Today, we unveiled a 150-bed isolation centre at the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba which increases our capacity to tackle the spread of #COVID19.

We thank the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID19 (CACOVID) for delivering this well equipped facility.

Lagos is rising to the task of beating back #COVID19 because of the work of our amazing health workers, private partners, NCDC, the Federal Government, and residents who follow the strict guidelines we have laid down.

Let's continue to work together.

We are committing to putting in place a purpose built international infectious disease research centre in this hospital post-COVID. We will ramp up our infrastructure and capacity and will definitely not wait for a pandemic to come upon us again before everything is in place.
#COVID19 is real and we owe it a duty to tell you to remain cautious. It is only when we take precautionary measures that this virus can be defeated.

This is why it is important to wear a facemask in public spaces, practice hand hygiene and physical distancing.
#StaySafe

Thousands of Nigerian students abroad are currently faced with serious challenges on account of the coronavirus pandemic and the growing possibility that the disease could be around for much longer.

Burdened already by exorbitant fees, the global health challenge has dislocated their study, leaving them stranded in host nations. But resorting to Nigeria’s ailing educational sector is a grim choice they may not want to make.

According to a report by Nairametrics, a financial resource company based in Nigeria, international undergraduate students pay a yearly £13,394 for classroom taught courses, and £15,034 and £24,169 respectively for laboratory and clinical courses. Postgraduate students pay £13,442, £15,638, and £20,956, respectively for the classroom, laboratory, and clinical-based courses. For MBA students, the tuition is £18,226 on the average.

In addition to the tuition, the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS) noted that the average yearly cost of living outside of London for students is £12,056. To study in London, Nigerian students part with about £16,000 per year. For visa purposes, international students pay at least £1,265 for each month of stay while those outside London pay at least £1,000 per month to prove that they can cover the cost of living in the UK.

Study in-uk.com notes that undergraduate fees for international students from outside the EU begin at around £10,000 per year. At the postgraduate level, they start at around £12,000, and if you wish to study medicine or MBA, you may have to pay about £32,000 per year.

[b]The average living cost for international students is £12,180 per year. This can be much lower or higher, depending on where in the UK you wish to study. [/b]For example, in London, living expenses are considerably higher than the equivalent cost in a different city such as Liverpool or Birmingham.

As of 2015, a student in the UK paid $35,710 on the average yearly (tuition and living expenses). According to one estimate, Nigerian parents spend above the Federal Government’s yearly budget of $750 million to educate their children in the UK.

Another estimate puts the total average cost of studying in the UK at £22,200 or $31,380 per year. Going by the 2017 estimates, Nigerian parents spent $423 million in the UK or N152 billion!

But with the global economic decline occasioned by the pandemic, many Nigerian students may have a hard time paying their way through schools abroad.

The Federal Government and many states in the country have since reviewed their 2020 budgets. Worse still, the naira’s value has depreciated. As at Sunday, a dollar exchanged officially for N385.3777 and N440 at the black market. The pound was officially N478.5179 and N553 at the black market.

Should 11,000 Nigerian students in the UK pay the tuition of £10,000 each (at £1/N478.5179), about N52 billion would have been spent on tertiary education overseas, excluding other expenses like accommodation.

AGAIN, returning to enrol in Nigerian universities, especially public ones, seems nightmarish on account of worsening standards. The government has also slashed the 2020 budget by N318 billion, from N10.594 trillion to N10.276 trillion. There is consequently a reduced focus on education. The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had recommended that 15-20 per cent of the total budget should go to the education sector. At a glance, 6.48 per cent of the 2020 budget was allocated to education; 7.11 per cent in 2019; 7.14 per cent in 2018; 7.27 per cent in 2017; and 9.20 per cent in 2016.

And while foreign universities are coming up with ingenious means to start a new session by deploying educational technology, their Nigerian counterparts appear stuck in a ‘medieval’ system, making a homecoming most unlikely.

[b]MOJISOLA Aluko, a law student at Middlesex University, London, pays £12,500 as tuition, £6,000 for accommodation and has a monthly feeding allowance of £300. [/b]She told The Guardian: “Education is very expensive here. After paying tuition, my parents paid for my accommodation fees in three tranches. Even though the school is not in session now, I still have to pay because the house does not belong to the school.”

