₦airaland Forum

The Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) National Campaign Council for Edo State Governorship Election and Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Gabduje said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is only interested in Edo State treasury, hence the support for Godwin Obaseki.

He promised that come September 19, “Governor Obaseki will be humiliated and Governor Wike isolated”.

Ganduje who spoke with newsmen shortly after his 49-membet campaign council was inaugurated by the National Chairman of the Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee (CEONCPC) Governor Mai Mala Buni at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja, vowed to secure victory for APC at the poll.

Ize-Iyamu denies pouring acid on student as undergraduate

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has said contrary to reports, he never poured acid on a fellow student when he was an undergraduate at the University of Benin.

During the 2016 governorship electioneering, a former governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole, had during campaign alleged that Ize-Iyamu, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in that election, poured acid on a student.

But in an online television programme monitored in Benin City on Sunday, Ize-Iyamu said he drew the attention of the then UNIBEN administration to the plight of the student.

Ize-Iyamu, who said he ensured the student got first aid treatment, however, said himself and others linked to the incident were rusticated because the identity of the culprit was never known.

He said he gained admission into the University of Benin in 1980 to read Political Science, but later changed to law and did not graduate until 1986 because he was rusticated for about two years.

He said, “When I was in the university, I was a member of the Pyrates Confraternity. At that time, we didn’t look at it as a cult arrangement but some people were already coming in with tendencies to create problems. We had this very confrontational group and one evening, somebody reported to us that they beat up a final year student who was also close to us and they mentioned the names of those involved, and we said no, this is bad.

“Don’t also forget too that I was a students’ union leader, very prominent in the students’ union congress. So, myself and some persons who heard about this complaint said let’s go and see the people concerned and talk to them.

“We went there and met with the people concerned. They opened the door for us and we were discussing the matter under a very cordial atmosphere only for some people to come in and before we knew it, there was smoke in the whole place and somebody shouted acid and was screaming. It was then I realised that somebody has poured acid on somebody and I quickly rushed to the security post. I brought them in and we took the young man to get first aid treatment.

“Of course, the school set up an inquiry, and the person that was affected admitted that I was the one who brought security agents and that I was able to take him in for medical attention. I asked who poured it and he said he didn’t know.

“He said he knew the face but didn’t know his name and nobody appeared to know the name and the university said since you people don’t want to mention the name, we are going to sanction all of you. Before we knew it, they expelled us.

“The reason they gave was that they expelled us for belonging to a proscribed organisation. But the long and short of it is that we were on it for two years till 1986 when the Senate held a meeting and said these guys have been punished enough, that if you look at the records, they were not the one that committed what happened, so, we were called back, graduated and then went to the Law School.”

Amidst reports that Governor of Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, is very ill and not responding to COVID-19 treatment, the governor was on Thursday captured playing table tennis at his isolation center.

Ikpeazu, who tested positive for coronavirus in June, on Thursday, engaged Dr. Godfrey Achilihu, MD, in a table tennis game.

However, reports reaching DAILY POST has it that the Governor has fully recovered from the disease and will soon be declared negative.

He is expected to officially resume next week.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44-WmPtj6g

As at Thursday July 2, Abia State 320 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming 19 Edo election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, will know his fate today when he appears at the Federal High Court, Benin City.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Ize-Iaymu is being arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an eight-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N700 million reportedly deployed to prosecute the 2015 general elections.

The former Secretary to the Edo Government is standing trial alongside four others before Justice J. M. Umar, who is the presiding judge.

The other four defendants are Lucky Imasuen, former deputy governor of Edo State, Chief Dan Orbih, PDP chairman in Edo State; Tony Aziegbemi, and Efe Erimuoghae.

The anti-graft agency, in the suit marked FHC/BE21C/ 2016, said the gubernatorial candidate and the other accused allegedly collected the public funds for the polls, contrary to the provisions of the EFCC Act and the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu and other defendants were first arraigned before Justice P. I. Ajoku on an eight-count charge bordering on money laundering on May 24, 2018.

The defendants were alleged to have some time, in March 2015, in Benin City directly taken possession of the sum of Seven Hundred Million ( N700, 000,000) without any contract award which sum was allegedly part of proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: fraud and corruption.

One of the counts read: That you Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Lucky Imasuen, Tony Azigbemi, Chief Dan Orbih, Efe Erimuoghae Anthony and Chief Anthony Anenih (now at large) sometime March 2015 in Benin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did directly take possession and control of the sum of 700,000,000.00 (seven hundred million naira) only without any contract award which sum you reasonably ought to have known form part of proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit; fraud and corruption; and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3)of the same Act.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has requested the approval of the Senate for the confirmation of 42 ambassadorial nominees.

One of the nominees from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was appointed as career ambassador, while the rest are non-career nominees.

Some of the non-career nominees are, former minister, Ademola Seriki (Lagos), Debo Adesina (Oyo), Dare Sunday-Awoniyi (Kogi), among others.

The President in another letter, asked the upper chamber to confirm the appointment of three nominees as commissioners in the Federal Civil Service Commission.

Buhari in yet another letter, sought the approval of the Senate for the appointment of a federal commissioner for the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission.

SEVEN PRIVATE LABORATORIES GETS APPROVAL TO COMMENCE COVID19 TESTING IN LAGOS

Lagos State Government has included seven private laboratories; Total Medical Services, SynLab, 54 Gene, Medbury medical Services, Biologix Medical Services, 02 Medical Services and Clina Lancent Laboratories into its testing strategy to expand the testing capacity of the State.

