The National Publicity Secretary of Arewa Consultative Forum, Emmanuel Waye, has said he has lost faith in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
In an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, Waye lamented the worsening level of insecurity in the country, especially in the North.
He said, “How can I have faith in someone who presides over this kind of thing? I had faith in him when I followed him as a reporter and he chased away some foreigners who were coming to kill us.
“When he was coming to be President, I had faith in him. I witnessed how successful this man was in chasing enemies out of our country in 1983. But now, 300 people (were) kidnapped in his home state.”
Waye said he no longer feels safe travelling to his country home in Taraba State due to the frequent killings happening there.
“I can’t go to my home state of Taraba. The whole place is in chaos; they are killing people every day. That one is not publicised because there is no oil in Taraba.
“All over the North, there is insecurity. I have never felt unsafe like I feel now. What can I say? You have seen what is happening to our people,” he added.
The National Assembly recently passed a vote of no confidence on the service chiefs, calling on President Buhari to replace them and overhaul the nation’s security architecture.
On Wednesday, the Lagos State Government warned residents of the state to comply with all restriction measures imposed by the authorities to curb the spread of the coronavirus amid the second wave of the pandemic.
Lagosians who violate the 12 am to 4am curfew imposed by the Federal Government and other protocols would be fined up to N500,000 when caught, the government said.
The government stressed that all churches in the state must respect the curfew in place and avoid physical crossover services and large gatherings on December 31, 2020.
Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, stated this in an interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday.
He said, “If you disregard any of these rules, you can be fined. You will be taken to court and the magistrate will decide on the sanction. The fine can be between N20,000 and N500,000. It depends on the magistrate’s discretion.
“But it is not just about punishing people. People are being advised to take responsibility. The regulations were rolled out as an advisory and people have been obeying while people who have disobeyed have faced the consequences.”
However, the commissioner expressed optimism that religious leaders in the state would comply with the directive of the government on the crossover services.
Omotoso said, “With what we have been seeing, I don’t think churches will flout the protocols. CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) agrees with the government. Covid cases are going up, and everybody is worried. Some of the big churches have also announced that they won’t be holding physical crossover services.”
Furthermore, the Director-General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola, said the commission would be working with men of the Lagos State Police Command to enforce all restrictions announced by the government, especially during the New Year period.
Mojola, who also spoke with The PUNCH on Wednesday, said the commission would not wait till the night of December 31, 2020, to swing to action.
“We are not waiting till tomorrow (Thursday). There is an ‘Operation No Tolerance’ and we have had a meeting with the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Task Force and Governor’s Monitoring Team. We will start patrolling tonight and the patrol will be two-ways – we will begin to warn people to observe the curfew and after the curfew, we will then start clampdown.
“For the churches, Mr Governor has made it very clear that there should be no crossover services. There is already an advisory from CAN that the churches should close very early by 11 pm and join virtually into the New Year.
“Enforcement is going to be on another level this period. We are working very seriously with the police on this,” he said.
The director-general also urged well-meaning Lagosians to alert the commission of any contravention by churches in the state.
“Our men will be on the road patrolling the streets and these locations, and if people find these places, they can always call us, and we will send operatives there to enforce the protocols,” he stated.
Lagos, which is one of the epicentres of coronavirus management in Nigeria, has recorded over 26,000 infections and more than 200 associated deaths since the country’s outbreak.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Wednesday says religious centres will be allowed to hold the Thursday crossover worship services only in strict compliance with COVID -19 safety protocols.
Makinde in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Taiwo Adisa, Wednesday, in Ibadan also approved the suspension of the 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. curfew earlier imposed on states by the Federal Government.
The governor said that officials of the State’s Task Force on COVID -19 would ensure strict compliance with the guidelines and advisories during the Yuletide and after.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the State Task Force on COVID-19 had on Tuesday, declared that the state government ruled out crossover services over curfew imposed by the Federal Government.
Makinde, however, endorsed the brief by Prof Temitope Alonge, the Chairman of the COVID-19 Taskforce Technical Team, on Wednesday, which reviewed the earlier pronouncement by the team and lifted the curfew.
He warned that worship centres must adhere strictly to the advisories and guidelines put in place to prevent the spread of the virus in the state.