She, however, ruled out the thought of falling back on Nigerian institutions. “Where do I start? Do Nigerian institutions have requisite facilities? Schools have been shut down since the coronavirus outbreak. How many universities have switched to online learning? We read of strikes by the various staff unions, and the institutions don’t even have a stable academic calendar,” she said.

Olufemi Adesegun, a 21-year-old engineering student of Coventry University, London, said his parents have been unable to keep up with his fees because of the high exchange rate. He has, therefore, had to defer his studies and take up a job to support them, rather than return home.

Like Aluko, he viewed schooling in Nigeria a no-no because graduates there, according to him, are poorly rated and their certificates are not respected in foreign countries. Besides, he viewed incessant labour disputes by academic workers as a distraction.

Mr. Fola Adelani, a parent, who has two children in university in the UK, said paying fees has been extremely difficult since the exchange jumped from N365 to N460 per dollar.

“Even when you have the naira, access to forex is another problem. You have to be looking for people who are ready to give naira to their families here in Nigeria, so that they can, in turn, give you dollars or pounds over there.”

Adelani thinks he may have to sell off some property to meet the huge financial demands. He decried the “worrisome” way academic unions strike often, adding: “As we speak, my children have completed their second semester in their various universities in London. Can we say the same here? We still have a long way to go in Nigeria concerning our educational system.”

BUT Dr. Wale Adeagbo, Chief Operating Officer, Academy Halogen, said he does not see Nigerians “spending huge amount of money on foreign education as we used to before COVID-19.”

He explained: “I see a depletion of some sort in what is being spent, considering the increase in dollar. You must have a good bulk of money but sustainability will be a big issue. I can see that number reducing; there will be no flow of people taking children abroad. Those that are there, about 7-9 per cent of them will withdraw or change schools.

“And this will be a downward trend, moving forward. Also, now that the education sector has changed the paradigm, some foreign programmes have reduced about 10-15 per cent of what they used to charge, and many of these are going to be online. So, the question is: what are you travelling for? You can sit in your house in Lagos and get that degree from Cambridge University. So, the online education paradigm will make it much more accessible and cheaper.”

Also, a professor of English at Mountain Top University, Emmanuel Adedun, said it is not wise to study abroad at this time, not in terms of quality but rather economic implications.

He said: “The high estimation of what Nigerian parents spend on foreign education has been the pattern of things pre-COVID-19. But what is likely to happen is that a lot of things will be redefined by this pandemic. The economy of the world has really gone down, and when we narrow it down to Nigeria, you discover that the money is not even there at any level.

“And it is money that is available that you can throw around, either as a government or as a private individual. The people that had the plan to send their wards to foreign universities will have to make the inevitable decision of making do with what they can find around here in Nigeria. No matter the education that is available, they will have to make do with it, based on what the economy of the individual is realistically saying. So, that estimate may not be correct at the end of the day. COVID would definitely affect it.”

THE UK government, meanwhile, thinks all hope is not lost. UK Universities Minister Michelle Donelan in a recent statement said: “I want to make a promise to our students from Nigeria that this (pandemic) will not put a stop to your education. We stand by you and are doing everything we can to support you. Our universities are going above and beyond to keep students and staff safe.”

The UK government also recently announced a new, streamlined immigration policy called the ‘Graduate Route’, which will be available from summer 2021. It means students starting this year will be able to stay and work or look for work in the UK at any skill level for two years without being harassed by the authorities.

This was as a new report from Moody’s Investors Services highlighted the financial impact of the pandemic on higher educational institutions around the world.

“We expect rated universities in all of our current jurisdictions – US, Canada, UK, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico – to enrol fewer students for the next academic year than planned, due to the outbreak,” said Jeanne Harrison, Vice President, and Senior Analyst at Moody’s.

“In addition, if campuses remain closed for a greater part of the year, income from residence halls, catering, conferences, and sporting events will be lower than budgeted. Endowment and gift income may also decline.”

Moody’s analysis in April highlighted that the scale of the impact on higher education will depend largely on the duration of the outbreak. “If university campuses can reopen in time for the next academic year, the effect on demand and budgets will be more manageable,” the report notes, adding: “International student flows will depend on how the outbreak and policy response evolve in individual countries.”

Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike has said that he prays that the All Progressive Congress stays in crisis.

Wike said this in an interview with Arise TV.
He recalled that the ruling party jubilated over the confusion that rocked the Peoples Democratic Party when it was under the leadership of former Borno state governor, Ali Modu Sheriff.

