Nigeria has recorded 114 new Coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 1095.
The number of deaths also increased from 31 to 32, just as the number of recoveries rose to 208 patients.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control disclosed this in a tweet on Friday.
It said, “114 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported; 80 in Lagos, 21 in Gombe, five in FCT, two in Zamfara, two in Edo, one in Ogun, one in Oyo, one in Kaduna and one in Sokoto.
“As at 11:30pm 24th April there are 1095 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Discharged: 208 Deaths: 32.”
Nigeria has recorded 114 new Coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 1095.
The number of deaths also increased from 31 to 32, just as the number of recoveries rose to 208 patients.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control disclosed this in a tweet on Friday.
It said, “114 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported; 80 in Lagos, 21 in Gombe, five in FCT, two in Zamfara, two in Edo, one in Ogun, one in Oyo, one in Kaduna and one in Sokoto.
“As at 11:30pm 24th April there are 1095 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Discharged: 208 Deaths: 32.”
Mixed reactions have greeted the glowing tribute paid to the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu, Abba Kyari, written by nephew to the President, Mamman Daura.
Daura is believed to be behind many decisions taken by the President.
In the tribute published on Friday, Daura revealed that during the run-up to the 1999 presidential poll, Abba Kyari was among those considered as the running mate to Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.
In the tribute, the President's nephew explained how he met Kyari and how he praised his contributions to President Buhari's administration.
He said, “These times coincided with the country’s return to democracy and Mallam Abba was among those enthusiastically espousing the cause of General Obasanjo. On his selection as PDP candidate, a group of women and youths in the PDP lobbied Obasanjo to pick Mallam Abba as his vice-presidential running mate. After heated debates, Obasanjo eventually picked Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“All future Chiefs of Staff will henceforth be judged by the benchmark of Mallam Abba Kyari. Next, he assembled a team of very competent staff who worked incredibly long hours, seven days a week to analyse, itemize, disaggregate knotty problems and advise the President. Mallam Abba was an exacting taskmaster and his staff was relieved if he travelled outside the country. But to a man they valued, respected some even liked him.”
Many Nigerians on Twitter have faulted Daura’s claims.
Mamman Daura is the main (Cabal) whom introduced Abba Kyari to Buhari, and has been holding Nigeria hostage. But God's at work; using #CoronaVirus bringing about the real change that Nigerians deserve. The change starts with all of you the bad belle people in our government 😢
A lot keeps on revealing itself after the death of Abba Kyari, from Abacha to Obasanjo to Mamman Daura. I can only imagine what will be revealed when Buhari eventually leaves the Presidency. https://t.co/lb77sClmUU
“I firmly believe that all future Chiefs of Staff would be judged by the benchmark of Kyari..." - Mamman Daura in a tribute to Kyari.
I am stunned at the rating because truth be told, Buhari's administration is the worst government Nigeria has ever produced.#MammanDaurapic.twitter.com/MJqpFKUIQA
I don’t understand FG trying to force feed and brainwash us into thinking Abba Kyari is the best thing to happen to Nigeria since sliced bread, Mamman Daura said “I firmly believe that all future Chiefs of Staff would be judged by the benchmark of Kyariâ€. benchmark of failure🤡🤡
— ℙð”¸Ã¢„™Ã°•€ ( at ðŸ ) (@mrrebelxo) April 24, 2020
If you are interested in who Abba Kyari was when he was alive, don't bank on Buhari, FFK, Onyeama, and Mamman Daura Tributes to him.
Search for random Nigerians words and with that you might get accurate hints about the man.
Most tributes talked about his intellectuality. LOL.
I am taking with a pinch of salt the purported declaration of Mamman Daura that Abba Kyari almost became Nigeria's Vice President.
— Jack Obinyan (Mr Jack) 🇳🇬 (@JackObinyan) April 24, 2020
However, lauding Daura, Bright Eugene VII said Daura’s tribute stood out from others written on late Kyari.
Since the passing of Malam Abba Kyari, it has been tribute upon tribute. However, that of Mamman Daura stood out for me. Below are excerpts... #RIPMalamAbbaKyaripic.twitter.com/bQZIj5VzFx
Truth is Mamman Daura is right. @MBuhari can't get a better Chief of Staff like Abba Kyari, not necessarily in terms of performance. He will just have to make do with the choices before him.
— #WATCHTHECHANGE 🇳🇬 (@tayotaiwo83) April 24, 2020
Mamman Daura mentioned that Obj was lobbied to pick late Abba Kyari as his VP in 1999, but Obj went for Atiku. Eheee, the truth is coming out.. Now I know where "useless 16 years of PDP" originated from.
