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Army promotes former RSM, one other to Captain, appoints new RSM for Army Hq

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Army promotes former RSM, one other to Captain, appoints new RSM for Army Hq

The Nigerian Army Council has meritoriously approved the grant of Concessional Commission in the rank of Captain to one Army Warrant Officer and One Master Warrant Officer that exceptionally distinguished themselves in the service of our beloved nation.

Those promoted are Army Warrant Officer Nwabueze Agbo, Master Warrant Officer Tijjani Namadi (the duo are promoted to the rank of Captain) and Master Warrant Officer Ibrahim Zakaria promoted to the rank of Army Warrant Officer.

All of them were found to be professionally worthy for the elevations and are hereby, on merit, – promoted to the rank of Captain and Army Warrant Officer respectively as approved by the Army Council.

In the course of their duties to Nigeria, all of them have displayed an exceptional commitment, dedication, selfless service and loyalty. Their elevations is in recognition and appreciation of their remarkable services to their country.

The promotion will serve as a morale booster and inspire others to show more commitment, loyalty and dedication to duty.

While Army Warrant Officer Nwabueze Agbo was until his promotion the Regimental Sergent Major (RSM) of the Army Headquarters Abuja, Master Warrant Officer Tijjani Namadi was RSM 6 Battalion Abak and the immediate security detail to the Chief of Policy and Plans Army and MWO Ibrahim Zakaria was the RSM Army War College Abuja now promoted to Army Warrant Officer and appointed as RSM Army Headquarters.

They have all distinguished themselves excellently well at their various places of assignments in the Nigerian Army.

While decorating the newly promoted officers, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt Gen TY Buratai has commended them for their selfless services and loyalty to the nation, urged other soldiers to imbibe these sterling qualities in the discharge of their constitutional/assigned responsibilities.

Lt Gen TY Buratai further enjoined them to sustain and impart discipline, hardwork and regimentation to younger officers in their new units.

In his appreciation remarks on behalf of the beneficiaries, Captain Nwabueze Agbo thanked the COAS for transforming the Nigerian Army to the present enviable standard.
According to him – “Lt Gen Buratai’s inputs in terms of doctrine, organization, training and orbat review of the Nigerian Army has made us to really understand the army better and thus placed it in a better position to checkmate current and emerging security challenges”.

“In terms of welfare of troops and their families when you slashed school fees in Command Schools, you made our families happy and encouraged our children to go to school. Your infrastructural development, construction of accommodation and renovation of our living quarters in almost all Nigerian Army barracks across Nigeria has further made us happier and to live longer. When you introduced barracks investment initiative programme, you empowered and made our families industrious and self reliant”.

“Finally Sir, your feeding programme especially at the army headquarters really enhances our performances in the discharge of our tasks”.

Two convents isolated as 59 religious sisters test positive for Coronavirus in Rome

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Two convents isolated as 59 religious sisters test positive for Coronavirus in Rome

Two convents, one in Rome and one in a town nearby the capital city, have been isolated as the majority of religious sisters in the communities tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Italian news agency ANSA, 59 sisters have tested positive for coronavirus between the two communities and are being isolated within their convents.

In Grottaferrata, a town on the outskirts of the metropolitan area of Rome, the religious community of the Daughters of San Camillo have had 40 sisters test positive for COVID-19, one of whom has been hospitalized. There are around 50 sisters living at the convent.

Two convents, one in Rome and one in a town nearby the capital city, have been isolated as the majority of religious sisters in the communities tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Italian news agency ANSA, 59 sisters have tested positive for coronavirus between the two communities and are being isolated within their convents.

In Grottaferrata, a town on the outskirts of the metropolitan area of Rome, the religious community of the Daughters of San Camillo have had 40 sisters test positive for COVID-19, one of whom has been hospitalized. There are around 50 sisters living at the convent.

Mother Maria Ortensia Turati of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity died March 16 at a hospital in Tortona. She was 89. And on March 15, Sister Maria Caterina Cafasso, 82, of the Mater Dei Province, died.

