Three year old child test positive for COVID-19

A man, his wife and their three-year-old child have all tested positive for Coronavirus in Ebonyi State.

Governor of the state, David Umahi, made the disclosure on Wednesday during a statewide broadcast.

Umahi said the three-year-old child, who tested positive for the virus on May 11, was among the eight confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state.

The governor said that the child’s parents were the sixth and seventh cases reported in the state.

He said, “As at today, we have a total of eight cases, three of the cases are very sympathetic because it involves a man and the wife.

"The man and the wife have two little children, one is a year plus, the other one that tested positive for Coronavirous is three years old.

“The other child is still being breastfed and doctors have appealed to her parents to isolate her so that she does not get infected.

“The state government has pledged to cater for the child. We urge her parents to provide a child care giver or we provide one to take care of her.

“They have however, held on to the child and we view through Close Circuit Television how they pull her clothes and breast-feed her.

“I want doctors to make inquiries on what to do on the matter and we will do it even by force.”

Murder of Rinji -Army Apologizes, Blames personnel at gate post

OPSH REGRETS THE UNFORTUNATE DEATH OF CIVILIAN ON 12 MAY 2020

Operation SAFE HAVE HAVEN regrets the unfortunate death of a civilian by name Mr Rinji Peter Bala by its personnel.

At about 10pm on 12 May 2020, information was received on the activities of suspected armed robbers and cultists operating around No 18th Street, Jos South LGA of Plateau State. The report revealed that the criminals took advantage of the lockdown and curfew to perpetrate crimes. Consequently, Sector 1 patrol troops of OPSH swiftly responded and arrested 7 suspects, which were immediately moved to the Headquarters Sector 1 for preliminary investigation. Thereafter, 5 out of the 7 suspects were cleared and asked to leave the premises. Unfortunately as they were leaving the premises, one of the personnel on sentry duty mistook them for escaping suspects. Thus opened fire on them, which led to the death of Mr Rinji Bala. 

However, a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident. Meanwhile the MOPOL personnel involved in the incident has been arrested and detained accordingly.

Operation SAFE HAVEN has condemned the sad incident. Representative of OPSH has also visited the parents of the deceased to commiserate with them. OPSH also assures the general public of justice.

Ibrahim Shittu

Major

Media Officer, Operation SAFE HAVEN

Security Operative Allegedly Shot & Killed 20 Year Old Boy in Jos

It is a case of extra-judicial killing – Community

Hwolshe Community in Jos South LGA, Plateau State has been thrown into mourning following the alleged killing of a promising 20 year old undergraduate of the University of Jos, Mr. Rinji Peter Bala popularly known as ‘Bobo’ by suspected men of Sector 1 Zaria Road Jos, Plateau State.

Late Rinji Peter and his 6 Friends were said to be walking in their community around 6:30-7:00pm on Tuesday 12th May, 2020 when they were arrested by the vigilante/neighbourhood watch in the area who handed them over to the Soldiers situated around 8th Street Lounge having mistaken them for suspected criminal elements.

The 7 youths were later transferred to sector 1 of the Operation Safe Haven situated at Zaria Road where they were released when nothing incriminating was found on them only to be allegedly shot at while leaving the premises of the Sector Command after being beaten severely which led to the killing of one according to one of the survivor and witness.

The corpse of the deceased was later found lying dead in the pool of his blood at the gate of the Sector Command by his family Members who went to check the situation.

At the time of filing this report, the case has been reported to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Plateau State Police Command.

Members of the community frowned at the action of the Soldier who allegedly killed Late Rinji describing it as an extra-judicial killing.

Buhari Orders Immediate Withdrawal Of Security Operatives Attached To Wike

President Buhari has ordered for immediate withdrawal of all security details attached to Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

The security officers are said to be withdrawn based on human rights abuses on the path of the state’s task force.

The President’s decision is coming few days after the state Governor, Nyesom Wike, supervised the demolition of two hotels for violating the state’s lockdwon directive.

The state government action had since then drew lots of criticisms from Nigerians

Nigerian Lawmakers Move To Cancel Chinese Loans Over Alleged Fraudulent Terms

The House of Representatives has resolved to set up an investigative committee to look into all extant China/Nigeria loan agreements since 2000, to ascertain their viability, regularise and renegotiate them.

This was a sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by a lawmaker, Ben Igbakpa (PDP-Delta) at the plenary on Tuesday.

Moving the motion earlier, Igbakpa said the National Assembly had been kept in the dark on how most of these Chinese loans were collected and utilised.

