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The Independent National Electoral Commission, last Tuesday evening, discovered four voter registration centres deep inside the Nziko forest at Nteje in Anambra State. The deputy governor of Anambra State, Emeka Sibeudu and the state resident electoral commissioner, Chukwuemeka Onukogu, led the team that made the discovery based on security reports made available to the governor, Peter Obi.

The REC said it was painful to discover four centres serving no one in the middle of a thick forest when there were not enough machines for potential voters in places like Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Adazi, and Agulu. The centres, located within the vicinity of a shrine, are at least a 40-minute drive from the nearest residential area. It was discovered that the registration officers, mainly National Youth Service Corps members sat idly, looking at the machines, with no one in sight to register.

The deputy governor who expressed his shock at the location of the registration centres said: “We have shortfalls in machines. But in the forest here, there are four machines lying idle. All the people we met here are not up to 10. But if you go to some other places, you will find thousands of people waiting to be registered. This, I can assure you, is part of the rascality of the past which the present government under Mr. Peter Obi is trying hard to stamp out of the state.”

According to him, these kinds of registration centres were used to commit electoral fraud.

In his reaction the resident electoral commissioner, Mr. Onukogu, said he had only heard of these types of voting centres.

“Today I have seen one,” he said. “I am sad that there are four machines wasting here, whereas there are no machines in Onitsha, Eke Awka, Ozubulu, Nnewi and parts of Anaocha where thousands of people are waiting to be registered.”

He said the four centres put together had registered only about 200 voters since the exercise started 10 days ago, when the same machines would have registered many people had they been located in densely populated areas..

“The irregular location of the centres also poses grave risks to the registration officers and the machines. How will I evacuate men and machines in the event of danger?” Mr. Onukogu asked.

He alleged that the centres must have been secured by an influential politician from the area. He said he would take away three machines and leave one behind. But he added that he would need to meet with the registration officials on the matter in his office before taking action. But Mr. Onukogu admitted that he was constrained by the fact that the “floating registration centres” deep in the forest were documented from the Abuja headquarters of INEC and assured it would be corrected.

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday evening, discovered four voter registration centres in Nziko forest, at Nteje in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The deputy governor of the state, Mr Emeka Sibeudu and the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu, led the team that made the discovery, acting on security reports made available to the governor, Mr Peter Obi.

Professor Onukaogu said it was "painful to discover four centres serving nobody in the middle of a thick forest when there were no enough machine for potential voters in places like Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Adazi, Agulu and others."

The REC said "I have heard of floating/flying polling booths. Today, I have seen one. I am sad that there are four machines wasting here, whereas there are no machines in Onitsha, Eke Awka, Ozubulu, Nnewi and parts of Anaocha, where thousands of people are waiting to be registered."

The centres, which took 40 minutes drive to access from the nearest residential area in Nteje, were located within the vicinity of a shrine with the registration officers, mainly corps members, virtually doing nothing, as there were no potential voters in sight.

The four centres together had registered only about 200 voters since the exercise started 10 days ago, while the irregular location of the centres also posed a risk to the registration officers and the machines.

He said he would take away three machines and leave one behind, adding that he would need to meet with the registration officials on the matter in his office before taking action.

The deputy governor expressed shock at the discovery, saying "we have shortfalls in machines but in the forest here, there are four machines lying idle. All the people we met here are not up to 10. But if you go to some other places, you will find thousands of people waiting to be registered.

The bot family, which has been dubbed "YoyoDDoS" after the hostname of one of its initial command-and-control (C&C)servers, was first detected in March. To date, Arbor Networks hasprocessed more than 70 variants from the family and identified at least34 C&C servers, all but three of which are located in China.

DDoS attacks use large numbers of compromised PCs to flood a targeted website withtraffic with the goal of knocking it offline. Out of the 180 YoyoDDoSattacks that have been identified, 126 of them targeted IP addresses inChina, while 32 targeted victims in the United States, nine in SouthKorea, and five in Germany.

Several different online merchants have been targeted, including sites selling auto parts and cosmetics,Edwards said. Several gaming and gambling sites also were attacked,along with a website-hosting provider, a music forum and a personalblog..

