Monday, August 11, Victoria Island, Lagos. An elegant woman hurried into a gym, met her husband working out and dragged him out of the place, saying: “You need to be alive to lose weight.

You must avoid gyms for now.” Only last night, life appeared to be dimming in a popular night club in Victoria Island. Before now, it was always jammed up with people sweating and dancing.

Panic and unprecedented fear has gripped many Nigerians over the deadly Ebola Virus. Social life is changing.

From commercial banks to local markets; from recreation and leisure places like restaurants, sports clubs, bush meat spots, bars and pepper soup joints, businesses and social activities especially in Lagos are waning. Daily life activities are now being followed with utmost caution in order to prevent the virus that has claimed a number of lives in the country.

In the banking sector, cashiers who pay customers cash across the counters now wear hand gloves to avoid infection, just as bush meat sellers lament low patronage across the country.

Our checks reveal that bars and ‘joints’ including markets and other public places have employed precautionary measures so as not to contract the virus. Apart from avoiding bush meat delicacy and avoiding crowded places, many have resorted to wearing hand gloves and bidding farewell to handshakes.

At the Ikeja Tecno office, visitors and customers are subjected to various processes of checks and sanitisation before admittance into the office. At some bus terminals instant temperature checks are carried out on passengers. Any with high body temperature is asked to drop.

There is also high demand for hand gloves and sanitizers, thereby making them essential commodities.

Commercial banks

A banker in one of the commercial banks at Agbara, a border town between Lagos and Ogun State told Saturday Vanguard that the wearing of gloves was a precautionary measure because cash deposited or withdrawn could have been contaminated.

Attendance to church services has dropped. People are avoiding crowds. Many families did not go to church last Sunday for fear of Ebola virus.

A supermarket manager, Miss. Ada said supply of hand gloves and sanitizers have been badly hit. It is now almost out of stock because people have resorted to using them for preventive measures.

Effect on religious activities

Earlier this month, the Catholic Archbishop of Metropolitan Lagos, His Grace, Most Rev (Dr) Alfred Adewale Martins had issued a health alert to priests, religious and the faithful, informing them of the need to maintain proper hygiene. People were warned to avoid eating bush meat especially monkeys, grass cutters, bats, chimpanzees and so on.

Shortly before Holy Communion in a Roman Catholic Mass, the priest often invites the congregation to offer each other a sign of peace. However, what began as a simple handshake has become in many churches, an exuberant exchange of kisses and hugs and now the Vatican wants to stamp out the boisterous practices as it detracts from the solemnity of the service. In Lagos, giving sign of peace through hand-shaking is now avoided.

Evidently, if attendance at the church service, whether orthodox or pentecostal, drops, it could adversely affect the collections, tithes and other revenues. No thanks to Ebola.

Travelers and bush meat delicacy

Saturday Vanguard visited the inter-state motor parks at Mile 2, Lagos to talk with travelers going to the East and South-South. Those traveling along the Lagos-Benin axis said that they no longer stop at the popular Ore and Ofosu points to patronize bush meat sellers as a precautionary measure against the Ebola disease.

A passenger said: “We told our driver last week not to stop at Ore to buy food because no person, since the outbreak of Ebola virus, would want to think of eating bush meat or even any type of food on the road. One can not be so sure of the kind of meat used to prepare the food. Again, one is not sure of the people that prepared the food if they had Ebola without even knowing,” adding, “abstinence is the best thing for now.”

The loss of revenue for these bush meat sellers and food vendors at major stops along the inter-state highways can better be imagined as it could amount to several thousands of naira on a daily basis.

The same situation can be attributed to restaurants, pepper soup joints that serve bush meat as delicacy across towns. There is a popular beer spot that is known for bush meat pepper soup in Surulere. Fear of Ebola has killed the bush meat business there.

Decline in bush meat business

One of the sellers, Madam Ngozi, a household name in bush meat ‘joint’ in Ikeduru, Imo State said patronage has dropped since the outbreak of the virus. “Bush meat is being treated like a taboo since the Ebola alert. Although people are still coming to eat meat here, but not as much as before. Most customers are avoiding it now.”

Another bush meat seller, Madam Do Good, also complained bitterly about poor patronage.

She said: “People are no longer buying bush meat. We have reduced the quantity of bush meat we used to buy from our suppliers because patronage has dropped. Even people who used to eat bush meat before now have stopped eating it. They would rather eat goat meat or beef, but not bush meat.

The bulk of my daily income comes from bush meat, but now sales have reduced from N20,000 to N5,000. Only a few people who are yet to believe in the spread of the virus still patronesses us”

Also, in Oleh, Delta State, the consumption of various kinds of bush meat such as antelopes, grass-cutter, squirrels and others, has dropped.

At one joint, popular for bush meat pepper soup and palm-wine, the seller said she had to stop losing money by removing bush-meat from her list of delicacies.

She laments: “Most of our customers have stopped coming. My family resorted to eating what I should have sold because customers are avoiding it, thereby making me incur huge losses. Now I’ve stopped selling bush meat entirely, till this whole thing ends. I sell goat meat and beef. The Ebola virus has affected my business so much.”

In the remote area of Abule Egba, popularly known as Ejo (snake) village bars and beer parlour business are still active with people found in groups having their drinks with some plates of bush meat pepper soup.

At a spot located on Alafia street, Meiran road, Abule Egba, it was a beehive of activities with good patronage. The reporters were welcomed by the manager of the bar who said their menu had varieties of bush meat pepper soup and drinks.

Adegoke, who has been involved in the business of buying bush meat from hunters and processing same as pepper soup for about 20 years also stated that some people still do not believe the virus can be contracted from handling and eating bush meat.

An okada man in the area who confessed he had an insatiable taste for bush meat argued that eating bush meat had nothing to do with Ebola virus. “You people should first of all find out if the late Patrick Sawyer ate bush meat. For me, nothing will discourage me from eating any kind of bush meat. In the past, it was HIV/AIDS and today, it is Ebola,” he stated.

Also, Mama Onigba in her 60s has been in the business of selling bush meat for the greater part of her life. She said that her customers still patronize her despite the linking of Ebola virus to the consumption of bush meat.

Said she: “My customers will continue to eat bush meat. There are people who cannot do without bush meat on daily basis and that has been my means of livelihood. “I’ve been in the business of selling bush meat before I got married at the age of 22. I go as far as Ondo state and even to Cotonou to get these animals. They are not easy to get. It really costs me a lot to preserve the meat because it easily attracts flies”.

She, however, complained that the Ebola virus has reduced her sales which is making life a bit difficult for her.

In the same vein Iya Titi, a bush meat seller in Ikotun, thought it was a story that would soon fizzle out without any pain. She maintained that until she began to record a downward slide in her daily sales, she never knew it would have a great effect on her business.

“I am really finding things very difficult with my business now because of this Ebola virus. People are scared to come to my shop now because of the fear of Ebola. I hardly make up to N5,000 as against my normal daily sales of N20,000. I don’t know what to do,” She decried.

Caution in market and other public places

It is either the level of awareness is low amongst market women or outright disregard for preventive measures as far as body contact is concerned. Most markets in Lagos and environs are still active with less caution and preventive measures.

A visit to Abule Egba and other areas where second hand cloths are sold showed that body contacts were still common and that people moved freely.

Mrs Okafor, who deals in second hand female shirts at the market urged customers to put the clothes on to test the sizes before payment.

In contrast, a woman who sells pepper at Oke odo food market, Mrs Olagunju maintained that many market women need to be oriented as many do not understand messages in the media.

Chinasa Ikebi who also helps her auntie at a popular saloon in Lagos lamented low patronage.

She said: “some people don’t want to come out to make their hair because they feel that if they come in contact with people they will catch the illness. The ones that come to make their hair want us to wash our combs, towels and all our other implements all over again before using them on them,” Chinasa said.

Local bars

For Mike Okems (Not real name), who operates a beer popular joint, in Ikotun Lagos,

“it is really affecting us here especially, in the area of meat selling. Here in this place, we mostly sell Nkwobi, and many other things but, since this Ebola virus, sales have dropped. Even with reduced prices, things are getting bad. Ebola is bad.

Similarly, a club operator along Ibeju Lekki, Mr. Raymond said, the development has affected his business negatively as the bar records low patronage since the news of Ebola broke.

“For two weeks, the bar has recorded massive low patronage because people are afraid of contracting Ebola”.

Sporting activities on the decline?

Even sports is not left out; on an international scale, Togo has called for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations game in Guinea to be moved because of fears about the Ebola virus. The match, the responsibility of the Confederation of African Football, is scheduled for 5 or 6 September and is in the first group round of qualifiers. More than 300 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, the origin of the outbreak which is also now fast spreading in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Besides, most sporting arenas have recorded low patronage as sports lovers have restricted their activities to individual games and at least games with limited players where contact with each other is minimal.

Recreational centres, amusement parks and places of fun often visited by young people are now deserted, even swimming pools and gyms often patronized by the elites and middle class are no longer attracting customers. Sporting activities have significantly reduced especially football, basketball and other sports with high physical contact. Ebola is changing life in this part of the world. It is said to spread through contact with blood, sweat, saliva, urine or semen of an infected person or animal.

Holiday coaching affected

Summer lessons are not left out. One parent who did not want his name in print told our reporters that he had withdrawn his children from the holiday sports programmes because of Ebola.

Private Hospitals

Rita Edet lamented that going to the hospital is dangerous now because you don’t know who might be a carrier in the hospital.

“Right now, we have to be careful of going to hospital. We don’t know the hospital Ebola patients use.

“Health workers are the primary target and that is the reason why patients need to be vigilant not to contract Ebola virus”.

For Dr.Olafisoye, medical director, Awoyaya hospital, every consultation with any patient must go with washing of hands regularly with soap under a running tap.

On the alleged fear of contracting the virus in the hospital, he said, “staying at home and not going to the hospital when someone is ill might be dangerous.

“It is difficult to tell where or what a particular person has touched before coming to the hospital and that is why it is compulsory wear gloves and also to wash our hands thoroughly after attending to a patient. Nobody has a label showing that he or she has touched an Ebola patient.

“The people at risk are those who have primary contact with a very sick Ebola patient. In this hospital, we organised workshop to sensitise our staff. The doctors must wear protective apparatus. There are limited protective kits in the country and that is dangerous. We have face mask, gloves and ward coat. The cleaners too must wear gloves. There is a point that is connected to everybody and this is the entrance of the hospital. The cleaners are instructed to always clean the entrance with bleach every hour.”

Commercial transit buses

A bus passenger, Mr. Johnson said, it is not safe to board buses in Lagos because of the fear of contracting Ebola virus. And that is why, government should set up task force to monitor transportation system in order to regulate sitting arrangement of the passengers so as to check transporters who, for example, carry five people on a row meant for three or four people. Body contacts should be avoided.

Some buses including BRT, TM allow people to stand in the bus. This is pathetic. Government needs to enforce discipline and decency. Government should also engage the services of police and LASMA to checkmate transporters.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/e-b-o-l-businessmen-bankers-transporters-sportsmen-tell-stories/

The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has said that electricity consumers in Lagos State now get 18-hour uninterrupted power supply.

Dikki, who stated this when members of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture visited the bureau in Abuja, said privatisation of electricity in the country had started yielding results.

He said electricity supply in Lagos State and other parts of the country would have improved considerably but for the shortage of gas supply.

Dikki, in a statement issued by the Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, said the new power owners had invested heavily to upgrade infrastructure and other requirements to give Nigerians uninterrupted power supply “but the impediment is steady gas supply.”

While appealing to Nigerians to be patient with the new owners of the power assets, the DG said government was doing everything possible to solve the gas challenge.

He said, “BPE does not embark on propaganda to beat its chest but take advantage of platforms provided by credible organisations like ABUCCIMA to showcase the bureau’s achievements.”

But Dikki’s claim was countered by Lagos State residents.

One of the residents in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State, Chima Edwards, said the claim was far from the truth.

He said, “I wonder where the 18-hour power is being supplied. We hardly get three hours uninterrupted power in a day. Maybe Dikki meant the highbrow areas and if that is the case, he should be specific instead of generalising.”


http://www.punchng.com/news/lagos-gets-18-hour-uninterrupted-power-supply-bpe/

Policemen attached to the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton, Ikoyi and those of the Rivers State Police Command, are currently on the trail of a fleeing wife of the General Overseer of a popular Pentecostal Church (name withheld) in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, alleged to be operating the biggest baby factory in the southern part of the country.

The suspect identified as Emeka Precious Chinyere, was alleged to have sold babies to desperate women between N 2.5 million and N6million. Her beneficiaries, we gathered, come from all parts of the world.

Her modus oparandi as gathered, included giving desperate women concoction which would make their stomachs to start protruding, until the day of delivery. However, the delivery process is said to shrouded in mystery which the Police is trying to unravel.

It was gathered that most of the beneficiaries were women who had waited for years without bearing children. The amount paid for each pregnancy as gathered, varied according to the age of the individual and the period of waiting.

This illicit business has reportedly been going at God’ s Gift Clinic and Maternity home located at number 16 School Road , Elelenmo area of Port Harcourt , Rivers State, for years until the bubble burst, following a petition to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Police Special Fraud Unit, by the United States of America Consulate, to investigate an America based- Nigerian woman who applied for American passport for her little baby. The US-based Nigerian identified as Christiana Ogeyi Omagu, with Nigerian passport number AO49173747 and US passport 458926040 , according to the US Consulate, appeared at the consulate in pursuance of a US passport for a male child she claimed to have delivered at God’ s Gift Clinic and Maternity , Port Harcourt , Rivers State.

However, when a DNA paternity and maternity test was conducted, the result according to the embassy, indicated that the applicant and her husband, Donald Omagu , were not the biological parents of the baby.

In spite of the result, the embassy said Mrs Omagu insisted that a certain doctor she identified as Chinyere Precious, took her delivery at God’ s Gift Clinic and Maternity in Rivers State, hence, the petition to ascertain her claim.

During preliminary investigation, the Police Special Fraud Unit reportedly discovered that several embassies had petitioned them over similar cases, with the mention of the General Overseer’s wife as the doctor that delivered them of their ‘miracle babies’

It would be recalled that a similar instance was that of one Esther Soyebo, who , two years ago, was arrested following a petition from the US embassy over same reason. During interrogation, the woman told journalists that she was introduced to Pastor Chinyere by a friend in the USA who claimed to have had her three children miraculously from her. The suspect also stated that she paid N2.5 million for the prepared concoction she took , after which her stomach began to bulge . But efforts by operatives to locate the maternity home were futile as the woman claimed not to know the exact location of the centre. She claimed that she was taken there at night and that she left very early the next morning.

