Kwara
Nigeria records 1,883 new coronavirus infections
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 1,883 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 130,557. The NCDC disclosed this on its official website late Saturday. Newsmen report that the country has so far tested 1,270,523 people since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was recorded in Nigeria on Feb. 27, 2020. The health agency also confirmed one coronavirus-related death in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 1,578 in Nigeria. NCDC noted that the 1,883 new COVID-19 infections occurred in 22 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It stated that Lagos State registered the highest number with 1,040 infections, taking the total number of infected people in the state to 48,919. The NCDC ...
Normalcy returns to Kwara community after security operatives, drivers clash
Normalcy returned to Ilesha-Baruba community in the Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara on Monday after a Friday clash between security operatives and commercial vehicles drivers. The clash between the security operatives and drivers in the area left at least three persons dead and several people injured from gunshots. Newsmen report that the clash occurred on Friday during a misunderstanding over “bookings’’ between the operatives mounting roadblocks on the Ilesha-Baruba/Chikanda highway and commercial drivers plying the route. The corpses of the deceased, which had earlier been deposited at a morgue in Saki, Oyo State, were brought into Ilesha-Baruba on Sunday night for burial. Newsmen who went round the community reports that the residents have returned to their normal businesses. Ma...
Nigerian government lists conditions for states to access coronavirus vaccines
The Federal Government has listed conditions for states to meet before the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine being expected wt the end of January would be released to them. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during a webinar tagged “Sensitisation Meeting with Media Gatekeepers on COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction”, at the weekend, said no vaccine will be release to states until facilities such as cold chains are in place. According to Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, NHPCDA, Kubura Daradara, the vaccine must be administered within five days of receipt for it to remain potent, and only the states that show commitment would receive the doses when available. She added that the 100,000 doses would be administered to 50,000 people, because each person has to take a secon...
Fuel tanker loses control, kills 16, destroys 30 houses in Kwara
A fully loaded lorry tanker with fuel, lost control in Gaika area of Jebba in Moro local government area of Kwara state, on Wednesday, killing about sixteen persons while no fewer than thirty buildings and properties worth millions of naira gutted fire. Newsmen gathered that the incident occurred at about 9 am when the tanker was driving along the popular Gaika road in Jebba and suddenly lost control . The tanker was said to have violently hit the car in its rear which instantly caught fire, before it ran into the nearby buildings, not less than thirty, and burnt them all. The petrol substance which reportedly spilled on the floor after the crash, inflamed the fire inferno. “The entire Jebba is in deep mourning, we have never seen this kind of thing before, so tragic.”said a source. Kwara ...
Why we shutdown Total E&P gas plant – Rivers community
Obite indigenes in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State have an advanced reason for shutting down a gas plant operated by Total Exploration and Producing Nigeria Limited in their domain citing alleged insensitivity of the oil multinational to their plight. The aggrieved natives, drawn from the five villages of Obite community also lamented the alleged refusal of the oil firm to honour a Supreme Court judgement that compensation is paid to the community for the land acquired in the area for its operations. Mr Daniel Clifford Uma, one of the natives, who spoke during the community protest march to the oil firm said, “What you are seeing here today is as a result of total negligence from Total E and P. This thing started 22 years ago. Some of the people that started this ma...
Air passengers decry upsurge in fares, seek urgent attention to roads, railway
Nigerians, who travel by air, have decried the “sudden” upsurge in air fares and urged the Federal Government to intervene to avoid poor patronage that could dwindle the fortunes of the aviation industry. Newsmen report that the air fares shot up by about 100 per cent in the last one week, with some airline operators even raising their fares by as much as 120 per cent or more. At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the fare from Abuja to Lagos, which was N35,300 (Economy Class), rose to between N70,000 and N75,000. Newsmen found that Business Class travellers were charged between N100,000 and N120,000, depending on the airline. Our correspondents, who visited other airports across the country, found that the rise in airfares was the same, a situation that forced some passengers to...
