American convicted singer, Puff-Daddy also known as Sean “Diddy” Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution following a bombshell nine-week sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.

See the charges below:

Combs was charged with five counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force or fraud, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

He was found not guilty of sex-trafficking and racketeering. Prosecutors called 34 witnesses to the stand over a more than six-week period, including three women who accused him of abuse.

Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, Diddy’s ex, told jurors that he coerced her into drug-fueled sexual encounters with male escorts for about a decade.

“I felt pretty horrible about myself,” Cassie told jurors, saying that he lured her into a lurid world under the false pretenses of a romantic relationship — keeping compliant with physical and verbal abuse, as well as the threat of blackmail.

“I felt disgusted,” Cassie said as she testified about these encounters, called “Freak Offs”, “Hotel Nights,” or “King Nights,” which are core to prosecutors’ case.

Diddy allegedly recorded many of these encounters, giving him blackmail material to hold over his victims’ heads, prosecutors said at trial.

The prosecution contends that Diddy’s abuse was part of a sprawling criminal enterprise that relied on other violent acts, such as alleged kidnapping and arson, and included other crimes such as drug distribution and witness tampering, made possible by his devoted employees and inner circle.

A key piece of evidence in prosecutors’ case is a spring 2016 video apparently showing Diddy attacking Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel during an alleged Freak Off.

Cassie described the alleged horrors in detail during her days on the stand. She was coerced into performing for days even when she had a urinary-tract infection or other injuries stemming from sex acts.

“When we were having frequent Freak Offs,” Cassie alleged, “sometimes they were back to back. I was actually doing the Freak Offs with the infection.” She said the infections were painful and frequent.

“It got to the point where Cipro didn’t work anymore,” Cassie also remarked, referring to the powerful antibiotic.

“Occasionally, I would get sores on my tongue from the Freak Offs, [from] taking drugs, substances, friction in my mouth,” she claimed.

Cassie added that she developed an “ongoing, ooff-and-on addiction with opiates.” Cassie said she would take opiates to come down from the ecstasy.

“Opiates made me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily,” she said. “I didn’t want to feel what was actually going on … it was just an escape for me.”

Cassie also alleged that Diddy raped her after a post-breakup dinner in 2018. “I just remember crying and saying ‘no,’” she said on the stand.“

Jane,” another Diddy accuser who took the stand, entered into what she believed was a romantic relationship with him in early 2021.

He took her on a trip to Turks and Caicos for her birthday and they swiftly developed pet names for each other, Bert and Ernie.

“He was really charming, really nice, and I was just drawn to him,” Jane testified. As they spent more and more time together, which included using molly during their sexual encounters,

Diddy told Jane about his fantasies — involving her having sex with other men. One night, after they had been awake for 12 hours, Jane said Diddy suggested: “I can make this fantasy a reality if you’d like. I can make that happen.”

Since the idea was “turning him on” and Jane cared deeply about him, she agreed. “I felt that that night just opened like a Pandora’s box in our relationship. It just completely set the tone for our relationship going forward,” she said.

As time went on, Jane repeatedly told Diddy that she no longer wanted to participate in these encounters.

She broke into tears while describing how Diddy doled out ecstasy so she could stay awake during those dayslong events that sometimes involved multiple male escorts.

“He would be like: ‘You’re not getting tired on me, are you? Let’s finish strong, hard. Let’s end on a high note,’” Jane said.

Diddy was so demanding about these sexual events that he pressured her into not using condoms, saying “he didn’t want to see a rubber while he was watching.”

If she brought it up, he would “guilt-trip” her. Jane said she went along with Diddy’s desires given how much she’d fallen for him. “I just didn’t want to disappoint my lover.”

Diddy maintained his power over Jane financially, prosecutors claimed. Jane said that in spring 2023, they entered into a “love contract” in which he agreed to pay her rent.

As a result, she felt pressure to make Diddy happy, lest he cut off his support. In the summer of 2024 — when Diddy knew he was being investigated by the Feds — Jane said that Diddy pressured her into an encounter.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to!’” Jane recalled of that evening. Diddy got close to her face and said: “Is this coercion?” and compelled her to take ecstasy. “I had to perform oral sex on Anton. It just felt like forever.”

Diddy allegedly watched. “I felt so sick … I just felt disgusted. I just felt terrible.

”Mia, a former Diddy assistant, said that he attacked her multiple times.

“The highs were really high and the lows were really, really low,” Mia told jurors. The work environment varied wildly depending on Diddy’s ever-changing moods.

“He’s thrown things at me. He’s thrown me against the wall … He’s thrown me into a pool … He’s also, uh, sexually assaulted me,” she said.

Mia said he’d sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. One night in 2010, when she was staying at Diddy’s Los Angeles home,

Mia woke to “the weight of a person on top of me.” The person was Diddy. Mia remembered Diddy undoing his pants.

“He put himself inside of me … I just froze.” Mia said she felt “terrified and confused and ashamed.”

Another time, when she was leaving a closet area, “He was standing right in front of me.”

Diddy, she said, “had his penis out” and forced her to perform oral sex.

President Bola Tinubu has declared data as “the new oil,” emphasising its critical role in governance and Nigeria’s global standing.

