The statement reads, “The committee particularly deliberated on the issue of the operating costs of banks in view of the disruptions emanating from the global economic difficulties.
“In order to help minimise and mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families and livelihoods, no bank in Nigeria shall retrench or lay-off any staff of any cadre (including full-time and part-time).
“To give effect to the above measure, the express approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria shall be required in the event that it becomes absolutely necessary to lay-off any such staff.
Dr Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, leader of the Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19, has said that the virus was the cause of the mysterious deaths recorded in Kano State in recent days.
Gwarzo, who spoke on Sunday, said the recent deaths from the test carried out established that COVID-19 was the cause.
He said, “Let me inform us that most of the deaths recorded of recent and test carried out showed that Coronavirus was the cause.
"So, before the final report which would be ready in the next one week or few days, it is necessary for people of Kano to wake up from their slumber that this is a serious issue.
“It is not a new thing, countries like America, China, Italy, Spain, England, France and others experienced similar mysterious deaths.”
There have been concerns about the COVID-19 cases and the increasing deaths in the state.
President Muhammadu Buhari had during the week gave a matching order to the Gwarzo-led Presidential Task Force to unravel the cause of the mysterious deaths in Kano and also to contain the spread of the virus in the state.
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Some aides of President Muhammadu Buhari and other government officials, who attended the burial of Mallam Abba Kyari, have completed their 14-day isolation and tested negative for COVID-19.
Consequently, they have been reunited with their families.
There had been fears that some of them might have contracted the virus during the funeral of Kyari on April 18 at Gudu Cemetery in Abuja.
Acting Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat in the the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr Muhammed Kawu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
According to findings by SaharaReporters, some of the Presidency aides, who attended the burial include State House Chief Protocol Officer, Ambassador Lawal Kazaure, Special Assistant to the President, Yusuf Sabiu, a nephew to the President, Musa Haro Daura, and Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the, Garba Shehu.
Others are National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, Director-General of National Intelligence Agency, Mr Ahmad Rufai, and Personal Assistant on New Media to President Buhari, Bashir Ahmed, among several more persons.
Some aides of President Muhammadu Buhari and other government officials, who attended the burial of Mallam Abba Kyari, have completed their 14-day isolation and tested negative for COVID-19.
Consequently, they have been reunited with their families.
There had been fears that some of them might have contracted the virus during the funeral of Kyari on April 18 at Gudu Cemetery in Abuja.
Acting Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat in the the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr Muhammed Kawu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
According to findings by SaharaReporters, some of the Presidency aides, who attended the burial include State House Chief Protocol Officer, Ambassador Lawal Kazaure, Special Assistant to the President, Yusuf Sabiu, a nephew to the President, Musa Haro Daura, and Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the, Garba Shehu.
Others are National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, Director-General of National Intelligence Agency, Mr Ahmad Rufai, and Personal Assistant on New Media to President Buhari, Bashir Ahmed, among several more persons.
Six COVID-19 patients have been discharged in Kwara State after full recovery and testing negative twice.
Rafiu Ajakaye, Chief Press Secretary to Governor AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq, made this known in a statement on Sunday.
With the six patients being discharged, Kwara now has eight active cases of COVID-19.
Ajakaye however, warned residents against letting down their guards as the level of threat of infection remains high across the country.
He said, “Effective from tomorrow Monday May 4, there will be statewide curfew between 6pm and 6am until further notice.
"This is part of the agreement of the Northern Governors Forum to prevent non-essential and unauthorised movement that could spike infection rate.
“Also, in addition to the measures earlier announced on Friday, May 1, the government hereby bans travels/movement from one local government to the other."
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Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, lawmaker representing Anambra South Senatorial District at the National Assembly and Chief Executive Officer of Capital Oil and Gas, has distributed palliatives worth millions of naira to the 21 local government areas of Anambra State to kickstart his gubernatorial election.
However, Ubah, who announced the distribution on Twitter, is yet to pay salaries of his employees, some for over two years.
One of his workers, who spoke with SaharaReporters, said they were currently being owed eight months salaries and there was no indication that the money would be paid anytime soon.
"We are owed salaries for eight months now.
"We are suffering and he is busy showing off on Twitter all because he wants to be governor,” he said.
Another worker, who also spoke with SaharaReporters, said, “I doubt if he has good advisers.
"He should try to pay off the over 1450 people working with him, most of whom he has owed salaries and wages for more than two years.”
A staff of Authority Newspaper, a media outfit owned by Uba, said they now borrowed money from family and friends to survive.