But a combined team of operatives from the Unit and those of the Rivers state Police command stormed the maternity home recently where a near gun battle was reportedly averted, following resistance from armed policemen from the Special Protecting Unit , who blocked access to her.

I have never witness any child delivery- Nurse

However, a nurse identified as Peace Effiong and a supposed expectant mother were arrested at the maternity home in Rivers state and brought to SFU, Lagos.

In her statement to the Police, the arrested nurse revealed that no child had ever been delivered in the maternity since she was employed.

According to her: “ I was employed just six months ago and I have never witnessed any child birth there. Anytime a pregnant women is due for delivery, she is usually taken to Dr Chinyere’s home at Harvest Assembly Avenue, Stallion Road, Elelenwo. That is all I can say “

I paid N2.5 million for pregnancy and delivery

On the part of the America- based Nigerian suspect, she disclosed in her statement that she paid N 2.5 million to the fleeing doctor before she got pregnant..

She explained that she came to Nigeria in February last year , after she was introduced to Dr Chinyere. “ One month later, the doctor said I was pregnant and I went back to my base in the USA , with the hope of delivering the baby in one of the hospitals over there. But several medical tests carried out in the United States indicated that I was not pregnant and I began to doubt. Dr Chinyere who visited America at that time, assured I was pregnant and advised me to come down to Nigeria to deliver the baby . By February this year, she called and informed me to come down to Nigeria , that I was due. I was delivered of a baby boy on February 16, 2014, at the maternity home”

But the result of the DNA test by the embassy showed that neither she nor her husband were biological parents of the supposed baby. Asked if the delivery was a normal one or through caesarian , the suspect kept mute.

Another paid 2.9million

Another pregnant woman , Victoria Acholonu , who was arrested at the maternity home, told operatives that “ I paid N2.9 for the pregnancy. Dr. Chinyere called me on the phone to inform that my delivery was due . That was why I came to her hospital , only to be arrested. Again, when a text was conducted to ascertain her true state, the result showed that she was not pregnant, even with the evident bulging stomach.

Sounding frustrated, Acholonu disclosed that she was not the only one that had fallen a victim. “ I know some people who said they paid more that N2.5million. Some claimed to have even paid

N6 m , depending on their condition.

Information at the operatives disposal indicated that the wife of the general overseer had fled to the United States of America.

Police sources hinted that several attempts to arrest her proved abortive as some eminent Nigerians in key positions always intervened. Police sources said : “ the woman is very powerful , that is why she has managed to beat police arrest. She has been very evasive to the police at PSFU despite the numerous evidences against her. She was once arrested by the Police at Elelenwo divisional police station , after one of her victims’ husband became suspicious and invited the police , who invaded her home at the point of delivery but she escaped justice after an unidentified ‘ powerful man from ‘ above intervened “

However the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State , Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin has assured his command would ensure the suspect is arrested. As first step, he said the command would ascertain if the woman was a medical doctor.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/general-overseers-wife-baby-factory-scandal-flees-usa/

Her story runs like a novel, yet it is no fiction. It underscores the saying ‘misfortunes bring out the best in a person.”

For Ghanaian actress cum singer, Joyce Dzidzor Nartey, the unfortunate turn of events in her life marked the ultimate beginning of a new dawn.

The 27 year-old mother of two battled growing up. Her humble background challenged her and she pulled many strings to escape poverty. She was determined to part with poverty. And she felt her skill in dancing could expose her to the entertainment world and possibly to stardom. The fund to pursue university education was not there but she believed in her skills.

Although she became vulnerable, exposed to rape and many vices the irony was that she ran to a church where salvation ought to beckon on her but doom followed.

A church member who was expected to preach salvation to her played A Patrick Sawyer to her. Just like the American Liberian who knew he was infected by the Ebora virus but who, full of evil, deliberately arrived Nigeria to spread it, the church member was infected by HIV virus and he decided to spread among members of the church.

And so Ghana’s Dzidzor Nartey contacted HIV in her church but today she is a star in many ways and the virus in her has been contained to the extent that she is living a normal life. She is HIV/AIDS Awareness Ambassador who has travelled to many parts of the world to create awareness on the virus and preach against stigmatisation. She is married and a happy mother.

Joyce is also a backup singer and has backed top Ghanaian musicians in her quest to make a profession.

Last year, she delved into movie production to intensify education and to complement the government’s effort to sensitize the public of the dangers of the disease. It is also to strengthen education on pre-marital sex and the dangers involved.

The movie titled, ‘My Cross Roads’ featured herself, and top Ghanaian film stars like Ekow Smith Asante, John Dumelo and Vicky Zugah. She also has a new movie in the market titled, “Jewel of the Waters”which she is using to further propagate her campaign against the spread of the HIV virus.

Interestingly, for the past seven years, Joyce has been living with the disease and on anti-retroviral therapy. She tells her story on DSTV’s AfricaMagic channel.

Living with HIV virus

I have lived with HIV/AIDS virus for seven years now. I contacted the disease in 2007. But I’m just a normal person. When people meet me and tend to find out how I’m feeling, I always tell them I’m a normal person.

As a matter of fact, I visited a school to educate the students. After talking to them they were keen to test for HIV. I also joined the queue and got tested but it was negative. It means one must stay with one’s medication forever. Regular medication can make it read that way. It doesn’t mean such a person is no longer a career.

How she contacted the disease

I contacted the disease in 2007, through a member of my church. I was to spend a night with him in his house. When he removed his clothes, I saw some kind of rashes all over his body. I was terrified, as I innocently asked him why he was like that

. He covered up, saying it was a minor skin infection and that it was nothing serious. But when he wanted to make love to me, I insisted that he must used condom. He told me that he didn’t like using condom.

However, when I insisted, he agreed but he never used it. He removed it while entering into me. We did it several times that night. After few weeks, I became pregnant for him. When I told him, I was pregnant, he advised me to abort the baby. But I refused, insisting on keeping the baby.

He later warned me that if insisted, I would have myself to blame in future. I never knew what he meant until I was diagnosed HIV positive. He also infected other ladies in the church before he died.

Growing up

Growing up was in a very poor background. I discovered my love for music and dance. I was very ambitious, passionate about my dance skills. All efforts to get help to go to school failed. I was vulnerable, most times raped. I had to attend all kinds of events in my neighbourhood to exhibit my skills in dancing. In my case, there was no one to confide in. I hawked all kinds of things to make ends meet’.

Why she became HIV/AIDS Awareness advocate

I was driven by the need to help other carriers of the HIV/AIDS virus. This is because most AIDS patients are brought to the hospital when they are almost dead. Victims find it difficult to undergo medical test to determine their HIV/AIDS status.

I realised when people get to know about their HIV status at the early stages and they are put on medication, they wouldn’t die. They would live their normal lives. So, I decided to use myself as an example. That was what motivated me to begin the campaign against HIV/AIDS virus.

Platform and the benefits

I started sensitising the people on the streets. I went to a business district in Accra, and my purpose of going to the area was to share my story, as well as sell some copies of my music which I had on CD to enable me realise some money to feed myself.

The first person I approached when I got there shouted, and never allowed me to utter a word. The moment I mentioned I was HIV positive, he shouted at me, and warned me to leave the place immediately. But I wasn’t discouraged.

Later, I went to Dacuma, another area. At the place, whenever there was traffic congestion, I would start to tell my story, “I’m HIV positive, you have to be very careful with your life,” I would start.

In addition, I had copies of my CD, but nobody was buying them from me. Some people thought I was lying, and that was when I met a certain pastor in the a traffic. I was moving from one vehicle to another, sharing my story with who cared to listen. When this pastor heard me, he parked and was ready to listen to me.

Then, he was running a TV programme in Amsterdam. At that moment, he took my contact, and later, he sent me some money to process my International Passport. He told me that he had a TV station as well as a radio station in Amsterdam, and he would want me to come over there and share my story the way I did in the traffic. Without hesitation, I applied for visa and travelled to Amsterdam in 2010. That was how my story changed.

Sharing her story on TV

A Ghanaian TV host, popularly known as KSA invited me to his programme, “Future Leaders” to share my story on air. I rejected the idea, insisting that I could only speak in schools and churches.

I told him that appearing on his show would be a very difficult one for me. But he insisted, advising that I should be bold about it. When I finally agreed to go on air, I requested that my face be covered as well as my voice distorted. He agreed to my condition, and I went on air to share my story. But then, I was still afraid to unveil my face to the world because of the stigma that is associated with the disease.

That was how I went on air for the first time in Ghana to share my story. It went on like that, until I suddenly made up my mind to come out. The reason being that I needed to educate the general public, and in addition,I realised that if you have a talent and you don’t have money, it would be very difficult for one to make head way in life.

So, I pondered over it and resolved within myself to come out. It was my belief that it would draw attention to me and by so doing, I could start singing, or acting for people to reckon with my talent. So, I saw two opportunities at the same time; educating people as well as getting exposure for my musical career. That’s why I became popular.

When she returned from Amsterdam

I returned from Amsterdam to continue what I started in Ghana. I was invited by different organisations. Later, I travelled again to speak on the topic “30 years of HIV, the way forward.”In 2012, I went for the AIDS conference in America.

Recently, I was in the UK, where I premiered my movie, “My Cross Roads” which captures my story. The movie was first premiered at the National Theatre in Ghana and it recorded a huge turn out of dignitaries. The storyline of the movie is basically about me. It’s a true life story of Joyce Dzidzor Nartey but currently, I have a new movie in the market titled, “Jewel of the water.”

HIV Husband and wife

Before we got married, my husband was educated about the deadly disease. But he is also a carrier of the disease. At the moment, medically both of us are negative to HIV virus. This is because we have been put on medication for long.

But that does not mean, we should stop taking our medication. Even though we test negative now, we keep taking our medication. We had one child together who did not test positive to HIV because of the medication.

Life after contacting HIV/AIDS virus

That’s not the end of the world for any carrier of the HIV/AIDS virus. There is life after contacting the deadly disease. The HIV virus can be found in the semen in the man, and not in the sperm because the sperm is what goes to form a baby. It doesn’t carry the HIV virus, but the semen is what contains the HIV virus.

So, HIV positive man who is on medication can share sexual activity with an HIV negative woman, and they both can produce an HIV negative baby. You can see that there is life after contacting the HIV virus.

HIV positive man can marry an HIV negative woman, and they can still make babies without him infecting the wife or the baby, just as an HIV positive woman can also marry an HIV negative man. There are a lot of couple today who wouldn’t come out to share their stories, but who are living with HIV/AIDS virus. They are keeping the secret to themselves.

Marriage life

Marriage for me was normal but they say, in every marriage there are challenges. Things have happened in the past which I wouldn’t want to talk about here. Talking about the stigma, there was one day, my seven-year old son came from school and told me to stop that HIV thing that I am doing. According to him, his friends said, they wouldn’t play with him because his mum is HIV positive. There are challenges but life must go on.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/pathetic-movie-star-contacted-hiv-church/

Sule Lamido’s first known scorecard as Governor of Jigawa State came in 2009, two years after taking office. That year, only 2.5 percent of Jigawa indigenes scored at least five credits — including English and Mathematics — in the West African Senior School Examinations.

For a governor who won the seat promising reforms in education, the result was a stark setback. So when the performance improved significantly to 10.5 percent in 2010, a jubilant Jigawa cabinet reached to the media to trumpet that achievement.

In Dutse in 2011, Babandi Gumel, the state Commissioner for Information, Youth, Sports and Culture, announced that successful candidates were free to pursue further studies anywhere in the world as the government was prepared to bankroll their education.

But as the high school pass rate rose to 33 percent in 2012, the World Bank a year later reminded the governor of another nauseating but stark reality facing the state. The bank released a damning report indicating that 70 million Nigerian adults lived in poverty in 2013; majority of them residing in Jigawa state.

Mr. Lamido’s tenure has been defined by such a mix of achievements and let-downs. Analysts believe that what the governor is giving with the right hand, he is taking back with his left. So even with the noticeable infrastructural improvement in Dutse, the state capital, majority of Jigawa people remained trapped in poverty and disease. To lift his people’s standard of living, the governor needed to be less profligate so as to have enough funds to to improve critical sectors of the state’s economy. Those familiar with the state say that hasn’t happened at a rate it should. The revelation this week that the governor helped himself to state funds- in form of kickbacks- has shed light into why that has not happened.

In an exclusive report Tuesday, PREMIUM TIMES published details of how Mr. Lamido and his sons, Aminu and Mustapha Lamido, used their positions to siphon Jigawa State funds.

The details showed how N1.3 billion was paid by the construction firm, Dantata and Sawoe, as a 10 percent kickback for contracts the firm won. The money was paid into the accounts of companies owned by Governor Lamido and his sons.

Details obtained by PREMIUM TIMES showed how between 2007, when Mr. Lamido assumed office, and 2014, Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company was awarded contracts amounting to N13.5 billion. Payments for the contracts were made by the state government to the construction firm through five banks – Zenith, Access, Diamond, Sterling and UBA.

Within the same period, according to a probe of the transactions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Dantata and Sawoe paid out over N1.3 billion into the accounts of companies in which the governor and his sons — Mustapha and Aminu –have interests, specifically the accounts of Bamaina Holdings Limited where Sule Lamido is sole signatory and Speeds International Limited.

Both accounts are domiciled in Unity Bank Plc.

Neither the company nor the governor’s office has commented on the investigations.

But a review of Jigawa State’s spending plan for 2014 shows that the amount the Lamidos allegedly received as bribe alone outstripped what the governor proposed to spend on creating new jobs for a population the World Bank designated as Nigeria’s poorest.

Out of the total budget of N114 billion, Mr. Lamido proposed to spend N1.04 billion on employment initiative. The plan was to focus on skill acquisition, “creation of job opportunities and providing means of livelihoods,” the governor told state lawmakers while presenting the budget in late 2013.

He said the provision was to cover regular skill acquisition programmes in six existing Skill Acquisition Centres in the state, as well as other specialized economic empowerment programmes.

In addition, the governor offered to speed up job and wealth creation by supporting some 24 Local Governments to establish “mini skill acquisition centres”.

It is not clear how much those projects have been implemented so far. But extra funding for the project, say of the range paid Mr. Lamido by Dantata and Sawoe, could have helped cover the project in the three remaining Local Government Areas of the state. Jigawa State has 27 LGAs.

Another sector that could also force down poverty- Small and Medium Enterprises- received N940 million from the state governor, again less than what the Lamido’s pocketed as bribe.

Electrification of rural communities for 2014 in Jigawa State, capable of also stimulating economic activities, received N500 million- a paltry figure compared to what the governor was paid in bribes.

Mr. Lamido provided reasonably well for education, although adult and non-formal education and library Services again received little – - N210 million

Mr. Lamido became governor when the poverty assessment by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2007 concluded that 90.9 percent of Jigawa people lived within the margins of poverty. The figure was the worst in the country at the time.