He said " I am happy that APC is in crisis, it is not my business to help APC to be united. "Remember that we also had our own crisis under Ali Modu Sheriff and APC jubilated about it then. It is my prayer that they should continue to be in crisis. We have taken another state.

"Unfortunately, APC isn't really a political party, they came together just to take over power."I want my party to be in power and therefore, I cannot be praying for APC not to have crisis, I hope they continue to make mistakes everyday and my party will continue to grow."

Edo 2020: Confusion as PDP chieftain pledges support for APC candidate

…Says Oshiomhole victim of 2023 permutations

…Fingers El-Rufai, Bagudu, others for Oshiomhiole’s fall

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and former Commissioner of Information in Edo state, Prince Kassim Afegbua has vowed to join forces with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to ensure the defeat of the state governor, Godwin Obaseki in the September 19 governorship election.

Afegbua who stated this in an exclusive chat with Vanguard carpeted the party for offering its ticket to Obaseki who decamped to the PDP barely a week ago.

Condemning what he called the governor’s desperation to run for a second term at all cost, the former commissioner came hard against his own party, wondering how Obaseki it once branded a failure, suddenly merited the ticket so much that all three aspirants stepped down for him.

“We will join hands collectively with the APC candidate to ensure that Godwin Obaseki does not return. I am PDP member, but I will vote APC. A man with the humility of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is better than a governor who fights everyone who disagrees with him.

“Edo has become too polarised over avoidable and needless battles. Let us have a new leadership that will usher in quiet and peace to everyone. The noises from the Obaseki aspiration have become too polluted and cannot be in the best interest of anyone,” he said.

According to him, Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama ought to have stuck to his guns by running in the primaries, noting however that his decision to chicken out like others, would hurt the PDP in many ways than one.

“Hon. Ogbeide-Ihama got swallowed up by the politics of money that has become the bane of Nigerian politics. He was ambushed by Governor Obaseki’s desperation who was ready to use any amount to railroad people in the party to buy into his aspiration.

“How can someone who did not buy nomination form, who came in when sale of forms had closed, screening had closed, congresses for the election of delegates had closed, and all of a sudden, because he has state resources to spend, all rules were bended to accommodate him and made to become the candidate? he asked

Afegbua continued: “Only yesterday, Edo PDP scored Obaseki F9 in its sectoral analyses, and today, the same man who scored F9 all through in terms of performance, has suddenly become the head of the PDP corner.

“A governor who PDP challenged in 2016 for discrepancies in his submissions has suddenly become the candidate of the party. How do you explain such scenario? For me, I still hold the view that Ogbeide-Ihama had better opportunity to pull through if they had allowed Obaseki to settle for another party.

“It would have been a matter of three candidates and PDP would have had a better grip. I was shocked to see all three aspirants stepped down in the face of pressure. Even Kenneth Imasuangbon who was shouting on top of his voice that he would pull through, buckled suddenly and swallowed his misplaced pride.

“The same governor who has been accusing his former APC leaders of wanting him to share money, came to PDP and started doing same. Delegates were given money, situations were traded off, and everyone was fighting head over heels for peanuts. Quite unfortunate, but the level of hunger in town can confuse anybody. It is shameful.

“We must begin to interrogate the processes leading to outcome and not just the outcome alone. It is morally reprehensible for someone to join a party 24 hours and took away all the privileges by nebulous waivers.

“That is a sickening democracy, by all intents and purposes. The party would have at least ask for deputy governorship. As it is now, it is like surrendering your house to an emergency tenant who does not believe in your house, but needed it for temporary shelter.”

That said, Afegbua linked the exit of Adams Oshiomhole last week as national chairman of APC to the handiwork of some governors bent on shaping the 2023 Presidency.

He explained: “There is nothing spectacular about Comrade Oshiomhole’s exit. He was just a victim of 2023 political calculations especially by those people who found him too strong to bend to their whims and caprices.

“The President does not appear fit enough to understand the dynamics of the political interplay of forces. You have Governors Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Simon Lalong of Plateau states who should sit down and face governance in their states but getting too pre-occupied with 2023 Presidency.

LAGOS – The family of former governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, rejected the offer of assistance from his successor, Governor Seyi Ma­kinde, while he was undergo­ing treatment in Lagos before his death last week Thursday, Daily Independent has learnt.

