Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Friday 24th April 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 24/04/20
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BREAKING: Nigeria Records 108 New Coronavirus Cases, Toll Now 981
Nigeria has recorded 108 new Coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 981.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control disclosed this in a tweet on Thursday.
The new cases are spread across Lagos, Kwara, Plateau, Ogun, Borno, Akwa Ibom and FCT.
The agency said, “108 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported; 78 in Lagos, 14 in FCT, five in Ogun, four in Gombe, three Borno, two in Akwa Ibom, one in Kwara, one in Plateau.
“As at 11:30 pm 23rd April, there are 981 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Discharged: 197, deaths: 31.”
108 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported;78 in Lagos14 in FCT5 in Ogun4 in Gombe3 Borno2 in Akwa Ibom1 in Kwara1 in Plateau As at 11:30 pm 23rd April there are 981 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria.Discharged: 197Deaths: 31#TakeResponsibility pic.twitter.com/cq7STlnHGJ— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 23, 2020
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REVEALED: Plateau Index Coronavirus Case Is 20-year-old Female From Kano
Test Result
A 20-year-old lady identified as Hauwa Yakubu has emerged the first Coronavirus patient in Plateau State.
SaharaReporters learnt that Yakubu travelled to the Plateau from Kano State despite the lockdown in place before being arrested by the state COVID-19 Task Force, who thereafter took her specimen for test.
The test result with Lab number NVRI-COV-137 and Epistemology Number NIE-PLS-JJN-20-004 came out positive on Thursday.
Test Result
The government said it had commissioned a contact-tracing mechanism to locate all persons that had met her since she got to the state in a bid to have them quarantined and tested for the virus.
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My Last Contact With Abba Kyari By Femi Adesina
He told us he would be back at his desk soon. I believed it. But now, it would never happen. Not tomorrow, not next week, not forever. Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, has gone the way of all flesh.
Our last contact was on Friday, March 20, 2020. President Muhammadu Buhari was scheduled to meet with the Chairman of ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, by 3 p.m. Such meetings hold in the diplomatic room of the presidential office complex.
The protocol is that aides invited to attend any meeting must be seated 15 clear minutes before the President walked in. I was in the diplomatic room at the required time. A seat had been designated for me, next to that of the Chief of Staff.
Few minutes later, Mallam Abba (as he was often called by us) walked in. I rose to greet him.
“Femi, how are you? They have said we should not shake hands again,” he responded. Rather jocularly, he extended his right foot. I touched his foot with my own, and we both laughed. Leg-shake, instead of handshake.
At the dot of 3 p.m (he does it like clockwork, the grand old soldier) the President walked in. We all rose to welcome him, as we would normally do.
The ECOWAS Commission boss had come to discuss the ensuing constitutional crisis in Guinea Conakry, which was to hold election that weekend. After 10 years in office, and at 82 years of age, President Alpha Conde, had insisted on running for another term in office, and he tinkered with the country’s Constitution to make himself eligible. The opposition was having none of it, and there was civil disobedience, in which some lives had been lost.
President Buhari is the immediate past Chairman of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, and a highly respected figure in the sub-region. The ECOWAS Commission boss had come to consult him on the way forward for Guinea Conakry.
The meeting lasted for about 30 minutes, during which the situation in Guinea-Bissau had also come up briefly.
When we rose, I had my opinion on what to do about the matters discussed. I consulted with Mallam Abba, and he agreed completely with me. I took my leave, headed back to my office.
Walking right behind me was the Chief of Staff, flanked by Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, and my colleague in the media office, Mallam Garba Shehu. They were chatting.
After I passed through the security screening point that would see me turn off to my office, I looked back instinctively. Why did I do it? I didn’t know, still don’t know. But it turned out to be my last view of Kyari. He was laughing as he talked with the two people beside him.
That glance I took turned out to be the very final. About 72 hours later, Mallam Abba was diagnosed with the deadly Coronavirus, which sent him sadly on a journey of no return.
Catching COVID-19 (as the inelegant virus has been elegantly codenamed by World Health Organization) is not supposed to be a death sentence. I had no doubt that Mallam Abba would beat the infection, and be back at his desk soon, as he had promised. I prayed for him a number of times in the following three weeks.
On Tuesday, April 15, the President was billed to receive a delegation from the European Union by noon. As I walked into the Presidential Villa, I met a personal staff of the Chief of Staff.
“How’s Chief?” I asked.
He told me he was doing well. And that was what we believed.
I’m not much of a dreamer. At least, not dreams with significance. Dreams come from a multitude of business, as the Good Book says, so if a man drinks a bowl of garri before going to bed, and he dreams of swimming in a pond or river, he actually started swimming right from inside that bowl of garri.
