Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Sunday 1st March 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 01/03/20
Read also
Three Chinese Nationals Quarantined In Jos Over Suspected Coronavirus
Three Chinese nationals, who arrived in Jos, Plateau State, on Friday have been quarantined after being suspected of having Coronavirus. The men, who work in a mine in the state, travelled through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja before proceeding to Jos.Nimkong Ndam, Commissioner for Health in Plateau State, confirmed the situation, adding that the Chinese nationals came in from Ethiopia.
PUBLIC HEALTH
News
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
SaharaReporters, New York
Disable advertisements
:
Coronavirus Patient Moved To Upgraded Facility By Lagos Government
The Italian detected to have contracted the deadly Coronavirus in Nigeria was on Saturday moved to an upgraded isolation and treatment facility by the Lagos State Government.
This came after the Italian complained about the poor state of the facility he was earlier placed in, which made him attempt to abscond from the centre.
Announcing the latest development, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said the Italian was currently receiving treatment at the Infectious Disease facility at the Mainland Hospital in the Yaba area of the city.
He said, “We were renovating part of the facilities, so we kept him in a single isolation room for his privacy but we’ve subsequently moved him to one of our completed wards recently renovated with the full complement of facilities.
See Also
PUBLIC HEALTH
Italian Infected With Coronavirus Attempts Absconding From Isolation Centre Over Poor Facility
0 Comments
14 Hours Ago
“He is there now and he is comfortable.
“As of this morning, his condition has improved, he hasn’t developed any new symptoms but he still got a mild fever and we would be running tests to see what the situation is with the virus in his body.
“As soon as we get a negative screening, then we will keep him for another two or three days and repeat the test to make sure there are no more virus particles in his saliva and that means he will not be contagious again, then we will release him back into the community.”
PUBLIC HEALTH
News
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
SaharaReporters, New York
Disable advertisements
:
Nigerian Army Debunks Report Of Attack On Maimalari Barracks By Terrorists
The Nigerian Army has debunked media reports and a video circulating on the social media insinuating that Boko Haram terrorists disguised as United Nations employees attacked Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Borno State.
In a statement on Saturday by Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, the reports were described as a lie.
He added that the intention of the purveyors of the fake news was to cause panic and unnecessary apprehension.
He urged members of the public to disregard the reports, noting that there was no security threat around Maimalari Barracks and or Maiduguri township.
The statement reads, “To give effect to the wicked lies, pictures of a training session between United Nations Department of Safety and Security Training Drill and selected personnel of Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE were attached to reinforce the mischievous fake news intended to cause panic and unnecessary apprehension.
“The public are again sensitised to develop the culture of interrogating/verifying information seen on various media platforms to ascertain the genuineness/veracity of the information for the collective interest of the public.”
Military
News
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
SaharaReporters, New York
Disable advertisements
:
BREAKING: DSS Claims Buhari Ordered Arrest, Unlawful Detention Of Businessman Who Bought SIM Card Previously Used By Daughter, Hanan
The Department of State Services has said that the unlawful arrest and detention of a young Nigerian businessman based in Asaba, Delta State, Anthony Okolie, was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Okolie was arrested at Asaba and later transferred to the DSS Headquarters in Abuja where he was unlawfully detained for at least 10 weeks for purchasing and using an MTN mobile telephone line previously used but abandoned by Hanan, President Buhari’s daughter.
Okolie, through his lawyer, has since sued the DSS, Hanan and MTN for the breach of his fundamental human rights.
See Also
Politics
DSS Detains Man Unlawfully For 10 Weeks After Purchasing MTN SIM Card Previously Used By President Buhari’s Daughter
0 Comments
1 Month Ago
He had earlier revealed that DSS officials informed him that Hanan ordered his arrest and that she was contacted three times to back up her claims but failed to show up, prompting the secret police to release the young businessman.
But in twist of events, the DSS has now said that it received official letter of instruction from the Presidency dated July 5, 2019 upon which it acted to arrest Okolie.
In an affidavit deposed to at the Federal High Court, Asaba, where the case is being heard, the DSS said Okolie’s purchase and use of the MTN mobile telephone line formerly belonging to Hanan, was a “classified national security issue” upon which basis the security outfit had no option than to arrest Okolie.