Relationship between Aji­mobi’s family and the Oyo State government has been frosty leading to accusations and counter-accusations on what was responsible for the delay in his burial.

Tongues started wagging on Sunday when a video went viral in which the for­mer First Lady, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, raised dust over the failure of Governor Makinde to reach out to her since the sickness and eventual demise of her husband.

In the said video, the for­mer First Lady was seen ac­cusing Governor Makinde and his deputy, Engineer Rauf Olaniyan, of failing to reach out to her.

But sources knowledge­able about happenings in Oyo State confirmed that the governor was actually frus­trated out of his bid to take good care of his predecessor.

“Governor Makinde on hearing of the sickness of his predecessor asked one of his special advisers to make contact and establish the true situation. The said adviser got in contact with the deputy governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, after attempts to reach the former First Lady failed”.

Sources said that Hamzat’s intervention led to the communication of the phone number of a personal physician to the late former governor to the adviser who transmitted the same to Gov­ernor Makinde.

It was gathered that through the Commissioner for Health in Oyo State, the governor summoned the said personal physician, who hap­pens to be the wife of a politi­cian and former office holder in Ajimobi government.

The said doctor, while she was on her way to the Gov­ernment House in Ibadan, was said to have told her husband, who immediately asked her to abandon the trip to the Government House and sneak into Lagos.

That effort stalled, the governor of Oyo State again requested for and put calls through to the former First Lady, who ignored the calls.

The governor was then said to have reached out to his colleague in Lagos, Baba­jide Sanwo-Olu for interface.

It was gathered that the interface between the fami­ly and Sanwo-Olu did not go through as the former First Lady again stalled it.

Sources further said that with the obvious determina­tion of the former First Lady not to carry Oyo State govern­ment along in the health sit­uation of her husband, Gov­ernor Makinde had to hand every other thing over to San­wo-Olu in Lagos, saying: “My brother, I leave everything in your hands. Look after him for us as a state and if there is anything I should do, I am just a phone call away.”

Upon hearing of the eventual demise of Senator Ajimobi on Thursday, Gov­ernor Makinde was again said to have reached out to the former First Lady, who never picked nor returned any of his several calls.

Nonetheless, the governor, who was in Benin City, Edo State, for a PDP assignment immediately directed the state flag be flown at half-mast in honour of the late former governor, the source stated.

He further explained: “I was in the know that the governor was about calling a special exco session to decide on the best way to immortal­ise the departed governor but the uncooperative posture from the former First Lady stalled all that”, one of the sources said.

The source continued: “What happened thereafter was that the governor of Oyo received calls from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who broke the news of the death of Ajimobi to the state governor and then request­ed that the family had asked him to plead with Makinde to release the controversial Quarter 361 with adjoin­ing Plots B and C totalling 23,627sqm (about 48 plots) which was part of the ille­gally acquired land revoked by the state government in February this year.

“Governor Makinde wast­ed no time in telling the vice president that the land in question is under litigation and that it was the same late Ajimobi who filed a suit against the government over the revocation of the contro­versial plot of land.

“After Osinbajo’s call to Governor Makinde came the call of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the same matter, other governors and other well-meaning lead­ers of both the PDP and APC.

“Governor Makinde only stated the situation of things as per the fact that the house in question is under litiga­tion and it would amount to toying with the power of the courts to allow such burial there. The governor was also said to have confirmed that bodies are by law not to be buried in a GRA like Agodi and even Oluyole estate. He, however, was said to have told the statesmen who called that he had nothing against burying the former governor in Oluyole Estate, where he lived till he died.

“You can see that it is baf­fling that all the efforts of Gov­ernor Makinde on the Ajimo­bi matter were rebuffed. The even understand the state protocol after eight years in Government House. She needformer First Lady cannot ed to first inform the sitting governor about her husband’s sickness and then the eventu­al demise. There should be no excuse for that lapse. ­

“I am sure her anger against Makinde is because he refused to allow her gain ownership of Quarter 361 through the back door. You want to wonder why a wom­an who just lost her husband would be concerned about something as ephemeral as property.”

The source concluded by saying that the attempt to blackmail Governor Ma­kinde will not stand.

The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice on Sunday said the Federal Government only pays whistleblowers after a successful recovery, not for mere tracing or exposure of suspected illegitimate funds.