The governor added that other advisories earlier released by the taskforce, including the directive of 50 per cent occupancy for worship and event centres, ban of street carnivals and others remained in effect.
According to him, all residents of the state are enjoined to adhere strictly to COVID – 19 guidelines, such as proper use of face masks, hand washing and social distancing requirements.
The vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has been approved for use in the UK, with millions of doses set to be distributed throughout January, sparking new hope that the pandemic can be brought under control in a matter of months.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has ruled that the vaccine is safe and should be administered in two standard doses up to 12 weeks apart, rather than four, with the government aiming to use the first wave of supplies on as many people as possible.
According to trial data shared with the MHRA, the three-month interval helps to induce an immune response that is 80 per cent effective in preventing Covid disease.
The half-dose, full-dose regime, which appeared to be 90 per cent efficacious, was not endorsed by the MHRA, which said the “results were not borne out by the full analysis”.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the approval was “fantastic news” and a “moment to celebrate”, while prime minister Boris Johnson called it “a triumph for British science”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorize Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for use.
“This follows rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA, which has concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.”
Distribution of the vaccine is set to begin next Monday, with the government optimistic that more than two million vulnerable people could receive their first dose by mid-January.
It is hoped that all at-risk groups will have been vaccinated using the Oxford or BioNTech-Pfizer candidate by the end of April, helping to ease strain on the NHS amid a deluge of hospitalisations driven by the new coronavirus variant.
A total of 100 million doses have been pre-ordered by the UK – enough to vaccinate 50 million Britons.
The government missed its target of producing 30 million doses by September, the UK’s vaccine taskforce chief admitted last month. At the time, Kate Bingham said she expected there to be four millions doses available by the end of the year – yet Mr Hancock said on Wednesday this figure stood at 530,000.
Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said the manufacturer would be able to provide “one million doses and beyond” per week.
The Oxford vaccine has long been seen by Whitehall as a critical tool in ending the acute phase of the Covid crisis due to its low cost and ease of storage.
Compared to the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, which must be kept at -70C and can be moved only four times within a cold chain before being used, the Oxford candidate can be stored at fridge temperature for up to six months and repeatedly relocated.
This will allow health authorities to quickly transport thousands of doses to hospitals, mass vaccination sites, GPs and even pharmacies across the UK, and ensure the administration of the vaccine is not hindered by technical and logistical complications.
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab will make it easier for family doctors to vaccinate more people, more quickly.
“It is the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that we desperately need to get us through this difficult winter and ultimately overcome the virus,” he said.
The vaccine is expected to accelerate the lifting of the restrictions that were implemented earlier this month in response to the UK’s coronavirus variant – but only if the “rollout goes according to plan,” cabinet office minister Michael Gove said on Monday.
Across the four nations, work has been underway to transform football stadiums, conference centres and racecourses into mass vaccination centres that will eventually allow up to two million people a week to receive the jab.
People receiving the Oxford vaccine or the Pfizer-BioNTech candidate, which was approved earlier this month, will be injected with their first dose followed by a booster jab up to 12 weeks later, the Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) said on Wednesday.
The aim is to give as many people as possible a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, rather than reserving initial supplies for a second jab.
The DHSC said: “Having studied evidence on both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, the JCVI has advised the priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.
“Everyone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection.”
Professor Wei Shen Lim, chair of the JCVI, said this “will allow the greatest number of people to receive the vaccine in the shortest possible time – and that will protect the greatest number of lives.”
In a joint statement, the chief medical officers of the four nations said they agreed with the JCVI that first doses should be prioritised. Former prime minister Tony Blair similarly advocated such a policy, writing last week in The Independent that the UK’s vaccination plan needed to be “altered and radically accelerated” in response to the new variant.
Although the Oxford vaccine has been heralded as a game-changer in the fight against Covid-19, its journey to authorisation has been mired by controversy and apparent irregularities in the trial data.
It was revealed last month that the half dose-full dose regime which delivered an efficacy rate of 90 per cent was initially administered in UK trial participants as a mistake.
Side effects such as fatigue, headaches or arm aches were milder than expected in the volunteers, leading to the discovery that their dosage was incorrect. Regulators were immediately notified of the error but signed off on the plan to continue testing the vaccine in different dosages.