On Thursday night inward Friday, I dreamt. The President and myself were in a corridor in the Presidential Villa, and he was talking with me. Suddenly, by my right, I saw a figure waiting for me to finish with the President. It was Mallam Abba, clad in his usual white native attire, with the trademark red cap. But this time, there was no flowing Agbada, which I found rather odd. He never (or rarely) appeared without the flowing robe. He was heavily bearded, another surprise, and the beard was all white. I rounded off discussion with the President, and yielded space for the Chief.
I made nothing of the dream, but after he died, I shared my experience with my friend, Mallam Garba Deen Mohammed.
“He came to say goodbye to you, and you didn’t know it,” my friend said. I didn’t know till then that Garba Deen had the uncommon gift of interpretation of dreams. Well, I now know where to go the next time I dream.
On Friday, April 17, I uncharacteristically went to bed after listening to the 8 p.m news. And off I went, for “He giveth his beloved sleep.” No dream, no kakiri kakiri (wandering) in my sleep. Till my phone fetched me from a far distance, out of that deep sleep. It was 12. 05 a.m.
At the other end of the line was a senior aide of the President. He told me he was there with two other very prominent personalities, whom he named. Then he dropped the bomb.
“Mallam Abba is dead, and we need you to issue a statement informing the public.”
I sprang from the bed, with my head almost touching the ceiling. Sleep fled completely from my eyes. Abba Kyari dead? How? When? Where? But he promised us he would soon be back at his desk. This was sad, sad, sad.
I put the statement together. And in the process, I had a feeling of deja vu. I remembered that day in September 2014, as I had typed the press statement announcing the death of Dimgba Igwe, my boss, my friend and brother, who had got knocked down by a hit and run driver, as he jogged on the road in Okota area of Lagos. I had worked under Igwe as a reporter for years, and as editor of The Sun Newspaper, while he was Deputy Managing Director/Deputy-Editor-in-Chief, before retirement.
As I typed the announcement of Kyari’s death, I remembered that day in August 2015, when I’d been directed to announce his appointment as Chief of Staff. Ironically, the lot to announce his death also fell on me. The job of a spokesman!
From the time I issued the statement about 12.30 a.m Friday, my phone never stopped ringing for hours. In this era of fake news, people want to reconfirm everything from source. Despite signing the statement, and putting it in different platforms of traditional and digital media, everybody who had access to me must call. My two phones rang simultaneously and ceaselessly, just as there was no let up on email, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and many other platforms. It was a burden I had to bear. Not a wink of sleep till the very next night.
I was home, planted in front of the television as Kyari was being buried at Gudu Cemetery. It all looked surreal. Yes, the man had a frail health at the best of times. But death? It didn’t sound probable, though nobody actually knows when the Grim Reaper could come calling.
As I watched Mallam Abba being consigned to Mother Earth, my childhood thoughts came roaring back. What if he had only lost consciousness, and he regained it after sand had been heaped on him? What if he felt so much heat, and he could not move or shout? Oh, the lot of mortal man. Doomed to die, whether he liked it or not.
I thought of Mr President. I knew his pain, his torture, but which he would bear stoically, with equanimity. I’d seen him respond to the news of death of his allies, one of the most recent being that of Professor Tam David-West last November. I saw the silent pain, the grief, the total submission to the perfect will of God. That of Mallam Abba was not different, if not more poignant. A friend of about 42 years, and Chief of Staff for about five years. Now gone!
Mallam Abba headed the bureaucracy of the Presidential Villa, and we constantly had things to do together. Almost daily. He had his strengths, and his weaknesses. We all do. But my greatest plus for him was his loyalty to our principal. It was never in doubt. And for me, if you love Buhari, all your sins are forgiven. If they are like scarlet, they become white as snow. If they are red like crimson, they become white as wool. That is me, no apologies.
I have read majority of the things written about Kyari. Positive and negative. I love the balanced one by Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola: “I bear testimony to his dedicated execution of the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) initiative, which guaranteed funds to cash-strapped projects like the Second Niger Bridge, the Abuja-Kano Highway, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Mambilla Hydro Project, and the East-West Road…
“Like all of us, Abba was flawed but he was not conceited. We disagreed but I never found Abba disagreeable.”
Infrastructure would be one of the strongest achievements of the Buhari government by the time it exits in 2023. There’s no way those great projects would be counted, without the name of Kyari being mentioned. Or the rice and fertilizer revolution, and agriculture generally. He was the moving force behind most of them, translating the vision of the President into action. The good he did will live after him. The weaknesses have been interred with his bones.