Dr Umar Gwandu, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami on Media and Public Relations disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

The Minister was reacting to a letter allegedly by one Aliyu Lemu, Esq. purportedly written on June 22 on issues revolving around payment of a whistleblower’s fees.

“The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice wants to make it categorically clear that one does not get payment on account of exposing looted assets, but on successful recovery and lodgment of same into the designated assets recovery account at the Central Bank of Nigeria’’.

He said the procedure for engagement of a whistleblower or recovery agent as it relates to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation is as follows:

A Proposal is submitted to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, a Letter of engagement is issued to a whistle-blower or recovery agent where the disclosure is assessed to have some prospects of success.

“The recovery agent or whistle-blower is expected to notify in writing the acceptance of the engagement.

“The recovery agent or whistleblower is expected, upon acceptance, to not only trace the assets but recover same and have it deposited in a designated asset recovery account maintained by the federal government in the Central Bank which is usually provided to the recovery agent in writing’’.

He added that where these funds are eventually claimed to have been lodged by a whistle-blower or recovery agent, the Central Bank issues acknowledgement of receipt of the fund to the Office of Attorney-General on demand.

“It is the satisfaction of the above elements that entitles the whistle-blower or a recovery agent to a claim of success fee and the payment is usually effected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and not the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

“The role of the Office of the Attorney-General in essence is simply that of processing the above-listed documents to the Ministry of Finance which is the ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting payment’’.

Malami explained further that recovery is not about exposing the existence of certain assets in an account purported to have belonged to an agency of the government.

“It is about establishing that the funds in the account are looted assets or illegitimately warehoused and following that up with actual recovery and lodgment of the funds in the designated Asset recovery account through judicial and extrajudicial means.

“Entitlement to recovery fees is for all intent and purposes contingent on lodgment of the purported/exposed assets constituting the subject of recovery into the Federal Government Recovery designated Account.

“This account is maintained at the instance of the President at the Central Bank of Nigeria and the details of the account are contained in the engagement letter.

“The agreed remuneration shall become due and payable to the whistle-blower within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the recovered/looted funds by the Federal Government of Nigeria and payment shall be made to the designated/nominated account provided in writing by the whistle-blower’’.

Malami advised that if the whistleblower in the circumstances of this case feels strongly that there is any claim of wrong doing associated with the alleged claim relating to recovery process, the whistle-blower should consider lodging a complaint with the relevant institutions of his choice for the matter to be properly investigated and or consider a judicial redress in the alternative.

“The claim by the whistle-blower, as published by the newspaper, that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federal cajoled them into signing of an agreement forfeiting sixty percent of the whistle-blower fees amounts to criminal allegation which the whistle-blower is encouraged to lodge a complaint about before the appropriate law enforcement agencies for full-scale investigation’’.

2023: At no time did I say Igbo will never be President — Yerima
…says reports handiwork of mischief makers

President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Shettima Yerima has denied a statement credited to him that Igbo people from the Southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria will never produce a president.

It will be recalled that the former Governor of old Enugu State, Dr. Jim Nwodo recently said that 2023 was non-negotiable for Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction.

Against this declaration, the social media later became awash with reports that Igbo will never be given the opportunity of governing the country.

But speaking with Vanguard yesterday, Yerima said that the statement must have emanated from mischief makers who were bent on dividing the country.

He said that what Nigeria needed at this time was competency which he believed that the people of the southeast to move the country forward.

He, therefore, dissociated himself from the statement, stressing that most of his friends and associates were from the zone.

“I don’t know those enemies of this country who go about making stories that are not really about me. I am a true Nigerian and I also believe that citizens are equal especially in a country like ours. I can’t remember granting any interview like that but I don’t know what mischief-makers tend to achieve.

“But the truth of the matter is that the story that is credited to me is not true. It is not me. Most of my friends and closest associates come from the southeast and just yesterday, I made a statement and said look, on the issue of the president, we are even looking for competency. It is clear that some people are working to disintegrate the country and I saw we are more divided than we were before. And it was on that basis that I had a rethink and made my position very clear as that yesterday.

“Let us come together and form a pan Nigeria movement where we will get across to our counterparts in the southern part of the country. The southern part includes the southeast, southwest, south, and other parts of the country so that we can form a national platform where we can always interface on issues relating to the betterment of this country.

