₦airaland Forum

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Following the death of the matron that was one of the primary contacts of the late American-Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, who died recently of Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in Lagos, Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has described the presence of Ebola in the country as a national emergency.

Chukwu made this known when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Health. He said: “The fact that a Liberian victim of the disease, Mr. Patrick Sawyer could come and die in Nigeria meant that the virus was a global threat.



“This is a national emergency. Everyone in the world today is at risk. The experience of Nigeria opens the eyes of the world,” he said.

In Lagos, the state government has appealed to religious organizations including churches and mosques to step down on congregational activities that will bring a large number of worshippers together.

Making the appeal in Lagos, yesterday, while confirming the matron’s death as the first Nigerian fatality of EVD, state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris said the appeal became necessary in the wake of heightened anxiety over the threat posed by the Ebola virus which is transmitted from human-to-human by body contact.

Stressing that the female doctor who tested positive to the virus initially, is still alive, while six other contacts have since tested positive, Idris, who outlined the move as one of the measures being taken by government to address the situation said: “I seize this opportunity to appeal to Churches and Mosques to stop all religious gatherings, so as to prevent further spread of the virus .” He explained that at such gatherings, sweating and body contacts were most likely to occur.

The appeal came on the heels of an announcement by the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, banning delegates from EVD-affected West African nations, from attending the church’s ongoing convention, which opened Monday night at the church’s Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Addressing a capacity crowd at the convention, Adeboye expressed regret over the decision to bar members of the Church in the affected nations but prayed that God would soon arrest the situation.
The development came two days after a Nigerian female doctor tested positive to the Ebola virus.

Earlier, in Abuja, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, while announcing the death of the nurse at a press briefing, said: “Yesterday (Tuesday), August 5, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five cases are currently being treated at the isolation ward in Lagos.

“Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of Ebola virus. The first one was the index case – the imported case from Liberia of which the victim is now late.

“All the Nigerians diagnosed of the Ebola virus were primary contacts of the index case.

“The 24/7 Emergency Operation Centre which I intimated you of in my last press conference will be fully functional tomorrow (today).

“It will be headed by Dr. Faisal Shuaibu as the Incident Manager. He will later today (yesterday) lead a six-man inter-agency team drawn from National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, the US CDC, the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the Centre.”

The team includes medical personnel from the Lagos State Government and experts from federal hospitals in the Lagos area as well as the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

Already, government has appointed a Director of Communication and Community Mobilization , Prof. O. Onajole, of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. He will be based in Lagos.

Chukwu noted that government is embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.

He said there were plans to procure relevant equipment for management of the patients.

“We are making arrangements to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Terrority.”

Government is al.......

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The Amnesty international (A I), on Monday, released a video footage it claimed showed soldiers lynching men said to be members of Boko Haram. The soldiers were aided by members of the government sponsored militia commonly known as Civilian JTF and the remains of the killed men were buried into a mass grave.

The body said it got the footage, which may be evidence of war crimes committed by the Nigerian military, from several sources during a trip to Borno State.

“This shocking new evidence is further proof of the appalling crimes being committed but abandoned by all sides in the conflict. Nigerians deserve better. What does it say when members of the military carry out such unspeakable acts and capture the images on film?” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.



He further added that “These are not the images we expect from a government which sees itself as having a leadership role in Africa. The ghastly images are backed up by the numerous testimonies we have gathered which suggest that extra-judicial executions are, in fact, regularly carried out by the Nigerian military and CJTF,”

According to Amnesty Interational, one of the footages allegedly taken on March 14, 2014, showed what appeared to be soldiers and members of the civilian JTF using a blade to slit the throat of several detainees and dumping their bodies into an open mass grave.

“The video shows 16 young men and boys seated in a line. One by one, they are called forward and told to lie down in front of the pit. Five of them are killed in this way; the fate of the remaining detainees is not shown on video, but eyewitness accounts confirmed that nine of them had their throats cut while the others were shot to death’’.

“Additional footage featuring some of the same perpetrators, taken earlier that day at the same location, shows two detainees digging a grave under armed guard before the killing is carried out. One is told to lie down in front of the pit, where his legs and head are held by what seem to be CJTF members. Th.......