He said there is widespread global concern about the fraudulent, irregular and underhand characteristics of Chinese loan contracts with African states.

According to him, it has resulted to a new form of economic colonialism foisted by China, adding that there is an urgent need to subject all subsisting Nigeria/China contractual loan agreements to forensic fiscal scrutiny and review.

He said records from Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed that the People’s Republic of China emerged Nigeria’s major creditor under the bilateral deals with $2.3 billion out of $3.3 billion.

Igbakpa said  the EXIM Bank of China is Nigeria’s biggest bilateral creditor in nearly two decades, having lent the African largest economy $6.5 billion (N1.9 trillion) since 2002.

“Transportation and ICT sectors have six projects each financed by loans from the Chinese bank, while energy, agriculture and water sectors, respectively, have three and two projects tied to Chinese loans.

“According to the Daily Post of Sept. 5, 2018, the first Chinese loan to Nigeria was agreed on March 27, 2002, as follows: $114.89 million each for constructing two 335 MW gas power plants, namely Omotosho and Papalanto (Olorunshogo) in Ondo and Ogun States, respectively.

“Both plants were completed in 2007; the loan was obtained at six per cent interest rate and it covered 65 per cent of the costs of the project, while Nigeria then covered the 35 per cent balance. Four months after, two other loans totalling $159.83 million for rural telephony were offered at a 3.5 per cent interest rate.

“Then from 2006 to September 2018, the country obtained 13 more loans, at between 2.50 per cent and three per cent interest rates.

“The last loan obtained by the government from China was $328 million used for the National ICT Infrastructure Backbone II Project.

“At the last count, Nigeria has obtained 17 Chinese loans to fund different categories of capital projects and Nigeria would still be servicing the Chinese loans till around 2038, the maturity date for the last loans obtained in 2018,” he said.

The legislator expressed concern that the IMF, as reported in the Guardian of Nov. 3, 2019, had raised the alarm that most of the Chinese deals are not Paris Club compliant, and for which the World Bank has blacklisted six Chinese companies currently operating in Nigeria.

According to him, this is over alleged fraudulent corrupt practices including deceptive tactics, illicit trade, extortion, Greek gifts and neo-colonial proclivities.

Igbakpa listed the companies as published on the World Bank’s website to include CCECC Nigeria Railway Company Limited, CRCC Petroleum and Gas Company Limited and CCECC Nigeria Company Limited.

Others are China Railway Construction (International) Nigeria Company Limited, China Railway 18th Bureau Nigeria Engineering Company Limited and CCECC Nigeria Lekki (FTA) Company Limited.

Igbakpa said that one of the blacklisted companies, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), is the major vehicle through which Chinese projects in Nigeria are financed.

“This much has been corroborated by Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who stated that since China was financing the projects through the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the contractors had 100 per cent execution right on them.

“This means that materials and skills are imported from China thus undermining local industry and jobs. Some of the latest loans tied to the said CCECC as reported in Guardian of March 3, 2020, are as follows:

“On railway alone, this administration has recently signed loans mainly categorised under Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)’s government to government agreements of approximately $17 billion with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation.

“The Federal Government in 2016 signed a $5.1 billion Kano–Kaduna and Port Harcourt-Calabar rail contracts; in 2018, the country signed a $6.7 billion for Ibadan-Kano rail.

“It signed in 2019, a deal worth $1.488 billion for Lagos–Ibadan rail and again in 2019 signed another loan for construction of $3.9 billion Abuja-Warri rail,” he said.

The lawmaker said amidst widespread allegations of heavily inflated Chinese contracts and fears expressed by stakeholders that most of the projects allegedly did not follow extant regulations, particularly the Public Procurement Act, which enforces tendering or competitive bidding.

He said that industry watchers have also raised fears over why the Public Procurement Bureau (PPB), the National Assembly and Debt Management Office (DMO) were bypassed in the approval and execution of these loan regimes.

He said this was done knowing full well that 70 per cent of the corruption in the country is being fuelled by contracts.

Igbakpa said that Nigeria is the most vulnerable in the bilateral loan pacts with China because Nigeria is susceptible to currency volatility risks.

According to him, such risks, most often are transferred to the country with a weaker economy.

“In this connection, we must heed the warning of the IMF Director of Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Tobias Andrian, in The Guardian Sunday Magazine of Nov. 3, 2019.

“It says that because these Chinese loans do not conform to the Paris Club standards if there is any debt restructuring down the road one day, that can be very unfavourable to those debtor countries,” he said.