The 2013 World Bank report pegged the poverty coverage at 77.5 percent, again, the worst in the country, compared to 22.9 percent in Lagos state.

There is no known poverty data for the state in 2014.




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The President, Goodluck Jonathan, has ordered the sack of all resident doctors in Nigerian hospitals.

The sack was contained in a directive by Mr. Jonathan to the Federal Ministry of Health to suspend all residency training programme for Nigerian doctors.

The directive was stated in an internal memo dated August 13 and signed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, L.N. Awute, to federal hospitals.

Mr. Awute said the president’s directive was given following an appraisal of the challenges facing the health sector.

“Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR has suspended the Residency Training Programme for Doctors in Nigeria indefinitely for the purposes of appraising the challenges facing the health sector,” Mr. Awute said.

He said the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, has also directed that “letters of termination of residency training” be issued to all affected resident doctors in hospitals immediately.

The memo asked the management of all public hospitals to take necessary measures to restore full medical services in the hospitals, even without the resident doctors.

In what appears to show the reason for government’s action, the permanent secretary said the hospital could employ part time doctors who must be of ‘good behaviour.’

“Note however, this is without prejudice to the employment of Locum Physicians on six (6) months renewable contract tied to productivity and good behaviour,” Mr. Awute said.

Such recruitments must, however, be “be approved by Mr. President through the Honourable Minister of Health.”

Doctors react

In his reaction, the President, National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, Jubril Abdullahi, told PREMIUM TIMES that the president’s directive is illegal.

He said the decision shows that Mr. Jonathan yielded to the demand of the Joint Health Workers Union, JOHESU.

“The action of Mr. President is illegal because there are several Acts that recognize Residencies in Nigeria and his action speaks volume of the government’s decision to follow the dictates of the Joint Health Workers Union. This is one of the issues the union is asking for.

“Whatever the government have done in their reaction to the NMA’s strike means they are not ready for dialogue because while we are engaging them, they have resorted to this,” Mr. Abdullahi said, saying members of his association nationwide were about 16,000.

A resident doctor, who spoke on anonymity to avoid persecution, condemned the decision saying he was now officially unemployed.

The doctor, a staff of a teaching hospital, said a colleague of his had just sent him another circular ordering all resident doctors to surrender hospital property in their possession.

The circular, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, said the doctor’s salaries and allowances for one month has been paid in lieu of the notice as they ordinarily are not entitled to any salaries for the period they have been on strike.

“In compliance with this order, I am to regrettably inform you that your appointment in this hospital is hereby terminated forthwith,” the letter issued residents doctors in a teaching hospital in the South South region of Nigeria stated.

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, of which the resident doctors are members, has been on strike since July 1.

One of the demands of the NMA was that the Federal Government through the Ministry of Health should formalize and implement the report of the inter-agency committee on residency training.

The NMA also asked the FG to release a uniform template on the appointment of resident doctors and a funding framework for residency training established while overseas clinical attachment be fully restored and properly funded.

Resident doctors are doctors being trained to become specialists/ consultants in different fields of medicine. During their 4 to 5 years training to become consultants, they work in different government hospitals and make up the majority of doctors in teaching hospitals.

“Let’s see how this will work. Except they want to kill the teaching hospitals and the health sector in general,” another resident doctor told PREMIUM TIMES.

He explained that he believed the incessant strike by resident doctors and the NMA was what influenced the government’s decision but doubted that it would be effective.

“In our own teaching hospital, about 90 per cent of the doctors are resident doctors, there are few medical officers. So how can you sack 90 per cent of doctors in a hospital?” he asked rhetorically.


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The Edo State Police Command has arrested a 19-year-old boy in Iguosa community, Ovia North East Local Government Area, for allegedly having sex with a dog.

The young man, identified simply as Osagiator, was said to have taken the dog to an uncompleted building where he had sex with it.

It was learnt that earlier, the residents had gathered at the palace of the head of Iguosa community when the news of the incident spread within the length and breadth of the area.

A resident in the community, George Ogbonmwan, while narrating how the teenager was caught, said he had saw the suspect with the dog and had thought that he wanted to steal it.

He added that he decided to call the attention of the owner, Garuba Samari.

Ogbonmwan said when he and the owner of the dog traced Osagiator to the uncompleted building; they were surprised to see the suspect having sexual intercourse with the dog.

“When I saw the way the young man carried the dog like a baby, I decided to tell the owner. We went to the uncompleted building and caught the boy sleeping with the dog,” he said.

However, the suspect, who claimed that he resided in Uselu in Benin, said he was a regular visitor to Iguosa community, where he sought menial jobs.

He explained that he did not know what came over him.

He claimed that the dog followed him as he walked along a street in the community. He added that he took the animal to the uncompleted building, but did not know what made him to have sexual intercourse with it.

He said, “I was walking along the street. I saw a dog following me and I carried it like a baby. I just went into the uncompleted building where I did what I did to it. I don’t know what came over me.”

Samari, who quickly disowned his pet, insisted that the boy should be handed over to the police to decide what to do with him.

“The dog has to follow him. I have nothing to do with the dog again,” Samari added.

The Odionwere of the community, Pa Clifford Igiehon, and the scribe, Festus Obadiaru, described the act as an abomination. They added that the suspect had been handed over to the police.

Igiehon said, “It is an abomination against the community. The young man came from Uselu community in Benin City. I don’t know why he decided to commit the act here in the community. We don’t want to see him here again.”

The Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, Noble Uwoh, said the suspect had been arrested and taken to the state police headquarters for further investigation.

He added that the dog had since been killed by the community.

“The boy has been arrested and transferred to the state headquarters for further investigation. The community killed the dog because the people said that it was an abomination,” Uwoh said.


http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/edo-command-nabs-man-for-sleeping-with-dog/

No fewer than 106 relatives of the passengers who lost their lives in the ill-fated Dana aircraft that crashed on June 3, 2012 have received insurance claims totalling $5.05m (N821m), according to the lead underwriter of the airline.

The Managing Director, Prestige Assurance Plc, Mr. Anand Mittal, disclosed this to our correspondent in an exclusive interview in Lagos on Monday.

“As of August 11, 2014, we have made advance payments to 106 passengers and final payments have been made to 68 passengers’ relatives,” Mittal said.

He explained that two out of the 68, who collected the final claims, were relatives of the ground victims, while the rest were relatives of the passengers abroad the aircraft.

The managing director noted that 30 per cent of the total claims, or $30,000 per head, was expected to be paid within 30 days of the loss as the initial liability, while the balance was to be paid after the presentation of letters of administration by the victims’ family members.

According to him, the number of passengers in the crashed plane was 147, while the crew members made the number of those on the plane to be 153.

Mittal noted that the family of one of the two pilots involved in the crash, who hailed from Florida, United States, had been given N4m, but that the relatives of the other pilot from India had yet to submit the necessary documents that would enable them to get the claims.

Aviation insurance consists of three major aspects – the insurance of the aircraft, third party liability insurance and the passenger liability insurance.

Claims from the insurance of aircraft are usually followed by huge settlements, which call for proper sharing of the risks among underwriters and reinsurers. The ill-fated Dana plane was reinsured 70 per cent abroad, while 10 local underwriters joined hands to share the local risks.

The aircraft insurance provides compensation for losses due to technical damage to the plane; the third party liability provides settlement for damage the plane may cause to other people’s lives or assets on the ground; while the passenger’s liability insurance provides cover for those on board who may die or suffer injuries in the event of a crash.

According to international ratings for insurance claims, a minimum of $100,000 is to be paid to the family of each passenger who died in plane crashes.

Over the years, the frequent dropping of planes recorded in the Nigerian aviation sector has contributed to the low rating of risk management in Africa.

The African Insurance Brokers Association, a body of the African Insurance Organisation, had expressed worries over the low position of the continent’s aviation insurance sector in terms of global rating.

According to AIBA, Africa has less than 10 per cent of the world’s civil aviation traffic but with over 40 per cent of the total accident rate, which makes the accident rate to be completely disproportionate to the amount of flights.

The association said that this showed that aircraft in the region were operating with less well trained crews in less well regulated environment.


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/insurer-pays-n821m-to-dana-crash-victims-relatives/

As part of measures to curb the proliferation of small arms, light weapons and other explosive materials in the country, the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has ordered immediate establishment of Tactical Operation Points in select states of the North-East and North-West.

The points which would be manned by police officers who have received adequate training in tactical operation and counter-terrorism, will be established in strategic locations, including highways in Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states.

A statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the IG had charged all Assistant Inspectors-General of Police in charge of the zones and Commissioners of Police in charge of the affected states to ensure close supervision and constant “re-skilling” of the personnel performing the special operation.

It said, “As part of strategic measures lined up to contain the illegal movement of small arms and light weapons and other explosive materials, the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has ordered immediate establishment of Tactical Operation Points in select states of the North East and North West.

“These points which will be manned by Policemen who have received adequate training in tactical operation and counter-terrorism will be established in various strategic locations, including highways in Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states.”

It said the IG was optimistic that the latest measure would enable the Police to halt further spread of violence in the land and frustrate the activities of insurgents and other criminals, adding that the Force remained determined to track and stop illegal arms trade and arrest the unchallenged movement of explosive materials by hoodlums and other unpatriotic elements.

While noting that the Police will always work in close collaboration with other security Forces in the land, the IG pledged that the Force “will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the citizens of Nigeria enjoyed maximum safety and security in their country.”

He called on the general public, particularly those in the North-East and North-West to cooperate with the Police and see any inconvenience the operation might cause as a necessary sacrifice for the greater safety of all.

http://www.punchng.com/news/terrorism-police-create-operation-points-in-north/

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested two Union Bank of Nigeria managers for allegedly stealing the sum of N661million from the bank.

The commission said in a statement released by its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren in Abuja on Tuesday said that the duo of Samuel Obende, a branch Manager and Rabiu Alhasan Dawaki, Head of Operation stole the money in the course of their daily operations.

According to the EFCC, the two managers, who are both serving at a Union Bank in Kano, reportedly abused their positions to perfect the fraud.

The two men who were saddled with the responsibility of evacuating and supplying cash to 17 branches of the bank in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Jigawa States, conspired and made away with the said amount without the knowledge of their employers.

The commission further revealed that in a bid to cover their tracks, the two managers fabricated accounting entries, which deceitfully showed that all the monies were delivered to the respective branches.

The commission said the two men were being interrogated with a view to prosecuting them in court.

It will be recalled that Nigeria lost at least N4.52 billion to a reported 3,380 fraud cases involving N17.97 billion in 2012, according to the annual report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

The report said, “The expected/contingent loss increased by N455 million or10.9 per cent as against N4.072 billion reported in 2011.”
“Notwithstanding the 43.7 per cent increase in the number of reported fraud cases from 2,352 in 2011 to 3,380 in 2012, the amount involved decreased by 36.4 per cent from N28.40 billion in 2011 to N18.04 billion in 2012,” the report said.

In 2013, Nigerian banks lost N40bn to cybercrimes, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Chief Information Security Officer, CBN, Mr. Taiwo Longe, made this disclosure at the first National Cyber Security Forum in Lagos. The forum was organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/efcc-arrests-2-bank-managers-n661m-fraud/

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, described the late American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer’s visit that heralded the entry of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, into the country, as “pure madness.”

This came as the Federal Government appealed to Nigerians not to panic and adhere to the highest possible personal hygiene measures and safety guidelines issued by the Federal Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, fears that more Nigerians may fall victim of the Ebola virus heightened, yesterday, as the Federal Government confirmed the 10th case of the disease after the death of the index case (the first case), bringing the total number of cases to 10.

The President, who spoke publicly for the first time since the outbreak of the disease in the country, expressed disappointment with the way and manner the late Sawyer brought Ebola to Nigeria.

Late Sawyer, whose arrival in Lagos on July 20, 2014, and eventual death five days later in a private hospital, sparked off the dreaded Ebola Virus saga in the country, was a consultant to the Liberian government.

He was said to be under surveillance in Liberia for a suspected case of the Ebola Virus Disease, but evaded authorities in Monrovia and tragically boarded a plane for Lagos in Nigeria, via Lome in Togo and Accra in Ghana.

His intention, according to reports was to connect to Calabar in Nigeria to attend a two-day retreat organized by the ECOWAS Commission, and later the same week to Atlanta, Georgia in the USA to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.

Speaking at the Annual Interfaith Conference in Abuja, President Jonathan, however, assured citizens that the Federal Government was ready to stop the spread of the Ebola virus.

Mad man and his Ebola

“It is unfortunate that one mad man brought Ebola to us, but we have to contain it. As a government, we promise that we will do everything humanly possible to contain the Ebola virus.”

Further, the President hinted that the Federal Government had planned to rally the 36 state governors and their health commissioners to rescue the nation from further spread of the disease.

Continuing he said: “On Wednesday, I will meet with governors of the states, and they must come with their commissioners for health. We must make sure that every state is prepared. Where they lack, the Federal Government will support them.”

He assured that his discussion with the head of the World Health Organisation, WHO, had given him more information about the virus, assuring the gathering that the virus will be stopped from causing more harm.

“My conversation with the WHO D-G, Dr Margaret Chan was revealing. She said 60 per cent of the transmission was spread during burials. That is why in my announcement; I’ve been saying that people should be careful about burials.

“Some people like burial ceremonies. This is not the time for burial ceremony, somebody is dead, he is dead, leave him there. This is not the best time for those ceremonies.

“If he is dead, he is already dead, Sawyer that brought this Ebola to Nigeria; his sister died of Ebola, and he started acting somehow, his country asked him not to leave the country, let them observe him, but the crazy man decided to leave and found his way here.”

10th Ebola case in Lagos

Earlier, the Federal Government confirmed another Ebola case in Lagos, bringing the total number of Ebola Virus Disease victims to 10, even as it was disclosed that the number of primary and secondary contacts of the index case placed under surveillance or isolation, had risen to 177, from 139 announced Friday last week.

Giving update of the Ebola situation in the country, Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu told a world media briefing in Abuja, that of the 10 cases, two have died (the Liberian American and the Nigerian nurse) while eight are alive and currently on treatment. “This is the situation 22 days since the dreaded EVD first landed in Nigeria,” he declared.

Chukwu said all the 10 infected were people who had direct contact with late Patrick Sawyer, noting that at the sub-regional level, the Ebola Virus Disease was discussed as a substantive agenda during the Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government on July 9, 2014 in Accra, Ghana.

US$3.5m donation to Ebola Fund

Citing efforts to stop the spread of the virus in the West African sub-region, the Minister remarked that Nigeria, as usual, played its leading, pioneering and compassionate role during the summit with the first and only donation of US$3.5 million humanitarian and capacity building aid to the three affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the West African Health Organisation, WAHO, and the ECOWAS Ebola Fund.

