Author: Chief Editor

A 60-year-old teacher who died in Paris after falling ill with the new coronavirus has become the first French casualty of the illness, health officials said on Wednesday, adding he had not travelled to an outbreak hotspot. The man died overnight in a hospital in the capital, bringing the coronavirus death toll in the country to two, said the ministry’s deputy head, Jerome Salomon. The first victim was an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who died in hospital in mid-February. The teacher, who worked at a junior high school in the town of Crepy-en-Valois, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Paris,…

The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Ibrahim Magu has insisted that the deadly novel coronavirus which has killed about 2, 700 people globally was caused by corruption. “The coronavirus is a product of a corrupt mind,” Magu said in a new video. “Somebody deliberately sat down in the lab and came up with the virus with the view to infect and destroy other people.” “So, who else is corrupt than that? So, it is created by a corrupt mind. So, I still insist that coronavirus was caused by corruption.” https://twitter.com/thecableng/status/1232642804955910144 Magu’s latest claim was made days…

US President Donald Trump announced a news conference from the White House on the coronavirus epidemic Wednesday, with experts warning they expect it to spread in the United States. “I will be having a News Conference at the White House, on this subject, today at 6:00 P.M.” Trump tweeted, adding that officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would attend. Officials have urged Americans to develop plans to avoid mass gatherings amid dire warnings that countries are not ready to contain an outbreak that has infected 80,000 people, mostly in China. Critics, including lawmakers on both sides…

The Ekiti State Government has revoked the contract for the rehabilitation of the Ayede-Ikun-Otun Ekiti road valued at N3.2 billion from the construction company handling the project. The road was awarded to Sharvet Nigeria Limited early January 2020 and the company has not mobilised to site and commenced work as contained in the terms of the agreement since then. Speaking with journalists after the state executive council meeting in Ado Ekiti Wednesday, the Information Commissioner, Mr. Muyiwa Olumilua, said the government took the action owing to gross incompetence exhibited by the construction firm. He, however, stated that the contractor won’t…

By Abiye Tolofari The sack of Ms. Joi Nunieh on Wednesday February 19, 2019, barely four months after she was appointed Acting Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is yet another chapter in the quagmire that the agency has been plunged into since Godswill Akpabio was appointed the Minister of Niger Delta and handed supervision of the agency. The sack, which was announced in a terse statement signed by President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, also announced a new acting managing director and two new members of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) set up by Akpabio…

Says application for review vexatious, frivolous Orders Afe Babalola, Olanipekun to pay N10m to each of the three respondents The Supreme Court on Wednesday described the request by the All Progressive Congress (APC) to review its judgment voiding the participation of its candidate in the Bayelsa governorship election as vexatious, frivolous and an abuse of court process. The court held that the suit filed on behalf of the APC, its sacked governor-elect and deputy governor-elect, Mr David Lyon and Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, lacked merit and accordingly dismissed it. The apex court in the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Amina Augie, came…

WHO calls on Nigeria, other African countries to ramp up preparation for virus The World Health Organisation (WHO) has named Algeria as the second African country to be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, which has now killed 2, 715 persons and infected over 78, 064 across 47 countries. This is even as the WHO African region has called on Nigeria and other African countries to ramp up their preparedness activities for the virus, as the window of opportunity available to African countries for preparation was closing. In a statement made available to THISDAY Wednesday, the Regional Director, WHO Africa, Dr.…

•Six South-west AGs to harmonise draft bill Wednesday The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former Minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae yesterday allayed fears that the formation of the regional security initiative, Operation Amotekun by the South-west, was a prelude to secession plan, insisting that the Yoruba cannot secede from Nigeria Falae stated this yesterday in Akure, Ondo State capital, at the public hearing on a bill “Ondo State Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps Law 2020”. This is coming as the six Attorneys General of the South-west states will meet at Ibadan on February 26…

• CDS urges security agencies to synergise on nation’s security • President okays committee on humanitarian action The National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd.) was absent from yesterday’s meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari, Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu. Others who attended the meeting, which held behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, were the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Abayomi Olonisakin, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar and Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas. Monguno was also…

Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as Shiites, have expressed concern over the constant adjournments of the alleged homicide case against Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, as the trial has again, been adjourned. President of IMN Media Forum, Ibrahim Musa, who reacted to the decision of the Kaduna High Court to adjourn the case till April 23 and 24, 2020 in an interview with The Guardian said, “We are concerned about the way the court is adjourning the case, it is as if it will not end and Sheikh El-Zakzaky will perpetually be kept in…