“So, how could I again summersault and go back the other way and say otherwise of it? So, this statement is coming from mischief makers and whatever they are doing will be exposed by God’s grace when the time comes. But on this, I am not part of it and I will never be. Don’t forget I married from the south. How could I have gone that far to begin to build enmity between me and my fellow Nigerian brothers? No, it is not true”, Yerima said.

The Akwa Ibom State Government House Uyo has been deserted following increase in the number of staff reportedly infected with coronavirus.

The spike in COVID-19 infections at the Hilltop Mansion started last month when some Government House Press Corps members were alleged to have been infected.

Subsequently, no fewer than journalists five who tested positive to the virus were quarantined, at the Ibom Multispecialty hospital, Uyo.

Some correspondents of national dailies, who had contacts with members of the press corps were duly followed up for a period of two weeks.

A reliable source, who does not want to be named, told The Nation on Monday the scores of staff the Government House have been infected with COVID-19.

He disclosed Governor Udom Emmanuel has already ordered a massive testing of staff working in various units within the government house.

“It should shock you that within two days we recorded 17 and 18 cases respectively. Both domestic staff, protocol, security and others working in government house were; on the order of His Excellency subjected to test, and most of them turned out positive,” he said.

The source expressed concerns over the alarming rate of infected persons within the Government House.

“These ones are close to the Governor and have the opportunity to be tested and treated, what happens to those who have no such opportunity? Our people may just begin to die massively. We need to do more testing, we need to test those are are not close to the corridors of power,” he said.

It could also be recalled a broadcaster was arrested and detained for alleging that nine Commissioners in the state were infected with Covid-19.

Following such allegation, Governor Udom Emmanuel during a media chat paraded all Commissioners before newsmen to falsify the broadcaster’s claims.

The Government House source in reaction to such experience queried: “members of the press corps throughout the lockdown worked closely with members of the state executive council, how then did most of them test positive to Covid-19 if the people they worked closely with were as clean as claimed”.

Commissioner for Informationam Mr Charles Udoh, when contacted did not deny more staff of the Government House could have tested positive for Covid-19.

Udoh however said that key persons in the State Incidence Committee and principal staff of the Government House have not tested positive.

“Ekerette Udoh, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor is not positive, the Secretary to the State Government is not positive and these are the people that we meet everyday.

“Dr Akpabio, the Governor’s personal physician and Dr Nathaniel Adiakpan, the Permanent Secretary Government House are not positive and as far as I am concerned, no commmissioner is positive,” he said.

PRESIDENT BUHARI APPOINTS DCP ALIYU MUSA CHIEF PERSONAL SECURITY OFFICER

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Aliyu Abubakar Musa, as his Chief Personal Security Officer (CPSO).

DCP Musa, from Nigerian Police Force Zone 5, Benin City, as his last station, hails from Niger State.

Musa’s appointment follows the redeployment of his predecessor, Commissioner of Police (CP) Abdulkarim Dauda.

Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
June 29, 2020

The Federal Government has said all primary schools and daycare centres across the Federation remained closed.

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, Sani Aliyu, stated this in Abuja on Monday.

“All daycares and primary schools to remain closed till further evaluation,” he said.

QUARANTINED MEDICAL DOCTOR HEALED FROM COVID-19!!!

"As a medical doctor, I would like to advise the nations all over the world - do not panic in the face of this coronavirus. GOD HEALS! He is the same yesterday, today and forever! Move close to anointed men of God - they will pray for you, God will be glorified and this COVID-19 will become a memory!"

Dr Kameni Pierre, a Cameroonian gynaecologist and obstetrician, was in quarantine after being medically confirmed positive to COVID-19. Whilst in isolation at the hospital, he called in to the Emmanuel TV Studios and received prayer during the 'Distance Is Not A Barrier: Interactive Prayer Session'. The healing power of God touched him right in the hospital ward and Dr Kameni began to uncontrollably vomit poisonous substances and sweat profusely! Just days later, a rejuvenated Dr Kameni went for another test and was confirmed negative to the deadly virus! Be blessed as you watch his faith-building testimony!

“Never a sickness Jesus cannot heal! Never a disease Jesus cannot cure! To God’s power, NOTHING is impossible... Let us run to God to put an end to this crisis and panic that has enveloped the world.” - TB Joshua

➡ Watch the video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MibEFar-ics

VIDEO -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MibEFar-ics

By Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

The Parakoyi of Ibadanland and the Chairman of Madandola Group, Chief Bode Akindele, is dead.