The minister, who briefed the press along other ministers — Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam; Interior, Mr. Abba Moro; Special Duties, Mr. Tanimu Turaki and Information, Mr. Labaran Maku said: “Nigeria wishes to emphasise that it essentially remained an Ebola Virus-free country until this incidence of importation and unfortunate contamination. We will continue to work with all stakeholders, local and international partners to maximize on this and intensify efforts to contain and treat the existing cases.”

Chukwu further stated that the “Liberian Government has expressed its deepest sympathies and regrets that Mr. Sawyer had even embarked on this tragic journey, which has brought needless sufferings, death and has placed an unnecessary stress on our health system. In the same spirit, we share in solidarity, the grief of the governments and people of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone as we confront this challenge together.”

Don’t see Liberia in bad light

He urged Nigerians not to see Liberia and her citizens in bad light considering the harmonious relationship the two countries have had over the years.

“The government of Nigeria shall continue to discharge its responsibilities within the sub-region as we collectively confront and stop this outbreak of Ebola.”

Chukwu however, told journalists that aside from working with the US government on how to assist, government was also looking at other options in terms of drugs that could revive Ebola patients.

He said Nigeria’s quest to get hold of drugs that will bring relief to Ebola patients is “still work-in-progress” adding that, healthcare workers entrusted with providing care to patients have been given Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as measure to prevent them from contracting the virus.

NMA strike not affecting national response

Chukwu, who stated that the Ebola virus still remained restricted to Lagos State, also reiterated the resolve of the Federal Government to find a solution to the lingering crisis between it and the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, especially the need to call off the nationwide strike.

He expressed optimism that the crisis would be settled soon, but maintained that “the NMA strike is not affecting the treatment of Ebola patients.”

New trauma centre launched in Abuja

At the formal commissioning of a world-class Trauma Centre at the National Hospital in Abuja, government assured the populace about the provision of incentives that would motivate existing local health manpower and also encourage Nigerian health experts based abroad to return.

Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who represented the President, said the Centre would bring quality healthcare closer to more Nigerians and also reduce the depletion of scarce foreign exchange due to medical tourism.

“We are modernising medical diagnostics and upgrading several tertiary healthcare facilities to meet the standards existing in those countries where Nigerians seek foreign medical treatment. We have also progressively improved health care financing and priority interventions.”

The centre, first of its kind in the country, is expected to provide the highest level of trauma management for severely injured patients in a timely and cost effective manner, and has been appropriately equipped with modern facilities.

Lamenting that Ebola outbreak which has claimed several lives in some West Africans countries including two deaths in Nigeria, the Vice President re-echoed that government was pained that the emergence of the disease in Nigeria was due to migratory transmission.

“It is important that we avoid panic and take the highest possible care in hygiene and contact and by adhering to guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health.

“We have put measures and facilities in place for detection and management and are working in concert with the international community to stem its spread. We must remain at high alert.”

In his remarks, the Minister of Health said the Centre has capacity and capability to handle all trauma cases including burns, fires, accidents, terrorism or injuries from any other man-made disaster.

He noted that the centre was constructed out of the clear need as there has been an increase in the number of cases of people sustaining physical trauma in a variety of ways and the frequency in which mass casualties occur. The Trauma Centre will also be a training ground for paramedics in the country.

He disclosed that the National Hospital is one of the 12 hospitals that have been commissioned for feasibility study for Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

It could be recalled that within the initial 48 hours of the death of the first Nigerian from EVD, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan approved the National Ebola Virus Disease Emergency Containment Plan with immediate cash backing of N1.9 billion which is about 12Million USD to further complement the containment efforts already in place.

“The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies, works very closely with the World Health Organisation, WHO, UNICEF, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, local authorities and other international partners to further deepen and broaden these containment efforts. We shall single out the WHO and the CDC for special commendation for their understanding and continuous support in this challenging moment; particularly for the partnership and most importantly for the capacity building of our Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC,” he remarked

Fashola meets royal fathers, LG bosses, others

In a related development, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has disclosed that five of the 10 Nigerians infected with Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, admitted at the isolation ward at Mainland Hospital, Yaba, are currently responding to treatment and in stable condition.

Fashola who took time out of the usual weekly state Executive Meeting Council, had interactive sessions with traditional rulers, religious leaders, council chairmen and health workers on the EVD, with the Oba of Lagos, HRH Rilwanu Akiolu in attendance.

Fashola said that the disease is not a death sentence, provided the right medical treatment is applied on the patients who have contacted the virus, saying “we have had cases of patients who survived the virus in other countries.”

“The idea of cure is not there and the idea of bitter kola is unverified. Bathing with salt is also unverified. As today, we have recorded two death cases: the Liberian and the nurse. We now have 10 persons in isolation that are receiving treatment. Eight of them have been confirmed positive to Ebola Virus Disease. We are still waiting for the result of the remaining two persons.

“The mortality rate is reducing from 90 percent at the moment. All of them (patients) are stable, which means that they are not deteriorating. Five of them have really improved. This means they are fighting back. It confirms that Ebola is not automatic death sentence if we do the right thing at the right time. We should talk to our people. “The work is yet to finish; we are tracking more of those who had contact with the late Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer,” he added.

Regular administration

Fashola noted that experience have shown that the human body could fight back through constant hydration, intravenous infusion and regular administration of antibiotics.

Disclosing plans to establish another isolation centre in Ikorodu, Fashola urged chairmen of the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas, to provide safety kits for health workers at the Primary Health Care, PHC centres in their councils. “If we want them to work, we must show concern for their welfare. This is because if we have nine persons and one escaped, we are still at risk until we find the tenth one. So, there is no 99 percent in the case of Ebola. Everyone who had contacts with the virus must be contained and checked. Some may be slightly ill. Some may be moderately ill. Some may be seriously ill; we have to deal with them according to their state of health.

“It may take two weeks, it may take four weeks, it may take two months, it may take eight months. If we can find all the contacts, we are in control. Now, it is a question of treatment and survival of those who we have been isolated. If you look at what we have now, only one case has resulted in the infection of 10 persons.

LAWMA cautions on waste handling

In a related development, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, has urged residents in the state to shun the idea of patronising cart-pushers, often identified as potential vectors in the spread of communicable diseases.

Speaking during a sensitization workshop on prevention of Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, and other communicable diseases, Managing Director, LAWMA, Mr. Ola Oresanya, cautioned about the extent of exposure and vulnerability of workers to disease carrying vectors. He expressed the need to continue the protection of the workforce by strict compliance to the use of Personal Protection Equipment, PPE, complemented by adequate sensitization among staff and clients.

Oresanya, therefore, advised service providers to be alert and to always protect themselves and their employees against the spread of the deadly scourge by adopting the right safety measures, such as thorough hand-washing and used of gloves, face masks and other items of safety kits, in the execution of their duties.

He warned that the management would not hesitate to sanction any service provider who neglects to ensure that staff and workers under their supervision comply fully with the directive on the use of safety kits, while on duty.

Oresanya, urged the citizens to give their waste only to designated Public Sector Participants, PSP, in their areas, and also called on operators of beauty salons to consider their waste as medical waste which is highly contagious.

“Such waste should be stored in safety boxes being given freely by Lagos State Government through LAWMA to hospitals and healthcare institutions in the state. Healthcare waste generators must equally be informed to give their waste to only registered healthcare waste collectors.” LAWMA boss cautioned

General Manager, Administration, LAWMA, Mrs. Abimbola Jijohun-Ogun, in her contribution, informed the participants to take advantage of the free safety boxes and medical waste colour coded bags by calling the LAWMA toll-free lines to inform the authority if they encounter any person showing symptoms of the Ebola Virus in the course of their duties.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/sawyer-mad-bring-ebola-jonathan/

THE Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, often gets complaints from telecommunications subscribers about quality of services. NCC has applied sanctions, including asking the companies to make refunds to subscribers for poor services,but subscribers never get such refunds.

An area NCC has failed to act is unsolicited text messages (sometimes voice) telecommunication companies send to subscribers. They started as irregular offerings; subscribers still complained that the messages were invading their space.

Things have taken entirely depressing dimensions for subscribers. From the usual offers of caller tunes, down loads of music to new services, the messages are almost about anything – lotteries, property, sales of all manners.

At an NCC 2010 policy review session, complaints about the volume of unsolicited messages sent to subscribers were among the issues considered. Panellists tried to initiate regulations that could give subscribers options of accepting or rejecting inclusion in the mailing lists.

Yet the volume of mails then was nothing compared to today’s deluge. Then the messages were mostly about new services or apologies for poor services. Now matters are out of hand.

Some companies send the same message more than five times daily to some subscribers. The intrusion is more alarming. Messages can be sent at anytime: day, night, midnight, early hours of the morning.

There are times they arrive in their noisy torrents, yet they are repeats of messages that had been sent earlier. Their frequency defies justification. The fact that they are unsolicited worsens matters.

Deceit is involved too. Some gullible subscribers are informed of fantastic prizes (millions of Naira, cars, houses) that would be theirs once they answer a few questions. They keep answering expensive questions that lead them to nowhere. Every answered question makes them N100 poorer. The subscriber is awarded points, urged to try again, made to believe that the next effort (at the cost of another N100) would take him to the jackpot. He never gets there.

Other businesses have found their way to these platforms. The offers they make to subscribers are not verifiable. Nobody takes responsibility for the fraud they commit through these messages.

Telecommunication companies at this point appear more interested in money they make from advertising all manners of messages than the interest of their subscribers whose privacy is violated, and who are most times duped.

Something needs to be done urgently to restore the sanity of subscribers who bear the additional frustration of having nowhere to approach for rescue from the invasions. The unauthorised use of subscribers’ numbers for marketing should stop.

NCC has a responsibility to protect telecommunication subscribers from the uses of their telephones as platforms to exploit them. It is time it woke up and applied appropriate regulations to protect subscribers.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/unsolicited-text-messages/

The Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives have accused the Federal Government of not being proactive enough in the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease.

The doctors and nurses said at separate news conferences in Lagos on Sunday, that the government had yet to put in place adequate measures to protect health workers willing to manage those infected by the deadly virus.

The state NMA, through its chairman, Dr. Tope Ojo, therefore challenged the federal and Lagos state governments to provide protective kits and address the issue of hazard allowance for doctors, nurses and other health workers ready to be involved in treating infected persons.

It also faulted the life insurance cover announced by both the federal and state governments, saying its provisions had yet to be spelt out.

The NMA said, ‘‘Any health worker that is managing an Ebola patient is risking his/her life and that of his family. Ebola has killed over 61 doctors in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is a serious issue.

“You don’t just dangle life insurance without documents. We cannot endanger our lives unless we know what is at stake.We should be assured that should anything happen to us, our families are catered for.

“The terms of the insurance must be in public domain in a transparent manner.

“It is sad that it had to take an Ebola outbreak, for government to realise that health workers need life insurance cover.”

Also at the news conference, the association’s Secretary, Dr. Babajide Saheed, said it was imperative for both governments to put in place adequate infection control measures to effectively check the spread of the EVD.

Saheed said,” Please you journalists should visit the IDH(Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yaba and find out what the Federal Government has put in place for effective infection control.

“Please compare it to what health workers in Guinea and Liberia had while treating Ebola patients.

“Till now, the Federal and state governments have not come out with a concrete position on the life insurance cover they have offered to us and the public.

“By protecting health workers that are managing suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola, you are protecting the public from infections, because doctors are part of the society.”

The Lagos NMA also used the opportunity to declare that the nationwide strike by doctors had not been called off.

Also, nurses, at their own news conference, said it was regrettable that the Federal Government had not learnt to act fast during emergency situations like the Ebola virus outbreak.

They also berated the Federal Ministry of Health for negotiating with the NMA to end its strike, saying that the association (NMA) was not a trade union but a professional body which had no right to boycott work.

Their President, Mr. Abdrufai Adeniji, said, “It is appalling that Nigeria is still at the stage of making arrangements when the virus has already been granted certificate of occupancy and has taken full residence in the country. “Government should learn to copy true international best practice which its agents are quick to shout when they are on their mission of deceit.

“Serious governments have already put in place precautionary measures to prevent the pandemic on their soil and some even have treatments even though such are still in the clinical trial stage.

“Government needs to understand that its business should be doing more than it says and taking actions that surpass mere arrangements.”

He commiserated with the family of the nurse who lost her life after contracting the disease while treating Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian man who brought the disease into the country.

Adeniji urged nurses to exercise extreme caution while treating Ebola patients as they stood a higher risk of contracting the disease than doctors.

He said, “We hereby call on nurses to remain committed to their calling and be cautious of the precautionary measures to forestall further incidences. The government at all levels should do their part to provide adequate equipment infrastructure, protective wears, policies to take care of the victims of the virus and other deadly issues.

“The government should immediately set up an intervention team to attend to the situation.”

Catholic church suspends sign of peace

Also, the Catholic Church has instructed its priests to henceforth suspend all forms of physical contacts during service, including the traditional sign of peace, which involves shaking of hands with other worshippers during service.

This directive was contained in a statement by the Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos, Adewale Martins, titled “The Outbreak of Ebola Virus – a pastoral approach.

“Taking into consideration the fact that this rite is optional, we shall henceforth omit it i.e. not invite people to offer the sign of peace. When you get to this rite, skip it,” Martins said in the statement.

Apart from calling for the discontinuation of placing of water bowls at the entrances of parishes of the church, the Archbishop encouraged the use of gloves when counting offerings as other means of stemming EVD’s spread.

The statement read in part, “The use of Holy Water Fonts at the entrance of the church should be discontinued forthwith until the virus alert is lifted. This does not preclude private use of Holy waters in homes and offices.”

“Priest are also advised to be cautious when visiting sick members, especially when they are to administer the sacrament of anointing for the sick. They are equally advised to avoid physical contacts when giving out the Holy communion to members.

“Priests should exercise caution when they go for sick calls, particularly when they have to administer the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. They should ensure regular handwashing after visiting patients in the hospital or homes.”

In Abuja, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Metropolitan, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, also called on members of the church to refrain from shaking hands during the sign of peace session.

Onaiyekan, in an interview with journalists on Sunday, explained that the church was taking necessary precautionary steps to avoid the spread of the disease.

Onaiyekan however clarified that the warning does not mean that the church had banned shaking of hands during mass.

He said, “We did not ban handshaking during mass. We are only discouraging it and it is going to be temporary until it is clear that Nigeria is no longer under Ebola threat.