“My publisher, Ifeanyi Ubah, hasn't paid us in months, if not years. We now depend on people to survive.
“Let's not go near Capital Oil and his other companies, including his media group.
"I saw him advertising the distribution of palliatives to 21 LGAs in his state because he wants to be a governor, very sad,” he said.
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Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, lawmaker representing Anambra South Senatorial District at the National Assembly and Chief Executive Officer of Capital Oil and Gas, has distributed palliatives worth millions of naira to the 21 local government areas of Anambra State to kickstart his gubernatorial election.
However, Ubah, who announced the distribution on Twitter, is yet to pay salaries of his employees, some for over two years.
One of his workers, who spoke with SaharaReporters, said they were currently being owed eight months salaries and there was no indication that the money would be paid anytime soon.
"We are owed salaries for eight months now.
"We are suffering and he is busy showing off on Twitter all because he wants to be governor,” he said.
Another worker, who also spoke with SaharaReporters, said, “I doubt if he has good advisers.
"He should try to pay off the over 1450 people working with him, most of whom he has owed salaries and wages for more than two years.”
A staff of Authority Newspaper, a media outfit owned by Uba, said they now borrowed money from family and friends to survive.
“My publisher, Ifeanyi Ubah, hasn't paid us in months, if not years. We now depend on people to survive.
“Let's not go near Capital Oil and his other companies, including his media group.
"I saw him advertising the distribution of palliatives to 21 LGAs in his state because he wants to be a governor, very sad,” he said.
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One of the two COVID-19 patients, who escaped from an isolation facility in Gombe State, has been arrested in Adamawa State.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri disclosed this during a briefing with journalists in Yola, the state capital, on Sunday.
According to him, the duo escaped before results of their samples arrived from Abuja.
He said, "One was apprehended at Lamurde through our contact tracing mechanism.
"The second suspect told us on phone that he was in Mubi but technology proved he was around Gurore in Yola South; unfortunately, his phone line is no longer going through."
The governor added that with this development, there were now five active Coronavirus cases in the state.
He has also replaced the lockdown order he imposed last week with a curfew that will run from 8pm to 6am.
He directed civil servants from level 12 upward to resume work on Monday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.
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The collision of paddle and sand in the middle of the rainy season and the receding water stain on wooden stilts attests to the impact of climate change on Makoko, a floating village sitting at the foot of the Lagos Lagoon inhabited by a fishing tribe of more than 100,000 people.
Young boy makes his way through the now shallow water in Makoko.
Locals say some naturally occurring fish species such as the lesser African threadfin (Galeoides decadactylus), the Senegal jack (Caranx senegallus), the West African Ladyfish (Elops lacerta) and Blue Mussels, which sold for higher prices in the market, started to disappear putting a strain on their sole source of livelihoods.
Native occurring marine wildlife such as the Senegal jack are becoming rarer to find.
"The catch used to be enormous in the past, we use to catch all the different types of fishes then we stopped seeing Titus fish (Mackerel), Sharks that wander from the ocean seasonally, Silver Catfish and others," said Segun Azankpo, a popular fisherman in the area.
Fisherman Segun Azankpo casts his net into the Lagos Lagoon.
His meagre catches are now supplemented by money he makes from lending his canoe to tourists.
A study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 2007 discovered that apart from climate change, overfishing by industrial fleets in Nigerian coastal areas such as Lagos was leading to a decline in quantity and quality of catch while also causing "environmental degradation seriously impeding the productivity of the artisanal sector and declining efficiency due to lack of technical innovation".
In order to keep exploiting the waters for fish despite the challenges, some fishermen have turned to revenue from tourism in their community to introduce non-native species such as Bayard, African Arowana, and Grunts, which now dominate the marine wildlife in the Lagoon.
Local fisherman Segun Azankpo and his family sort White Bait inside his canoe.
Fascinated by the allure of murky intricate waterways woven in-between makeshift wooden stilts that pale in comparison to other floating cities like Venice, foreign and local tourists seeking new adventures, YouTubers and celebrities looking to create unexplored content for their audience, are trooping into Makoko in droves, thereby providing revenue, which local fishermen in turn use to grow their fish farms.
In February 2020, World Heavyweight Champion, Anthony Joshua, visited Makoko floating slum to celebrate his victory with locals.
John Awume, a middle-aged man, who used to fish actively but now paddles tourists around while serving also as a tour guide, said he decided to pause fishing to enable him to save money to create his own fish farm with new species that yield faster and are not within the reach of foreign boats.