Igbakpa recalled that in Business Day of May 14, 2019, countries like Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya and Angola, are at the verge of forfeiting their infrastructures to China over unpaid debts.

He said that industry watchers such as Obadiah Mailafiya, a former Deputy Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, who played a key role in Nigeria’s debt relief negotiations with the Paris Club of public creditors in 2005, and Dr Oby Ezekwesili who also helped Nigeria’s debt forgiveness during her time as Director at the World Bank, have warned.

According to him, they said that the assistance from China will come with a price of economic takeover if Nigeria is unable to repay her loan.

The legislator said that the Chinese attitude to indebtedness is the hardest in the world as they do not offer debt relief or cancellation.

The house resolved that in the light of the COVID-19 starting from China, the House Committees on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements, Finance as well as Debt Management be mandated to liaise with the Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office to seek review or outright cancellation of latest China loans to Nigeria, on the principle of force majeure.

The green chamber also recommended that henceforth, loans should be in tandem with statutory obligations as prescribed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

WHO Meets African Traditional Medicine Experts For COVID-19 Cure

World Health Organisation says it met with 70 traditional medicine experts in a bid to find a cure for the Coronavirus pandemic.

WHO African Region made this known via its Twitter handle on Tuesday.

The health organisation said an agreement was reached with the herbal medicine experts on clinical trials of their remedies.

The meeting is coming days after Madagascar said it found herbal remedy capable of curing the disease.

@WHOAFRO tweeted, “70 traditional medicine experts from countries across #Africa held a virtual meeting with @WHO on the role of traditional medicine in the #COVID-19 response. They unanimously agreed that clinical trials must be conducted for all medicines in the region, without exception.”

Earlier, Madagascar President, Andry Rajoelina, criticised WHO and other international organisations for allegedly scorning local “remedy” for COVID-19.

“If it wasn’t Madagascar, and if it was a European country that had discovered this remedy, would there be so much doubt? I don’t think so,” he told French media in an interview.

Before the meeting, WHO had repeatedly warned that the COVID-Organics infusion, which Rajoelina has touted as a remedy against the deadly Coronavirus, has not been clinically tested.

But Madagascar claimed the drink is derived from artemisia – a plant with proven anti-malarial properties – and other indigenous herbs.

Already Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, and Tanzania have taken delivery of consignments of the potion, which was launched last month.

President Buhari Has Finally Settled For Ibrahim Agboola Gambari As (COS)

President Buhari has finally settled for Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as his New Chief Of Staff(COS) after the demise of late Abba Kyari who pass away some weeks back as a result of Covid-19 related pandemic.

Before the final release of the name of Gambari as the New (COS) to the president many speculations of big names within the premises of power were speculated as the possible person to replace the late Kyari, with the announcement of Gambari today May 12th, 2020 has finally put to rest the rumours.

lbrahim Agboola(CFR) was born Nov, 24th, 1944 in llorin , Kwara state.

He attended King’s College Lagos , London School of Economic where he obtained B.SC (Economic)in 1968 with specialisation in International Relation .

He later obtained M.A and PhD respectively from Columbia University New York , USA in political science /International Relation.

He was once a Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985. In 2010, Gambari was appointed by the secretary-general of United Nations Ban Ki-moon and the chairperson of the African Union Commission as Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur.

He was once the Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and Other Issues for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

On March 4, 2013, Ibrahim Gambari was named by the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmad, as the pioneer chancellor of the Kwara State University, making him the ceremonial head of the university who presides over convocations to award degrees and diplomas.

Animal lover donates pregnant python to Jos wildlife park

An animal lover, Mr Zendi Mikuk, on Wednesday donated a pregnant African rock python to the Jos Wild life park.

Presenting the snake in Jos, Mikuk, said the African Rock Python is Africa’s largest snake.

NAN reports that a female python lays 30 to 50 large eggs.

The African Rock Python feeds on small antelope, monkeys, guineafowl and domestic animals with fish, monitor lizards and crocodiles also eaten.

”I am an animal lover. I am supporting the Plateau tourism corporation to restock the park with animals.

“I will also collaborate with the management of the wildlife park for the upkeep of the python and its off springs,’’ he said.

Mikuk appealed to members of the public not to kill any wild animal.

“I am appealing to the tourism corporation to enlighten the masses on the importance of conserving the wildlife instead of using it for meat and hide,’’ he added.

The acting General Manager of the Jos Wild life Park, Mrs Salome Bidda, who received the python, commended Mikuk for his donation.

“I call on members of the public to emulate this gesture which would help in preserving the park. It is a goldmine which makes the habitation complete.

