Twitter CEO Elon Musk has made a U-turn to settle for $8, for Twitter verification badge monthly fee.

As part of his plans after his takeover, Musk disclosed that it was essential for verified accounts to pay a verification fee, noting that it would defeat the number of scams and spam on the micro-blogging platform

While announcing it on Twitter, Elon Musk tweeted, “To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8. Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit”. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.

Reacting to this, a prominent fundraiser of the U.S Democratic Party, Jon Cooper responded to Musk tweet, saying “Elon, this negates the whole idea behind the blue checkmark, which verifies that an account is official or legitimate.

“Users can already pay $4.99/month to get the benefits of Twitter Blue — this would simply be “Enhanced Twitter Blue” for $8. That’s fine, if that’s your intent”.

Recall that Musk had earlier set the fee at $20 which received so many criticisms and backlash from users, with most of them stating that they won’t pay such an amount for the Blue tick, noting that it was unnecessary.

This however forced the Tesla CEO to reduce the fee to $8 per month. Musk however disclosed that the new fee of $8 would adjust prices by country proportionate to purchasing power parity, and would provide the micro-blogging platform a revenue stream to reward content creators.

Additionally, Musk disclosed that the new payment plan would include additional benefits for users, such as priority in replies, mentions & search, and the ability to post longer video/audio content and half as many ads, And also a paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with the company.

There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians.

After his Musk acquisition of Twitter, he has been looking for ways to monetize the platform as he said he needed to pay bills.

Meanwhile, in 2009, Twitter introduced the verification badge after it was slammed with a lawsuit for not doing enough to prevent the platform from imposters and parody accounts.

The platform has so far taken a benign approach to its many ‘parody accounts’, as majority of these accounts are created by agenda-driven mischief makers who are spreading damaging falsehoods.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has arrested a politician, Ismaila Yusuf Atumeyi with huge sums of illicit fund amounting to N326 million and $610,500 cash, days after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) moved to redesign the naira notes, and has given Jan. 31 deadline for the old notes to be returned to the banks.

Atumeyi, who is a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) currently seeking to represent Ankpa 11 Constituency in Kogi State House of Assembly, was arrested on Sunday, alongside one Joshua Dominic, an alleged serial fraudster, in a sting operation at Macedonia Street, Queens Estate, Karsana, Gwarinpa, Abuja, according to a statement issued by EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren.

The fund is said to be the proceeds of bank fraud that the suspect perpetrated in connivance with an ex banker. According to the EFCC, a former bank employee, Abdumalik Salau Femi, allegedly filled the suspects with the insider information that facilitated the successful bank hacking operation.

“He was picked up on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, at Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos. Following his arrest, a search was conducted on his home in Morgan Estate, Ojodu where a total of $470,000 USD was recovered,” Uwujaren said.

The money is in addition to the $140,500 that was separately recovered from the second suspect by the EFCC.

According to Uwujaren, the arrest of the suspects followed months of investigation into the hacking of one of the commercial banks by a syndicate of fraudsters who pulled off a heist of N1.4 billion.

“The syndicate allegedly moved N887 million into the account of Fav Oil and Gas Limited, from where the monies were paid to several Bureau de Change operators and some auto dealers for exchange into United States Dollars and purchase of high-end cars.

“Dominic, who has severally been arrested for fraud, allegedly helped Atumeyi perfect the hacking plan through Abdumalik. Dominic, a self-styled investment expert and managing director of Brisk Capital Limited was arrested in May 2021 by the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police for alleged N2 billion investment scam. He allegedly defrauded over 500 persons in a phony investment scheme.

“Two Range Rover Luxury SUVs were also recovered from the two suspects arrested in Abuja,” a statement issued by the agency said.

The anti-graft agency said the suspects would be charged to court after the investigation.

The development has once again brought the plights of many Nigerian banks’ customers, who have lost their hard-earned money left in the care of the banks similar fraud incidents, to the spotlight. In most cases, the banks have been found denying every responsibility.

With the prevalence of cybercrimes in banks, the EFCC is concerned that the banks and other financial institutions are reluctant to report their cases to the relevant agencies when they happen.

The commission warned that such reticence would only embolden the criminals, appealing to financial institutions to collaborate with it to secure the financial sector from threats of cyber-attacks.

Nigerians say that they’re expecting more stories like this in the near future, due to the redesign of the naira notes. The EFCC has also warned Bureau De Change operators to be wary of those who would want to beat the CBN deadline by converting their ill-gotten fund stashed outside the banks to dollars.