“It’s a possible means to avoid the spread of Ebola virus and also prayers to keep the country safe. Many people are not comfortable with shaking people they don’t know during this period of Ebola, so there is need to take such steps.”


http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-not-serious-about-fighting-ebola-doctors-nurses/

The time was 7am and the traffic was absolutely crazy on a fateful Monday morning at the popular Gate Bus Stop, Iyana – Ipaja – Ipaja Road, Lagos. Mr. Olu Akinyemi was one of the Lagos residents trying to meander his way and see if he could get out of the terrible gridlock to get to his Ikeja office before the 8am resumption time.

Just as Akinyemi was applauding himself that he outsmarted other motorists in beating the traffic, three men suddenly appeared from nowhere in front of his car and ordered him to pull over towards the Federal Junction Bus Stop.

Confused and angry at the same time, Akinyemi, who said he was already looking at his time piece, said he wasn’t going to pull over since he didn’t know who the people were or what their mission was.

But at the sight of the guns they pointed towards him, Akinyemi quickly pulled over, wondering how robbers could have the guts to operate that early morning in such a busy area.

But stunned Akinyemi said he was surprised when the men started asking him for his vehicle particulars.

“They were in mufti; black T-shirt and jeans, two wore shoes, and one wore slippers. They came to me and asked for my driving licence, vehicle documents and that I should open my boot all at once. I only saw the logo of the Nigeria Police Force faintly on the black shirts they wore, which was not conspicuous enough for identification from distance, and I didn’t want to assume who they were, so, I asked them to identify themselves,” he said.

Akinyemi never knew he just made a costly mistake, because that question was the beginning of his trouble on that day.

“I didn’t know that could spring trouble. They told me to come down; they searched me and my two colleagues in the car, checked my papers, and more importantly, wasted my time, in the morning when I was going to my place of work. Later, they allowed me to go, even though they didn’t identify themselves still. I only assumed they were policemen, coupled with the way they spoke in rough pidgin,” he added.

Such has been the testimony of many residents who have been accosted since some men of the Nigeria Police Force, especially those in the mobile unit, took to wearing mufti abandoning their official dress. It was also observed that the appearance of some of the policemen could make anyone doubt if they were indeed officers of the Force, as they sometimes wear bathroom slippers and dress in an unwholesome manner.

Even though it is common practice and acceptable for policemen and other men in uniform to wear mufti as undercover agents, and in such situations, they are not seen with arms, unlike the way the way Nigerian policemen parade their guns in spite of being in mufti, oft making it difficult to differentiate them from impersonators or armed robbers.

A management and security consultant and President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, said the act of Nigerian police officers wearing mufti while carrying guns was very unfortunate and should not be tolerated. He said it was wrong for a policeman not in uniform to carry weapons.

“There is no condition under which a policeman on duty should be dressed in mufti and be carrying weapons. If you are under cover, then you should have concealed weapon under your garment because you cannot be under cover and carry a rifle. It should not be visible to people,” he said.

He added that the situation was another indication of the indiscipline that has permeated almost every aspect of Nigerian system and that such things facilitate a lot of crime.

Ekhomu said, “I have been a victim of it. I was attacked in October last year on my way to Edo State. The people who attacked me had police weapons and vests on but they turned out to be kidnappers with some police elements among them. I had to fight my way out of that crisis.

“It is also an act of cowardice on the part of the policemen. Because they say the reason why they are dressed like that is to prevent attack on them, but they carry weapons. That singular act provides a leeway and cover for criminal elements to operate and prey on innocent citizens. It is the highest form of indiscipline. It is subversive to the police agency itself. It shows that these police personnel do not regard their employer and the organisation they work for.”

When the students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State were abducted on April 14, it was reported that the abductors came in military uniform, thus suggesting to the abducted girls that they were in care of men of the Nigerian Army.

Report also indicated that many other attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents in the troubled North East region were carried out by the militants in the official uniform of Nigerian Army, giving the villagers a false sense of safety, thereby unleashing terror on them.

Investigations and close observations by Saturday PUNCH revealed that some police officers, especially in Lagos, preferred to wear mufti even on duty; carrying guns and intimidating both pedestrians and motorists in the metropolis.

Respondents who spoke to our correspondent said the presence of the policemen was more prevalent around the Pen Cinema divisional police station, Agege, Lagos Island, Iyana Ipaja, Ogba, Oshodi, Obalende and other parts of Lagos.

It was further observed that apart from moving about with guns, some of them use commercial buses, popularly called danfo to patrol, harass the citizens and extort money from them. Saturday PUNCH observed that, sometimes, the policemen hide in the buses, waiting for offenders or gullible passers-by to interrogate.

“They move around a lot, but they are usually not far from this Pen Cinema area, and sometimes, they harass and intimidate people with their use, extort motorists and do all sorts of things one would not have expected from those who are paid to protect lives and properties”, a trader around Pen Cinema confided in our correspondent.

It was alleged that they preferred to operate under the guise of being mobile police officers or men attached to the Rapid Response Squad. It has also been alleged that since the mufti dresses do not have name-tags on them, people might not be able to identify them, if there was need to, unlike the normal police uniform with name and number.

A cross section of residents who spoke to our correspondent said that the only form of identifying such police officers was through their guns as, usually hanged on their shoulders.

Some respondents told Saturday PUNCH that when people ask the police officers to identify themselves, oftentimes, they refuse and even get angry sometimes.

Mr. Elijah Ileojoka told Saturday PUNCH that it was condemnable to have police officers wearing mufti and carrying arms in the face of the insecurity in the country.

“It is easy to take an armed robber for a policeman and a policeman for an armed robber. How do you identify them. Moreover, when you realise that they are officers, there is no difference between the way they approach you and when you are being accosted by armed robbers. Because they point their guns at you, subject people to psychological torture, and when you remember the past incidents of extra-judicial killings which they have termed accidental discharge, you tend to shiver and obey them.

“I once asked one of them to identify himself when he stopped me, instead of showing me his Identity Card or telling me who he was, he got angry and asked why I should question him. I even looked around if I could see the vehicle they came in so I could identify where they came from, but there was none.

“So I did all that he wanted me to do and showed him everything he asked for because the way he held his gun was scary, and I didn’t want to be a victim of accidental discharge. Some of us have been to other countries and we know how things work there. But when you compare their uniformed men there with what we have here, you would marvel.”

To Mr. Ihemovie, an Edo State-born driver with one of the inter-state commercial bus operators, it is very easy to mistake a police officer in mufti with an armed robber.

Ihemovie said, “These days when robbers strike in daytime, regardless of location, how best do you distinguish them from police officers who are in mufti?

“The other day, I was coming from Benin, and close to Lagos and the traffic on Lagos-Ibadan expressway was heavy. The sun was scorching enough to make one lose patience. When I was able to manoeuvre my way out of the traffic, I was thankful and hoped for a smooth ride through Berger and Ogba to Iyana Ipaja park.

“When I passed Pen Cinema and I got to Oke Koto Bus Stop in Agege, around 5pm, I was stopped by some men with guns. They wore black T-Shirt and jeans and pointed their guns at the car even before I got to them. One of them came to me while the other two retreated to attend to other cars behind me.

“He demanded for my licence and I asked him to identify himself because there was nothing to identify him as an officer in the army, navy, police or any other paramilitary agency. He showed me something that looked like a photocopy, but I could see the faint police logo on it. It was rough and dirty and I could barely see his name or number.

“I was shocked when I saw what he called ID card. I knew that, ideally, a police officer operating under such guise was supposed to show his ID to anybody he wanted to interrogate even without being asked, for psychological stability. He said they were out to investigate. He checked my papers and allowed me to go.

“Sometimes, some of us know they are police personnel, but nothing about would confirm that.”

Such was the testimony of many other motorists who spoke to our correspondent. Findings showed that instead of the police officers to identify themselves when motorists request for it, they get angry and find ways to embarrass, delay and crucify such persons.

Mr. Isakwe is also a driver with another public transport operator. He said, “I used to see them from time to time at various locations. I once saw them around Ikotun Egbe, though they didn’t stop me, I saw them talking to other motorists.

“What amazes me about their conduct, apart from wearing mufti without proper identification, is the way they raise their guns. And you wouldn’t know if people were under armed robbery attack or they were being checked by men of the Nigeria Police Force.”

Another respondent, Mr. Olaitan, a civil servant in the Lagos State civil service, said that when he sees police officers in mufti, he is usually scared because of the way they carry their arms, and for the fear of accidental discharge.

“Ideally, you’re supposed to have comfort and peace of mind when you see a police officer approaching, but not with the Nigeria Police. The moment you see them, you start thinking of how safe you are or what you have done wrong.”

According to reports, the sect members usually dress in military uniform to carry out their attacks so as to deceive the residents.

Meanwhile, a military officer, Sergeant Ibrahim, told our correspondent that such practice was not allowed in the military, as officers had been warned never to wear mufti or half uniform while on duty except on special assignment.

“The rule in the military is that if you use any of the dressing kits, you must dress in full. You cannot wear only cap or vest as uniform.”

The Managing Director, Symbiotic Business Solution Ltd, Chigozie Ubani, said the activities of the special squads in the police should be under serious scrutiny both by the police authorities and the public due to possible abuse.

“Citizens must know their rights which include a bold but polite demand for the identity of police officers, and travellers should equip themselves with high-tech surveillance devices that they can use to capture voice and motion picture evidence to expose the excesses of overzealous officers,” he said.

Ekhomu hinted that police work was not for those who wanted to be rick quickly, but that most officers in the police force want to get rich quick.

“If you want to be rich, get out of the police and become a businessman and be rich. How can you be a servant and guardian of the people and yet you want to be rich? If you desire to be a rich man, go and be like them. You can’t be in and out of uniform, doing anti-social conducts, all in the name of your salary is not enough. If your salary is not enough, quit the job, many others are waiting to get the job,” he said.

When asked why the police hierarchy could not check the indiscriminate use of mufti and weapons, Ekhomu said, “In some cases, the senior men are also engaged in unbecoming conducts, so they cannot correct their underlings. When you are a boss and you are misbehaving, how do you correct your juniors? In that case, indiscipline is further enshrined in the DNA of the organisation. Wearing of bastardised uniform is wrong and nobody is complaining. Unfortunately, some of these people are carrying weapons, if you move near them, they could shoot you.

“When Sir Robert Tule set up this current model of policing that we are working on, he said that policemen will inspire confidence with the way they dress and that is why you see the British police and others in the world are always very proud of their uniform and service to the community.?

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Ngozi Braide, said said mufti was allowed in the police.

She said, “Most of the policemen seen in mufti are actually operating undercover. Without their uniforms, it is not easy for criminals to sight them especially when the criminals are moving in a vehicle.

“But the Lagos State Police Command monitors the conduct of its men especially as it pertains to dressing. My office; the police public relations office and the public complaint bureau acts on complaints about the conduct of policemen. We check these things. The X-Squad also checks. The office of Provost is in charge of discipline and it is always working to ensure compliance of codes of ethics on the job.



http://www.punchng.com/news/policemen-or-armed-robbers/

WHAT we know today as the Nigeria Customs and Excise Commission was founded over a century ago, precisely in 1891, as the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, by the colonial masters basically for the collection of inland revenue in the Niger Coast Protectorate, the South of Nigeria. It later became the Department of Customs and Excise in 1922.

In 1945, it was divided into two arms of Maritime and Preventive for the collection of revenues from import and export duty, the control and prevention of smuggling. In 1964, the first Nigerian CEO, Ayodele Diyan, was appointed. In 1974 , the late Alhaji Shehu Musa became the first Director who restructured the NSC as a sole administrator. In 1993 Brigadier General S.O.G. Ango remained as the head till 1999 when Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha took over as Comptroller General.

This brief history is needed to show that the leadership of the NCS since over a decade ago, has been dominated by the North, while enforcement is mostly in the South. The North had always headed the NSC, and any stint by a person from other sections of the country is quickly terminated.

In Abuja , there are 28 members of the House Committee on Customs,13 of them are from the North, seven from the South-South, four from the South West, three Middle Beltans , and one only from the South East! No wonder enforcement is as we see it today.

Dikko Inde is the Comptroler General who generally has positive reputation, having risen through the ranks; but a lot is left to be desired. The recruitment exercise he conducted last year has been criticised as largely in favour of the Fulani against the Christian North. Although all Northern states were favoured, it has been argued that not one Christian was chosen in spite of the fact that many of these states are predominantly Christians, while others have substantial Christian population.

It was for a breach of the federal character principle that Mrs. Uzoamaka Nwizu, a former Cmptroller General of Immigration from the South East was dismissed, yet nothing has been done about this.

With the collapse of industries, NCS has shifted its main focus to anti- smuggling enforcement, which is good, if fairly executed.

But they have set targets of huge sums that must be raked in periodically and thereby created the situation that is simply oppressive.

In Lagos, for example, goods are cleared from the ports of Apapa and Tin Can, with the knowledge of some Customs officers, yet they set up informants who help them intercept consignments at any point within the country. The importer either settles or gets his goods impounded.

The officers ‘chop’ the importer at the seaport, on the road, up to the warehouse. No one investigates or cares about how the goods left the seaport, perhaps because it is not their ox that is gored.

The oppression in import business in Nigeria has created a booming multi-billion dollar business for our neighboring country, Republic of Benin. There are two main routes to and from Republic of Benin from Lagos, the Mile 2 – Badagry- Seme border route , or the Sango Ota, Idi-Iroko route.

On the latter route you find only about seven Customs check points and none of them is anything unusual. Officers are gentle, humane and understanding, you could make the 100 kilometres stretch to Idi-Iroko from Sango in about one hour. This route feeds into Agege Motor Road, and to most of Lagos.

But on the Badagry-Seme border route you find over 34 check points from Seme to Mile 2, and it takes from about two to three hours to cover almost same distance, apart from the bad road. Officers are harsh, rude, and unreasonable in the sense that they may just refuse to distinguish between personal items and commercial quantities, and they appear trained or quick witted at devising extortion.

You could be caught for carrying one crate of 12 bottles of soda drink, and that you hold a receipt from within Nigeria is immaterial. A commercial driver must settle at all these points and it ranges from N200, for regular pliers of the route to N5000, depending on how they assess you.

In the case of new vehicles, they have points where they take them in near their hotel along that road and extort huge sums, and since it is a kind of guest inn, anything can happen to a lady found with anything. It was a pity to see poor women pleading over used clothes, perfumes and things like that, something they do to survive in this increasingly harsh economic conditions.

This is the route to Alaba Electronics International Market, the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex that houses the BBA and ASPMDA markets where mostly South Easterners trade.

These enforcement officers also lurk around seven locations between Sagamu and Benin on the expressway, at three locations from Benin to Asaba, totaling 10 locations from Lagos to Onitsha; whereas you have only about four locations on the Lagos-Ibadan- Akure to Abuja. A trader from the South East could have his truck load of items impounded even when he can establish that he bought and paid for these items with receipts from Lagos. But once that truck crosses into the North, say into Benue State from Enugu axis , or Kogi State from Akure, it is a smooth ride to the warehouse. What else is oppression?

