COVID
Barcelona secure 500 million Euro loan
Barcelona have secured a €500m loan from Goldman Sachs, with €100m arriving immediately to cover unpaid wages. Like many of the clubs who had signed up to the Super League project, Barca are struggling financially in the wake of the COVID pandemic and in need of fresh funds. President Joan Laporta has seemingly found the key with a loan worth €500m from American investment bank Goldman Sachs. ESPN claim there will be €100m arriving immediately, so Barcelona can settle outstanding payments owed to players. The club’s gross debt is said to now be almost €1.2 billion. Sources told ESPN the situation with outstanding payments was so bad that the squad was preparing to take the matter to the Spanish Footballers’ Association. Barcelona agreed with the players to defer payment of their wages duri...
Ogun governor suspends aide arrested for ‘fraud’ in US
The governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, has suspended his aide, Abidemi Rufai, who was arrested in the United States for an alleged $350,000 (about N140 million) COVID-19 unemployment fraud. Kunle Somorin, Abiodun’s chief press secretary, confirmed the suspension to newsmen on Tuesday. This was also confirmed to newsmen by the chief press secretary to Abiodun, Kunle Somorin. “Our position is that the law should take its course,” Somorin said in a WhatsApp interview. “Meanwhile, the governor has ordered his immediate suspension from office to answer charges against him.” Sources within the government told newsmen that the governor took the action immediately he was briefed about Rufai’s arrest. This newspaper earlier reported that Rufai, Senior Special Assistant to Abiodun, was arrested l...
Nigerian governors to meet Wednesday over financial autonomy for state legislature, judiciary
Governors of the 36 states are scheduled to hold a teleconference on Wednesday to deliberate on the executive order 10 which grants financial autonomy to the state legislature and judiciary. In a statement issued on Monday and signed by Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, head of media and public affairs of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), there will also be discussions on measures to prevent a third wave of COVID-19 infections in the country. Bello-Barkindo said the forum will take updates on the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability And Sustainability (SFTAS), among other issues. “The meeting, which is the 30th of its kind by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, commences at 2pm prompt but Governors are expected to start logging-in from 1pm,” he said. “The meeting will cover lessons for States ...
ASCAB: Kaduna governor sacked over 60,000 workers in six years
Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), and the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond say Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has sacked over 60,000 workers since he took office in May 2015. They, therefore, endorsed the five-day strike across Kaduna State which will begin on Monday. ASCAB in a statement on Sunday called on all NLC affiliates and supporters to join the “essential strike” adding that a “firm action is needed to reverse the massive attacks on jobs and poverty induced insecurity in Kaduna State.” Falana said the economy of Kaduna was traditionally built around textile factories and the public sector but in the decade before the administration of el-Rufai, the last four major textile factories were closed with many of the workers not receiving any terminal benefits ...
Bodies of coronavirus victims among those dumped in India’s Ganges – document
Bodies of COVID-19 victims have been found dumped in some Indian rivers, a state government said in a letter seen by Reuters, the first official acknowledgement of an alarming practice it said may stem from poverty and fear of the disease in villages. Images of corpses drifting down the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, have shocked a nation reeling under the world’s worst surge in infections. Although media have linked the recent increase in the numbers of such bodies to the pandemic, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 240 million people, has until now not publicly revealed the cause of the deaths. “The administration has information that bodies of those who have succumbed to COVID-19 or any other disease are being thrown into rivers instead of being disposed of as per p...
Governor Obaseki: No record of Indian coronavirus variant in Edo
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Friday said there was no record of Indian COVID-19 variant in the state, as was speculated on social media. The governor stated this in Benin at a news conference to provide an update on COVID-19 response in the state. Mr Obaseki was represented by the Permanent Secretary from the state Ministry of Health, Osamwonyi Irowa. He said the federal government had on April 26, taken precautionary steps by restricting international travel from India, Brazil and Turkey to curtail COVID-19. “We as government have reached out to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) with regards to any Indian variant in Edo and the verified information reveals that the said sample was collected in January. “There is currently no update or report suggestive of any such o...