Bishop Derio Olivero of the Diocese of Pinerolo recently tested positive for COVID-19.

The bishop, age 59, was admitted to the hospital March 19. He is the second Italian bishop known to have had coronavirus.

Bishop Antonio Napolioni of Cremona was hospitalized in early March for COVID-19, but was released early this week to finish recovering under home quarantine.

As of March 19, the Italian dioceses around Milan had reported the deaths of 30 priests during the coronavirus outbreak, with at least 28 due to COVID-19.

Coronavirus: Oyedepo suspends church services in Canaanland

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Coronavirus: Oyedepo suspends church services in Canaanland

By Toby Prince

Living Faith Church, popularly known as Winners Chapel, has suspended its mega services at Canaanland in Ota, Ogun State till further notice.

It has also instructed each of its provinces to create more cells in members’ houses.

The directive follows the order of some state governments that religious and other gatherings with more than 50 persons would not be allowed as a precaution to containing the spread of the coronavirus.

A message from the church seen by Television Nigerian on Friday afternoon reads: “In view of Govt. directives on assembly, leadership has directed each Province to create more cells in members’ houses in such a way that each Zone will not have less than 10 Cells to take care of our gathering so that we do not have more than 50 members gathering in the Cells, Zonal & Provincial Centres.

“Arrangement is to be put in place to have able Ministers to man the cells & report appropriately & timely. Our closed Zones should be put to use also.

“Feedback should come in latest by 5 pm today Friday 20/03/20 through Capernaum.”

Covenant University owned by the church will remain closed till further notice.

Congolese Soukous legend, Arlus Mabele dies from Coronavirus

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Congolese Soukous legend, Arlus Mabele dies from Coronavirus

Congolese music star Aurlus Mabele has died aged 67.  According to media reports, he developed complications arising from a stroke and Coronavirus infection

The shocking news of Mabele’s death was announced by his daughter Liza Monet on her social media account.

“My dad died of Coronavirus this morning [Thursday night] … Thank you for honoring his memory. He is a great legend of the Soukouss that the Congolese people are losing today. I am inconsolable and collapsed. My dad whom I love so much … Aurlus Mabele,” Liza posted on her Twitter account.

The Soukous music legend was born in 1953 in Brazaville, Congo.

Mabele was one of the founders of the legendary supergroup Loketo (hips) band, formed in the mid-1980s alongside Mav Cacharel and Diblo Dibala, which broke up a few years later.

He was one of the first Paris-based Soukous Stars and set the standards with several Long Plays (LPs) in the 1980s.

Mabele is known for hits such as Liste Rouge, Embargo among many others.

 

Appeal Court reduces IG Wala’s jail term  from seven years jail term to two years

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Appeal Court reduces IG Wala’s jail term  from seven years jail term to two years

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Friday, reduced the seven years jail term of a Nigerian activist convicted for falsely accusing a public official of corruption.

Delivering judgement in Mr Wala’s appeal on Friday, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Muhammed Idris, held that the jail term imposed on the activist being a first time offender, was of maximum sentence.

“We have reviewed the facts of the case and review the arguments of counsel on the issues raised and the conclusion is as follows;

“It can be grasped that the punishment imposed on the appellant was of maximum sentencing, in view of the forgoing specifically section 416(2)(d) of ACJA.

“Being a first offender, I do not think that justice would be served by imposing a maximum sentence on the appellant. The appellant is hereby sentenced as follows;

1. Two years imprisonment for the offence of public incitement under section 114 of the penal code which attracts the sentence of three years or fine or both.

2. 18 months for the offence of criminal defamation of character under section 391 and punishable under section 392 of the penal code, which attracts two years of imprisonment or fine or both.

“This sentencing shall run concurrently,” Mr Idris held meaning Mr Wala will only spend two years in jail.