Some people, particularly on social media, have rejoiced about the passage of the Chief of Staff. They are of all men most miserable. Really to be pitied. I recommend to them the poem, The Glories of Our Blood and State, by James Shirley:
“There is no armor against Fate;
Death lays its icy hands on kings;
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.”
Those gloating are mere mortals. We all have our different appointments with death. May it only be in the fullness of time is our prayer. But nobody has control over it.
I also point those misguided minds to the Good Book, in Psalms 62:9: “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up; they are together lighter than vanity.”
Rejoice not at any man’s death, because all men, whether of low or high degree, are vanity and a lie.
Abba Kyari sleeps, till the great day of awakening, after what Shakespeare calls “life’s fitful fever.” He contracted the deadly virus on an official trip abroad. So, he died in the line of duty. He has done his own. You too, do your own. For God, for country, and for humanity.
Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari
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My Last Contact With Abba Kyari By Femi Adesina
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BREAKING: Plateau Records First COVID-19 Case
Plateau State has recorded its first Coronavirus case.
The affected person, a woman, is believed to have contracted the virus in Kano from where she came from despite the lockdown.
“Yes, we now have a positive case in Plateau.
“The case is from a woman coming to Jos from Kano.
“No cause for alarm, she is already being treated at one of our isolation centres.
“But the question we should ask our security operatives is how did she get into Plateau State from Kano despite the border closure and subsequent total lockdown,” a doctor in the state told SaharaReporters.
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Policeman Kills Policewoman In Rivers State During Movement Restriction Enforcement
A policeman attached to the Rivers State Task Force team on Thursday killed by a policewoman while trying to enforce the movement restriction put in place by the state government to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the city.
SaharaReporters gathered that the female police officer was trying to stop members of the task force team from destroying goods and properties of some traders at Eneka town under Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the state when the incident happened.
A source told SaharaReporters that the policewoman whose name could not be ascertained at the time of this report, was shot dead by a police sergeant around 5pm.
Confirming the report, Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Omoni Nmadi, said, “Yes, it’s confirmed. The police sergeant and two others have been arrested.”
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COVID-19: Nigerian Government Deploys Resources, Personnel To Kano To Curb Rising Cases
The Nigerian Government said it has instructed the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to proceed to Kano for immediate contact tracing to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the state.
Kano has so far recorded 73 cases of Coronavirus.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, disclosed this on Thursday during a briefing with journalists in Abuja.
He stated that the team would be working in conjunction with the state government to prevent Kano from becoming the next epicentre of the virus in the country.
Mustapha said, “The situation in Kano is still being assessed and monitored closely.
“Based on preliminary findings, the PTF has directed the NCDC to send an enhanced support team, mobilise resources for contact tracing and immediately ensure that necessary steps are taken in conjunction with state government to contain the spread of the pandemic in Kano and stop the city from becoming the next epicentre.”
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BREAKING: Police To Arraign Suspected Killers Of Pa Fasoranti’s Daughter In Court On Friday
Late Funke Olakunrin
Late Funke Olakunrin
The police in Ondo are expected to arraigned four suspects involved in the killing of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, daughter of Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, at a court in the state on Friday.
The suspects are Auwal Abubakar, Mohammed Shehu, Usman Adamu, and Adamu Lawal Mazaje.
SaharaReporters gathered that the suspects will be arraigned before the Magistrates Court in Akure on Friday.
Adekola Olawoye, Ondo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, made the disclosure in Akure, the capital city, on Thursday.
He said, “We are working on their files at the office of the Director of Public Prosecution. They will be charged tomorrow.”
SaharaReporters gathered that the suspects would be arraigned on four-count charge including conspiracy to murder, murder and kidnapping.
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Three Doctors Test Positive For Coronavirus In Lagos
The Medical Guild on Thursday said that three of its members at Alimosho General Hospital and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo and Dr Ismail Ajibowo, Chairman and Secretary of the guild respectively, disclosed this on the Instagram account of the guild.
The guild said, “Since the incident, we have been working with our representatives in those centres and the medical directors of the facilities to ensure testing of those involved.
“This is with a plan for care in the unfortunate incident of positive cases.
“We should also adopt rational use of PPEs, while adopting the slogan of ‘No PPE, No work.”
They expressed the guild’s appreciation for the enormous sacrifice and efforts members were making in the fight against COVID-19.
They said regular updates will be made to members, appealing that unity of purpose was needed in handling the present situation and urged members to stay safe in the course of carrying out their duties.
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Bauchi Governor Bans Almajiri System, Okada Riders
Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, has placed a ban on almajiri system in the state.
Mohammed in a statewide broadcast on Thursday evening said the old almajiri system was no longer tenable and healthy in the midst of the dreaded Coronavirus in the state.