Reacting to the latest development, Okolie’s lawyer, Tope Akinyode, National President of Revolutionary Lawyer’s Forum, said, “The Nigerian constitution made no provision of any kind for first family and the involvement of the Presidency in the matter was a disgraceful deployment of state apparatus for personal gains.”
Meanwhile telecommunications company, MTN, has argued that it did not transfer absolute right of ownership of the SIM card to Okolie because it was a national asset, which cannot be personalised.
The matter is scheduled to come up on March 3 before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba for hearing.
Human Rights
Politics
Scandal
Breaking News
News
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
SaharaReporters, New York
Disable advertisements
:
How Presidential Amnesty Coordinator, Charles Dokubo, Was Sacked While In London
SaharaReporters has learnt that Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof Charles Dokubo, was in London, United Kingdom, when he was fired by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday.
Dokubo, who has been embroiled in different corruption allegations in running the affairs of the programme, was recommended for suspension by a committee set up by the National Security Adviser.
In a statement by Femi Adesina, media aide to President Buhari, Dokubo’s removal follows numerous allegations and petitions against him.
Adesina said a technical committee will henceforth oversee the programme.
The statement reads, “Consequently, the NSA recommended to Mr President that the Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, Prof Charles Dokubo, be suspended, a recommendation that has been approved and which takes immediate effect.
“The President has also directed that the caretaker committee set up to review the programme should oversee the running of the programme henceforth with a view to ensuring that government objectives were achieved.”
Also, it was gathered that anti-graft agencies may pick him up on arrival in the country with a view to investigating allegations against him.
Recall that SaharaReporters had in April 2019 reported and exposed plans by Dokubo in a leaked audio to steal N4.88bn before President Buhari reshuffles his cabinet.
See Also
Corruption
Leaked Audio Exposes Amnesty Boss Dokubo’s Plans To ‘Steal’ N4.88bn
0 Comments
10 Months Ago
Politics
News
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
SaharaReporters, New York
Disable advertisements
:
Academic Suicides, New Massacre On Students By Oloniniran Gbenga
If one is to begin by listing data of academic related suicides in tertiary institutions, the essence of the points intended here could be defeated so soon. Obafemi Awolowo University’s recent data of such suicides would be enough to exhaust a whole page, and this piece would have been boring to the lovers of the deceased students, who might read and find the names of their loved ones listed here again. It would be a sad reflection.
As conscious and concerned students of Obafemi Awolowo University, not less than four years of our stay on the campus did we spend campaigning against mass failure, against its causes and suggesting possible solutions. Perhaps, our view was merely to prevent our students against ‘just’ poor academic performance, because drastic failures leading to suicides as we now have it, was rarely in view. Unlike what we now have as rampant in the institution, it appears the insignificant “Iroko plant” that was unnoticed has grown into a full blown Iroko tree that now requests sacrifice.
Final year students now write dissertation on mass failure in the OAU’s faculty of pharmacy, apparently, the poor academic performances of students in several institutions now kill at faster rate than the recorded deaths from illness and accidents among students.
The number of protests we had in Ife was channeled towards demand for improved learning, living and teaching conditions for students and staff of the university, by extension, we called for sufficient funding of the institutions by government and for an end to mismanagement of funds. From our little understanding, it is this chain of negligence and maladministration from government and administrators of institutions that finds its end result in the terrible performance of students. Any brain would be strained when a thousand students or more receive lectures in a 500-seater theatre, or when they write examinations without common water and light to take care of themselves. It is even worse with the most recent accommodation crises in OAU, FUNAAB, UNILAG, among others, where, asides the retarding standards of learning and teaching, majority of students who lack abode on campuses have to fight their way like Lagosians to get transport to, and from their town residences and equally come for examinations the next day.
If we would also consider to chip in sentimental arguments that some lecturers are sadists and this is why students fail, yes we can agree, just to be fair to the iota of truth that forms these sentiments for some students. To be objective, the lecturers are everyday unwillingly distant from the proper conditions of teaching. After shouting out their intestine, out of the remnants of love for students’ understanding, in a lecture hall of over a thousand students and without a megaphone at least, they resort to abandon the students to their fate in the examinations, while the students equally leave their own fate to God when the lecturer marks the scripts of over 1000 students because there are not enough staff too. But after all, we shall all lift up our faces to the mountains, from where our help shall cometh.