 

WHO has not approved Chloroquine for COVID-19 management – NCDC

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WHO has not approved Chloroquine for COVID-19 management – NCDC

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says, the World Health Organization (WHO) has NOT approved the use of Chloroquine for COVID-19 management.

Speaking via Twitter @NCDCgov, the NCDC warned:

“Scientists are working hard to confirm the safety of several drugs for this disease.

“Please DO NOT engage in self-medication. This will cause harm and can lead to death.”

How Jehovah witness predicted spread of Coronavirus fifteen years ago

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By Bukola Olasanmi

The deadly Coronavirus or COVID-19 was predicted by an article published by the Jehovah’s Witness, a religious group, 15 years ago, in its magazine, Awake! But the world ignored the warning.

According to the article “The Next Global Epidemic, WHEN?” published in the December 22, 2005, edition of Awake!, the world was alerted that a pandemic virus might emerge in China or a nearby country in the future.

It also warned that it might emanate from an animal and could surface from antigens or virulence factors derived from animal influenza viruses.

The prediction, seen by some analysts as opportunistic, came two years after the end of another pandemic virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak that started in November 2002.

SARS was also a coronavirus, and it also jumped to people from animals in the wet markets.

SARS emerged in Guangdong and infected 8,098 people over the course of eight months, killing 774 Patients experienced fevers, headaches, and a type of deadly pneumonia that could cause respiratory failure.

Experts called SARS “the first pandemic of the 21st century,” since it spread across 29 countries. The disease hasn’t been seen in humans since July 2003.

The Awake magazine writer in predicting another virus quoted the medical journal, Vaccine, of 2003, which warned: “It has been 35 years since the last influenza pandemic, and the longest interval between pandemics recorded with certainty in 39 years. The pandemic virus may emerge in China or a nearby country and could surface from antigens or virulence factors derived from animal influenza viruses.

“It will spread rapidly throughout the world. Several waves of infection will occur. Morbidity will be extensive in all age groups, and there will be widespread disruption of social and economic activity in all countries. Excess mortality will be evident in most, if not all age groups. It is unlikely that health care systems in even the most economically developed countries will be able to adequately cope with the demand for health care services.”

True to this prediction, the influenza pandemic again began in China in December 2019, from where it has spread to other parts of the world.

The virus has presented huge problems to China and the World Health Organisation in its containment.

Covid-19: 33 UK returnees flee hotel they were kept for isolation in the Gambia

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Covid-19: 33 UK returnees flee hotel they were kept for isolation in the Gambia

Thirty-three travellers stormed out of Golden Beach Hotel in Bijilo after they were sent there for coronavirus isolation.

The travellers who included Gambians and Senegalese jetted into the country from Birmingham, UK via InterAir on Wednesday.

Officials quickly put them in a bus and sent them to Golden Beach Hotel. The travellers which also included a Sierra Leonean who had a child who was disabled and mentally challenged, spent ‘a few’ hours there before storming out into society.

One of them told reporters: “We were not quarantined, if we were quarantined, it should have started at the airport. Because we were mingling with everybody even at the airport. So there was no quarantine, there was no procedure, there was no process.

“They didn’t take us to a hotel, they took us to a brothel. There’s a difference between a hotel and a brothel. A brothel is probably where you take prostitutes.

“They give us a place that was abandoned for months and months and they expected us to stay.

“They didn’t tell us anything, we had no communication from anybody, up until even now. There was no one there from the ministry of health or the government. No one spoke to us, nobody. There was nobody at the hotel when we got there. Basically, the Gambian government is incompetent.

“I am not gonna stay in a hotel where I feel more vulnerable than anything else because there is no process, there is no procedure. The beds have bedbugs on them. That place can give us coronavirus.”

Niger-Delta ex-agitators protest negligence by Amnesty Committee

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Niger-Delta ex-agitators protest negligence by Amnesty Committee

…Call for appointment of new SA on Amnesty programme

The leaders of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region have frowned at what they describe as negligence of their members by the Amnesty Programme Committee.