Mixed reactions have greeted the glowing tribute paid to the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu, Abba Kyari, written by nephew to the President, Mamman Daura.
Daura is believed to be behind many decisions taken by the President.
In the tribute published on Friday, Daura revealed that during the run-up to the 1999 presidential poll, Abba Kyari was among those considered as the running mate to Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.
In the tribute, the President's nephew explained how he met Kyari and how he praised his contributions to President Buhari's administration.
He said, “These times coincided with the country’s return to democracy and Mallam Abba was among those enthusiastically espousing the cause of General Obasanjo. On his selection as PDP candidate, a group of women and youths in the PDP lobbied Obasanjo to pick Mallam Abba as his vice-presidential running mate. After heated debates, Obasanjo eventually picked Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“All future Chiefs of Staff will henceforth be judged by the benchmark of Mallam Abba Kyari. Next, he assembled a team of very competent staff who worked incredibly long hours, seven days a week to analyse, itemize, disaggregate knotty problems and advise the President. Mallam Abba was an exacting taskmaster and his staff was relieved if he travelled outside the country. But to a man they valued, respected some even liked him.”
Many Nigerians on Twitter have faulted Daura’s claims.
Mamman Daura is the main (Cabal) whom introduced Abba Kyari to Buhari, and has been holding Nigeria hostage. But God's at work; using #CoronaVirus bringing about the real change that Nigerians deserve. The change starts with all of you the bad belle people in our government 😢
A lot keeps on revealing itself after the death of Abba Kyari, from Abacha to Obasanjo to Mamman Daura. I can only imagine what will be revealed when Buhari eventually leaves the Presidency. https://t.co/lb77sClmUU
“I firmly believe that all future Chiefs of Staff would be judged by the benchmark of Kyari..." - Mamman Daura in a tribute to Kyari.
I am stunned at the rating because truth be told, Buhari's administration is the worst government Nigeria has ever produced.#MammanDaurapic.twitter.com/MJqpFKUIQA
I don’t understand FG trying to force feed and brainwash us into thinking Abba Kyari is the best thing to happen to Nigeria since sliced bread, Mamman Daura said “I firmly believe that all future Chiefs of Staff would be judged by the benchmark of Kyariâ€. benchmark of failure🤡🤡
— ℙð”¸Ã¢„™Ã°•€ ( at ðŸ ) (@mrrebelxo) April 24, 2020
If you are interested in who Abba Kyari was when he was alive, don't bank on Buhari, FFK, Onyeama, and Mamman Daura Tributes to him.
Search for random Nigerians words and with that you might get accurate hints about the man.
Most tributes talked about his intellectuality. LOL.
I am taking with a pinch of salt the purported declaration of Mamman Daura that Abba Kyari almost became Nigeria's Vice President.
— Jack Obinyan (Mr Jack) 🇳🇬 (@JackObinyan) April 24, 2020
However, lauding Daura, Bright Eugene VII said Daura’s tribute stood out from others written on late Kyari.
Since the passing of Malam Abba Kyari, it has been tribute upon tribute. However, that of Mamman Daura stood out for me. Below are excerpts... #RIPMalamAbbaKyaripic.twitter.com/bQZIj5VzFx
Truth is Mamman Daura is right. @MBuhari can't get a better Chief of Staff like Abba Kyari, not necessarily in terms of performance. He will just have to make do with the choices before him.
— #WATCHTHECHANGE 🇳🇬 (@tayotaiwo83) April 24, 2020
Mamman Daura mentioned that Obj was lobbied to pick late Abba Kyari as his VP in 1999, but Obj went for Atiku. Eheee, the truth is coming out.. Now I know where "useless 16 years of PDP" originated from.
A policeman in Lagos has attacked a pepper seller and the motorcycle rider that conveyed her at the time for refusing to pay a N200 bribe.
The woman simply identified as Mrs Folorunsho was on her way to the Mile 12 Market in Lagos to buy pepper and tomatoes to sell to her customers when a policeman attached to the Pedro Police Station under Somolu Local Government Area stopped the motorcycle rider to collect N200 as 'settlement' from them.
Narrating her ordeal, the woman said, "Around 2:30pm, I got ready to go to Mile 12 and so hailed a motorcycle.
"While on our way, one of the policemen at Pedro Police Station popularly called Alhaji accosted us and told the motorcycle rider to stop.
"The rider who was already on top speed, was trying to halt when the policeman used a huge drum to hit him.
"The rider and I fell to the ground and were left unconscious.
"When the policeman saw what had happened, he ran into the station with his colleagues.
"The community members who witnessed the whole thing gathered outside the station and began chanting that the policeman had killed people and ran into the station.
"After much protest, some of the policemen came out with a van and took us to a hospital."