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Amnesty International releases video of Nigerian soldiers killing lawlessly

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The Minister for Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has said there is no scientific evidence of Garcinia kola, popularly known as bitter kola curing or preventing Ebola virus disease.



The research work that people are laying claims, to according to the minister is inconclusive.

It would be recalled that in 1999, a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Professor of Pharmacognosy, Maurice Iwu, alongside some American researchers conducted a research that showed that extract from bitter cola tend to neutralize the effects of virus. But the outcome of that research work has not been scientifically confirmed to be true or not.


He said, “Information that is being circulated especially through the social media and the rest of the internet tend to suggest that because right now, there is no known vaccine for Ebola Virus Disease and there is no known specific drug as effective against EVD. If we don’t streamline a lot of these information, the unwary will become so vulnerable. People have said that they know that a fruit is sufficient to cure EVD.


“As I speak to you now, there is no proof yet of any such fruit. I repeat, the................

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Bitter Kola cannot cure Ebola

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The death toll from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak was at 887 on August 1, while the total number of cases in the four West African countries affected stood at 1,603 on the same date, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).



According to figures released Monday by the WHO, Guinea has suffered the highest death toll with 358 fatalities out of 485 confirmed Ebola cases so far. Sierra Leone has had the largest number of cases, 646 overall, and 273 deaths, while Liberia has had 468 cases and 255 deaths.

Nigeria, the latest country to import the disease, has had four cases, of which three are classed as “probable” Ebola and one as “suspected”, the Geneva-based agency said in a statement.

The case of Patrick Sawyer, an American who died shortly after flying from Liberia at Lagos airport via Togo and Ghana, is still classed as “probable”. The WHO previously said it had not managed to check his sample because courier companies had refused to transport it to the Institut Pasteur in Dakar.

The other two probable Ebola cases in Nigeria we...........


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Ebola death toll hits 887 - World Health Organization

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The worsening security situation in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, got to a head at the weekend, when suspected robbers raided one of the biggest private hospitals in the town (name withheld) carting away undisclosed sum of money and valuables after beating and injuring many patients on admission in the hospital.


An eyewitness and staff of the hospital, who craved anonymity, told newsmen that the robbers stormed the hospital which is located on the ever busy New Otukpo road at about 11pm Saturday night and started shooting sporadically.

“The heavily armed men numbering about eight drove into the hospital in two cars, we thought they brought a patient for treatment or maybe came to visit one of the sick patients.

“Nobody ever thought that they were robbers until they took position within the hospital and tied up the security guard on duty and started shouting on everyone to lie down and bring out their money and phones.

“Before then, they had gone to the counter and collected all the money that was paid to the nurses on duty over the shelve by patients, since the accountant had closed for the day.

“From there, they went from ward to ward and room to room beating patients and their visitor and dispossessing them of anything of value they could lay their hands on, including mobile phones and cash.

“At the end of the operation which lasted about 20 minutes, many were injured but no one was killed; they drove off shooting sporadically to scare off everyone.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Superintendent(SP) Daniel Ezeala said the matter had not been reported at the command Headquaters.

Meantime, Ezeala disc............

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Robbers invade hospital , rob, beat up patients

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that the PDP plans to massively rig the 9 August governorship election in 10 identified local governments in Osun state, in addition to seeking a pliable person as a returning officer.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also said President Goodluck Jonathan has reportedly told the security agencies that he wants victory for his party at all costs, an admonition that will definitely shape their perception of the election as a do-or-die affair.


“Nigerians from all walks of life, desirous of a free and fair election on Saturday, are reaching out to us with useful information on the plan by the desperate PDP to rig the forthcoming election, and we are taking the information very seriously.


“For example, we learnt that the PDP has identified Ife Central, Ife East, Ife North, Ife South, Olurunda, Iwo, Ifelodun, Osogbo, Odo Otin and Aiyedade as places where they plan to perpetrate massive rigging. Two different results have allegedly been written ahead of the elections while three Vice Chancellors, one from the North Central and two from the South West, have been pencilled down to serve as a returning officer. The incentive for the returning officer who can ann.......

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Osun Election: PDP plans massive rigging in 10 LGs – APC