Separate data showed that the vaccine was only 62 per cent effective when administered as two full doses over a four-week period. Scientists have yet to fully explain the discrepancy in results between the two dosing regimes.
Dr June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said “extremely careful” consideration was paid to the different dosing regimes implemented during the large-scale trials and the points at which the second shots were administered.
In some sub-groups of the trial, volunteers were given their follow-up jab 26 weeks after the first dose, the regulatory body said.
However, the MHRA settled upon the standard two-full dose programme over a three-month time frame as trial data for this regime was the “most robust”.
Questions have also been raised of whether the vaccine was tested on enough people over the age of 55. Only 12 per cent of study participants were from this age group and they were enrolled later on in the trial.
The MHRA’s professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed said there was a “small amount of data available” which pointed to the effectiveness of the vaccine in the elderly.
“Older people have been recruited and more data and older people will be coming online in early 2021, not only from the UK trial but also from the trial in Brazil, but also the trial being undertaken in the United States,” he added.
Dr Raine added that pregnant women would be able to receive the Oxford jab, but only after a risk assessment, and said that “people who are advised not to have either of the vaccines are those with allergies who’ve had reactions to any of the ingredients”.
It also remains unclear whether the vaccine will be able to halt the transmission of Covid-19 – though there are some indications of this from the early data that has been collected.
A total of 6,638 volunteers in the UK trial were asked to complete weekly swab tests during the phase three study to identify any asymptomatic infections.
From this group, 69 such cases were detected, with the majority coming in the control group who did not receive the vaccine. This enabled researchers to determine that the vaccine is 27 per cent effective in preventing asymptomatic transmission.
Dr Pirmohamed said, at this stage, the data “was not mature enough”, meaning the MHRA was unable to make any recommendations regarding transmission.
AstraZeneca has committed to manufacturing 3 billion doses of the vaccine throughout 2021. The British-based pharmaceutical has pledged to sell it at cost to developing nations in perpetuity, while its ease of storage means it will be readily accessibly for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who led the clinical trial, said the approval was “a landmark moment”.
But he said the impact of vaccines is “about getting them into people’s arms, stopping the virus from causing severe disease and hospitalisation, which we know that all of the vaccines can do very efficiently.”
Nigerian Army has deployed Aircraft and Gun Trucks in search of Nnamdi Kanu’s Eastern Security Network Camp.
From the drones and hidden cameras believed to be installed by the ESN, a video captured the Nigerian Army helicopters and their vehicles and soldiers searching for the camp of the ESN to make arrests.
The Nigerian Army has deployed combat helicopters, gun trucks and soldiers to search some forests in the South-East states where the Eastern Security Network, recently launched by Nnamdi Kanu, is suspected to be camping.
According to Sahara Reporters, the military search had been ongoing for days, and has no time frame, as the army was reportedly acting on “orders from above.”
From the drones and hidden cameras believed to be installed by the ESN, a video captured the Nigerian Army helicopters and their vehicles and soldiers searching for the camp of the ESN to make arrests.
Kanu, a leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, on December 12, launched the ESN, saying the regional security outfit, just like Amotekun in the South-West, would help tackle crime.
“The Nigerian Army that is supposed to fight Boko Haram were seen everywhere searching for the camp of Eastern Security Network team. But they forgot they are dealing with sophisticated men. There are cameras and drones everywhere watching them,” an official told Saharareporters.
“If the Nigerian Armed Forces attack the ESN, the people of Southern Kaduna, the Middle Belt, and the South-West must use that opportunity to flush out the Fulanis in their region. The Nigerian Army will disintegrate, and all will be free,” another aggrieved official added.
Days after Kanu launched the ESN, the Yoruba’s socio-cultural group, Afenifere, lent its support, noting that Nigeria must embrace regional policing as the only remedy to insecurity.
The Afenifere National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with Sahara Reporters, had stated this, adding that the distorted federal police could no longer secure the country; hence the establishment of regional security outfits to protect lives and property.
He said, “It is seen that the central policing in Nigeria has collapsed, and the regional policing is not a new thing in this country. And, I tell you, we are back to the era of regional policing.