Speaking further, Folorunsho said the policemen soon ran away from the hospital in order to avoid paying the hospital bill.
She added, "They gave the hospital our names and ran away.
"They didn't wait to pay for our treatment or ensure that we were okay after causing us serious injuries.
"Just because they wanted a bribe of N200, they ruined my face and almost killed me."
Human RightsPoliceNewsAddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
https://ift.tt/3cJCNvO
Seven health workers have tested positive for Coronavirus in Borno State.
Secretary of the state COVID-19 Response Team, Dr Salihu Kwaya-Baru, made this revelation while giving a daily briefing on the extent of the virus in the state.
He however, added that though the state was on the second day of its lockdown, government was looking for ways to modify it for the sake of Ramadan.
He said that the state recorded 15 cases including two deaths.
He said, “145 contacts of the confirmed cases have been traced and are being monitored.
“We received nine alerts from the public; seven were investigated and none is worthy of follow up while two are still being investigated.”
PUBLIC HEALTHNewsAddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
https://ift.tt/3b7Avq2
Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, has mandated the use of face mask for every resident of the city in a bid to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the area.
Nigeria Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey OnyeamaReuters
Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Friday said that nine Nigerians tested positive for Coronavirus in China against the 72 earlier claimed in a report.
He made this known at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
Onyeama said, “The media report mentioned that there were apparently 72 Nigerians who have tested positive to COVID-19 in China. We have a Consulate in Guangzhou, which is the epicentre of all the things that are happening in China regarding COVID-19.
“The official figure that was given was nine Nigerians and as I understand it, our Consulate added that a number of Nigerians were asymptomatic but the figures that we had was nine.
“The Chinese ambassador talked about a plane that came into the country in which there were some Nigerian passengers who subsequently tested positive within that range of nine, 12.
"So where the figure 72 came from, I really have no idea whatsoever.”
PUBLIC HEALTHNewsAddThis : Original Author : Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements :
https://ift.tt/2yDzAiK
Petty traders in Nigeria have cried out after being harassed by security operatives put in place to enforce the lockdown order instituted by government to curtail the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
In many parts of the country, security operatives enforcing the lockdown have taken laws into their hands by violently harassing and destroying items belonging to traders, some of whom are categorised as essential services providers as a result of the purpose they serve.
For example, at the start of the lockdown in March, policemen attached to the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit stormed a yet-to-be identified area and shattered many crates of beer, pulling down doors and other items in the process of chasing traders out of their shops.
Shortly after the video of that incident went viral, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammad Adamu, directed that the case be investigated and all policemen involved arrested.
While sharing his own experience, Abdulateef Arowojobe, a wholesale vegetable seller at the Mile 12 market in Lagos, said that the display of the policemen in the viral video was similar to what he experienced in his stall on April 4, 2020.
He said, "Usually the task force in this area do ask us for money almost on a daily basis and so that day I came to the market and was selling as usual. Around 1:30pm, I started to clear the front of my stall to go home when the task force came.
"They started throwing things on the ground and people started running in panic. They entered came to my stall and took two baskets of tomatoes.
"That incident set me back and now I am in debt and just managing myself."
A trader Alice Akhide, who sells soup ingredients at the Garri Market in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was bundled from her makeshift shop by the roadside shop on April 11 for offences, which was never disclosed to her.
Speaking in Pidgin English, she told SaharaReporterson Friday that, "I was just sitting down and counting money from my apron when they came.
“The task force officials said Governor Wike said everybody should stay at home.
"People started running but I couldn't run, so they put me at the back of their car drove off. When we got to King Jaja Street, they stopped and asked me to give them something.
"I told them they were like my children and that I didn't have anything but they said something must drop.
“At the end, they collected N5000 from me before releasing me to go for committing no offence.
"I had to beg money from our women’s cooperative to open shop two days later. I want Wike and everybody to help me so that hunger will not kill me. The small thing I am managing, they have collected it from me."
The brutality of law enforcement agents enforcing the lockdown against petty traders perhaps became more pronounced on Thursday evening in Port Harcourt when a policewoman trying to stop the COVID-19 Task Force team from destroying wares belonging to petty traders was shot and killed by a policeman attached to the team.
The incident was said to have happened at Eneka Town under Obio-Akpo Local Government Area of the state at about 5pm on Thursday.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Joseph Mukan, who confirmed the development, said the policeman attached to the task force team misused his weapon.
He said, “A policeman attached to the task force did the shooting.
“He was shooting anyhow and in the process killed another policewoman. The policewoman was hit by a stray bullet.”
Mukan said the policeman was immediately arrested, disarmed and subjected to orderly room trial.