The questions Dikko Inde should answer include: What happens to those his officers who allowed these goods to cross our borders, and seaports in the first place? Should an innocent purchaser of an item within Nigeria with receipts to show lose his goods ?

Why are the roads in the North not as monitored as those in the South? Why do we hear only of seizures and not of accomplices which we know are very many from within the Customs?

What applies to one section of Nigeria in terms of Customs enforcement must apply to the rest, and while not supporting smuggling, we need to be fair in enforcement.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/nigeria-customs-instrument-oppression/

In spite of the widespread fear generated by the dreaded Ebola virus in Lagos, vendors of the popular roadside roasted meat, suya, in the city have said that they did not know of the existence of the disease.

The vendors, who operate at a major suya point in the Agege market, said that they were not aware of the Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who died in Lagos from the Ebola virus.

The Ebola virus, an almost instant killer, is currently ravaging the countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and it is said to have killed hundreds of people.

It spreads through bodily fluids and consumption of contaminated bats, monkeys and bushmeat. There have been fears that the virus might also be in suya.

The suya vendors, who spoke to our correspondent, said that they had not received any sensitisation on the dreaded disease.

One of them who identified himself as Ahmed said he had never heard anything called Ebola.

He noted that he was unaware of the outbreak in West Africa, saying, “I have been selling my suya here and I have never heard of it (Ebola)”.

Another suya vendor, who simply identified himself as Ibrahim also said he had not heard of the virus and wondered how it could be related to suya.

“I am only selling suya. Ebola I don’t know. How does it concern my suya. Nobody, not government or private, has come to tell us of it,” he said.

When asked whether the patronage of his product had suffered any decilne, he said nothing had changed and that the people were still patronising him as usual.

But another suya vendor, who did not want his name in print, said he had noticed a reduction in the patronage of his wares.

He also noted that he was not aware that the virus was present in the country.



http://www.punchng.com/health/healthwise/why-ebola-differs-from-other-viruses/

Founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet Temitope Joshua, has told Ebola victims in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to stay in their respective countries.

The clergyman made the statement after visiting government health officials implored him not to allow anybody infected with the virus to come into the church from the affected countries.

In a message posted on the church’s official Facebook page and signed by himself, Joshua cautioned those suffering from the deadly Ebola Virus Disease against “crossing borders” for any reason.

“What makes you a good citizen makes you a good Christian. There is a law in every country that bars Ebola victims from crossing borders. Obey the law of your land and it shall be well with you. Obey the law of the land by not crossing the borders of your nation with Ebola virus,” he wrote in the message, which was classified as an “important notice” on the website of the church.

Meanwhile, following the report that one of the doctors that treated the Liberian-born American, Patrick Sawyer, who died of the Ebola disease, had contracted the virus, Nigerians have appealed to the striking members of the Nigerian Medical Association to suspend their industrial action.

A social commentator and civil rights activist, Israel Mbaebie, said it was “shameful” that the doctors would allegedly exercise apathy to the health of the nation in the face of an imminent outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease.

“It is a real shame to Nigerian doctors who have betrayed the Hippocratic Oath. Even if the striking doctors call off their strike today, they have completely lost my respect for betraying the Oath. We would remember the health officials (not striking members of the Nigerian Medical Association) who risk their dear lives daily to contain the Ebola outbreak,” Mbaebie tweeted.

But a medical doctor, Hamid Adediran, stated that it was unfair for the public to lambast striking members of the NMA over an outbreak of the Ebola virus.

Adediran argued that even medical doctors were Nigerian citizens and so, they should not be “cowed” into suspending their strike based on the Hippocratic Oath.

He noted that the public would do well to direct all pleas to the FG and not the NMA, adding that government knew the right thing to do to end the strike.

He said, “Everybody is asking medical doctors to suspend the ongoing NMA strike because of the Ebola virus. For your information, hazard allowance is part of the demands yet unmet. Will the N5000 being given as hazard allowance be sufficient to manage the poor doctor (who contracted the virus) that treated Patrick Sawyer now?

“If she doesn’t survive it, is she indemnified? People should be fair on doctors. Doctors are citizens too. People should not attempt to cow us with a line in the Hippocratic Oath. The oath starts with dignity in practice,” Adediran argued.

Also, the leadership of the NMA explained that the strike was not targeted at the public, but meant to compel the FG to do the needful in the health sector.

The association described the strike as a battle to save what was left of the health sector and aimed at enabling its continued functioning, as well as positioning it for better service delivery.

Writing on its official Twitter page, the medical association added that claims of “cracks” within the NMA over the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease vis-à-vis the strike was untrue.

“Claims of cracks within the NMA is deceitful and an attempt to further mislead the Nigerian public. The NMA has been one and will remain so,” the medical association said.

Another medical doctor, Chijioke Kaduru, has urged the Federal Government to allow health parastatals to “meet and discuss” with the members of the public so as to bring about a “citizen-engineered response” to an outbreak of the virus.

He also urged the Lagos State Government to make the care of the infected female doctor a priority.

“A doctor is reported to have picked up the Ebola virus in the line of duty and that is horrible news. It shouldn’t be a tool for politicking. The LASG have to throw its full weight behind the care of the infected doctor,” Kaduru wrote on Twitter.

Kaduru observed that while it was laudable that several educational materials on the deadly virus were circulating online and offline, the preparation for a response to an outbreak was still poor.

“I am still disappointed in the response from our authorities. The Ebola virus doesn’t discriminate and Western hospitals won’t help us this time,” the medical doctor added.


http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/stay-in-your-country-tb-joshua-tells-ebola-victims/

Scientist do not exclude the possibility of Ebola virus transmission by air through aerosolised particles.

It was commonly considered that the deadly disease is transmitted human-to-human through direct contact with infected patients or through contact victim’s body fluids. However the fresh studies suggest another possible development.

The fears appeared in the case of Patrick Sawyer travelling to Nigeria who got infected with the virus and died in a Lagos hospital. There emerged implications of the possibility of Ebola transmission in an enclosed environment such as an aircraft cabin.

Studies showed that Ebola virus is transmissible to monkeys from infected pigs without them coming into direct contact. The Ebola virus survives for days outside infected hosts and can "ride" on aerosolised droplets to spread to potential victims.

To demonstrate this Canadian scientists housed the pigs carrying the virus in pens with the monkeys in close proximity but separated by a wire barrier. In 8 days some monkeys started experiencing symptoms associated with Ebola. Which suggests aerosolised organisms can possibly cause infection.

According to the Canadian Public Health Agency:

"The virus can survive in liquid or dried material for a number of days. Infectivity is found to be stable at room temperature or at 4 degrees celsius for several days, and indefinitely stable at -70 degrees celsius . Infectivity can be preserved by lyophilisation. Hence, it is implied that Ebola viruses can survive for several days on common objects such as door knobs or household surfaces. If an infected Ebola victim runs around touching such common objects after cleaning blood or mucous from his nose, another innocent victim can easily infect himself by touching the same objects and then eating some food that places the virus in his mouth."

The currently incurable disease has already claimed hundreds of lives in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Yesterday Nigeria was hit by the news about the second case of infection with the virus by Patrick Sawyers’s doctor. Health officials have revealed that now there are 8 suspected cases of infection with Ebola – all these people were in contact with Sawyer who became the first Nigeria’s victim of the virus.


http://www.naij.com/70790.html

The National Council on Privatisation on Monday okayed two firms for the guided liquidation of the Nigeria Telecommunication Limited and its mobile arm, M-Tel.

The two firms, NATCOM Consortium and NETAD Consortium, were picked from the 17 firms shortlisted for the liquidation during the third meeting of the council for the year presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Abuja.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Sada; Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen; and Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Benjamin Dikki, briefed State House correspondents of the meeting’s outcome.

Sada said the two firms led others shortlisted with 90.7 and 90.2 percentage scores, respectively.

Assets up for bid in NITEL include the licences and the spectrum, nationwide fixed wired networks, national right of way duct system, ibre optic transmission backbone, and the CDMA network system.

Others are international gateway earth stations, microwave transmission equipment/network and towers, and other core assets.

The assets up for sale in M-Tel are the licences and the spectrum, national right of way;GSM network, including mobile switching centres, base station controllers, base transceiver stations and the general packet radio services. Others are the analogue system and other core assets.

Sada said the government was working hard to ensure that the two firms bounced back better.

He said, “The criteria is being followed and out of these 17 firms shortlisted, two are qualified for request for proposal issuance. And this is what the council deliberated today and approved the qualifications of the two companies.

“The two companies are NATCOM Consortium and NETAD Consortium, and they came top with 90.7 and 90.2 per cent, respectively.

“You will agree with me that efforts at getting NITEL back on stream have been very strenuous, because of so many issues, so many problems; but this time around, there have been strong efforts so that we do not go back to what we had before.

“With what has been put in place, we are very confident that we will only move forward to take us to the appropriate destination.

“The idea here is for us to have a working institution not necessarily a situation where these assets are just dispensed with for whatever reasons.

The minister added, “From our discussions today, we are making sure that these assets do not go to somebody who for other considerations will want to own and keep them.

“Our target is to make sure that NITEL/M-Tel comes back. It has very robust assets and it will be a very good thing for the country. Mobile telephones and networks are not substitutes for land lines, and that is why we are doing everything to be able to bring it back to work.”

Onolememen told journalists that the council also approved a five-year extension for the concessionaire of the new Warri Port, Associated Maritime Services Limited.

The minister said the extension was granted since there was no objection from the Minister of Transport and the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority.

He added that the council also relinquished its 51 per cent holding shares in the Stallion Property Development Company for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Pension Limited.

The decision was taken to bridge the pension gap observed in the NNPCPL.

Sada added that the council also received the report of a committee that visited the Ajaokuta Steel Company of Nigeria based on the allegation of asset stripping that was reported to the council at the last meeting.

He said no decision had been taken on the report, adding that a statement would be issued after the report must have been considered by the council.


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/fg-okays-two-firms-for-nitel-m-tel-liquidation/

Pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to invest in vaccines and research to cure the deadly Ebola disease because it is only killing Africans, a leading UK doctor has claimed.

The President of the UK Faculty of Public Health, Prof. John Ashton, has claimed no cure for the disease has been discovered because it so far has only affected powerless minorities.

He likened the response to that of Aids, for which treatments were developed only when it started affecting Western countries.

The current Ebola outbreak – which has no vaccine, no cure and kills up to 90 per cent of victims – is currently ravaging the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia.

There have been 729 deaths from 1,329 confirmed cases of Ebola in this year’s epidemic – making it the largest Ebola outbreak in history.

Writingin the Independent on Sunday <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/theyd-find-a-cure-if-ebola-came-to-london-9644515.html>, Prof. Ashton said: ‘We must respond to this emergency as if it was in Kensington, Chelsea, and Westminster.

‘We must also tackle the scandal of the unwillingness of the pharmaceutical industry to invest in research to produce treatments and vaccines, something they refuse to do because the numbers involved are, in their terms, so small and don’t justify the investment.

‘This is the moral bankruptcy of capitalism acting in the absence of an ethical and social framework.’

WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, has also warned the virus is currently moving faster than efforts to control it.

She said, ‘This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives, severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries.’

Speaking at a meeting in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, she told the presidents of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast that the virus could be stopped.

But she said that cultural practices such as traditional burials were a significant cause of its spread.

Meanwhile, Emirates, the Mideast’s largest airline, said today it had halted flights to Guinea because of concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus.



http://www.punchng.com/news/why-ebola-remains-incurable-uk-doc/

Mosunmol Abudu has no doubt carved a lasting niche for herself in a world where men are known to have called the shots. She is undeniably wealthy and is regarded by many as the “Oprah Winfrey of Africa” due to her Moment with Mo Talk show.

Her EbonyLife channel alone on DSTV is worth billions of naira. In this edition, we lead you into the world of a media guru who is living her dreams in splendor:

Mo Abudu as she is fondly called hails from Ondo Town in Ondo state of Nigeria. She was born in Hammersmith Hospital in London, United Kingdom in September 1964 to Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Akintunde. She is the eldest of three sisters who lost her father at the age of 11.

Mo Abudu spent her childhood in United Kingdom where she worked her way through college. She attended the Ridgeway School, Mid Kent College and West Kent College. She got her Master’s degree in Human Resources Development from the University of Westminster in London. The TV goddess started her professional career as a Recruitment Consultant in 1987 with the Atlas Recruitment Consultancy firm in the UK.

Mo rose to the position of a Branch Manager within a few years. She was headhunted by Starform Group in 1990; Starform is a very successful business information group in the UK. They manage the prestigious Corporate Credit Management Exhibition. Mo successfully managed the exhibition from 1990 through 1992. She assumed responsibility for the research, design and production of several conferences and seminars whilst at Starform.

She returned to Nigeria in 1993 and was also hunted by Arthur Andersen. She worked in the capacity of Head of Human Resources and Training for Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited (Exxon). She successfully completed her responsibilities by the year 2000.

Mo saw in Nigeria, a growing need for a trained and highly motivated talent pool that would take Nigerian businesses into the 21st century. Taking advantage of her reputation, she resigned from a job at ExxonMobil after a decade to start Vic Lawrence & Associates Limited popularly known as VLA.

Her projects

Mo Abudu is arguably the first woman on the African continent to own a pan-African TV channel called EbonyLife TV. According to reports, “the channel is worth N2b.” EbonyLife TV is a channel on DSTV which has over 15million viewers in 44 countries including United Kingdom and United States of America. It has strong backing by Cross Rivers State government.

This is in line with the state government’s strategy for development. EbonyLife TV is helping to build a thriving Film, TV and Music industry through strong international partnerships that can develop local talent and empower the next generation by building an Entertainment and Media hub at Tinapa that would represent Nigeria as well as Africa.

Another powerful move which the channel has made is acquisition of the services of 13 independent producers to produce film content for TV, a project which a film expert estimates will cost about N2.5 million per production.

Award

In 2013, Forbes gave her an award as the first African woman to launch a Pan-African TV Channel. The honour came to Mo due to her consideration as an industrious and illustrious personality popular within and outside the industry. She was called “Africa’s Queen of Talk.” An enviable position, the award, no doubt, firmly affirms and establishes Mo Abudu as someone who has indeed treaded grounds that many may have considered an uphill task even for some of the highest flying African women.

According to reports, She is involved in a number of business activities. In addition, Mo is co-owner of the Protea Hotel, Oakwood Park, Lekki Expressway, Lagos. The hotel is worth over N2b. Set on over a hectare of land, and comprising of state-of-the-art conferencing and leisure facilities, the Protea Hotel, Oakwood Park is a 5-star hotel and no doubt among the best Proteas in Nigeria. Mo is also the Founder of Vic Lawrence & Associates, now one of Nigeria’s leading Outsourcing firms and media.

