COVID-19: Dubai returnees protest as govt attempts to test them (Punch)
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, on Wednesday, had a face-off with Dubai returnees who staged a protest at a hotel in Lekki where they are being isolated.
According to the evacuees that spoke with The PUNCH, the commissioner, who was clad in a suit and red tie, arrived at the isolation centre in a black Sports Utility Vehicle around past 12pm.
The evacuees questioned the commissioner for telling the press on Tuesday that one of them died of COVID-19.
They said it was government neglect that led to the death of the evacuee. Read more
Lagos to clamp down on illegal courier, logistic motorcycles (Guardian)
The Lagos State Government has clarified that the courier and logistics operators being arrested in the state are working without proper documentation and registration with the appropriate authorities, saying the state will ensure the illegal operators are taken out of Lagos roads.
It said the clarification had become imperative following viral social media trends and many commentaries that the government had through its enforcement team embarked on a massive impoundment of dispatch motorcycles during the coronavirus Stay-at-Home order and the gradual easing of the lockdown currently on-going without justification.
Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederic Oladeinde, revealed that the state’s enforcement team embarked on the massive impoundment of dispatch motorcycles after a recorded increase in the numbers of courier and logistics operators in the state, particularly after the gradual easing of the lockdown. Read more
Lagos prosecutes 185 cases in three magistrates districts in 60 days (Nation)
The Lagos State Government has prosecuted about 185 cases within the months of March and April 2020.
The trials were held in three magisterial districts of Ogba, Ebute-Meta and Ikorodu.
This is contained in the monthly report of district prosecutors released on Wednesday by the state’s Ministry of Justice.
The report stated that prosecution of 185 cases were approved after been filtered by the district prosecutors assigned to Ikorodu, Ogba, and Ebutte -Metta magistrate courts.
The creation of District Prosecutors on March 3, 2020 as a sub-unit under the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) to operate in a pilot scheme involving three magisterial areas of the State. Read more
LASEMA quells fires in hotels on Lagos Island, Ikeja (Guardian)
The Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA) said it has just concluded an operation in the early hours of today at 205 Bamgbose Street on Lagos Island, where the Agency curtailed another fire incident in a two storey building that houses a hotel.
The fire incident, which gutted a section of the two storey building, was attributed to the effect of power surge in the split air-conditioning unit in one of the rooms, when public power supply was restored.
The inferno sparked by the power surge in the split air-conditioning unit in one of the rooms on the second floor of the hotel building reported spread to two adjoining rooms before it was curtailed and extinguished by the combined efforts of emergency responders. Read more
Claims of COVID-19 cure only exist on social media – NAFDAC (Punch)
Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye. Source: von.gov.ng
Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control says it has received only one application from one company for the endorsement of a product to treat the symptoms of COVID-19 and not the virus itself.
NAFDAC said all other claims about a possible cure for COVID-19 in Nigeria only exist on social media and the pages of newspaper. Read more
Lockdown relaxation for review this week – FG (DailyTrust)
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Tuesday said the directive on the relaxation of the lockdown would be reviewed this week.
The national coordinator of the PTF, Sani Aliyu, disclosed this at the daily briefing of the task force. Aliyu said: “We continue to monitor closely some of the guidelines we’ve produced. COVID-19: Ministers wear masks for briefings, healthcare personnel work without them Lockdown: Gov Wike orders auctioning of impounded vehicles “You’re probably aware that by the end of this week, we’ll be coming to the end of the second week of easing the lockdown and we’ll be taking further decisions based on the review of the performance of the restrictions we have in place. Read more
Gambari: Atiku, Saraki, others laud new Chief of Staff (Vanguard)
Reactions have continued to pour in on Wednesday appointment of Professor Ibrahim Gambari as the new Chief of Staff, CoS to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Gambari’s appointment followed the demise of Mallam Abba Kyari who was the President’s Chief of Staff since 2015 until his death on April 17, 2020.
Reacting to the appointment yesterday, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar tasked the appointee to fall back on his huge experience and expertise to make the most of the job.
Atiku in a status update on his Facebook wall wrote, “Congratulations Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR on your appointment as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. Read more
Things you should know about Buhari’s new Chief of Staff, Gambari (DailyTrust)
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as his new Chief of Staff.
The Chief of Staff’s position has been vacant since the demise of Abba Kyari, who lost his battle with the novel coronavirus in April, 2020. Gambari’s appointment was announced by the Presidency on Wednesday.
Only few Nigerians know about Gambari as he was not among the candidates being tipped to take over the late Kyari’s position. Hence, we have highlighted few things you should know about the New Chief of Staff to Buhari below:
- Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR (born November 24, 1944, in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria) is a Nigerian scholar and diplomat.
- Gambari attended King’s College, Lagos. Read more
Coronavirus: Tanzania hospitals overwhelmed – US (BBC)
The US embassy in Tanzania has warned that there is a risk of “exponential growth” of Covid-19 cases in the country at a time when the government is not releasing data on new cases.
It added that the risk of contracting the virus in the largest city, Dar es Salaam, was “extremely high.”
President John Magufuli has accused local health officials of exaggerating the health crisis.
On 29 April, the last day official data was released, there were 509 cases. Read more
Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 provides lessons on how to ease lockdowns (CBC)
As governments ease up on COVID-19-related lockdowns, policy-makers should heed the lessons learned from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the potential deadly consequences of removing physical distancing restrictions too quickly, experts say.