Other petty traders, who spoke with SaharaReporters all expressed concerns on how law enforcement agents were destroying their sources of livelihoods in the name of restricting movement as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.
NewsAddThis : Original Author : Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements :
https://ift.tt/3eNgIyc
The Niger Delta Development Commission is currently reeking of a multi-billion naira fraud involving the board and top management members of the agency over the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment and sanitizers to tackle Coronavirus in the nine states making up the region.
In a letter dated April 6, 2019 with a Ref number NDDC/MD/HPU/20/4/EHSS/05 seen by SaharaReporters, it was revealed how the commission approved N5,474,647,125.00 for procurement of Personal Protective Equipment for health workers and provision of community-based sensitisation campaign against the spread of COVID-19 to a company named Signora Concept Services Limited.
The letter reads, “This is to notify you that based on your tender for emergency procurement of specialized medical Personal Protective Equipment for health workers and provision of community based sensitization campaign against the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in the nine state of the Niger Delta region, the contract has been awarded to you at the total cost of N5,474,647,125.00 only inclusive of 7.5 VAT as corrected and modified in accordance with the instruction to tenderers by the Niger Delta Development Commission.”
The letter was signed by Alex Ndudi Enebeli, Head of Procurement Unit for the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC.
Even though the company was given 15 days to deliver all items stated in the letter, findings by SaharaReporters showed that Signora Concept Services Limited was yet to deliver any equipment to a single state in the Niger Delta region 18 days after the contracted was awarded and payment made.
“Apart from N70m donation made by the NDDC about a month ago, we are yet to receive any single health equipment from the commission.
“Though we were promised ventilators, we got a letter later from them that it won’t be possible again.
“I’m surprised hearing now from you that over N5bn was budgeted for PPEs to be distributed to Niger Delta states,” a task force member of one of the Niger Delta states told SaharaReporters on Friday.
Checks by SaharaReporters also revealed that the NDDC had in January 2020 released the sum of N4,096,798,332.50 for the supply of Lassa Fever equipment that were never delivered.
Infuriated by the level of fraud going on in the agency, a Niger Delta socio-political organisation, the Ijaw Intellectual Advocates, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio.
National Coordinator of the group, Salaco Yerinmene, said the fresh contract approved by the NDDC interim management committee was done to defraud the people of the region under the guise of purchasing COVID-19 PPEs and sanitizers that will never be delivered to any community under the nine states making up the oil-rich region.
He said, “We have clearly realised that the IMC Akpabio constituted and placed under his supervision was to jeopardise the commission and continually pillage the treasury of the Niger Delta people which must be resisted by any means necessary.
“While we leave the reading public to guess as to the motive behind this contract, we will like to ask some questions begging for answers.
“Why should Akpabio and IMC give priority to projects that are not bothering the Niger Delta people?
“How many communities in the Niger Delta region were sensitised through this medium over the spread of Coronavirus since the outbreak of the disease?
“If the affirmative to question 2, then where did the money go into?
“Why not use the money to construct major roads across the coastal communities or use the fund to provide potable water to the various communities?
“Mr Akpabio should know that as young intellectuals, we are aware of the game he is playing in looting the commonwealth of the people and he should also be aware that his days are numbered.
“It is in Akpabio’s best interest to resign and summit himself to the EFCC, else we shall have no other option than to fight to the latter.
“We are again reiterating our stand that Akpabio must and should be suspended and be investigated by the EFCC and the forensic audit should commence immediately, otherwise the crude oil from all Ijaw territories shall never be used to fund the present corruption going on at the NDDC.”
It is not the first time fraud of this magnitude would be uncovered in the NDDC, it is in fact among a long list of similar cases.
In January this year, the interim management committee of the commission announced the discovery of fraudulent contracts worth N1rn.
According to the committee, at least 1,921 ‘emergency contracts’ were sanction by the former management of the agency despite its annual budget being only around N400bn.
A prominent activist in the region, who asked not to be named, told SaharaReporters on Friday that the NDDC had always been used as conduit by powerful persons in government to siphon huge public funds and deprive the people of developmental projects that could have changed their lives for the better.
He said, “The NDDC has been more of a curse for the people of Niger Delta than a blessing. All the big politicians do is to use the agency to milk people of the region by stealing funds meant for development of the region and thereby deny them of the basic infrastructure and amenities that could have raised the quality of their lives. It is a cesspool of corruption.”
So far, the Niger Delta region has 42 reported cases of Coronavirus spread across Delta (six), Akwa Ibom (11), Edo (17), Ondo (three), Rivers (three), and Abia (two).
CorruptionScandalExclusiveNewsAddThis : Original Author : Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements :
https://ift.tt/2x7tRkP