Kwara announces second wave of coronavirus
The Kwara Medical Advisory Sub-Committee on COVID-19 has announced that a second wave of the pandemic has hit the state. The announcement is contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the committee’s chairman, Femi Oladiji. “Now, there are two epidemiological curves of the disease in Kwara. The first curve peaked between July and August, and then plummeted between September and October, at which stage people thought COVID-19 was winding down. “It is important to state clearly that we now have the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Kwara just like a few other states of the country,’’ he said. Mr Oladiji stated that the second curve started early in November with sharp rise in the number of positive cases. He noted that the reasons for the second wave included increase in awareness for vo...
Nigeria records 180 new virus infections
Nigeria recorded 180 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total number of infections in the nation to 63,508. Meanwhile, no death was recorded from the disease in the last 24 hours, meaning that the fatality stays at 1, 155. This is according to the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on Thursday night. Of the 63,508 cases, 59,748 have been discharged across the country and the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 673,183 tests have been carried out across Nigeria. The 180 new cases were reported from 14 states. Thy are: Lagos (87), Oyo (51), FCT (12), Plateau (10), Edo (4), Ekiti (3), Ogun (3), Bauchi (2), Kaduna (2), Niger (2), Kano (1), Ondo (1), Osun (1), Rivers (1) With the latest figures, Lagos still leads in the number of confirmed cases wi...
US election: Oye Owolewa made Nigeria proud – minister
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, on Thursday, described the feat achieved by 31-year old Oye Owolewa in the 2020 United States election as national pride. The minister tweeted, “Congrats are in place for the 31-year old Adeoye Owolewa for making Nigeria proud by being the first Nigerian to win a seat in the United States Congress.” Owolewa was on Tuesday elected as a shadow member of the US House of Representatives from the District of Columbia, making him the first Nigerian-American to achieve the milestone. According to election results on the website of the District of Columbia Board of Elections on Wednesday morning, Owolewa polled 81.59% of the votes, which represents 164,026 votes against Joyce Robinson-Paul, who scored 18,600 votes, and Sohaer Syed with 15,...
Nigeria records 133 new virus cases, 3 more deaths
Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 133 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of infections in the country to 62, 224. Three more deaths were also recorded, taking the total fatalities from the disease to 1,135. This is according to an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Tuesday night. The 113 new cases were reported from 12 states. These are Lagos (51), FCT (15), Plateau (11), Kaduna (8), Oyo (8), Rivers (8), Ogun (4), Edo (2), Imo (2), Kwara (2), Delta (1), Kano (1). Lagos, which again had the majority of infections on Tuesday with 51 new cases, remains Nigeria’s COVID-19 hotspot with over 20,000 infections and 208 deaths. Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, Is the second most impacted with about 6,000 cases and 80 deaths. Nigeria has been reporting cases below 300 for about t...
Nigeria seeks to halt looting amid fury over ‘food warehouses’
Nigerian security forces are struggling to contain increasing cases of looting on government-run warehouses across the country, in the latest incident of unrest following widespread, youth-led protests against police brutality. The storage facilities hold tonnes of relief materials including food meant for distribution during lockdowns previously enforced to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. While the distribution programme had been temporarily halted across several states in the country in recent months, it emerged this week relief items were still stored in some of these facilities, as well as the private homes of politicians. The news angered many in the country with the biggest number of people living in extreme poverty globally. “The food items belong to Nigerians. Why are the...
Nigeria records 136 new virus cases, three more deaths
Nigeria reported 136 new cases of coronavirus and three more deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours, the country’s infectious disease agency, NCDC, said on Monday. With the new figures, the total coronavirus infections in the country is now 58,640 while 1,111 COVID-19 related deaths have so far been reported. The health agency said almost 50,000 patients have recovered from the virus, which translates to a recovery rate of about 85 per cent. Meanwhile, the are still about 7,400 active infections in Nigeria. The 136 new cases were reported from 13 states: Lagos (71), Rivers (23), Plateau (12), Adamawa (6), Oyo (6), Kaduna (5), Abia (3), FCT (3), Katsina (2), Kwara (2), Bauchi (1), Borno (1), Edo (1). Lagos had the highest number of new cases on Monday with 71 infections. The commercial ...