Her special TV program “Moment with Mo,” over the past years of its existence, has hosted an impressive list of guests. The TV program has hosted presidents, Nobel Laureates, celebrities governors, and even the US Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Rodham-Clinton, when she visited Nigeria.

The TV show is Africa’s first and only syndicated daily talk show. It airs across 48 African countries and on cable TV in the United Kingdom. She developed other TV properties to include “The Debaters,” a highly intellectual, but vastly motivating, innovative and entertaining reality TV show that gives the youth of Africa a voice; Naija Diamonds, an award winning documentary series, Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Nigeria.

Charity

Mo is also a philanthropist. She has a foundation known as Inspire Africa Foundation in partnership with Moreno Construction, The Harbour, which has completed a one hundred-bed home for street children in Lagos.

Cars, dresses and perfumes

Mo Abudu is known to look stunning and out of the world on the red carpet. According to reports, she gets her dresses after it is launched on the runway abroad. Similarly, her perfumes are truly feminine and expensive. She loves beautiful expensive cars and has many of them in her garage including a black Mercedes Benz SUV priced over N20m.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/mo-abudu-pies-made-rich/

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has redeployed corps members from seven northern states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe states.

The action, it was learnt, was to save the lives of the corps members from the Boko Haram insurgents.

A statement yesterday in Abuja by the NYSC management said the corps members are in the 2014 Batch ‘B’ orientation course, which will begin on August 5.

The NYSC said because of logistic reasons, the orientation course would be conducted in two streams for various states.

The Stream One, it said, would be conducted from August 5 to August 26 in Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Oyo, Niger, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Bayelsa and Cross River states.

Others are: Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Imo, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kogi, Katsina, Nasarawa, Ogun, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states.

Corps members posted to states listed in the Stream One category will undergo the orientation course in their states of deployment.

The statement said the Stream Two, which is meant for the affected Northern states, has been scheduled to take place from Monday, September 1 to Monday, September 22.

Corps members posted to Adamawa will have their orientation programme in Niger; those posted to Bauchi are to resume in Plateau State’s orientation camp and those posted to Borno are to go to Nasarawa State’s orientation camp.

Other affected states are: Gombe, whose corps members are to serve in Benue; Jigawa corps members are to have their orientation programme in Kaduna and corps members posted to Yobe State are to resume at the FCT orientation camp.



http://thenationonlineng.net/new/nysc-redeploys-corps-members-from-borno-six-other-states/

About 60 million Nigerians between 18 and 40 years of age may be spending up to N1.8 billion on sports betting daily, investigation by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reveals.

The investigation showed that they commit on the average N3,000 on sports betting daily.

Dotun Ajekigbe, a sport betting analyst, said that sport betting though risky was also rewarding.

Ajekigbe said that about 60 million Nigerians placed bets on different matches daily across the country.

He said that most unemployed youths have taken to online and other forms of sports betting to make a living.

According to him, from findings this group of people stake an average of N3,000 daily.

“Sport betting is gambling, not investing in bank shares.

“But almost everything in life is a gamble, more so with money matters. With gambling comes risks because it not 100 per cent guaranteed.

“However, you can dramatically reduce your risks by taking calculated risks only.

“When you take calculated risks, you base your decisions on sound research and evidence, not intuition.

“Sport betting is by chance. The better informed the player is, the better the chance he/she has of making money,” he said.

Mr Ambrose Obialor, who runs Yobo Viewing Centre, Lagos, says that some people bet between N2, 000, N10, 000 and above, depending on the individual.

He said that some people denied themselves of food after spending all they had on a bet.

Mr Afeez Adigun, an agent for 1960 Bet Company, Lagos, said that between 200 and 300 people visit his office to place bets on match days during football seasons. while about 150 people bet at off-seasons.

According to him, a betting company can generate up to N20 million monthly and use between N5 million and N7 million to meet winners obligations in terms of payment.

He also described sports’ betting as very risky but highly rewarding business.

A representative of another betting company, Betting World, who did not want his name mentioned, said that sport betting companies have employed about 50 youths in Lagos.

He also said that betting outlets were always filled with countless young people between ages 18 and 40 who come to place their bets.

The representative said that most people borrow as much as 10,000 for their daily stakes, stressing that some of them win, while others lose but returned for the next day’s betting.

He said that most people did not like to place bets on Nigerian matches because they were highly predictable.

Mr Lanre Gbajabiamila, Chief Executive Officer, Lagos State Lottery Board, said the lottery industry was very risky but also lucrative.

Gbajabiamila said that the board generated about N1 million in 2013 from about 11 sport betting companies in the state.

He added that more revenue could be generated with more investment to develop the industry.

“The state government has been making efforts to provide an enabling environment for the lottery industry but only 40 per cent of the industry had been tapped into.

“We urge the Federal Government to create a more enabling environment for operators in the industry to increase revenue and create jobs for youths.

“The major needs of the operators are improved electricity and internet provision to boost the business,” he said.

He restated the commitment of the board to rid the state of illegal lottery operators. (NAN)




http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/nigerians-spend-n1-8bn-sports-betting-daily-investigation/

ILORIN— An Islamic cleric, simply identified as Alfa Gani was, Wednesday night, caught in Laduba, Ogidi area of Ilorin West Local Government Area, making concoction with the placenta of a new baby girl he performed her naming ceremony the previous day.

After the bizarre incident, sources said human parts were also found in the cleric’s residence.

Consequently, angry members of Laduba community pulled down his two buildings.

It took the intervention of policemen who quickly whisked the cleric and his family away to save them from being lynched.

The latest discovery brings to three, the number of suspected human parts markets discovered in Ilorin and Okuta towns in Baruteen Local Government Area in recent times.

The men of Kwara State Police Command had, penultimate week, paraded three human parts dealers, while the police were still investigating a four-storey building along Airport Road in Ilorin where human parts were also found.

How the suspect was nabbed

The latest discovery was made when the community leaders in Laduba decided to raise some volunteers to go round the houses in the area to ask for contribution for the repair of their faulty transformer.

On getting to the suspect’s house, Vanguard gathered, the volunteers were greeted with offensive odour from the house. Worried, they alerted other members of the community about the odour.

The volunteers, subsequently, mobilised more residents to the house of the islamic cleric, asking him to explain the cause of the odour.

But Alfa Gani was said to have feigned embarrassment, accusing the concerned community members of trying to intrude into his privacy.

Vanguard gathered that the development degenerated to argument between him and members of the community who insisted that they must get to the root of the matter.

The suspect, the source further said, angrily left them in his house to lodge a report at the nearby Oloje police station.

But before his arrival, the residents were said to have forced their way into the house where they met a boy preparing some charms with the baby’s placenta which was the cause of the stench in the first place.

Consequently, the angry mob that had gathered descended on the boy, making him confess that the cleric asked him to exhume the baby’s placenta to prepare the charms.

In the middle of the confusion, the mother of the baby was said to have rushed to the point where the baby’s placenta was buried only to discover that it was no longer there.

While the commotion lasted, Alfa Gani, according to the source, arrived the scene with some policemen with the intention to arrest those trying to “intrude into his privacy” but the community rose against them and presented the true version of the story to the Police.

“It was at that point that the police decided to search the entire house following which they discovered more human parts,” a source said.

The police, it was further gathered, extended their search to an uncompleted building behind the suspect’s house only to discover that the place was being used as a slaughter slab for human parts.

Mob set his buildings ablaze

The mob, therefore, demolished the structures and set the suspect’s property on fire.

The presence of the policemen, it was gathered, prevented the mob from carrying out jungle justice on the suspect who was whisked away by the police.

Contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the incident but said it was not a case of human parts selling.

He said a man was caught with baby placenta and the community descended on him.

Okasanmi said the man was just released from prison where he served a term for similar reason, saying: “We are still investigating the case.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/police-nab-cleric-preparing-concoction-placenta/

Allegations of certificate forgery and exam malpractices are rocking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), The Nation has learnt.

In one of the incidents, a young lady was allegedly caught cheating at a promotional examination conducted by the Financial Institution Training Centre (FITC), in Lagos.

An official said SEC “will not condone such act and is assessing all the options open to it to deal with the matter,” adding that one of such options would be to prosecute the said lady for exam malpractices.

The official admitted that some staff of the Commission found their way into the staff list of SEC through political godfatherism, stressing that the capital market regulatory body may beam it’s arch light on some of these individuals, since it has been discovered that some staff could not pass simple promotional examinations conducted for the organisation by reputable institutions.

He said some of these persons have been enjoying promotion every two years.

The official who requested that his identity be veiled, said the impending scrutiny of staff credentials has thrown many workers of the SEC into panic, stating that there is speculation of a likely mass purge of unproductive staff anytime soon.

However, a staff of the Commission familiar with the development, denied the existence of any plan for a mass purge of workers by the Director-General, Ms. Arunma Oteh, but admitted that the lady that was caught cheating during the promotion examination, is trying to whip up sentiments against the management and board of the SEC.

The SEC official also revealed that some senior staff of the SEC were discovered to have forged their certificates to secure employment, while one of them has hurriedly turned in his resignation when he realised the game was up.

These developments have pitched the SEC boss Ms. Oteh against staff of the Commission some of whom are now clamouring that her tenure should not be renewed once it runs out later this year.

Two years ago, Oteh was locked in a battle with some members of the House of Representatives which resulted in the commission not receiving budgetary allocations for two-straight years.

Those opposed to her leadership say “SEC’s staff have experienced low moral under the current administration and accused the management of financial recklessness and abuse of extant financial rules and regulation.”

Her supporters on the other hand say “the present management of SEC has revamped the organisation in tandem with its core mandate, adding that its workforce must possess the quality needed to deliver on its mission and vision of a world-class capital market regulator.


http://thenationonlineng.net/new/exam-malpractice-certificate-forgery-rock-sec/

ABUJA—The N100 million cash gift allegedly given to parents of abducted Chibok girls when they met President Goodluck Jonathan on July 22 at the Presidential Villa is now causing disquiet among the aggrieved parents.

They have reported ly cried out that they have been cheated by their community leaders in the sharing formula.

The Presidency allegedly handed over the money to leaders of the Chibok community in Abuja for onward presentation to parents of the abducted schoolgirls.

According to a report monitored on Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, however, some of the parents are now alleging that the Abuja-based community leaders have shortchanged them.

One parent, who was among those who visited the President, told BBC that he got only N200,000.

He said: “I got only N200,000 out of the said N100million allegedly received by our leaders in Abuja. Some of us got N300,000 and some less than that.

He also said that he was not comfortable with the way the money was shared among parents of the kidnapped girls.

According to him: “Our leaders in Abuja are using the girls to enrich themselves. In fact, some of the parents were screened out of the entourage by the Chibok leaders in Abuja. Many of them are residents of Abuja, not parents of the kidnapped girls”.

Another parent, who was screened out of the delegation that visited the President, said he got only N7,000 out of the money shared.

“I was at the farm when they brought the N7, 000 to my house and I collected it. Some of us got even less, some got N300 and below,” he said.

The parents stressed that they were not selling their daughters and that the money from the President just came to them as they neither asked for, nor expected it.

One of the community leaders, Pobu Bitrus, who is also a member of the House of Representatives and was at the meeting with the President explained to the BBC that after meeting with the President, monies were distributed to the parents in envelopes.

“After we met with the president, the parents were given monies in envelopes and that’s all. All other things they are saying about N100million, I don’t know about that,” Mr. Bitrus said.

No money was given — Presidency

In its reaction, yesterday, the Presidency however said that it never gave N100 million to parents of the abducted school girls, who were at the Presidential Villa, Abuja last week, saying the story was absolutely false.

In a text message to Vanguard yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who noted that the government only took care of the parents’ accommodation and feeding, said “the story is absolute falsehood.

“The President did not give any N100m to the visitors from Chibok. Government took care of their accommodation, feeding and transportation.

“Government’s plan is robust rehabilitation and resettlement of the girls who have escaped so they can continue their education.

“The government also plans to rebuild the school and in general terms, repair damaged infrastructure as a result of Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.”

Three months after the Chibok girls were abducted, President Jonathan finally agreed to meet with their parents following an appeal by the Pakistan girl-child education activist Malala Yusoufai. The Presidency had faced intense criticism over its handling of the kidnap of the Chibok girls being held by the extremist Boko Haram sect since April 14.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/n100m-largesse-leaders-cheated-us-chibok-parents/

Over 25 million Nigerian payment cards will be prone to hacking from July 2015 when Microsoft Corporation will end its support for the Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 software.

Microsoft officials told our correspondent on Monday that the decision to end support for both software was part of the corporation’s normal product support lifecycle policies.

Most of the Automatic Teller Machines in the country and other parts of the world run Microsoft software. However, a greater percentage of the ATMs of Nigerian banks run on the WS 2003 and WS 2003 R2.

From the Central Bank of Nigeria’s records released last month, Deposit Money Banks in the country lost N40bn to online frauds in 2013 alone.

According to experts, Microsoft’s decision will mean the end of updates and patches for combating security issues on the ATMs as well as loss of compliance and regulatory certifications by the banks.

It will also mean the end for support on applications and programmes for organisations, data centres and servers running the operating system after July 2015.

Financial analysts are of the view that lack of compliance poses a huge threat to local financial service providers’ partnerships with global payment platforms like Visa and MasterCard Incorporated.

Investigations showed that of the 25 million e-payment cards in circulation, 18 million were issued by Verve.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Wragby Business Solutions and Technologies Limited, Mr. Gbenga Iluyemi, Verve, a local operator, has over the years built up strategic partnerships with MasterCard and Visa, which have consequently given birth to various co-branded cards.

Iluyemi said, “Payment cards and Automated Teller Machines in the country that run on Windows Server 2003 will be impacted from a security perspective if they are not migrated to a latest technology platform.

“Between now and 2015, it is crucial for companies to make adequate plans. They will need to migrate to Windows 2008 or Windows 2012 R2.”

He, however, said there was a need for organisations to conduct critical assessment of their respective Information Technology environments before embarking on a migration process.

“You need to do an assessment of how many servers are running on the platform. You need to understand how many apps are sitting on the server. After that, you can do a risk assessment before deciding which of the latest platforms to adopt,” Iluyemi added.

The Public Relations Lead, West Africa Anglophone, Microsoft, Mr. Oluwamuyemi Orimolade, said running WS03 after the product’s end of support date might expose the customer business to compliance and security risks.

“As the threat landscape evolves, unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks. As a frame of reference, 37 critical updates were released in 2013 for the WS03,” he explained.

Orimolade stated that if a company was still using the WS03, this might result in an officially recognised control failure by an internal or external audit body, leading to suspension of certifications, and/or public notification of the company’s inability to maintain its systems and customer information.