Ireland’s health service IT systems shut down by ransomware attack
Ireland’s health service said it was under a ransomware attack on Friday that forced it to shut down its computer systems. A ransomware attack locks users out of their computer systems until they pay a fee to the intruder. There were few details, but the attack was described as significant by Ireland’s Health Service Executive. Motorists line up for fuel at one of the few remaining gas stations that still has fuel in Arlington, Virgina, on May 13, 2021. AFPBiden says oil pipeline back in operation after cyber attack It said it was shutting down all its IT systems to protect them from the attack while it consulted security partners. Covid-19 vaccinations would still go ahead as planned, the agency said. “We apologise for inconvenience caused to patients and to the public and will give furth...
World Bank: Nigeria responsible for over 40 percent diaspora remittances in Sub Saharan Africa
The World Bank says Nigeria is responsible for over 40 percent of diaspora remittances in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). In a statement on Wednesday, the Washington-based financial institution said remittances to SSA declined by an estimated 12.5 percent in 2020 to $42 billion. The decline was almost entirely due to a 27.7 percent decline in remittance flows to Nigeria, “Remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa declined by an estimated 12.5 percent in 2020 to $42 billion,” the statement read. “The decline was almost entirely due to a 27.7 percent decline in remittance flows to Nigeria, which alone accounted for over 40 percent of remittance flows to the region. “Excluding Nigeria, remittance flows to Sub-Saharan African increased by 2.3 percent. “Remittance growth was reported in Zambia (37 percent), ...
Taiwan says China seeking political gain with Honduras vaccine move
Taiwan condemned China on Wednesday for seeking to use vaccines for political gain after Taipei’s diplomatic ally Honduras said it was considering opening an office in China in a bid to acquire much needed COVID-19 shots. Honduras does not have formal relations with China and is one of a group of Latin American nations that have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said that to buy Chinese vaccines, he would do as the Chinese had suggested and look for a “diplomatic bridge”. read more Several Latin American nations are receiving Chinese vaccines, but countries that have built ties with Taipei rather than Beijing, such as Honduras and Guatemala, are not. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said...
Lagos recovers N50 million over fraudulent real estate activities
The Lagos State Government on Tuesday said it had recovered more than N50 million from parties involved in illegal real estate transaction activities. Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka, Special Adviser to Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Housing, made the disclosure during a news conference in Ikeja. It was to give account of activities in the housing sector for the 2nd year anniversary of the Sanwo-Olu-led administration of the Governor. Benson-Awoyinka said that the agency had successfully mediated in about 55 out of 150 petitions/complaints between property developers, landlords, potential tenants and tenants. She said that 50 cases were adjourned for further mediation while 40 were referred to appropriate agencies, with five cases in courts in Ketu, Ajah, Ikorodu, Gbagada and Yaba. The special advise...
‘Coronavirus restriction’: Nigerian government quoted out of context – minister
The federal government on Tuesday denied media reports that it has “introduced or re-introduced’’ new restrictions on COVID-19. Information minister Lai Mohammed made the rebuttal at a meeting with online publishers in Lagos. Mohammed said there were no new restrictions, adding that the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 only reiterated existing regulations to control spread of the disease. The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had on Monday announced the enforcement of a curfew across the country in a move it said was to forestall a possible new wave of the pandemic. “The nationwide curfew will be imposed tonight at midnight and it will run through till 4:00 a.m.,” the committee stated. But the minister, a member of the steering committee, said the committee’s national ...
Boss Mustapha: Nationwide curfew not re-introduced
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee, (PSC) on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, has clarified misrepresentation in the briefing of the PSC on Monday. Mustapha, who spoke to newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, said it was erroneously reported that the federal government had re-introduced nationwide curfew between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. as part of the COVID-19 safety protocols. He, however, said the announcement by the National Incident Manager, Dr. Mukhtar Mohammed, during the PSC press briefing was taken out of context because the federal government did not relax the curfew imposed earlier under Phase Three of the eased lockdown. Rather, he explained that what Mohammed said was that the federal government was maintaining the curfew und...