“The security challenges have gone beyond what the Nigeria police can handle, and since we have had regional policing before, we are back into the era again.”
When asked if this is commendable and needed, he said, “Kanu is doing what is good for his region.”
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Sagir Musa, could not be reached for comments on the deployment of the aircraft.
The organisers of the maiden edition of a Kaduna sex party have been arrested by the police in the northern state.
The youths who have advertised the event on social media platforms revealed that the sex party was billed to take place on December 27, 2020 in an undisclosed location in the state capital.
The party invite explained that participants, male and female, are expected to be naked as no clothes will be allowed at the venue.
Also, the party which was slated to start at 8 pm would last till daybreak to allow for participants who are interested in having sex during the party to do so.
The IV stated that interested participants will have to pay 2,000 naira (for the popular side) and 3,000 naira or 5,000 naira (for VIP).
However, piqued by this development, the state government directed the police to find out the venue and arrest those behind it.
Speaking on this development, Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Abdullah Yunus said the police have responded and made some arrests.
He said this was made possible through the advertisement sent on social media platforms.
According to him, “when we got to know of this development, the government was disturbed so the governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai informed the police.”
When contacted, the police spokesperson, ASP, Muhammad Jalige confirmed the development saying, police were able to trace the venue and made some arrests, stating that more details on the arrest would be given shortly.
Medical workers in protective suits tend to coronavirus patients at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Wuhan, China.
The Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) has documented 397 new COVID-19 infections in the country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), which got the information from the centre’s verified website, reported that the nation has so far tested 932,327 people since the first confirmed case was announced on February 27.
The public health body said the fresh infections were reported from 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) bringing the country’s total number of infected people to 84,811.
The NCDC also stated that there were 12,126 active cases across the federation. The organisation added that deaths resulting from coronavirus complications had increased by 10, while 323 patients had been discharged nationwide after testing negative for the virus.
“Our discharges today (Monday) include 152 community recoveries in Lagos State, managed in line with the guidelines,” it stated.
The centre gave the breakdown of the latest cases to consist of 144 in Lagos, 83 in Plateau, 48 in Kaduna, 36 in Adamawa and 22 for Rivers.
While Oyo reported 16 incidents, Kebbi had 10, as Nasarawa and Sokoto recorded seven each.
Five cases each were confirmed in the FCT and Kano; four in Edo and Jigawa had three. Ogun and Akwa Ibom states had two cases each; Niger, Bauchi and Zamfara reported one each.
According to the NCDC, the 397 new cases and 10 deaths were recorded as at December 28. It stated that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level Three, has continued to coordinate response activities.
The NCDC stated that till date, 84,811 cases have been confirmed, 71,357 discharged and 1,264 deaths recorded in 36 states and the FCT. The health agency noted that it was important for parents to also encourage their children to wash their hands frequently with soap water, wear face masks in public and avoid large gatherings to reduce the spread of the virus.
“Young people account for over 50 per cent of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria. They have a role to play in reducing the risk of spread,” it observed.
The NCDC also advised Nigerians to stay at home if they felt unwell and call their state’s helpline to get tested.“Do not mingle with others if you have symptoms such as fever, cough or sudden loss of sense of taste or smell,” it further counselled.
MEANWHILE, Acting Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat of the FCT administration, Dr. Mohammed Kawu, has said: “only four doctors working in both public and private hospital regrettably succumbed to the disease and death since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the nation’s capital on March 27,2020.”
He stressed that the latest, a female doctor from Gwarimpa General Hospital, died two weeks ago, adding that “it is important to mention that the fatalities have not in any way adversely affected the quality of services rendered in the hospitals and most certainly, not to the point of rendering skeletal services.” His remarks were contained in a statement signed yesterday by the Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, Anthony Ogunleye.
President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to provide foreign exchange for the importation of food items.
Buhari spoke on Tuesday at the fifth regular meeting with the presidential economic advisory council that held at the statehouse in Abuja.
This is the third time that the president would issue the directive; first in August 2019 and again in September 2020.
A statement released by Garba Shehu, the president’s senior special assistant on media and publicity, quoted Buhari as saying his administration will tackle food inflation in 2021.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, food inflation stood at 18.30 percent in November; a sign of increasing food prices in the country.