“Staying put on the old platform costs more in the end. Hardware maintenance and advanced security systems will drive up costs,” he said.

Orimolade added that failing to take advantage of new technologies and application opportunities could hinder a company’s success.

Market observers are, however, of the view that the risk of businesses running applications on unsupported Windows Server 2003 platform is enormous.

They argued that old-fashioned methods of migrating machines introduce high risk to critical line-of-business applications and add no value when it comes to modernising the infrastructure, increasing security and compliance risks.


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/25-million-nigerian-payment-cards-prone-to-hacking/

A plan by the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, to defy court orders and clampdown on motorists without its new number plates by August 1, has stirred a fresh controversy as the commission came under a new leadership this week.

The corps announced Tuesday that despite restraining orders from two federal courts in Abuja and Lagos, it was determined to press on with the controversial policy of ensuring all motorists buy its new car number plates and licence from August 1.

The FRSC, now under a new Corps Marshal appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday, said it is decision is based on a new ruling by a state court in Anambra.

The Anambra Court gave the corps the go-ahead in a decision July 15, despite an appeal against the previous decisions by the two federal court.

Lawyers have rejected the authority of the Anambra Court, and also criticize its timing since the appeal launched by the FRSC is currently before the Court of Appeal.

Ogedi Ogu, the lawyer who obtained the Lagos court ruling in March against the FRSC, described the Corp’s vow to proceed with the enforcement as a “concoction of lies”.

Mr. Ogu, who filed a suit on September 30, 2013, through Emmanuel Ofoegbu, a rights activist, had challenged the power of the FRSC to impound vehicles of motorists who failed to acquire the new number plates.

In a ruling delivered by James Tsoho, the Federal High Court, Lagos, held that it was unlawful for the Commission to impose the new number plates on Nigerians, where no existing law permitted it.

“The issue of redesigning new number plates by the respondent is not covered under the provisions of any law in Nigeria,” Mr. Tsoho had said.

The court’s pronouncement put paid to the FRSC’s intention to begin enforcement of the new number plates by October 1, and the Commission headed to the appeal court to challenge the ruling.

However, on Tuesday, the FRSC announced that it would go ahead with the enforcement of the new drivers’ licence and number plates on August 1.

Chidi Nkwonta, Lagos State Sector Commander, FRSC, said the decision followed the Anambra ruling.

“This new judgment made it very clear that as from August 1, FRSC should impound,” Mr. Nkwonta said. “So, Nigerians must discountenance that first misleading judgment and take this one because we are going to continue enforcement as from August 1, 2014.”

In May, the Anambra State High Court sitting in Awka had ruled that the issuance of new vehicle number plates and drivers licenses by the FRSC was “legal” and “constitutional.”

“I hold that the directive of the respondent to all motorists previously registered to re-register their vehicles for the purpose of changing their old number plates with new vehicle number plates is legal and constitutional and stand firmly on both Act 2007 and Regulations of 2012,” the judge declared.

“Section 5 of the Act of 2007 allows the commission, the Respondent, to make regulations for carrying out the objectives of the Act. The Act of 2007 specifically allow the respondent to make regulation with regard to the designing and producing of drivers licences, and vehicle number plates to be used by various categories of vehicles,” he added.

Federal vs. State High Court

Several lawyers have faulted the FRSC’s intention to adopt a judgment by a state high court over that of a federal court, more so, when the subject of litigation was still before an appellate court.

A Lagos-based Lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, blamed the FRSC in the first place for not informing the Awka court of the two earlier judgements in Lagos and Abuja.

“The point is that if a party instituted an action at the Federal High Court in Lagos and another party instituted an action at the Federal high court in Abuja against the FRSC in Abuja and you then have those two favourable judgements coming ahead of this one, what the Federal Road Safety Commission that have been appearing in these courts ought to have told the court in Awka is to bring the two earlier pronouncement to the attention of the court,” he said.

Mr. Ogunye, said the judgment of the Anambra court is redundant.

“The FRSC cannot pick and choose. We are not talking about a policy limited to Anambra State because it is one and the same policy and if the courts earlier had voided that policy and restrained the FRSC from going ahead with that policy, the procurement of another judgement by the FRSC to the effect that it can go ahead with that policy is not availing and therefore would not entitle the FRSC to go on with that policy. So to that extent, the judgement is now empty judgement in the circumstances in which I have given this explanation it is a pyric victory, hollow and it is not capable of being enforced.

“The FRSC ought not to have set up that court to make it a laughing stock. It ought not to have urged the court on because it is the same FRSC that have received the two earlier judgement against it. It ought to have told the court that this is the situation and the parties would have set that aside. Indeed the two previous judgements ought to have been made available to that court so that the court would not have been made an ostrich and pretend that it is only concerned with material facts pleaded within the four corners of the court and pretend not to know that this two judgements have been given in the same subject.”

The parties in appeal suit No. CA/L/412/2014, instituted by the FRSC in respect of the new number plates, had filed their respective briefs of argument before the Court of Appeal, Lagos, and await a hearing date.

In a joint statement, Thursday, Messrs Ofoegbu and Ogu said that since the federal high court’s order of injunction in the suit between Mr. Ofoegbu and the FRSC was still valid and subsisting, any action by the Commission or its agents to undermine the injunction would be matched with “appropriate actions.”

“And the FRSC, pursuant to the appeal, officially published in the newspapers and social media to all Nigerians, the suspension of the vehicles’ new number plates pending the hearing and the determination of the appeal it filed against the judgment of Honourable Justice J.T Tsoho,” the joint statement read.

“So, since the vehicles’ new number plates have been suspended, to the knowledge of Nigerians, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal, what was the alleged grievance and/or cause of action that made the State High Court of Anambra State to entertain the case when the same subject matter and issues are involved in the appeal pending at the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which is higher in judicial hierarchy than a State High Court of Anambra State?

“Again, did the State High Court of Anambra State advert its mind to Section 251(i)(r) of the 1999 Constitution which provides that only the Federal High Court has the jurisdiction to entertain cases involving Federal Agencies? And the FRSC is a Federal Agency,” the statement continued.

“Furthermore, did the State High Court of Anambra State advert its mind to Section 230(2) of the National Road Traffic Regulations 2012, which expressly provides that the revocation of the National Road Traffic Regulations 2004, shall not affect anything done or purported to be done under or pursuant to that Regulations? And the vehicle number plates in use before the 2012 Regulations were obtained pursuant to 2004 Regulations,” the statement added.

Also, in his response to the FRSC’s pronouncement of intention to begin enforcement of new number plates, Mr. Ogu said that the judgement from Anambra State “appears to me as a gimmick to pave way for Mr Chidoka’s screening at the Senate.”

Osita Chidoka was the immediate past head of the FRSC who has just been appointed the Aviation Minister.

“The question is does a state high court have jurisdiction over FRSC – a federal agency, please check your constitution. It must be noted that the FHC (federal high court) is the only court of first instance in so far as the subject matter is in issue and not a state high court or howsoever called,” said Mr. Ogu.

“Again Mr Nkwonta of FRSC must be well advised, he must humble himself and seek legal advice before going public, he must always work with the FRSC legal department and seek sound advice but should he persist in his now infamous ways of reaping Nigerians, I will have no option than to ensure that he is committed for contempt of Court once the Judiciary staff strike is called off,” he added.



http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/165538-controversy-grows-over-frscs-plan-to-enforce-new-number-plates-despite-court-rulings.html#sthash.fhR1vbHp.dpbs

Bright Okpocha aka Basketmouth is one of the biggest exporter of comedy in Nigeria today, making millions of naira wherever he goes through his shows and business deals. Basketmouth didn’t plan to become a comedian, but a rap artiste.

It would not be wrong to say he didn’t choose comedy but comedy chose him. This is evident in the creative manner with which he does churns out comedy – a skill exclusive to Basketmouth. In this edition we bring to you an uncommon comedian who does his thing with style and whose money appears to grow like grass.

Basketmouth started his journey in 1990 as a profound rap artiste until he discovered that he wasn’t breaking grounds in music and that he has comedy bottled up in him.

He once formed a musical group in 1991 called Da Psychopaths, but the group scattered before they could release any song. He was eventually asked by 2face to anchor a monthly show held at The Den in Ikeja and it was during this shows that his versatility in entertainment manifested. Although he didn’t make the millions then, he was already a force to reckon with.

Basketmouth is arguably Nigeria’s number 1 exporter of comedy. He was voted in 2010 as the second Best Comedian in Africa by MNET‘s Studio 53 Extra.

He just concluded a 9-states tour in the USA. Last year, he performed alongside Gina Yashere of Def Comedy Jam in Long Island, New York, before he also featured in Kojo‘s comedy show in London. He has performed at international concerts with the high and mighty in the entertainment world, recording both national and international success.

He had performed at concerts and platforms alongside the likes of Joe, Boyz II Men, Sean Paul, Wyclef Jean, Kool & the Gang, Akon, Dru Hill, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Fat Joe, Snoop Doggy and many others. He has performed in the United Kingdom, United States of America, and South Africa.

Endorsements

Basketmouth is one of the few comedians with endorsements deals. He has a multi-million naira endorsement with Globacom and Amstel Malta. He also has another fantastic endorsement with Kia Motors and Dana Airlines.

His Foundation

Basketmouth has a Foundation called Bright Okpocha’s Foundation which was established only last year. Last year, to mark his birthday, he visited and spent over N2m on charity at the Nigerian Red Cross Orphanage in Makoko, Yaba, Lagos. He also visited the Maternity Care Centre Children’s Hospital for the Children’s Day celebration, Gbaje in Surulere. He bought computers for his Alma Mater at United Christian Secondary School, Apapa, Lagos state.

Projects

His funny countenance on stage apart, Basketmout is a shrewd business man, making more than a hundred million naira annually. This is evident in a combined business deal with his friends which included a multi- million naira ultramodern discotheque, bar and lounge, called “EmBARssy’ in the University community of Yaba, Lagos.

Despite the fact that the deal was terminated, he is planning another big business in Lagos Central. Basketmouth is the first African comedian to host a multi- million naira comedy show called ‘Lord of the Ribs’ in 2010 at the 02 Arena in London, United Kingdom.

He made more than a million pounds in his show, Basketmouth Uncensored, which held in four cities in the United Kingdom. It held in London, Manchester, Birhimagham, and in Scotland. According to the report, the show was a sell-out from the beginning, including many other categories.

His African Kings of Comedy and Lord of the Ribs staged in the United Kingdom and Lagos and hosted at the deluxe 5,000-seater Expo Centre of the Eko Hotel and Suites generated over N60 million annually. Basketmouth is paid millions of naira to hosts one of the biggest TV shows in Nigeria called the MTV Base Big Friday Show.

Our Ace Comedian is scheduled to perform on stage at a World famous comedy festival in Canada. He will become the first Nigerian comedian to perform at the annual seven day ‘Just for Laughs’ comedy festival. The event is scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 20 – Sunday, July 27, 2014, in Montreal, Canada.

Houses

Basketmouth is a lover of properties. He is a proud owner of two choice properties in Lekki Phase1 which is valued at N350m. He moved recently to his events company’s building from his former Lekki base to a much bigger place on Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, Lagos. He also recently completed a N60m home for his mother at Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.

Cars

His cars include the latest Kia Quoris saloon car worth over N12m, a Honda Crosstour, and three others brand new SUV’s which cost over N70m. He also has a Cherokee SUV, an Hyundai Elantra, and a 2013 customized Opel Insignia.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/rich-famous-behold-basket-mouth-comic-lord/

Troops are holding a man suspected to be connected with the explosion targeted at General Buhari on Wednesday. The young man who was apprehended by military patrol team that swooped on the area immediately after the explosion, had disguised as a woman clad in female garb to exude femininity with a brazier affixed to his chest.

The suspect was arrested while trying to fizzle into a crowd of onlookers when the patrol team arrived the scene. Youths in the area attempted to mob him while he was being arrested but were restrained by troops who quickly whisked him away in an armoured personnel carrier.

He is currently being interrogated by security agencies in a bid to ascertain his links.



http://aitonline.tv/post-nigerian_troops_arrest_kaduna_bomb_suspect_dressed_as_a_woman

[b]Jesus Of God Mission ( Imo State )
-God's Mennonite Church
-Guided Missiles Church
-Jesus in the new global Ministry
-Healing Has Begun Ministry
-God's Own Ministry
-The True Assemblies of God Church
-Jehovah Sharp Sharp (Festac, Lagos )
-Hurricane Miracle Ministry
-Healing Tsunami Ministry
-Satan in Trouble Ministry
-Fire for Fire Ministry
-FIST OF FURY (NTA road, Port Harcourt )
-Run For Your Life Ministry
-The Yoke Must Broke Ministry
-Jesus Heal Ministry
-Face to face ministry
-Angels on Fire Chapel of Peace
-Liquid Fire Ministries ( Suleja , Niger State)
-By fire By Fire Ministry
-HOLY FIRE OVERFLOW MINISTRIES
-David Killed Goliath Ministry ( Kaduna)
-House of Jehova's Padawans (TransAmadi, PH)
-JESUS IN HIS MIGHTINESS GLOBAL MINISTRY
-OPM - Other people's money (PH) (I have to be sure my source is right about this, but if Run for Your Life Ministry exists, why not OPM?)
-God in action ministry
-Moving mountain gospel church
-MY BROTHER IS A CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF GOD
-Fellowship of the Wings - Ajah (Lamgbasa)
-Power Foundation Ministry, Aba .
-HOLY GHOST ON FIRE MINISTRY ( Abuja )
-HIGH TENSION MINISTRY
-JESUS NEVER bleep UP MINISTRY ( Benin )
-Devil go hear am Jesus Ministry
-Accredited Church of God
-Chukwudi & Son evangelical ministry, Aba
-Power pass power church of the mountain ministry incorporated
-Ministry Of The unclad Wire - Bayelsa State
-LABORATORY CHURCH OF GOD
-Go and tell Ahab that Elijah is here Ministry - Benin
-God is Real Ministry. Motto: "Jesus no get muscle but he get power"
-Fire burn ministry
-JESUS THE LANDLORD, WE THE RELAXING PEW MINISTRY - Portharcourt
-Happy Go Lucky Church of God Almighty In Jesus Name Amen - Abeokuta
-Old time religion ministry
-Strong Hand of God ministry
-Best Spot In The Land of God Church - Apapa.
-Trigger happy ministry. (Motto- always firing the devil)
-KASABUBU CHURCH OF GOD - Ibadan
-Jesus knows his children ministry - Benin
-SEVEN THUNDERS OF JESUS
-Perfect Christianity Ministry
-Elshaddai Shall Not Die Ministry.[/b]

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