Akindele, who was a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, died in his Apapa, Lagos home on Monday at the age of 88 years, according to a reliable source.

Born on June 2,1932, his father, Pa Joshua Laniyan Akindele, was a Chief Tax Clerk for the entire defunct Western Region, a position that can be equated to that of the Chairman of the Inland Revenue today. His mother, Rabiatu Adedigba, was a wealthy Ibadan trader who was politically influential. Alhaja Rabiatu was the first woman to go to Mecca in Ibadan.

Chief Akindele’s business empire operates under the name Modandola Group Of Companies, named after his mother, which translates to ‘God, if you give me the wealth, give me a child that can take care of it.’ Madandola Group spans from maritime to properties, manufacturing, real estates, investments, finance and flour milling with its headquarters in the United Kingdom.

The Fairgate Group, (a company owned by Chief Akindele, located on Bond Street, London, England), deals mainly in properties. Some of its tenants include giant retail stores such as Sainsbury and Asda supermarkets. As at the last quantification, the Fairgate Group was said to be worth over £1billion.

Among the subsidiaries of the Madandola Group Standard Breweries, Ibadan, Diamond Foods Ltd, Ibadan, United Beverages Ltd, Ibadan, Associated Match Industry, Ibadan, merged with Ilorin, Port-Harcourt and Lagos to form a company with a large share of the Nigerian market and Standard Flour Mills in Lagos.

The Federal Government has approved a downward review of the fees chargeable for services related to the Statutory Marriage under the Marriage Act CAP M6 LFN 2004 to commence from Wednesday, July 1.

Mr Mohammed Manga, Director Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Interior, made this known in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Manga said the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola made the disclosure in a Public Notice signed by the Permanent Secretary and Principal Registrar of Marriages in Nigeria, Georgina Ehuriah.

Aregbesola said that the adjustment was an off-shoot of the recommendations made by stakeholders at the Sensitisation Conferences held across the country in the third quarter of 2019.

According to him, the fees chargeable for the Issuance of Fresh Marriage Licence to a place of Public Worship has been reduced from N30,000 for two (2) years to N6,000 yearly, payable for five years in the first instance.

He said further that for the Renewal of Marriage Licence by a Place of Public Worship, the sum of N5,000 has been approved per year, payable for three (3) years at each instance, as against the N30,000 earlier charged annually.

The Minister added that the fees chargeable for Statutory Ordinary Marriage has also been cut down from N21,000 to N15,000 while that of Statutory Special Licence has been slashed from N35,000 to N25,000.

Aregbesola said that a link has been created on the Ministry’s website; (www.ecitibiz.interior.gov.ng) to enable States and Local Governments access the Ministry’s automation platform for services relating to the conduct of Statutory Marriage in the country.

He called on stakeholders to take advantage of the reduction in fees to licence their Places of Public Worship and continue to celebrate Statutory Marriage as specified by the Law.

The commercial bus driver conveying us to Oshodi from Sango under bridge, turned to look at me as the lone passenger sitting with him at the front seat meant for two, but restricted to one passenger owing to the social distancing requirement, and he said, “Oga, we get gofment for dis kontry so? See how bad the road dey naw!, e don reach more than wan year wey we don dey cry about the road and notin don happen”.





Like in a macabre dance, the driver meandered the vehicle through the very many gullies and craters dotting the Lagos – Abeokuta expressway.

Right from Temidire bus-stop a few metres away from the Sango bridge to the old toll gate in Ota, Ogun state, and from Amje bus stop through Moshalasi, Kola, Adura, Salolo, Obadeyi and U-turn bus-stops in Lagos you will find potholes that has become craters and deep gullies swallowing up vehicles, and has become truck drivers worst nightmare.





Vehicle passengers on the road endure the worst kind of giddiness they could ever bargain for, with motorists having a kind of dread for the road that is far more than the one held against bandits terrorizing travelers on Nigerian highways.

The stretch of the road between the U-turn bus-stop in Lagos state and Singer bus-stop in Ogun state is about 10 kilometers, but, it is dotted with over 168 deep potholes looking more like emerging gullies and craters panel beating vehicles into grotesque shapes when driven on it.

In a chat with me, Hon Seye Sotunde, a former council official at the Surelere local Government Area, now residing in one of the towns serviced by the road, said, it is quite frustrating that a key economic road like this can be made to deteriorate to this extent.