Our generation protested sudden deaths of students resulting from poor facilities on campuses such as the health center, among others, but the current layer of students might be protesting against recurrent suicides resulting from academic performances, however, they all have the same root cause, rottenness in the educational system (poor funding and maladministration). It only appears suicide is the new method of massacre on students.
We may continue to preach that suicide should not be the option. For a youngster, whose toiling parents sweated blood in the hard Nigeria of today, to pay his tuition, and he equally does bricklaying job when chanced to repay the debts of securing the expensive apartment off campus after being kicked out of the campus hostel by the Vice Chancellor, he later fails examinations while trying to meet these hard conditions, and also has to repeat this phase under a worse conditions. A lot goes through the mind, how to deal with the carry-overs, how to face his toiling family with the failure, and also, thoughts of when he would ever graduate to help his needy siblings.
Of course, the option should not be suicide, it would only be meaningful if the Vice Chancellor had not kicked the students out; if the government had funded the schools adequately to make education qualitatively affordable and not commercialized; and if they had stopped the diversion of funds meant for our institutions’ upkeep. The students are not dull, the system generally frustrates.
Oloniniran Gbenga. (Alumnus, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria).
Twitter: @gbenga_von
Opinion
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
Oloniniran Gbenga
Disable advertisements
:
Climate Change And Disturbing Fire Outbreaks By Alabidun Shuaib Abdulrahman
Globally, climate change has become one of the most serious environmental challenges facing our planet. It has been a critical issue for quite a long time and stakeholders have been deliberating and devising ways of combating it.
Annual evaluation by the World Health Organisation indicates that scientists learn more about the consequences of global warming, and many agree that environmental, economic, and health consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue.
It has become a known fact that the prevalence of fossil fuels and its usage such as oil, gas and coal are burned to generate energy, large amounts of the greenhouse gas CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere.
Moreover, the emissions of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide increased in the last decades because of intensive agriculture. All these gases allow solar radiation to get through the atmosphere to the earth’s surface but prevent the radiation from returning. This has no doubt resulted to global warming.
Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are described as “forcing” climate change. Gases, such as water vapor, which respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are “feedbacks.”
In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there’s more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet. It is believed that for over five decades, the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. Although this may not in consonant with National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA data which show that global averages in 2016 were 1.78 degrees F (0.99 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century average. It is believed that 17 of the 18 warmest years have occurred since 2000.
The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 400 parts per million in the last 150 years. The panel also concluded there’s a better than 95 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth’s temperatures over the past 50 years.
An overwhelming research has it that extreme heat waves have caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world in recent years. And in an alarming sign of events to come, Antarctica has been losing about 134 billion metric tons of ice per year since 2002. This can speed up if we keep burning fossil fuels at our current pace, some experts say, causing sea levels to rise several meters over the next 50 to 150 years.
Strangely, the climate change has begun to have its impact on the Nigerian environment. It is now a normal scene for fire outbreaks in Nigeria as reported in various national dailies and social media platforms.
Early this year, virtually all the states have had fair share of fire outbreaks in one way or the other which could either be blamed on human errors or natural disaster considering the weather.
January 5, 2020 was a gloomy day in Oyo town, Oyo State as it was reported that over 400 years historical market, Oja Akesan got burnt with goods worth millions of naira destroyed in the inferno.
Aside the fire outbreak in Oyo, there have been so many depressing accounts of fire outbreak in some different locations like in Balogun Market and Mushin Amu Plank Market in Lagos, Jabi Motor Park in Abuja, Gusau Yankatako Market in Zamfara, Aba Market in Anambra and Owerri Airport in Imo among others.
However, unlike before now when some months are certain to have rainfall and others sunny weathers, that has become very hard to predict. Also, there have been increasing fears for flooding in Nigeria especially if the rainy season commences fully. One wonders what would likely happen to a society like Nigeria where there is little or no awareness on climate change. The fact is that fear remains very rife.