“I appeal to members of the public to help support the preservation of the wildlife by making donations in cash or kind as their gestures would go a long way,’’ Bidda said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that few minutes after the snake was donated, it laid eggs.

(NAN)

BREAKING: COVID-19 Patients Protest Over Inadequate Medical Attention, Block Highway, Destroy Properties In Gombe

Some COVID-19 patients at the Kwadon Isolation Centre, Yamaltu Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State, on Tuesday blocked the popular Gombe/ Biu Road.

The patients were said to be protesting against government's negligence, inadequate food and medical attention in the isolation centre.

A resident of the community, who spoke with SaharaReporters, said, “Yes, they have left the isolation center and are presently destroying people’s properties on the main highway. 

"It’s so sad, what could have led these patients into protesting against the government? I think government is not being truthful.”

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Gombe State currently has 96 confirmed cases of the virus.

When contacted by SaharaReporters, Commissioner for Health in the state, Ahmed Gana, did not pick up his phone calls.

However, an official of the state's Ministry of Health confirmed the situation to our correspondent. 

Why We Laid Of 46 Staff On Labour Day —Ex-Vice President, Atiku's Firm

Gotel Communication, a media outfit owned by Nigeria's former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has explained why it sacked 46 Staff on Friday, a day set aside globally to celebrate workers. 

In a statement, the General Manager, Mohammed El-Yakub, said the staff dismissal was an outcome of Gotel's long standing company restructuring.

SaharaReporters had earlier on Friday reported that Atiku's media outfit had sacked 46 staff on Workers' Day. 

Reacting to the report, El-Yakub said, "Rationalisation of staff at Gotel Communications Limited, a company under the umbrella of Priam Group, is a culmination of the restructuring process in the companies under our group.

"The founder of companies under the Priam had announced that many of his business concerns will be aggregated under the Priam Group.

"Priam Group had embarked on a restructuring exercise which led to a merger of many companies under its umbrella. 

Buhari Praises Nigerian Media Amid COVID-19 Fight

 

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday lauded the Nigerian media for its efforts in keeping people informed and educated amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The President’s comment was contained in a statement released by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated every May 3.

“We cannot overemphasize the role of the media in keeping people informed and educated on the pernicious virus, which has no friend or foe,” the President was quoted as saying in the statement.

“It simply seeks to mow down anyone and everyone in its path, and public awareness is very important, lest we become like sitting ducks. The media are doing this quite effectively.”

He charged the media further to continue its good work, “till we get to safe harbour, when the world, and our country are finally free of this greatest health challenge in recent history.”

Adesina’s statement also revealed that the President reflected on the World Press Freedom Day 2020 theme: ‘Media for Democracy: Journalism and Elections in Times of Disinformation.’

Nigeria, the President believes, has a very unhealthy dose of disinformation, fake news, hate news, purveyed by people who use media platforms, particularly the digital variant.

“They don’t mean well for us, and no country can afford to close its eyes to the evil disinformation can cause,” the President said.

“In a plural polity like ours, it has the potential to rupture relationships, sow seeds of discord, and set on the path of destabilisation.

“When fake and hate news are added unabashedly, it can only signpost doom.

“I urge the Press to use the occasion of World Press Freedom Day to see how this can be vigorously tackled.”

Meanwhile, President Buhari pledged a re-commitment to the ideals of freedom of the press, noting that democracy thrives better in an atmosphere of transparency, as opposed to opacity.

“We appreciate the cooperation we have enjoyed from the media in tackling the coronavirus, and look forward to same, post COVID-19, when all hands must be on deck to repair the damages done to our economic and social lives,“ he said.

One Killed, Several Injured As Tanker Bursts Into Flames At Obalende

One person has been killed and several others injured after a  petrol tanker burst into flames in the Obalende area of Lagos State.

The tanker belonging to the NNPC was said to have tipped over before bursting into flames in front of the Oando filling station.

The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed the development, said the 45,000-litre capacity tanker loaded with petrol caught fire after fallen on its side in from of the filling station.

He said after the LASEMA got the distress call about the fire, officials from the agency were dispatched to the scene where they along with men of the Lagos State Fire Service and the Federal Fire Service fought and brought the fire under control.

“Unfortunately, the inferno has resulted in a single fatality, 15 minor casualties, and one major casualty, who happens to be a Lagos State Firefighter. He has been subsequently transferred to the Lagos State General Hospital for treatment while the minor casualties received on the scene medical attention,” he said.

“We appeal for calm and urge members of the public to keep away and allow the responders to complete their work.”