He said, “The almajiri system which operates through the aggregation and congregation of hundreds of children who beg by the day and cluster in large numbers at night may accelerate the spread of Coronavirus.
“There is an agreement by Northern governors to ban the almajiri system in the region.
“The almajiri system is hereby banned in the state.”
The governor, who said Kaduna and Kano states were in the process of evacuating almajirai of Bauchi extraction, added that the state government had prepared the NYSC Camp in the state to keep them pending when they will be reunited with their families.
Bala said almajiri from other states, who reside in Bauchi State would also be repatriated to their states.
The governor has also placed a ban on okada riders whom he said had infiltrated Bauchi from neighbouring states.
He said, “I’m sure you know that all our neighbouring states; Kano, Jigawa, Gombe, Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Kaduna and the FCT have banned the operation of commercial motorcycles otherwise known as Achaba.
“Unfortunately, they have relocated to our state posing a serious threat to security, hence the ban.”
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Nigerians Disagree Over Kano, Lagos States Response To Coronavirus As #NCDCFailedKano Hashtag Trends On Twitter
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A comparison of the way Lagos and Kano governments have responded to the Coronavirus pandemic is the subject of a raging debate on Twitter, SaharaReporters has gathered.
Nigerians have disagreed on the way the government was responding to the testing needs of both states.
Kano and Lagos are Nigeria’s most populated states.
Using the hashtag #NCDCFailedKano, some residents of Kano took to the social media platform to claim that the Nigeria Center for Disease Control had failed Kano State in containing the spread of the virus by favouring Lagos more than the Northern state.
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control is Nigeria’s leading national public health institute under the Federal Ministry of Health and the agency is currently headed by Chikwe Ihekweazu.
Currently, Lagos has 504 confirmed COVID-19 cases while Kano has 73 cases.
The Kano residents claimed it was unfair for Lagos with a similar population with Kano to have more testing centres.
“Here in Kano, we need more testing centre even more than Lagos; imagine a state with 13.5 million people having only one testing centre and Lagos having 20 million, this is not right.
“So am saying #NCDCFailedKano,” a Kano resident identified as Naseer tweeted on Wednesday. In here kano we needs more testing center even more than Lagos ,imagine a state with 13.5 millions people having only one testing center and Lagos having 20 this is absolutely not right so am saying #NCDCFailedKano— bn naseer 😊😊 (@Dadymakoda3) April 23, 2020
Another resident of the city identified as Sarki, tweeted, “Kano State having only one test centre while Lagos has close to 20 is unacceptable.
“@NCDCgov has not only failed Kano, they’re treating COVID-19 in the North with less seriousness, thereby putting our whole lives at risk.” Kano state having only 1 test center while Lagos is having close to 20 is unacceptable@NCDCgov has not only failed Kano, they’re treating covid19 in the north with less seriousness thereby putting our whole lives at riskArewa twitter We must speak #NCDCFailedKano— Sarki. (@Waspapping_) April 23, 2020
Other Nigerians have since reacted to the claims. In response to the accusation, a Nigerian identified as Etubo, wrote on Twitter, “Northerners are not holding the Kano State governor accountable for not building enough isolation and testing centres, they are blaming NCDC and trending #NCDCFailedKano. What should we call this?” Northerners are not holding the Kano state governor accountable for not building enough isolation and testing centers, they are blaming NCDC and trending #NCDCFailedKano. What should we call this?— Legendary Soul (@IamEtubo) April 23, 2020
Another Nigerian faulted the claims by the Kano residents, describing it as laughable and unnecessary.
Onyedikachukwu Anambra said, “Kano had time to observe and prepare by observing Lagos. They didn’t.
“They felt religious obligations superseded that of public health safety concerns. Now they resorted to blackmail and shift blame to NCDC. Gandollar failed Kano and not #NCDCFailedKano.” Kano had time to observe and prepare by observing Lagos. They didn’t. They felt religious obligations supersede that of public health safety concerns. Now they resorted to blackmail and shift blame to NCDC.Gandollar failed Kano and not #NCDCFailedKano— ONYEDIKACHUKWU ANAMBRA (@governmentson) April 23, 2020
A user of the popular platform named Enyene while reacting to the debate, said, “NCDC didn’t fail Kano State. Kano State failed itself.
“When Lagos State governor was busy building isolation and test centres, what was Governor Ganduje doing?” NCDC didn’t fail Kano state. Kano state failed itself.When Lagos state governor was busy building isolation and test centres, what was Ganduje doing? Maybe, he was busy loading bundles of dollars into his babaringa. #NCDCFailedKano— EnyEnE | #EndSars (@iamEnyene) April 23, 2020
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