In its shocking revelation, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, has predicted horizontal visibility to improve over north and central, adding that there would be increased cloudiness over the inland and coastal cities within period of forecast.
The agency predicted cloudy condition over the coastal cities with chances of localised thunderstorm over Lagos, Warri, Owerri, Yenagoa, Calabar, Eket and Port-Harcourt axis.
With the above, it is important that we all rise up to the climate change challenge so we would not be consumed by the obscenities from the development.
Major stakeholders can begin a reorientation process for Nigerians. We should be aware that climate change knows no status and the political will is needed for the benefit of all and sundry.
A national summit on Climate change and its growing effect would not be out of place while relevant agencies responsible for tracking climate and its factors should act now that we can still contain the changes in the atmospheric situations in and around Nigeria. For there is need for climate change preparedness policies.
Alabidun is a journalist and an advocate of SDG. He wrote from Wuye, Abuja, and can be reached via alabidungoldenson@gmail.com
Opinion
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
Alabidun Shuaib Abdulrahman
Disable advertisements
:
Immunity For National Assembly Presiding Officers Misplaced, Self-serving By Seun Awogbenle
Let’s put it clearly, the bill seeking to alter section 308 of 1999 constitution, to extend immunity to presiding officers of the National Assembly is not only misplaced, it is morally repugnant, self-serving and a brazen abuse of legislative powers. It is irreconcilable that in this season of anomie, mass killing, kidnapping, banditry, complete breakdown of security and total disregard for lives and limbs, those who are empowered with the responsibility to protect Nigerians are only preoccupied with protecting their excesses and shielding themselves from public prosecution.
I am deeply sad, that at a time when almost everywhere in the country is turning into a graveyard, the legislators can show this level of disregard for the feeling and mood of the Nigerian people. Tragic! In typical Orwellian fashion, the idea of immunity for presiding officers of Nigeria’s legislature, betrays the principles of social justice and will constitute a cog in the progress of the administration of criminal justice system.
I am shocked that the legislators would be demanding for another brand of immunity for presiding officers, when matter-of-factly they presently enjoy immunity from words and actions in parliament as part of their legislative rights and privileges. On January 27, 2018 President Muhammadu Buhari signed among other bills into law the Legislative House Power and Privileges Bills, the law grants members of the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly immunity from prosecution for actions taken in plenary or committee proceedings of the house committee. By simple deduction, the legislators simply do not want to be held accountable for actions even outside the precincts of the parliament, including those of public service corruption, fraud and money laundering! One thing is clear that the legislators want the principal officers of the legislature to live beyond the law and be judged by a different set of parameters. A bill that protects the interest of the elite and powerful is oppressive and must not be allowed to stand.
I read that one of the members of the House of Representatives, Hon Toby Okechukwu, a PDP member from Enugu State, while contributing to the bill said that “the former presiding officers of the Senate were chocked with litigation which affected the entire parliament, though the officers were later acquitted, the activities of the Senate and indeed the National Assembly was affected”. I am thoroughly alarmed at the lack of depth in this statement, because we all know that this is a lazy argument that falls flat at the slightest interrogation. I recall that the prosecution of the former Senate President, did not impair the last Senate from doing considerably well in terms of law making compared to what we have previously had since 1999. As a matter of fact, as at May 2019, the 8th Senate had passed record 293 bills compared to the 7th Senate with 128 bills passed, 6th Senate with 72 and the 5th Senate with 129 bills.
Nigeria is in dire need of policy solution, self-serving bills like this one seeking to extend immunity for principal lawmakers is not one of them. At this time in our country’s history, when public trust and confidence has been eroded, we cannot afford to make Nigerians feel like they do not matter. Our policies must reflect the true demands of our people and restore their faith in government to keep and secure them particularly at a time when there is total collapse of security.
Opinion
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
Seun Awogbenle
Disable advertisements
:
Now That Coronavirus Has Hit Lagos By Tony Ademiluyi
Last month, the latest disease in town: Coronavirus hit China with some deaths recorded and many severely ill from it. Many countries were caught in a crossroad as the communist country is a strategic partner to so many countries of the world. Many countries in the west most notably the United States were forced to shut down their operations there and the neighbouring Japan recently announced that all schools will be sit down as from next week Monday to curb the spread of it.
