Commissioner
Oyo state records 28 new coronavirus cases
Oyo State has recorded 28 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the latest figures released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday night. The 28 cases in the state were among the 339 figures recorded in 18 states on Thursday. The latest figure has increased the total number recorded in the state to 190. The recent daily increase in the number of people who tested positive to COVID-19 has created fear among residents, though the majority of them still go out without the use of face masks against the directive of the government. This nonchalant attitude of some of the residents had prompted the state COVID-19 Task Force to intensified sensitisation programme in the Oke-Ogun area of the state on Thursday, where it threatened to sanction erring members of the publ...
INEC approves new policy framework for Edo, Ondo states
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday approved a new policy framework known as Policy on Conducting Elections in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic. The commission, in a statement issued by Mr Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, in Abuja said the policy document would be released on May 25. Okoye said that the provisions would be applied to the conduct of governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States scheduled for Sept. 19 and Oct. 10, respectively, as well as other by-elections to be conducted soon in seven states. “The general purpose of the Policy is to enable officials and staff of the Commission to understand and respond adequately to the challenges of conducting elections in the context of the COVI...
Police arrest 413 lockdown violators, impound 98 vehicles in Kano
The Police Command in Kano State has arrested and prosecuted 413 violators and impounded 98 vehicles in one week, following the enforcement of total lockdown operations to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The Commissioner of Police, Mr Habu Ahmad, told newsmen on Thursday in Kano that the violators were held for disobeying interstate movement restriction order. Ahmad noted that the arrests were made after mapping the state, strategic deployments of both human and material assets of the command were made to 34 strategic points/areas across 17 front lines. “The front lines bordered Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa and Bauchi States and are mapped out to checkmate and enforce the interstate movement restriction order,” he said. According to him, 289 violators were arrested from Kaduna/Kano bou...
Kogi: We bought 5,000 coronavirus test kits
Kogi State government has dismissed the notion that it’s not testing enough to justify the claim that the state is free of Covid-19. It claimed that it has bought 5,000 test kits to show its committment to the fight against Covid-19. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, in it’s situation report on Covid-19 response across states published on Tuesday said Kogi had submitted only one sample, since the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria. The sample returned negative. The NCDC’s report comes few days after the state government said it tested 111 persons without the supervision of the health agency. Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, had claimed that the testing kits procured by the state were used to conduct the tests and that those tested were picked randomly. In a statement...
55 Coronavirus patients discharged in Jigawa
The Jigawa State Government has announced the discharge of 55 Coronavirus patients who tested negative twice for the virus. Auwal D Sankara, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on New Media, said in a statement that 55 COVID-19 patients were confirmed to have been cured and discharged after testing negative twice in Jigawa state, Northwest Nigeria. This brings the total number of discharged patients in the state to 62, with three fatalities. The statement quoted the Commissioner for Health and the chairman of the state Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Abba Zakari, as saying that the state was hoping to discharge more soon. Meanwhile, the commissioner said the state has recorded 15 additional cases and imposed lockdown in three additional towns affected to prevent further spread of the virus...
Journalist suspended for requesting salary on social media
A journalist with the Imo State government has been suspended indefinitely from her job for taking to Facebook to request her three months unpaid salary and the wages of her co-workers. Officials said the Facebook post was an “embarrassment” to the Imo State government. The suspended journalist, Vivian Ottih, is a lawyer and a senior editor with the government-owned IBC Orient FM radio station. She is the chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), in Imo State. Mrs Ottih, on May 4, posted a message on Facebook, appealing to Governor Hope Uzodinma’s media aide, Modestus Nwamkpa, to make a case to the governor on behalf of the workers in the government-owned radio and television stations who were yet to get their February, March, and April salaries. Ottih described ...
Enugu NUJ reject government’s palliative
File Photo The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Enugu State Council on Saturday rejected the palliative from Enugu State Government over alleged interference in the union activities. Newsmen report that problem started when the government representatives led by the state Commissioner for Information, Chidi Aroh, announced that the palliative was for the alleged two factions in the union. Mr Aroh said he heard that there were two factions in the union and the items should be shared between them. But the Acting Vice President of NUJ, South East, Zone C, Ken Ofoma, expressed dismay over the Commissioner’s statement saying that there were no factions in the union. “Enugu NUJ remains one family under the leadership of the state chairman, Rex Arum and under the national body led by Chief Chris...
Ondo Assembly probes N4.3 billion in ‘secret account’
The Ondo State House of Assembly says it has commenced an investigation into the N4.3 billion claimed to have been recovered from an alleged secret account in a commercial bank. The Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Edamisan Ademola, told newsmen after plenary on Friday that the assembly had directed the committee to investigate the source of the secret account. Ademola said the committee had invited some government officials, including the Commissioner for Finance, Chief Wake Akinterinwa, as well as the Accountant-General and the state Auditor-General on the discovery. He said the committee was acting on the report of the Auditor-General which stated that over N4.3 billion deposited in a secret account for 10 years had been discovered. Ademola (APC-Irele) said, “The stat...
Taraba discharge six coronavirus patients
The six are among the 17 COVID-19 cases so far recorded in the state. The state commissioner for Information and member of the state’s technical Committee on COVID-19, Danjuma Adamu, disclosed this at a briefing in Jalingo, the state capital. He explained that the six patients who recovered from the CoronaVirus were discharged Tuesday to reunite with their family. He further explained that those still in isolation are receiving the appropriate care needed. He further urged members of the public to observe all precautionary measures as the government is doing all it takes to contain the spread of the virus. Newsmen reports that Taraba still has 11 active COVID-19 cases. Get more stories like this on Twitter
Official: Why 471 persons died in Yobe in three weeks
Dr. Mohammed Lawan, Yobe Commissioner for Health, on Tuesday gave reasons for the 471 deaths recorded across different communities in the State in the past three weeks amidst fears that the deadly COVID-19 virus may has been claiming lives in the State without notice. Lawan, who is the Vice Chairman of the state’s COVID-19 Committee, however, said the deaths which occurred between the last days of April till date was not due to the global pandemic, according to preliminary report of the investigative response team constituted by the government. According to him, 90 per cent of the deaths had no multiple case definition symptoms of Coronavirus disease, while further noting that most of those that died were elderly people. According to him, “57 per cent of the total deaths had an underlying ...
Lagos issues occupational health, safety guidelines
The Lagos State Government has reaffirmed its commitment to the safety of lives of its citizens following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. This assertion was made by the Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola when issuing additional Occupational Health & Safety Sectoral (OSH) Guidelines on easing of the lockdown of businesses in Lagos State. Mojola noted that the OSH guidelines covered several sectors such as manufacturing, construction, retail outlets and shopping malls, eateries and restaurants, food packaging businesses, financial institutions as well as the informal sector such as artisans. According to him, Lagos State Safety Commission was established to develop and formulate policies and strategies that would build a sustainable safety culture within...
Ekiti discharges five patients, expands isolation centre
Ekiti State Government on Monday disclosed that five patients of the deadly coronavirus pandemic have been discharged from the Isolation Centre in Ekiti on Monday. This is just as the government revealed it’s a plan to expand the Isolation Centre to 100-bed space capacity for more preparation on the Pandemic. Governor Kayode Fayemi had on Saturday evening broke the news on his Twitter handle that the state recorded new three cases. According to the tweet from the Governor, “We got information from NCDC tonight that three more persons tested positive to COVID-19 virus. Two are contacts of the medical doctor still in our care and another person who sneaked into the state before he was quarantined. This underscores the need for extra vigilance. ” With the development so far, Ekiti has 15 conf...
