Abuja
President Buhari gets Madagascar herbal formula
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday at the State House, Abuja, received Covid Organic, the Madagascan native formulation against the COVID-19 pandemic. Samples of the solution were delivered to him by President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau who brought them along as part of the traditional medicine shared to African nations by the government of Madagascar. According to a statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) in Abuja, President Buhari however reiterated that he will listen to science before allowing traditional or any new medicines to be administered on Nigerians. He said his position on all such herbal or traditional medicinal postulates had remained the same. “We have our institutions, systems and processes in the co...
Federal, states, local government share N606 billion for April
The three tiers of government on Friday shared about N606.196 billion as federal allocation for April 2020. Details of the allocation were contained in a Secretariat report released by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation at the end of the online meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in Abuja. The meeting was presided by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse. The communique showed the allocation included revenue from the Value Added Tax (VAT) collection, Exchange Gain, Solid Mineral Revenue, Excess Bank Charges and Excess Crude Oil Revenue. The breakdown of the allocations showed the federal government received about N169.831 billion, the states N86.140 billion, local government counc...
PTF: Stop stigmatisation of coronavirus patients
Worried by the negative impacts on the society, the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic has warned the public to desist from stigmatization of Covid-19 patients. This warning was given on Friday by Dr. Sani Aliyu, PTF National Coordinator, during the daily press briefing in Abuja. He lamented the growing cases of stigmatization of Covid-19 patients, saying that this state of affairs will not augur well for the fight against the pandemic in Nigeria. “Stigmatization of Covid-19 patients can only make many who have the disease to go underground and by that singular act the virus will continue to spread. When we stigmatize people who have contracted the virus it is obvious that many other people will be afraid to come clean. The carriers will be afraid to come forward fo...
Raymond Dokpesi Jnr asks NCDC to provide his coronavirus test results
Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi Jnr, has recovered from coronavirus. Newsmen report that the founder of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, and two of his grandchildren also recovered from coronavirus on Thursday and were discharged from the University of Abuja Treatment Centre. Announcing the improvement in his health in an appreciation letter published on ait.live on Friday, the young Dokpesi said officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control called him on Thursday night to inform him that he tested negative for coronavirus, adding that two other family members have also recovered from the infection. He noted that while receiving treatment at the Abuja isolation facility, he started feeling well when the combination of azithromycin, chloroquine and zinc w...
Mojisola Adeyeye: NAFDAC committed to supporting coronavirus treatment initiatives
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it is committed to supporting any intervention aimed at facilitating the treatment of the COVID-19. The Director General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday. According to Adeyeye, part of the efforts to advance herbal products development for the treatment of COVID-19 informed the setting up of the Nigerian Herbal Medicine Product Committee (HMPC). She said that the platform had brought together manufacturers, academics, researchers and relevant stakeholders by bridging the gap created between traditional medicine practitioners and drug manufacturers. “This collaboration brokered by the agency aims at translating research of herbs into products of commerce with pr...
Nasarawa governor raises alarm over Islamic sect
Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has on Wednesday raised an alarm over the presence of Darus Salam sect in the state. Governor Sule, who attributed the recent kidnappings and banditry in the state to the dreaded Darus Salam group, appealed to the federal government for deployment of more security personnel to the state to handle the situation. Governor Sule who made the appeal when he visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa Abuja to brief him on security situation in the state called for the intervention of the federal government. He said that the Darus Salam Sect earlier dislodged from the state has now reassembled in Toto Local Government Area of the state kidnapping people and involving in banditry. He said: “We want federal government to intervene by providin...
NAFDAC warns against use of Chloroquine for coronavirus treatment
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has, again, warned Nigerians against taking Chloroquine as treatment for Coronavirus (COVID-19). “Nobody should buy Chloroquine and use it. If you have COVID-19, go to a doctor. We have warned Nigerians and shall do that again. Do not take Chloroquine,” Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC’s Director General, told newsmen on Thursday in Abuja. “The delay in approving some of the drugs for treatment of the virus is because of the clinical trials the agency is carrying out on them. “So far, no group or individual has proffered any solution to the treatment or management of the pandemic,” she said. Mrs Adeyeye, a professor, said the Chinese government carried out lots of trials on Chloroquine before it approved its use for treatmen...
Lawmaker applauds appointment of Ibrahim Gambari as presidential chief of staff
A member of the House of Representatives, Wole Oke (PDP-Osun), on Thursday applauded the appointment of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. Oke, in a statement to newsmen in Abuja, said that Gambari’s global wealth of experience in administration, spanning several years was a great asset to the nation at this time. The lawmaker, representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency of Osun, said that Nigerians would benefit from this action of President Buhari. He said that Nigerians and friends of the country should work together to move the nation forward. “Nigerians, across the federation and in the diaspora, must work concertedly with one another, to promote common grounds, on which the survival of our great nation depends. “The surest way of attaining this...
68 travellers hidden in trucks arrested in Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministerial Task-team on the enforcement of COVID-19 Restrictions, on Wednesday, arrested about 68 persons travelling through the territory from various parts of Nigeria. Confirming the incident in Abuja, the Chairman of the task force, Ikharo Attah, lamented the increasing rate in which people violate the ban on interstate travel as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari. According to him: “Drivers of the two Dangote trucks who were coming from Kano and Zaria after delivering goods, they now took passengers who were charged N1,500 each. “Owners of the trucks must do all to ensure their trucks which are meant for haulage of goods are not converted to be illegally transporting persons from one state to another, thus violating the lockdown directives of t...
Ibrahim Gambari’ll give President Buhari’s administration a global appeal – ex-minister
Former Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari as his new Chief of Staff will pave the way for the administration to be reckoned with internationally. Gbagi, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja, described the newly appointed Chief of Staff as a man of character and excellence, whose outstanding academic accomplishments would stir the nation in the direction of meaningful progress. “When I heard about the appointment of Ibrahim Gambari as the new Chief of Staff, I was completely impressed by the President’s choice. “Without a doubt, he is a square peg in a square hole. In fact, while I served as a foreign officer in Hong Kong, he was my boss as the Foreign Affairs Minister at the time. “From my de...
Plateau promises to commence palliative measures soon
The Plateau State Government has appealed to its citizens to be patient as it is doing more to commence palliative measures in earnest to alleviate their suffering, adding that it is aware of the people’s anxiety over lack of palliatives to them. The state Deputy Governor and Chairman, State Palliative committee on COVID-19, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, disclosed this Wednesday when it received some palliative items donated to the state by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Idris Maje. Tyoden said: “We are aware of your anxiety over lack of palliatives. In a few days, the exercise will begin in earnest. “Government is aware that you have been on lockdown for over three weeks. We thank you for your compliance. No government is happy to see its citizens suffer, but the times have...
NAFDAC explains position on claims for coronavirus remedies
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said that the rush to mitigate the mortality and morbidly resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in acceleration of product development, repurposing of formulations, off label use of therapeutics and the search for a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The agency however noted that it has only received application from one company for a product the company is presenting (for approval) to the Agency for the treatment of the symptoms of Covid-19, and not for the cure of Covid-19 as a disease. In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye stated that in a bid to discover a cure for Covid-19 disease, the public has witnessed quite a number of claims from differen...