Sotunde further said, the chassis of his vehicle has been badly impacted by the perennial topsy-turvy daily experienced driving on the road to and fro his business place at Ikeja.





Waidi Egungboun, who simply introduced himself as a businessman, said he had been plying the road for over twenty five years, and he cannot particularly remember anytime the road is without such issues.

Alhaji Abegunde Ajayi, the CEO of Abex Logistics Nigeria Limited, with its headquarters in Sango Ota, said, “The road is nothing short than a nightmare and transporters worst enemy at the moment”.

He recalled how he lost over four million naira about two years ago when one of his trucks conveying consignments for a client fell over as it entered one of those gully-like holes around Amje Bus stop and the entire bottled drink content was mercilessly shattered and spilled all over the road.

He added that, “It is unfortunate that the state of the road had contributed in no small measure to making transport business less attractive and less profiting, stressing that the life span of the average commercial vehicle is far less than what it used to be and cost of maintenance has quadrupled”. Abegunde concluded.

It is estimated that the expressway handles more than 300,000 vehicles and more than 1million people with goods running into millions of tons daily. It is one of Nigeria’s key economic roads, strategic for providing the required connectivity between the producer and market.

Many therefore, are aghast at the non-challant attitude of the government to the condition of the road which has become a nightmare to all users.

Except for some rhetorical statement made by the Ogun state governor in the early days of his administration, when he claimed that he and his Lagos state counterpart – Babajide Sanwo Olu had gotten approval from the Federal Government to repair the highway and toll it, nothing has changed since the contractors left the work some days after the presidential elections.

Data made available from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA and the Ogun state, and Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, TRACE, showed a combined number of 107 crashes occurred on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway road within the last one year, with 93% of the crashes involving trucks.

It further showed that 105 out of the 107 crashes occurred between the U-turn bus-stop in Lagos and Singer bus-stop in Ogun state, which is only about 10 kilometers of the entire 84 kilometer express road.

The situation of the road was so pathetic that, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ogun State Branch in November last year, protested in Sango-Ota against the deplorable conditions of roads in state.

In a statement, the lawyers lamented the condition of roads in the Gate way state, expressing concerns that the poor state of the roads has led to the loss of lives and caused bodily injuries on commuters.

Isaac Ogbah, , Chairman of the association, specifically cited Sango-Ota-Owode-Idiroko expressway, Atan-Agbara expressway and the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, among others that have been causing major accidents in the state.

According to him, the bad condition of the roads has contributed to the incidents of robbery, kidnapping, sexual molestation and accidents.

Some couple of times in the past, the Lagos state government had through its Public Works Department carried out some palliative repairs of the bad portions, but as soon as the public had begun to hail the actions of the government, the repairs work suddenly disappear and the state of the patched spots got worse leading to the very many deep holes scattered all over the highway.

In a desperate move also, the Ogun state government in a bid to ameliorate the condition of the highway ahead of last year’s yuletide celebrations, put in some palliative repairs, through its public works department, with the use of broken stone elements as gravel, to fill up deep and wide potholes dotting the highway in Joju, and Singer bus-stops and nothing else have been done since then.

The general public are however concerned as to what happened to the much publicized contract for the reconstruction of the expressway, given to Julius Berger Nigeria, PLC, and was flagged off in May 14, 2018, by Mr. Babatunde Fashola, (SAN) the then Minister of Power, Works and Housing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to improve the state of the road and subsequently eliminate the obvious carnage and suffering of commuters.

The contract was awarded at the sum of N22, 000,000,000.00, equivalent to $61,380,000.00. Two sections of the expressway were to be reconstructed, including; Section I (Lagos to Ota) and section II (Ota to Abeokuta).

To find out the position of the government on the obvious bad condition of the road, I spoke with, Engineer Kayode Popoola, the Director of Works, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Lagos state, last week and he told me he was presently in Abuja holding meetings in respect of the road, stating that. “The contractor has just been mobilized back to site to resume reconstruction works of the Lagos-Abeokuta express road.

They will be working from Owode-Ijako in Ogun into Lagos and in a few weeks time, road users will begin to see their impact on the road”.

PULL QUOTE:

“The contractor has just been mobilized back to site to resume reconstruction works of the Lagos-Abeokuta express road. They will be working from Owode-Ijako in Ogun into Lagos and in a few weeks time, road users will begin to see their impact on the road”.