“Already, about seven states are producing all the rice we need. We must eat what we produce,” Buhari said.
“Going back to the land is the way out. We depend on petrol at the expense of agriculture. Now the oil industry is in turmoil.
“We are being squeezed to produce at 1.5 million barrels a day as against a capacity to produce 2.3 million. At the same time, the technical cost of our production per barrel is high, compared to the Middle East production
“We will continue to encourage our people to go back to the land. Our elite is indoctrinated in the idea that we are rich in oil, leaving the land for the city for oil riches.
“We are back to the land now. We must not lose the opportunity to make life easier for our people. Imagine what would have happened if we didn’t encourage agriculture and closed the borders. We would have been in trouble.”
Buhari commended the successes his administration has recorded in diversifying the economy to reduce over-reliance on crude oil.
The meeting reviewed the global and domestic economy in 2020 and agreed on a number of measures to improve the nation’s economy in 2021.
In specific terms, it noted that the country’s economic growth continues to be constrained by obvious challenges including infrastructural deficiencies and limited resources for government financing.
It emphasized the need to make the private sector of the economy the primary source of investment, rather than government.
The meeting reviewed the progress made with structural reforms in response to the economic crises, including the institution of the Economic Sustainability Plan and the changes in electricity tariff and fuel pricing regime.
It also reviewed the partial re-opening of the land borders, the movement towards the unification of exchange rates and budgetary reforms through Finance Bill 2020 and 2021.
It agreed that to prepare the country for the challenges ahead, it was imperative to ensure macro-economic stability, create certainty and re-build investor confidence in the economy to harness investment potentials from domestic and international sources.
The Deeper Life High School has pledged commitment to ongoing investigations into the alleged case of sexual abuse of a student, Don Davis.
Davis, a Junior Secondary School 1 pupil at the Deeper Life School in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, was alleged to have been abused by fellow student in the school’s dormitory.
The 11-year-old was admitted to a hospital barely a few weeks after he returned from school, as he was emaciated.
His mother, Deborah Okezie, took to social media to call out the school management, claiming her son’s anus had been damaged.
She also said the school switched Davis dormitory to a dormitory filled with senior students where the abuse took place.
After the outrage the matter generated, Deeper Life suspended the school principal and ordered an investigation.
The Education Secretary, Deeper Life High School, Mrs Thelma Malaka, while providing an update on the case on Tuesday, said the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Udom, had taken over investigation to ensure “neutrality and a dispassionate outcome.”
She said the school would be transparent and ensure justice was served in the matter.
“The panel has sat and we have presented staff members and students of our school who have been mentioned in this particular case all through the period of the investigation. We believe that the government will share the final report once the investigation is concluded.
“Secondly, as a parent myself, I do care about the mental and physical health of Don Davis who has been at the centre of this issue. Despite the intriguing underpinnings, we will continue to show our love to him within the limits permitted by his parents. We have unflinching confidence in our God to resolve the issue such that at the end, the truth will ultimately prevail,” she said.
A register of people who refuse COVID-19 vaccines in Spain will be created and shared with European nations, Salvador Illa, the country’s health minister, has said.
The BBC quoted the minister as saying the register will not be accessible to the public or to employers.
Illa reportedly said the register will be for those who were offered the COVID-19 vaccine but rejected it for “any reason”, adding that vaccination would be mandatory.
“What will be done is a register, which will be shared with our European partners… of those people who have been offered it and have simply rejected it,” he was quoted to have said.
“It is not a document which will be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection.
“People who are offered a therapy that they refuse for any reason, it will be noted in the register… that there is no error in the system, not to have given this person the possibility of being vaccinated.”
Spain is currently rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved for EU member states, last week.
Illa said regional authorities will contact people when it is their turn to get vaccinated, adding that it is within the right of citizens to decide not to get vaccinated.
“We are going to try to solve doubts. Getting vaccinated saves lives, it is the way out of this pandemic,” he said.
“People who decide not to get vaccinated, which we think is a mistake, are within their rights.”
As of Monday, the number of people who have died from COVID-19 in Spain exceeded the 50,000 mark.
The figure was around 50,12 at the time of filing this report. There are 1,894,072 infections in the country, according to data collected from Worldometer, a platform that gathers statistics.