The ex-agitators said since President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Amnesty Committee, the leaders of the ex-agitators in the Niger Delta had not met with the Committee to chart way forward.

The ex-agitators’ leaders said currently, names were being sent for scholarships in various universities without them (ex-agitators leaders) being carried along.

The ex-militants also called on President Buhari to appoint a Special Adviser on Niger Delta to allow them have easy access to the Presidency.

Addressing journalists during a protest in Abuja, one of the leaders of the ex-agitators, General Aso Tambo said the protest was to send a signal to the committee to arrange a meeting with them as soon as possible.

General Tambo who is also the National Chairman to 6166 ex-agitators which formed the Presidential Amnesty phase 2, said the 30,000 ex-agitators were being sent to schools but the leaders of the program in the Niger Delta were not being carried along.

“What we want to do right here is to send a signal to the committee that as they are working, there are people that own this program, there are people that brought about the existence of this program, the people that were agitating in the Niger Delta creeks bearing firearms to ensure that our region is developed the way Lagos and Abuja is. Those where the people that the federal government negotiated with the offer of amnesty.

“The message we want to send across through this medium to the Committee is for them to book an audience for them to see with the leaders of the ex-agitators so that they can hear us out”, he noted.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the creation of the Committee to investigate the Amnesty Office.

Another ex-agitators leader, General Olotu Wanemi said the Committee should as a matter of urgency arrange a meeting with the leaders of the ex-agitators because the program was designed for the ex-agitators.

He said over 90 per cent of the leaders of the ex-agitators and their followers were not those deployed to schools in the recent deployment.

“This Amnesty office was not just created like that, so many things happened, people died, there was marginalisation, fortunately this office has been created, we the ex-agitators do not know what is happening in the office, no inclusion in anything.

“Fortunately, there is a committee now managing our program for over a month now, we have not met with the committee which is very wrong.

“We do not see it as right thing for people managing your program, you don’t know them. Before now when we had a Special Assistant to the President of Amnesty, we channel our complaints through the office.

“Just of recent, they deployed some people to school and 90 per cent of the leaders and followers were not included, we are appealing, we don’t want to take the laws into our hands, that’s why we have been this patient” he said.

While appealing to the Committee to have audience with the leaders of ex-agitators, he called on President Buhari to appoint a new Special Adviser on Niger Delta so that they can always pass their complaints swiftly.

“We are begging the committee to call us as soon as possible so that things will go as expected.

“We have done everything possible to see the committee but they are not in the Amnesty Office, we were told they were at National Security Adviser office, we went there, serve them letter, the refused, and we have been making efforts to have audience with them because we are the owner of this program.

“When they called us from the creeks, the Federal government agreed with us that they would educate us and our followers, they have deployed some persons to schools, the Special Adviser was about to deploy some ex-agitators to school before he was removed.

“As I speak, the private universities that the Amnesty office is working with are now calling that they are waiting for these students to be deployed, unfortunately, there is no Special Adviser to send them.

“So, we are appealing with the committee to give us audience, we want to see them especially for this deployment, for these people to go to school because they said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, so we want them to be busy, studying so that they won’t think of going back to the creek”, he added.

COVID-19: Lagos confirms 4 new cases of Coronavirus

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COVID-19: Lagos confirms 4 new cases of Coronavirus

The Lagos state Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, has confirmed four new cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos.

This development brings the total of 12 cases in the country.

The Health Commissioner confirmed the new cases at a news briefing on Thursday.

This comes barely one day after the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed five new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, confirming the news at a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, explained that out of the five new cases, three arrived from the United States while two came from the United Kingdom.

“We are still collating information on the travellers; two out of the three from the US are Nigerian, a mother and a 6-week old baby which makes it the youngest COVID-19 patient we have.

“The third is an American national, who crossed the land border to become the first COVID-19 case not arriving by air. The two cases from the UK are Nigerians”.

The Minister noted that a detailed travel history of each person is being compiled and contacts currently being traced, to identify persons who have recently been in contact with anyone.

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