“It is not targeted at a specific industry,” said Edwards, a former FBI special agent assigned to the Detroit CybercrimeSquad. “Its more like a general tool, and if somebody wants to take asite down for a certain reason, a lot of time they use this YoyoDDos.”

The attacks typically last between a few hours to two days, he added.Several sites have been attacked continuously for 24 to 48 hours.

Researchers at Arbor Networks said they do not know how many computers have beeninfected with the bot malware, but they believe there are at least threeor four independent YoyoDDoS botnets being controlled by independentoperators.

If this is the case, the code to create the bot malware may be circulating in the cybercrminal underground, Edwards said.

The bot malware, which Edwards said is not especially sophisticated, couldmake its way onto a user's PC via malicious links or attachments inemails. After instillation, the bot connects to the C&C server andreports back details about the victim host, including the make, modeland speed of the processor and the operating system service pack level.Additionally, every time an infected computer is started, the malwaremakes contact with the C&C server.

The bot family uses four different types of DDoS attacks – HTTP, UDP, SYN and ICMP – all ofwhich flood a victim with different types of traffic, Edwards said. Ifan attack is launched with a certain type of traffic, and the victim hasa firewall or another security device that blocks it, another attackmode can be used.

“I do know that it is being actively used based on the number of attacks we are logging,” Edwards said. “We arestill logging attacks and finding [bot malware] specimens we haven'tseen.”

New method of Pay ransom collect body tactics

PHOTO:DELTA STATE POLICE COMMISSIONER ALHAJI YAKUBU ALKALI.

As security remains an issue unsolved in the Niger Delta originating from agitations due to a long marginalization of Niger Deltans by the Nigeria government, reports of kidnapping, vandalization of oil facilities and other related criminal activities have continued to dominate national discourse.

it was learnt that two workers of National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Benin City, Edo State, Messrs. Danjuma Bashir and Malabu Ahmad, believed to have been kidnapped since March 13, have been found dead in a bush at Mosogar area of Delta State.

Unconfirmed report claimed that an un-identified contractor with the company was also kidnapped last Wednesday and his fate currently hangs in the balance.

Sources say that their remains were found on Saturday morning by a joint search team of Police, State Security Service and workers put in place by Edo State government.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), the union to which the deceased workers belonged, in a swift reaction, described the kidnap and subsequent murder of the workers as not only shocking, but a renewed act of criminality against oil workers that would not be tolerated.

The victims were said to have left Benin separately for the Delta State University, Abraka but never got there. They were stopped and taken by suspected gunmen who drove heading towards Delta State. Although it could not be ascertained whether they were driven away in their own cars or not, a source, however, lamented that all efforts to trace them proved abortive until they were found dead in the bush over a week later.

Police authorities are investigating but no persons have been arrested.

From Akwa ibom:

The doctor, who was identified as Justin Edet, was said to have been held hostage by his abductors for six days while negotiation went on over the amount that would be paid as ransom.

But Edet's family was shocked to have seen the corpse of their breadwinner by the side of the road, even after they had promised to pay N300,000 as ransom.

An eyewitness revealed that the medical doctor's abductors had demanded N5m as ransom, moments after seizing him.

According to the eyewitness, members of the family, had expressed their inability to provide the huge sum demanded by the kidnappers and only promised to provide N300,000.

"They were about providing the money when they saw the corpse of the man by the roadside. We are still shocked over this development," the eyewitness, who preferred not to be mentioned, said.

Confirming the incident on Sunday, the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State Command, Mr. Walter Rugbere, said the deceased's wife had explained that the husband was ill before he was abducted.

He pointed out that there was no trace of any gunshot or sign of any injury on the deceased when the police checked Edet's body.

Rugbere said, "We learnt that the body of the late medical doctor was dumped by the roadside somewhere and we did not notice any sign of gunshot or machete cut on the body of the deceased.

"It is surprising. There was also no sign of strangulation. But the wife of the man had already told us he (the deceased) was ill before he was kidnapped. It is quite unfortunate."

He, however, assured that the police would continue with their investigation and apprehend those behind the abduction of the late medical doctor.