“This is one of those rare moments that historians can actually more or less agree that there are lessons you can learn that are fairly straightforward and could be applied in the present,” said Christopher McKnight Nichols, an associate professor of history and director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University.
More than 100 years ago, the so-called Spanish flu was responsible for the deaths of at least 50 million people worldwide — 55,000 in Canada and 675,000 in the U.S., including many people between the ages of 20 and 40. Read more
We will have summer tourist season, promises EU (BBC)
A gradual lifting of borders has been proposed by the EU’s executive in an attempt to kick-start a tourist industry hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our message is we will have a tourist season this summer,” said economic affairs commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, “even if it’s with security measures and limitations.”
Borders closed across the EU, including the border-free Schengen zone.
But states are starting to reopen them. Read more
Neighbour reported mass shooter’s domestic violence, weapons to police (BBC)
A former neighbour of the gunman behind last month’s mass shooting in Nova Scotia says she reported his domestic violence and cache of firearms to the RCMP years ago and ended up leaving the community herself due to fears of his violence.
Brenda Forbes said that in the summer of 2013, she told police about reports that Gabriel Wortman had held down and beaten his common-law spouse behind one of the properties he owned in Portapique, a coastal community west of Truro.
Domestic violence is being examined as a key aspect of the mass shooting, as police have said the rampage began on the night of April 18 after the gunman argued with his common-law spouse and restrained and beat her before she managed to escape into the woods. Read more
Angela Merkel says she is ‘pained’ by Russian hacking (BBC)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed that she was targeted by hackers thought to be Russian military intelligence (GRU).
She was asked in parliament about a German magazine report that the GRU had obtained emails from her constituency office in a hacking attack in 2015.
“It pains me,” she said, describing the hacking as “outrageous”. Read more
China places second city on lockdown over early signs of dreaded second wave (RT)
Two cities in northeastern China have imposed travel restrictions and gone into temporary lockdown amid a new cluster of coronavirus infections which have sparked fears of an impending second wave sweeping the country.
Wuhan, the original epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, reported at least five new indigenous cases of infection on Monday, adding further to concerns that China may not have entirely vanquished the coronavirus just yet.
Since then, the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin imposed fresh travel restrictions following confirmation of six new infected patients on Tuesday, five of which were traced directly to a case in the neighbouring city of Shulan. Read more
Martina Navratilova says Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic & Serena Williams will be ‘going nuts’ (Metro)
Martina Navratilova believes the likes of Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will be ‘going nuts’ as they sit on frustrated amid the coronavirus crisis. The group are widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time and Navratilova thinks they all will be ruing the ‘time lost’. Federer, Nadal, Williams and Djokovic are all in hot pursuit of tennis history but their charges have been temporarily halted until July 13 at the earliest. Read more
Zira returns as Adamawa United chairman with mixed feelings (DailyTrust)
The re-appointed chairman of Adamawa United, Emmanuel Zira has said his ‘third missionary’ journey is with mixed feelings due to the precarious position of the club on the Nigeria Professional Football League table.
Adamawa United are presently placed last on the NPFL table with a miserable 20 points from 25 matches played before the indefinite suspension of the league by the LMC on March 18. It will also be recalled that after guiding the club back to the NPFL in the 2019 season, Zira was relieved of his position same way it happened in 2006 before he was re-appointed by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri on Monday, April 11. Read more
Former Real Madrid player arrested for ‘smuggling cocaine’ (Independent)
Former Real Madrid striker Edwin Congo has declared himself innocent after he was questioned on Tuesday regarding an alleged link to a cocaine trafficking ring in Spain.
The Colombian striker was detained by police in the Spanish capital and interrogated for an hour, before being allowed to return home.
“I’m very calm,” he told sports show El Chiringuito, for which he works as a pundit. “It’s not a comfortable situation, but I’m at home… relaxed. They asked me a series of questions and, at the end, I returned home.” Read more
Norwich against Premier League relegation if Championship season stops (BBC)
Norwich City say relegation from the Premier League should be scrapped if the top flight completes its season but the Championship does not.
Premier League clubs met on Monday to to continue talks on ‘Project Restart’ but doing away with relegation has not yet been discussed.
The league is aiming to return by 12 June, with the Canaries bottom of the table and six points from safety. Read more
‘Shobushi’ becomes 1st Sumo wrestler to die from coronavirus in Japan aged 28 (RT)
Sumo wrestler Shobushi has become the first practitioner of the Japanese martial art to die from the coronavirus. The 28-year-old suffered multiple organ failure on Wednesday after falling ill with the disease last month.
The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) announced on Wednesday that Shobushi, real name Kiyotaka Suetake, was admitted to a Tokyo hospital with Covid-19 infection on April 10, the Japan Times reports.
An initial test for coronavirus came back negative, despite the wrestler reportedly coughing up blood, but then a follow-up showed up positive. Following a worsening of his condition, Shobushi was moved to an intensive care unit but later died. Read more
Michael Ballack urges Kai Havertz to hold off Chelsea or Manchester United transfer (Metro)
Michael Ballack has advised Kai Havertz to stay at Bayer Leverkusen despite strong interest from Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. The 20-year-old has established himself as one of the Bundesliga’s best young talents following his impressive performances for Bayer Leverkusen.
Jurgen Klopp is reportedly a huge admirer of the attacking midfielder, while Chelsea and United are understood to be lining up their own moves for the player this summer. Read more