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday also commiserated with families of the victims.

In a statement signed by NNPC spokesman, Kennie Obateru, the corporation said it wished all those that sustained injuries in the incident quick recovery.

The corporation explained that all the injured from the incident had been rushed to the hospital while further investigation is on to determine the accident’s cause.

In its statement, the corporation “expressed appreciation to the good-spirited people of Lagos around the scene of the incident and fire service personnel who brought the fire under control.”

Ganduje rejects Isolation centre after asking FG to relax lockdown in Kano

The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, has rejected a donation of a newly-built 60-bed capacity hospital as isolation center for Coronavirus patients in the state from the Kwankwasiyya Foundation.

Recall that on Monday, 20th April, the former governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, founder of the Kwankwasiyya Foundation, had announced the donation in terse statement signed by Ibrahim Adam, spokesman to Abba Kabiru Yusuf, the Kano State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the 2019 elections.

According to the statement, the hospital, named Amana Hospital and located at Miller Road, Bompai in the Kano City, had been equipped by Mr Kwankwaso, a former Senate who represented Kano Central during the 8th Assembly.

On Friday, a few weeks thereafter, Kwankwasiyya Movement took to twitter to disclose that Mr Ganduje had yet to acknowledge the gesture nor put the same to a use.

 Writing on Twitter, the movement alleged that Mr Ganduje was playing politics with the lives of Kano people by refusing to take the donation.

“Millions of lives are at stake but Ganduje is playing politics with the donation of the hospital by Kwankwasiyya Foundation.”

 

“Gov. Ganduje refused to take a donation of a hospital as an isolation center from Kwankwaso in order to save lives in Kano because of a mere political grudge,” the foundation wrote.”

This is also coming few hours after Governor Ganduje appealed for an urgent ease of the 14-day total lockdown by the federal government, imposed on the state folowing the rise of death due to COVID-19 and strange cases in the state.

 

But Ganduje insisted that it is important to relax the lockdown for a while in order to ease the hardship in the state, especially in the holy month of Ramadan.

Speaking on Thursday at the government house where he inaugurated a panel of experts to support the state task force technical committee, Ganduje said government is expanding treatment centres for COVID-19.

 

“We would engage the presidential task force on COVID-19 to seek permission to relax the total lockdown imposed on Kano,” he said.

 

“We are making this appeal on behalf of our people who are presently running out of food items. We would love the federal government to relax the lockdown for a period of time to enable people stock their homes, especially now that majority of us are fasting. It will also ease the economic hardship in the state.”

Tijani Hussain, the state coordinator for COVID-19 in the state put the death toll in Kano at five, saying none of the deceased died at the isolation centre.

 

The state, as at the time of this report has 219 cases of COVID-19 and 3 deaths.

Trump Says Evidence Ties COVID-19 To Wuhan Lab, Threatens Tariffs

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened new tariffs against Beijing after claiming there is evidence linking the coronavirus to a lab in China’s ground-zero city of Wuhan.

Asked if he had seen anything giving him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the outbreak, Trump replied, “Yes, I have.”

The Republican is increasingly making complaints over Beijing’s handling of the pandemic outbreak a major issue for his November reelection campaign.

He told reporters at the White House that US agencies were investigating how the virus first emerged and what China had done to stop it spreading to the rest of the world.

“We’ll be able to get a very powerful definition of what happened,” he said, adding that a report would be made to him “in the not too distant future.”

But even as the issue remains under probe, Trump said he already has suspicions.

“They could have stopped it,” he said, attacking China for not canceling international flights out of the country in time.

Several theories are circulating on how the virus appeared in Wuhan, including that it emerged from a market selling live animals or accidentally from the Wuhan research lab.

The US intelligence community said Thursday it had concluded that the novel coronavirus originated in China but was not man-made or engineered.

Pressed by reporters at the White House for details on what made him so confident about a link to the laboratory, Trump replied: “I cannot tell you that.”

Regardless of where blame lies for the outbreak, Trump is ramping up a war of words with Beijing, claiming again on Thursday that “China doesn’t want to see me reelected.”

Attention is now turning to what Trump will do in terms of threatened retaliation. The new tension comes only months after the US and China settled a trade war which had been roiling world markets.

Until now Trump has been notably vague on what measures he is considering but tariffs, he said, are a possibility.

But asked about reports that he could cancel US debt obligations to China, Trump said he could “do it differently” and act in “probably a little bit more of a forthright manner.”

“I could do the same thing but even for more money, just putting on tariffs,” he said.