horrifying footages from Libya of slave trading of blacks by Arabs believed to be Libyans.

 

Intelligence reports suggest that most of these victims are targets of organ theft or sex trade.

 

Some of the victims are sold outright as slaves to out of the way labour camps.

 

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, called on all stakeholders in the global community to act fast on the matter, describing the trend as “horrifying” and “a heinous crime against humanity”.

 

But the bigger worries stem from the more sinister harvesting and trafficking of human organs across borders.

 

Only recently, too, Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health, warned Nigerians who were in the habit of travelling abroad for health tourism to be careful of organ harvesters.

 

What the minister, however, failed to explain was that the operation was highly organised and involved the casing/profiling of would-be victims right from the Nigerian shores.

 

As learnt, personal and health details filed at mission houses were somehow obtained and sent ahead to their accomplices in foreign countries.

 

“Some organs are stolen right in the hospitals where the victims are being treated while they are under sedation,” explained a medical doctor based in Abuja.

 

According to the physician, one of these victims who returned from one of the big Asian countries reported to his hospital a few days later after arrival, complaining of health complications.

 

Upon examination, it was discovered that one of his kidneys was missing.

 

There are fears, too, that the menace may have started proliferating in the country.

 

As learnt, a French police report indicting Nigerian diplomats and politicians show that the syndicates may have devised new ways of luring unsuspecting victims to countries where their organs are harvested.

 

“It is a very lucrative trade that involves not only kidneys,” explained an intelligence officer in the country who was privy to the report.

 

According to him, a single human lung sells for as much as $10,000 to $20,000.

 

Human organs remain viable for between four and eight hours, depending on the conditions in which they are kept.

 

But with technological breakthrough designed to ‘deceive’ the organs into believing it is still encased in a human body, organs like kidney, lungs, heart, reportedly can now be warehoused for more than forty-eight hours.

 

“What this simply means is that you can have organ warehouse in countries with poor regulations and supervision,” explained the Abuja based physician.

 

The European Union (EU) figures further buttresses that Nigerians are the biggest traffickers in persons and the biggest victims of the trade.

 

There are suggestions, too, that not a few Nigerians are victims of organ-harvesting.

 

For instance, Nigerians accounted for an estimated 8,700 out of 283,532 irregular migrants entering the EU borders, many of whom risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean in 2014.

 

In the first half of 2015, Nigerians ranked 9th of all persons granted international protection in EUs 28-member states.

 

EU further states that Nigerian nationals are the most numerous among non-European victims of trafficking in humans, and they are also the most numerous traffickers.


Kindly share this post

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

News

Trump Threatens More Strikes in Nigeria

Published

on

Kindly share this post

President Donald Trump has warned that the United States could carry out further military strikes in Nigeria if Christians continue to be killed, reigniting a sensitive debate over religious violence and foreign intervention in Africa’s most populous nation.

Trump Threatens More Strikes in Nigeria

President Donald Trump

Trump made the remarks in an interview with The New York Times, published on Thursday, while responding to questions about a US military strike carried out in Nigeria on Christmas Day.

At the time, the US military said the operation targeted Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria and was conducted at the request of the Nigerian government.

Nigeria, however, described the operation as a joint counterterrorism effort, stressing that it was aimed at armed groups designated as terrorists and “had nothing to do with a particular religion”.

“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Trump was quoted as saying. “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”

Pressed on comments by his own Africa adviser that extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram have killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, Trump acknowledged that Muslims were also victims but insisted that Christians were being targeted disproportionately.

“I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly raised alarms about the safety of Christians in Nigeria, beginning in late October when he warned that Christianity faced what he described as an “existential threat” in the country. He has accused Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately protect Christian communities and has openly threatened US military intervention if the violence continues.

Nigeria has firmly rejected claims of systematic persecution of Christians. The government maintains that the country’s security challenges are complex and largely driven by insurgency, banditry and criminal violence rather than religious targeting.

With a population of more than 230 million people, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Christians, who are concentrated mainly in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north. Islamist insurgencies, particularly Boko Haram and its offshoots, have plagued parts of northern Nigeria for more than a decade, killing thousands and displacing millions.

Nigerian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that militant attacks have claimed the lives of both Muslims and Christians, arguing that framing the violence along religious lines oversimplifies the crisis and risks inflaming tensions.

Following Trump’s earlier threats, the Nigerian government said it was willing to continue cooperating with Washington in combating terrorism but rejected language suggesting that Christians alone were under threat.

The latest comments are likely to strain diplomatic relations further, as Nigeria balances its partnership with the United States against concerns over sovereignty, security cooperation and the portrayal of its internal conflicts on the global stage.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

News

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health

Published

on

Kindly share this post

OpenAI maker of ChatGPT is rolling out a health-focused feature to the generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that’s used by nearly a billion users.

Named ChatGPT Health, the new feature aims to provide users with health and wellness information. This, as health is one of the most common ways people use ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.