He announced a directive for all ministries, departments, and agencies to capture, safeguard, and responsibly release data to drive public value and facilitate international benchmarking.

This strategic emphasis on data comes as Galaxy Backbone launches its 1Government Cloud Academy, an initiative designed to equip civil servants with the essential digital skills for Nigeria’s transition to a paperless public sector.

According to a statement from Galaxy Backbone on Wednesday, the set up of the academy is a strategic move to advance Nigeria’s transition to a paperless civil service and enhance communication across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.

The announcement was a key highlight of the 2025 International Civil Service Conference in Abuja, attended by President Tinubu, members of the Federal Executive Council, the diplomatic community, industry leaders, and civil servants.

In his opening remarks, President Tinubu reinforced the strategic significance of data, describing it as “the new oil.”

He clarified that unlike traditional oil, data’s value appreciates with refinement and responsible utilisation.

The President mandated all MDAs to diligently capture and safeguard data under the Nigerian Data Protection Act (2023), and to release it in ways that generate public value, ensuring strict adherence to international data privacy standards.

“We must let our data speak for us. We must publish verified data assets locally and share them globally. This will enable international benchmarking and strengthen Nigeria’s standing on the world stage,” he stated.

He further emphasised the need for data sovereignty and privacy to be rigorously protected within local and allied data centers.

Galaxy Backbone’s new 1Government Cloud Academy aims to train selected civil servants and public sector stakeholders in technical tools crucial for successful digital transformation.

This move is a strategic step towards advancing Nigeria’s digital public service and improving communication across MDAs.

The Programme Director of the 1Government Cloud initiative, Mr. Wumi Oghoetuoma, while speaking on a panel at the event, underscored the paramount importance of trust and understanding in the successful adoption of digital tools.

“Many digital solutions have failed not because they were ineffective, but because users didn’t trust or fully understand them,” Oghoetuoma noted.

He lauded the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation for her decisive reform efforts in public sector digitalization, highlighting that the academy’s training encompasses both technical competencies and vital soft skills for transformation.

The 1Government Cloud Academy will serve as a central hub for training and certifying government personnel, particularly ECM Project Managers.

These civil servants are selected as “transformation champions” within their departments, acting as in-house digital guides to help colleagues overcome initial challenges and build confidence in new tools.

“This approach builds trust, improves usability, and encourages widespread adoption across MDAs,” Oghoetuoma explained, adding, “Many tools are abandoned not because they don’t work, but due to lack of communication and internal support.”

Oghoetuoma pointed out that even basic issues, like poor WiFi connectivity, often remain unresolved because ministry staff fail to engage with their IT departments, and those departments, in turn, don’t escalate the issues to Galaxy Backbone.

“This silent communication breakdown creates a false perception that the system is broken, when in reality, it’s an unreported or unresolved issue,” he said.

To tackle this, the academy is also offering specialized certification courses for IT departments to boost responsiveness and cross-functional collaboration.

He stressed that the challenge isn’t a lack of digital literacy, as most civil servants are proficient with smartphones and social media. Instead, it’s a matter of “mindset, motivation, and ongoing support.”

Oghoetuoma emphasized, “Digital transformation hinges on people, processes, and technology.”

He concluded, “With strong personnel and well-documented processes already in place, the missing link is often technology adoption, and the glue that holds it all together is communication. Sustainable digitalisation in the public sector requires making people feel like active participants, not passive users.”

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, highlighted that Nigeria’s digital reforms as a model for other nations.

She cited the automation of processes through the Enterprise Content Management system, the introduction of a Performance Management System, and the deployment of ServiceWise GPT, which aligns individual roles with national priorities.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, commended Nigeria’s reform agenda under President Tinubu, stating,“

These are bold and necessary steps for long-term development.”

He underscored that the success of these reforms hinges on efficient service delivery and integrity within the civil service.

•Olumide Iyanda

QEDNG, the renowned online newspaper published by Mighty Media Plus Network Limited, has announced the launch of the QEDNG Creative Powerhouse Summit.

This groundbreaking event will be held on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., at the prestigious Radisson Blu Hotel, Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

With the theme “Financing as Catalysts for a Thriving Creative Economy,” the summit will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, including industry leaders, investors, policymakers, and emerging talents, to discuss strategies for accelerating growth in Nigeria’s creative sector.

Olumide Iyanda, founder and chief executive officer of Mighty Media Plus Network Limited, highlighted the vision behind the summit:

“At QEDNG, we are committed to fostering creativity, credible journalism, and human capital development.

This summit serves as a platform to address critical challenges and unlock the vast potential of Nigeria’s creative economy.

”Nigeria’s creative sector, comprising film, music, art, fashion, advertising and digital media, contributes significantly to the country’s GDP and cultural identity.

However, it faces barriers such as limited funding, technological deficits, and sustainability issues.

The summit will tackle these challenges by exploring innovative funding solutions, fostering partnerships between creatives and investors, and providing tools for effective financial management.

It will also serve as a space for collaboration between creatives, industry leaders, and policymakers to drive sustainable growth.

The event is open to a wide range of participants, including artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, academics, and financial institutions.

It promises to provide attendees with valuable insights and opportunities to build meaningful connections within the industry.