Nigeria wasn’t left out as many of her businessmen flock to China to import goods. Many of these entrepreneurs were stranded there as they couldn’t buy goods since the Chinese Government shut down most of their factories and couldn’t return home for fear of spreading the disease.
Egypt recorded the first case in Africa and some die hard optimists and prayer warriors opined that it won’t come to Nigeria, which prides herself as the ‘Giant of Africa’ albeit tragically with the feet of clay.
On February 27, 2020, the worst happened as the first case of the Coronavirus was recorded in Lagos. An Italian man from Milan, who was travelling and passing through Lagos had the disease which was not detected at the airport. The disease was diagnosed at the virology laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the patient is currently being looked after at the Centre for Disease Control in Yaba.
If this first case is not well managed, it has the potential of causing havoc in the city that is regarded as the economic hub of the entire West Africa. Lagos has over twenty million residents and something worse than the plague of black deaths that swept the entire Europe in the Middle Ages may reinvent itself here if care isn’t taken.
The health authorities have taken a pro active step which is highly commendable by trying to identify those who flew with him and the places he has visited in Lagos. Much as it is a step in the right direction, how effective will that be especially in a country where there is the absence of data?
The health authorities must also ensure that unscrupulous elements don’t take advantage of this new crisis to create a widespread panic through the abuse of the new and social media.
The authorities should tackle this new scourge in a similar way that the ebola virus was tackled nearly six years ago.
As gleaned from the Africa Report Magazine: On 20 July 2014, a man carrying the disease travelled from Liberia to Lagos. Patrick Sawyer was not diagnosed with Ebola for three days, during which time nine health care workers were infected.
However, once the diagnosis was confirmed, the health ministry worked with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s office in Nigeria to declare an Ebola emergency and created the facilities to isolate exposed people during the requisite 21-day monitoring period.
It also put an Incident Management System in place to coordinate responses. The centralised response system was vital in controlling the outbreak.
This same approach should be adopted to handling this new scourge. Systems should be sturdily put in place to combat it and people who have the symptoms should be promptly isolated, monitored and treated before being allowed to go back to the society. There should also be measures put in place to ensure that health workers don’t kick the bucket the way they did during the ebola virus saga. We recall the bravery of the largely unsung heroine, Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh of First City Consult Hospital who contacted the disease when she tried to stop Patrick Sawyer – the Liberian from leaving the hospital. At a trying time like this, we don’t need more post-humous heroes and so it is imperative that the health authorities must do something urgent to protect their own.
During the ebola period, the Roman Catholic church stopped its adherents from shaking hands during the offertory. The religious groups which are arguably the most influential in the country can be co-opted to help in the fight against this disease. The clergymen should assist the government by preaching from the pulpit in order to more effectively drive the message home.
The use of hand sanitizers should be made compulsory in every public place and the mass media especially the government controlled ones should swiftly spring into action and penetrate the hearts of the masses in both Pidgin English and the Vernacular on the need to maintain the highest form of personal hygiene.
The health authorities should also roll out extensive preventive measures that the citizens can take advantage of as prevention is better than cure goes the age-long aphorism. Care should be taken for the disease not to spread outside Lagos so that we can forestall an epidemic.
In the immortal words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, we shall overcome.
Tony Ademiluyi writes from Lagos
Opinion
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
Tony Ademiluyi
Disable advertisements
:
Coronavirus: 594 New Persons Test Positive In South Korea
At least 594 persons have tested positive to Coronavirus, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This was disclosed on Saturday as the country tested thousands of residents in the South-Eastern city of Daegu.
The new confirmed cases brings the total number of infections in the state to 2,931.
Globally, 2,867 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of the virus in China in early January.
Nigeria recorded first case of the virus on Friday and at least 28 persons have been quarantined in Ogun State where the infected Italian had contact with several persons.
PUBLIC HEALTH
News
AddThis
:
Original Author
:
SaharaReporters, New York
Disable advertisements
:
Read also
You can also check