"I used to fish actively in the past but the yields became low and my boat developed technical problems so I became broke, my specialty used to be big fishes.
“When tourists come, they pay, even though it is not a lot but I am saving it to start my own fish farm because it is working for others around me," he said.
The introduction of new and exotic fish species in waters where there is obvious native decline is controversial because of concerns around the conservation of freshwater biodiversity. For example, research in North-Eastern Italy shows how temporal variation in fish assemblages was analyzed over an 18-year period in 14 waterways of the lowland backwaters of the Po River, 14 native and eight exotic species were collected. In less than 20 years, 10 native species underwent local extinction.
In Zimbabwe's Lake Victoria, the predatory Nile perch, Lates niloticus, and the herbivorous Tilapiines, Oreochromis niloticus, Oreochromis leucostictus, Tilapia zillii and Tilapia rendalii, was introduced in the 1960s due to a decline in native species. While the lake flourished and fishermen thrived through the economic opportunities it created, the lake underwent ecological changes which led to the disappearance of native species.
In Lagos, marine conservation expert, Damilola Ewuro, is calling for the regulation of artisanal fishermen on the lagoon, who are introducing non-native species as a way of protecting the natural habitat.
Locals lounging and weaving nets on the Lagoon.
"In a place like Nigeria where employment is hard to come by, you have to give the fishermen kudos for their innovation in converting the tourism their community is attracting to a means of keeping the skills their forebears handed to them alive. However, there has to be massive regulation of the process.
"This regulation must come with education so as to earn the trust and cooperation of the fish farmers/fishermen who should be at the frontline of protecting the biodiversity of Lagoon," Ewuro said.
White Bait is a common find in the Lagoon.
For now, locals like Teju Azankpo, who is a fishmonger along with the rest of her family, are enjoying the boom the new method of fish farming has brought.
Teju's mother, Mrs Azankpo processes the fish for sale.
Processing many large bowls of varying fish, she says she has lost count of the specific types of fish she processes every day.
"The men bring them in, plenty. We don't ask for the names, we just clean and process. We went to school from the proceeds of the fish so I'm happy to do the work," she said.
Teju Azankpo and her sister scale and prep fish for processing in Makoko.
Another tour boat owner, Moses Stephen said, "We used to make money from making nets and selling to augment the income from the catch we used to make before people started fish farming.
Moses Stephen (Bobo) is a fisherman turn tour guide in Makoko.
“Now, we rely on the N10,000, N7,000, or N20,000 from people coming to take photos of our slum to fill that gap.
"The water where the houses are is dry and it smells. There is always dirt and pollution so no fish survives here so to start the farm, you have to move further down the Lagoon," he said.
Farm escapees and invasive, genetic pollution, disease, parasite transfer, and habitat modification are all major concerns around the practice which calls for more studies and monitoring.
The shift from fishing native occurring species, which are fast disappearing may mean a resurgence for undisturbed biodiversity in the Lagoon. For now, residents in the floating community are happy that they can host tourists and fish in abundance again.
This story was written with the support of REJOPRA, Network of Journalists for Responsible Fisheries in Africa (Rèseau des Journalistes pour une Pēche Responsable en Afrique)
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The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has cautioned Nigerians against assaulting officers enforcing the lockdown order put in place by President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the spread of Coronavirus.
Adamu also condemned the recent attack on DCO II, Eruwa Police Division, ASP Adeyemo Ogunyemi, in Oyo State, who was allegedly assaulted by a woman in a viral video. Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu
In a statement by Force spokesperson, Frank Mba on Sunday, the IGP said the decorum maintained by Ogunyemi during the assault was commendable.
The statement reads, "Since the commencement of the COVID-19 enforcement duties, a total of 27 police personnel have suffered series of attacks and assaults from members of the public at different times and different locations.
"Many of these officers are still in hospitals receiving treatment from the injuries sustained during such attacks.
"The IGP enjoins the citizens to continue to cooperate with the police and other security personnel and voluntarily comply with all COVID-19 prevention orders."
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The Osun State Government has said that it has recorded two additional cases of the COVID-19, making a total of 36 confirmed cases in the state.
This was announced by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Rafiu Isamotu, on Sunday.
Isamotu noted that the two new cases were confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
He disclosed that the two cases were the wife and son of a previously confirmed case in Ife, who died last week.
He said, "Last night, we received results of 53 samples we sent to the NCDC accredited testing centre for evaluation, out of which two tested positive and 51 returned negative.
"The two positive cases were wife and son of a previously confirmed case in Ife, who died last week. They are currently receiving treatment at our isolation centre."
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