₦airaland Forum

The Federal Government will no longer allow the remains of dead Nigerians, especially from countries battling Ebola virus, from being brought into the country for burial.

The Federal Government is also probing the corpse of a Nigerian that was brought into the country from Liberia last month to ascertain whether the deceased died of Ebola or not.

The Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Professor Abdulsalami Nasidi, said this on Friday in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

Nasidi said, “The Federal Government has issued a directive that no dead body should be brought into the country, especially from neighbouring infected countries in view of the rampaging Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

“The order will be communicated to the affected countries through diplomatic channels.”

On the Nigerian that was brought into the country, Nasidi said the remains was brought into the country on 21 July, 2014 from Liberia and conveyed from Lagos to Anambra State and deposited in a private mortuary.

He said, “A team of experts, including those from the World Health Organisation, have been despatched to Anambra State to investigate whether the deceased died of Ebola.

“All the handler of the corpse brought into the country from Liberia will be registered and tracked.

“Those who accompanied the corpse to Anambra and the mortuary handlers are in quarantine in Anambra State. Our team in Anambra State will give us the statistics of those who came in contact with the corpse tomorrow (Saturday).

“If the corpse in Anambra State tested positive, we have been given two options by the World Health Organisation. We can either cremate or bury it. For corpses that would be buried, they will be placed in a bag, disinfected, while the grave must be two meters deep.”

Nasidi added that so far, 70 contacts had been established to have come in contact with Mr. Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian who died of Ebola in Lagos recently, saying that the contacts were being monitored to see if they would develop Ebola-like symptom.

He disclosed that two of the contacts that were brought down with fever had been tested and found negative to Ebola infection.

“But that does not mean that we will stop. We will continue to place them under observation until we are satisfied that they are free. They were part of the 70 established contacts. First, it was 59, it increased to 69 and yesterday (Thursday), we had another. And this increased the number to 70.”

Nasidi said there was no specific cure for Ebola virus.

“We treat the symptoms. If we say that there is no cure, the patients will not come to the hospital. There is no specific drug for Ebola virus. But we can use other drugs to save an infected person. On early intervention, three out four cases survive but if they come late, one out of four survive,” he said.

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said the government had stepped up measures to screen incoming passengers to Nigeria to identify any traveller with symptoms in airports, seaports and border crossing.

He added, “Nigerians must remain vigilant and strengthen surveillance in order to identify potential cases of EVD so that care can be given both patients and their communities and protect the population.”

“An Ebola reporting system has been activated in order to facilitate early identification of suspected Ebola cases.”

Ghana has officially banned flights from four West African countries, citing concerns about the rapid spread of the Ebola virus, which has claimed over 600 lives.

Charles Asare, Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Company, said the measure was part of a set of emergency management plans officials are rolling out to combat the spread of the virus. The affected countries include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria.

The government there has also implemented strict restrictions on the movement and management of Liberian refugees in camps in the country.

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, urged Ghanaians to bear with the government as they work to contain the virus.

"Preparedness is not an event but a process," he said.

Descartes: We are here thinking of how to handle adEBOLA and these seniles are busy nursing impeachment

kobonaire: no offense, but this your friend na sëx freak if those were thoughts while walking down the isle in Church !!

Descartes: All these measures sef.
My standard measure is the one in the picture below

Wily2wily: haahaahaaa, hooohoohoo. I'm loving it. keep it coming

Mutuwa: As if death is not certain.

Henrypraise: Ogho-Oghene n Okagbare liftin the Urhobo flag high, I knw Deltans are bless naturally, Omowumi n oritse femi equally doin the Itseke pple proud.
Only Uduaghan dat is frustrating everybodies effort, worst governor eva, maybe he commissioned dat swimming pool to encourage Ijaws to partake in sport

WombRaiders: Currently it is Monday in Asia

olodo

kastonkastrol: the dude is right... am a xtian and i dont see how the muslim sighting of the moon becomes a prob of any xtian.... anyway i know you are one Igbo. people should learn to mind their business and respect other folks religion.. and am very sure you didnt even go to church today and here you are dabbling into other folks religion. smh

Cybermugu1: Confused religion!

Nigeria is the only country in the world whose Muslim faithful are celebrating Eid-El-Fitri (the end of Ramadan festivities) today following the controversial announcement by the Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar Sa’ad, on Saturday night that the new moon of Shawwal was sighted in some cities across the country, PREMIUM TIMES can report today.

This newspaper gathered, through extensive investigations and interviews with leading Islamic clerics, that the Ramadan fast in other parts of the world would only end today (Sunday), with the Eid-El-Fitri celebrations holding on Monday.

The Chairman of the Nigerian National Moonsighting Committee, Hafiz Wali, as well as a member, Sheikh  Habeebullahi Al-Ilory, told PREMIUM TIMES that in no other country was the sighting of the moon reported by anyone.

“It will interest you to know that Nigeria is the only country celebrating Eid-El-Fitri today,” Dr. Wali said. “That is because it is the only country where people claimed they sighted the moon.”

Dr. Wali said his committee advised the Sultan that it was impossible for the moon to be sighted on Saturday but that the Sokoto monarch came under pressure from people who claimed they sighted the moon.

“By the estimation and calculation of our committee, the moon could not have been sighted and we did not sight it,” the moon sighting committee chairman said.

“We gave a report that the moon was not sighted but the Sultan received a lot of messages from people who said they sighted the moon. The Sultan could not tell them they lied. He made his announcement which is the right thing to do.”

Mr. Wali said he and his committee would however continue the search for the new moon on Sunday night and that the Sultan and other NSCIA officials would be briefed on the outcome of the exercise.

In his own comment, another member of the moon-sighting committee, Sheikh Al-Ilory, the Rector of the Marcaz Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, said the Sultan’s announcement misled Muslim faithful in the country and made Nigeria the only country on earth observing the Eid celebration on Sunday.

“The moon was not sighted anywhere in the world,” Sheikh Al-Ilory said. “As at 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, our committee advised that the moon was not sighted but the Sultan still went ahead to announce the end of Ramadan. I’m just wondering why we have to do this to Islam. Is our own moon different from the rest of the world?

“As far as we are concerned, tomorrow (Monday) is Eid-El-Fitri.”

Sultan Sa’ad, who is also the President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, had around midnight on Saturday announced the sighting of the new moon and therefore the end of Ramadan.

“The new month of Shawwal was sighted in different places within Nigeria and therefore tomorrow (Sunday) is the first day of Shawwal equivalent to 27 July 2014,” the Sultan said in an announcement aired on the Nigerian Television Authority [NTA].

The Sultan made the announcement despite receiving the report of Mr. Wali’s Moon-Sighting Committee that the moon was not sighted.

But when contacted after the Sultan’s announcement, the Secretary-General of the organisation, Is-haq Oloyede, a professor of Islamic Studies, said he was not aware that the moon had been sighted.

“I spoke to the Sultan about four times tonight and he did not tell me that the moon has been sighted,” Mr. Oloyede told PREMIUM TIMES. “In any case, any such claim is ridiculous and unscientific. It cannot be right.

“The National Moonsighting Committee has not informed us of any credible sighting of the moon. Rather, they said the moon wasn’t sighted. The new moon was only born at 11:45 P.M. tonight (Saturday) and it will take several hours for it to be sighted.

Is our own sky different? Is our own moon manufactured in Nigeria?”