The laboratories were selected and approved by the State Ministry of Health to carry out COVID19 test after a rigorous accreditation and validation process by the Health Facility Monitoring and Accrediation Agency (HEFAMAA) and the Lagos State Bio-Bank.

Speaking at a ceremony to formally introduce the laboratories to the public, Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi disclosed that a key element in the next phase of the State’s response strategy is to expand diagnostic testing to strategically ensure a larger number of people have access to COVID19 test.

Abayomi added that State Government has developed an inclusive strategy that aims to harness the public and private sectors to rapidly expand the State’s capacity to meet the growing demand for testing in the next stage of the State’s biosecurity road map.

He said: “We recognise the need to expand our testing, especially to the local government areas that are most affected by the community transmission of the virus and as Lagos State continuously manages the public crises caused by COVID19, it simultaneously attempts to open up various aspects of its economy. Both efforts make it imperative that COVID19 tests are widely available to members of the public.

“In a bid to ramp up our testing capacity, we have taken a strategic decision to include private laboratories in the testing of COVID19. However, the State’s COVID19 response will remain a centrally managed emergency response by the State Government and the need to test will be surveillance driven and based on a clear case definition”

Abayomi added that the State Ministry of Health has also identified potential opportunities to achieve its goal of expanded testing via a carefully articulated framework. He stressed that recognition of the potential opportunities was what led to the partnership with the private sector laboratories to rapidly increase diagnostic testing for COVID-19 response.

The Commissioner while noting that the accredited private laboratories will carry out only PCR test stated that the use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests Kits (RDT) remains illegal in Lagos until State government can validate RDT kits that actually works.

“In order to expand our testing capacity, we considered the use of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) Kits. To facilitate the quick validation of the RDT Kits and reduce the barrier of entry for proposed manufacturers and supplier of RDT Kits, Mr. Governor paid the validation fees for the RDT kits

“However, upon review of the several RDT kits that were submitted for validation, we can report that none of the RDT kits passed the validation exercise. RDT kits have a very high risk of giving false positive or negative results and in the event that a false positive result is given, a potentially negative person will be subjected to trauma, isolation and treatment like a positive patient. In the event that a false negative is given, a potentially positive person is allowed to continue to roam freely in the community regardless of his positive status”, Abayomi posited.

Highlighting the demand for COVID19 testing in the community, the Commissioner opined that citizens will request for COVID19 test; to confirm status periodically, as part of requirements for returning to work, regulatory requirements for selected industries like the food and beverage industry, local & international travel requirements, requirements for resuming School and admission into hospital.

“We expect demand for tests from the following industries: individuals in the informal sector, banking & finance, manufacturing, food & beverages, schools, aviation industry, fast moving consumer goods, hospitality amongst others. Based on the projected cumulative demand from the above, we believe that demand for covid-19 tests could exceed 4,000 per day in the next six months”, he said.

Abayomi noted that the Lagos State Biobank will serve as the central coordinating body for the accredited private laboratories and will facilitate effective information exchange, access to training, maintain secure chain of custody procedure and ensure technical standards in the operations of the laboratories.

Earlier in his presentation, the Director Lagos State Bio-Bank, Dr. Bamidele Mutiu explained that the accredited private laboratories were identified to have the equipment and expertise to test for COVID19 within the parameters of the testing strategy

“The selected laboratories went through a rigorous accreditation process with the State’s Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA). The accredited private laboratories were then validated by the Lagos State Bio-Bank”

“This exercise involved validating the outputs of the samples they tested and following the successful validation of the private laboratories, the State proceeded to build their capacity in Infection Prevention and Control as well as the management of a biosafety lab”, Mutiu explained.

He noted that State’s decision to commence community based care, makes it imperative to make PCR testing more widely available stressing that there are currently a larger number of PCR machines in the private sector than there are in the public sector.

“The idea is to decentralize testing, while maintaining the integrity and regulation of sample collection, testing and result validation”, Mutiu stated.

The high point of the event was the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Health and representatives of the accredited private laboratories.

The Federal Government may consider a lockdown of the 18 Local Government Areas considered to account for 60 per cent of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria in the next phase of eased lockdown in the country.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, gave the indication in an interview with The PUNCH and other State House correspondents after leading some members of the task force to brief the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.

Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said affected state governments would implement what he called “precision lockdown.”

While noting that the nation has not reached its peak as far as confirmed cases were concerned, he urged all stakeholders to ensure compliance with all non-pharmaceutical interventions.

He also gave an insight into the reason behind the low fatality rate in Nigeria, saying 80% of the infections are in the age bracket of 31 to 40 years, which he described as a very active part of the population.

According to data earlier released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, 11 out of the 20 local government areas that account for 60% of the cases are in Lagos State

The report listed the councils to include that Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, Abuja Municipal Area Council, Mushin Local Government Area, Eti-Osa Local Government Area in Lagos and Tarauni Local Government Area in Kano State.

The Acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Victor Giadom, on Monday handed over to the Chairman of the party’s Caretaker / Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni.

The handing over ceremony was held behind closed doors at the National Working Committee conference room at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja, on Monday.

Giadom assured members of the committee of his readiness to support and partner with the team towards the realisation of the party’s goals.

He said, “I Chief. Hon Victor Giadom the outgoing Ag. National Chairman, today Monday 29th of June 2020 hands over to the Chairman and members of the National Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress.

“I assure the Committee of my readiness to partner with them to achieve the Party goals and objectives towards a successful National Convention. I pray that the almighty God grants you wisdom to pilot the affairs of the Party.”

IDPs: INTERNALLY DISPLACED POLITICIANS
Bola Tinubu
Adams Oshiomhole
RIP.