In a blog post, Microsoft-backed OpenAI says de-identified analysis of conversations show that over 230 million people globally ask health and wellness-related questions on ChatGPT every week.

ChatGPT Health will also “securely” connect medical records and wellness apps to ground conversations with a user’s own health information, making responses more relevant and useful.

“Designed in close collaboration with physicians, ChatGPT Health helps people take a more active role in understanding and managing their health and wellness – while supporting, not replacing, care from clinicians.”

According to OpenAI, health information is often scattered across portals, apps, wearables, PDFs, and medical notes making it hard to see the full picture, and people are left to navigate a complex healthcare system on their own.

“ChatGPT Health builds on these so responses are informed by your health information and context. You can now securely connect medical records and wellness apps – like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal – so ChatGPT can help you understand recent test results, prepare for appointments with your doctor, get advice on how to approach your diet and workout routine, or understand the trade-offs of different insurance options based on your healthcare patterns.”

According to the company, ChatGPT Health is designed to support, not replace, medical care, adding that it is not intended for diagnosis or treatment. “Instead, it helps you navigate everyday questions and understand patterns over time – not just moments of illness – so you can feel more informed and prepared for important medical conversations.

“To keep your health information protected and secure, Health operates as a separate space with enhanced privacy to protect sensitive data. Conversations in Health are not used to train our foundation models. If you start a health-related conversation in ChatGPT, we’ll suggest moving into Health for these additional protections.”

OpenAI adds that access to ChatGPT Health has started with a small group of early users to learn and continue refining the experience, adding that users with ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans outside of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the UK are eligible.

“As we make improvements, we plan to expand access and make Health available to all users on web and iOS in the coming weeks.

“Medical record integrations and some apps are available in the US only, and connecting Apple Health requires iOS.”


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

News

Kaspersky Shares AI Cybersecurity Predictions for 2026

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Kaspersky experts outline how the rapid development of AI is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape in 2026, both for individual users and for businesses. Large language models (LLMs) are influencing defensive capabilities while simultaneously expanding opportunities for threat actors.

Deepfakes are becoming a mainstream technology, and awareness will continue to grow. Companies are increasingly discussing the risks of synthetic content and training employees to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to it. As the volume of deepfakes grows, so does the range of formats in which they appear.

At the same time, awareness is rising not only within organisations but also among regular users: end consumers encounter fake content more often and better understand the nature of such threats. As a result, deepfakes are becoming a stable element of the security agenda, requiring a systematic approach to training and internal policies.

Deepfake quality will improve through better audio and a lowering barrier to entry. The visual quality of deepfakes is already high, while realistic audio remains the main area for future growth.

At the same time, content generation tools are becoming easier to use: even non-experts can now create a mid-quality deepfake in just a few clicks. As a result, the average quality continues to rise, creation becomes accessible to a far broader audience, and these capabilities will inevitably continue to be leveraged by cybercriminals.

Online deepfakes will continue to evolve but remain tools for advanced users. Real-time face and voice swapping technologies are improving, but their setup still requires more advanced technical skills. Wide adoption is unlikely, yet the risks in targeted scenarios will grow: increasing realism and the ability to manipulate video through virtual cameras make such attacks more convincing.

Efforts to develop a reliable system for labelling AI-generated content will continue. There are still no unified criteria for reliably identifying synthetic content, and current labels are easy to bypass or remove, especially when working with open-source models. For this reason, new technical and regulatory initiatives aimed at addressing the problem are likely to emerge.

Open-weight models will approach top closed models in many cybersecurity-related tasks, which create more opportunities for misuse. Closed models still offer stricter control mechanisms and safeguards, limiting abuse.

However, open-source systems are rapidly catching up in functionality and circulate without comparable restrictions. This blurs the difference between proprietary models and open-source models both of which can be used efficiently for undesired or malicious purposes.

The line between legitimate and fraudulent AI-generated content will become increasingly blurred. AI can already produce well-crafted scam emails, convincing visual identities, and high-quality phishing pages.

At the same time, major brands are adopting synthetic materials in advertising, making AI-generated content look familiar and visually “normal.” As a result, distinguishing real from fake will become even more challenging, both for users and for automated detection systems.

AI will become a cross-chain tool in cyberattacks and be used across most stages of the kill chain. Threat actors already employ LLMs to write code, build infrastructure, and automate operational tasks.

Further advances will reinforce this trend: AI will increasingly support multiple stages of an attack, from preparation and communication to assembling malicious components, probing for vulnerabilities and deploying tools. Attackers will also work to hide signs of AI involvement, making such operations harder to analyse.

“While AI tools are being used in cyberattacks, they are also becoming a more common tool in security analysis and influence how SOC teams work. Agent-based systems will be able to continuously scan infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities, and gather contextual information for investigations, reducing the amount of manual routine work.

“As a result, specialists will shift from manually searching for data to making decisions based on already-prepared context. In parallel, security tools will transition to natural-language interfaces, enabling prompts instead of complex technical queries,” adds Vladislav Tushkanov, Research Development Group Manager at Kaspersky.

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending