The Provost of Luminar International College of Alternative Medicine, Enugu, Prof. Joseph Akpa, says he has found a cure for coronavirus pandemic.
Prof. Akpa, made the claim to newsmen in a press conference held in Enugu on Wednesday.
According to him, he had already made energy health medicines superficially meant to boost the human immune system and others meant to directly attack the virus to ensure 100 per cent successful cure.
He, however, challenged health institution to bring any patient.
He said: “I will challenge any health institution or agency to bring any known case of coronavirus to me and see how it will disappear within a few days.
“If the Permanent Secretary of Enugu State Ministry of Health or the State Government approaches me to cure any of the known cases of coronavirus in the state I will voluntarily do so without attaching any condition to it.
“I thank God for using me to find the cure to a disease that is already threatening to wipe out the whole earth,” he said.
Prof Akpa blamed the outbreak on the quest to be supreme superhuman species among the Chinese and others.
“These people during their meditation engage in what is known as Astral Travelling in which the spirit leaves the body and travel to these planets to probe what is there and at times steal certain substances which they bring back to the earth.
“So be that some of these unworthy activities of the human beings affected the planet Mercury and in reaction now sends the deadly radiations of the coronavirus to the earth.
“Finally, however, I will teach you, journalists, some self-protective habits and also give each of you a bottle of Immunity Enhancement.
“Before ending this briefing I like to inform you that all the planets have also their positive effects on the human beings here on earth, you can find this in many of my works,” Akpa said.
Critic, Femi Fani-Kayode has lashed out at those peddling rumour that Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari was dead.
Reports on social media suggested that Kyari, who is currently being treated for Coronavirus was dead.
But Fani-Kayode has described those peddling rumour of Kyari’s death as vicious and heartless.
He said Kyari was not dead but very much alive.
“It is not true that Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to Muhammadu Buhari is dead. Those that are behind that rumour are vicious and heartless.
“I remain opposed to the Muhammadu Buhari administration, but to wish or proclaim someone dead simply because you disagree with him politically is unacceptable,” he tweeted.
The rumour was started Thursday via a tweet by Kemi Olunloyo, a pharmacist, who now claimed to be an investigative journalist.
She claimed ‘a high ranking member of President Buhari’s Cabinet has DIED from coronavirus complications’
Her followers on Twitter swallowed the news hook, line and sinker. By midnight, it had recorded over 5,600 retweets and 9,700 likes.
However presidential spokesmen Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu dismissed the tweet as fake news.
Popular mobile phone manufacturers Tecno have signed Nigerian music superstar Wizkid as it’s brand ambassador. The Starboy is currently being unveiled as the mobile phone brand ambassador at the launch of its Camon 15 series.
The deal between Wizkid and Tecno is a multi-million naira deal. He is the first Nigerian musician to be officially associated with the brand as its ambassador.
The launch of the Camon 15 and Camon 15 Pro comes with several goodies for customers and fans of the Starboy. New purchases of the mobile devices would attract a free customised polo from Wizkid.
The deal was settled long time ago, yesterday April 2 becomes the official unveiling ceremony.
Given the Coronavirus Pandemic, the launch was done virtually thus bringing a Guinness World Record as Africa’s First Online Product Launch. The unveiling was hosted by Bovi with pomp and fanfare.
As the world faces the most serious public health crisis in a century, scientists and medical professionals are scrambling to understand who is most vulnerable to Covid-19 and why. But one clear trend is emerging: Men are much more likely to die from the disease than women.
It is a pattern occurring in almost every country as researchers frantically begin to collate data from national health authorities.
“We are seeing with every country that provides us with sex-disaggregated data that men are more likely to die from the virus, anything from 10 percent to more than twice as likely,” said professor Sarah Hawkes, the director of the UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health in the UK.
The centre is home to the independent Global Health 50/50 initiative, which has embarked on a project to collate data on gender and Covid-19 – the disease caused by the novel coronavirus – from across the globe.
While much emphasis was initially placed on the elderly or those who have pre-existing health conditions as being at risk of dying from the virus, it is now becoming clear that being male is also a factor.
Data from China first revealed a gender gap in deaths, with 64 percent of male sufferers dying compared to 36 percent of women, according to the Global Health 50/50 initiative.
Figures from France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain have confirmed the pattern.
In the two hardest-hit European nations, 71 percent of the Covid-19 deaths in Italy were male while in Spain almost twice as many men as women have died.
“Undoubtedly, a part of this is biology but a large part of this difference is also driven by gender behaviour, such as far higher levels of smoking and drinking among men compared to women,” professor Hawkes told FRANCE 24.
In France, figures from the Public Health institute show that, from March 1 to March 22, 57 percent of Covid-19 deaths were men with the average age being 81 years old.
But Hawkes said that when it comes to contracting the virus, the gender gap is far more less noticeable – women are at just as much risk as men of being infected.
While it is still too early to determine why the gender gap is emerging, researchers point to several possible factors.
Data has already shown that other coronaviruses, such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), tend to affect men disproportionately.
Lifestyle choices and behaviours also play a part, with men less likely to seek medical help at the first signs of disease or to follow public heath advice. Studies show that men are also less likely to wash their hands or use soap.
They are also more likely to indulge in risky lifestyle behaviours such as drinking and smoking, which means men have a higher incidence of both pulmonary and cardiovascular disease.
Then there are the biological factors, with hormones, particularly oestrogen, playing a role in increasing women’s antiviral response. Genetic structure is another important factor, with a significant number of genes that regulate the immune response encoded on the X chromosome, of which women have two while men only have one.
“We know that women’s immune systems function differently to men’s – after all, women’s bodies are designed to host a foetus for nine months at a time without it being rejected as a foreign body,” professor Hawkes said.
Dr Sabra Klein, an immunologist and a specialist in gender and infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Heath, spoke to FRANCE 24’s The 51 Percent show earlier in March about the possible reasons for men being at more risk of dying from Covid-19.
“Generally speaking, women mount greater immune responses to a variety of viruses as well as other infectious agents than do men,” Dr Klein said.
“There are biological differences in the immune systems between men and women which impact our ability to fight an infection,” she said, pointing to blood samples from China collected from Covid-19 patients.
“[Those samples] suggest our blood chemistry and immune cell counts do, in fact, differ between men and women, which could be contributing to some of the gender differences that we’re observing in the severity of the disease.”
In the meantime, researchers are pleading with countries to provide specific data on gender and age differences when it comes to recording deaths, especially in the US and Britain.
“The Covid-19 crisis reveals, in stark terms, that in most countries, the data-for-decision-making process is broken,” said Dr Kent Bush, the co-director of Global Heath 50/50.
“We have the data, but too often we fail to analyse it and we fail to act on it. While it’s great to see some countries stepping up, too many still don’t, including those with the wherewithal to do better, such as the [United] States and the UK.”
Such data should be used to shape public heath messaging, said Dr Klein.
“This pandemic may end up being the defining moment for sex and gender in the way we view infectious diseases,” she said.
“I am disappointed that many of the public health officials around the world are not speaking out that being male is indeed a risk factor for a more severe outcome and, in particular, being an older male. I do think that there could be public heath messaging [that] could occur in that context.”
She later told FRANCE 24 that such public health advice is critical when there is no drug to prevent or vaccine to help cure the virus.
“So if more older-aged men knew this, or their spouses knew this, it may mean they would be more vigilant, and also taking advantage of healthcare while also practicing good hygiene.”
Banks and major markets were shut in Osun on Wednesday following a total state lockdown ordered by Gov. Gboyega Oyetola, in a bid to minimise the spread of coronavirus in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor had, in a statewide broadcast on March 29, announced the total lockdown of the state for two weeks to combat the spread of the virus in the state.
Oyetola said all land boundaries would be shut effective from midnight of March 29, while there would be intra-state restriction of movement from midnight of March 31.
The governor, however, said that only those on essential duties such as health personnel, fire service, environmental officials, security personnel, media, power and water supply agencies and telecommunication officers on duty would be allowed to move.
NAN reports that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had on March 25, confirmed first index case in the state, while the second index case was confirmed on March 29 and three more cases on Tuesday.
A NAN correspondent who moved round Osogbo and its environs on Wednesday reports that all banks, markets, shopping malls and motor parks were shut.
Security operatives were also mobilised at strategic entry points, while mini-buses as well as motorcycles that usually conveyed people were also off the road.
Journalists were, however, given identity cards by the state government to move around for coverage of activities.
The Presidency has reacted to the news making the rounds on social media that President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.
A claim about Kyari’s sack went viral on social media on March 31, 2020, after a WhatsApp broadcast message which claimed that President Buhari had sacked him.
The message forwarded to many Nigerians mostly in the Northern part of the country also claimed that the President had replaced Kyari with a former Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi.
The circulated WhatsApp message further said that the statement on Kyari’s sack was released by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, on Monday, March 31, 2020, in Abuja.
The message read in part: “The termination of the appointment of Abba Kyari took immediate effect. And the President has appointed Ajimobi as New COS. The President ordered Abba Kyari to step down as Chief of Staff due to his health challenge.’’
However, the Presidency, through the President’s aide on new media matters, Bashir Ahmad, described the news as “another fake news.”
Ahmad tweeted, ”Yet another fake news started trending on some WhatsApp groups that ‘President @MBuhari sacked Mallam Abba Kyari and replaced him with former Gov. Abiola Ajimobi’, disregard and dishonour it, entirely untrue!’’
Kyari, who tested positive to Coronavirus after he returned from Germany, was reportedly flown in an air ambulance to Lagos at the weekend to continue his treatment.
The National Coordinator, Nigeria Sex Workers Association, Amaka Enemo, says sex workers in the country have been forced to suspend activities, especially in Lagos and Abuja, due to the lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19.
Enemo told The PUNCH on Tuesday that although sex workers offer “essential services” they would remain indoors because their services involve “substantial bodily contact”.
She said the association had been able to sensitise its members to the dangers of COVID-19.
She said, “There is sensitisation across the country, including within our network. Sex workers also offer essential services. However, there is no way sex workers can do their work without body contact. So, they are staying at home to watch what happens.
“The government has announced a lockdown and as law-abiding citizens, we will not flout the law. If the government says sit at home, we will all obey because nobody wants to die.
“We fall under essential services but ours is peculiar because of the nature of body contact. You cannot compare it to doctors because the doctors are not making full body contact with people the way we do.”
When asked whether only ‘street operations’ had been suspended and if private home services could continue, Enemo said the decision of the association was that “all activities be put on hold”.
The national coordinator said, “The lockdown affects street workers and those at home equally. For the sake of their health, they should all stay at home and avoid bodily contact. So, we stay at home but we are sharing materials that will keep them safe.”
When asked to evaluate the financial impact of the lockdown on sex workers, Enemo said it was the same effect it had on artisans.
Enemo added, “Of course it is going to affect them financially but sex workers are not the only ones that make money on a daily basis. It is the same for commercial drivers. Of course, they might have their savings but that does not mean it will not affect them. It is affecting everybody; so, sex workers are not exempted.”
The national coordinator said her association would accept donations from the government or private sector as this would reduce the impact of the lockdown on members.
“If they are willing to help, we will accept it. It is lockdown. Our business is affected,” Enemo added.
The German embassy in South Africa is making plans to repatriate some 7,000 of its nationals who are stuck in the country.
Already, 47 German tourists are under quarantine in the country after one of them tested positive to Covid-19, according to local media reports.
South Africa has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa – 1,280 by the latest count, and is under a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
German ambassador to South Africa Martin Schäfer on Monday told SA FM Radio that they estimate there could be between “seven to nine thousand Germans stuck in the country”.
He said:
Quote Message: We have political will in Germany, we have the means and the money to do it [repatriation] and I think it’s the most human thing to do to help get them home.
The Nigerian Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, has made revelations about the novel coronavirus.
The deadly disease has killed over 30,000 people in three months globally.
Currently, Nigeria has recorded 111 cases of the global pandemic.
On Monday, the Ooni recalled that a divine proclamation came out to the world last year, June 6th, 2019, during the World Ifa Festival – Otura Meji.
The statement was posted on his Twitter account.
“We foretold about the impending rage of this invisible pandemic war, but few heard us”, the monarch said.
“Please note that Efod/Urim and Thurim are in the holy Books. They are the same as our ancient readings that have not failed us till date. On this throne, I work very closely with all the nations of the world most especially the nation of Cuba.
“Centuries go by, the nation of Cuba hold dearly the tenets of our ancestors and rely on the blessings of the mystery of nature, and as a result they have the best medical care in the world. They are the ONLY country that have come out boldly to help the world.”
He stated that the Almighty is above religion and he is moving now; that the world will now respect nature wholly.
“To solve this ailment is through natural elements put together above all from nature. It has been tested!!! I have used it and also used it for some of the chronic Corona patients with testimonials.”
He challenged researchers both in Nigeria and the world to put these natural herbs into clinical medicine and extract the vaccines from it.
The Ooni further expressed readiness to work with them and provide huge access to the herbs.
