Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has endowed N10 million to the Hospital Paupers’ Fund meant for the medical treatment of indigent patients. He had also, last year endowed the Fund with N10 million for indigent patients to have access to the money when receiving medical treatment at the Federal Medical Centre in Yola, Adamawa State.
Atiku, who visited victims of the Mubi suicide bomb blast on Monday at the Federal Medical Centre announced that he was increasing the money available to the Fund by N10 million.
“I once donated N10 million to the Fund and decided to make another donation of N10 million today (Monday) because I am quite satisfied with the way the Fund is being managed. Patients that cannot afford to get medical treatment can benefit from the Fund.”
According to Atiku Abubakar, the Fund was increased to enable victims of the Mubi bomb blast to access needed money for their treatment.
The Chief Medical Director of FMC, Professor Muhammad Auwal, who conducted Atiku Abubakar round the wards, said that about 300 indigent patients including those with major surgeries have accessed the Fund for their treatment. [myad]
The Nigeria minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has received a hard knock from Senator Babafemi Ojudu campaign group known as Ekiti Rebirth Organization (ERO) over the crisis that rocked the State Congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday, Saturday which led to its being postponed.
Director General of ERO, Chief Ranti Adebisi, in a statement, described Fayemi a man whose political fortune has taken a deep slide in recent times and whose entire campaign strategy was built on lies, orchestrated violence and cheap anti-democratic tricks.
Fayemi, who was former governor of the State, was reported by his Special Adviser on Media, Yinka Oyebode to have alluded to the fact that Senator Ojudu and another aspirant, Bimbo Daramola masterminded the violence and destruction of ballot boxes, having realized that the he (Fayemi) was already in a clear lead in the four local councils that had cast their votes.
Ranti Adebisi, however said: “the entire incident that happened at the stadium was caught on camera and broadcast on National Television. We implore the security agents who made several arrests at the scene to make public the identities of the people arrested and their sponsors. I can tell you that 100 percent that they have no link whatsoever to the Ojudu campaign.
“Fayemi has been the candidate threatening violence since he joined the race last month. He threatened to cripple the state if he is not given the party ticket. He deployed security agents to intimidate delegates even during the conduct of the primaries.
“He is the aspirant that has been avoiding democratic test of popularity, the chronology of events that culminated into the stampede at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, is known to the public, as some of them were also captured on camera. Those videos are everywhere on the social media for everybody to see.
“Clearly, if there is anyone desperate, that person is Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the stakes are high for him as a former governor who lost his seat wholesale and as wobbled as a serving Minister. It is his degree of desperation that has caused the latest show of shame in Ekiti.
“Ojudu has no reason whatsoever to want the voting disrupted since we were projected to win. But we are appealing to our delegates and supporters across the state to remain calm.
“Fayemi came late into this very contest to realize that the boat has left the shore. He is now looking for any straw to hang unto. He was shocked to realize that his much advertised hold on the state executive was a fluke.
“He was shocked that Ojudu was coasting home with a landslide so he has to haphazardly change from one rigging strategy to the other but Ekiti people are not fools.
“We don’t support violence; our campaign does not use thugs. We don’t use self-help. However, Ekiti people have made the statement loud and clear that they no longer want Fayemi. We are sure of our support base. If this election is conducted ten times Ojudu will win.” [myad]
A former Presidential adviser and spokesman, Dr.Doyin Okupe, has confessed that it will be absolutely impossible for opposition political party candidates to defeat the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election.
“It is absolutely impossible to oppose the incumbent especially a towering figure like President Muhammadu Buhari and hope to defeat him.”
In a statement today, Sunday, Dr. Okupe said that since it would be difficult to defeat an incumbent, the Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition of Nigeria Movement (CNM) will be the only broad platform on which a President candidate could defeat Buhari.
“To defeat Buhari will require an exact repeat of what Bola Tinubu and others were able to do with the APC in 2014 by creating a broad platform encompassing the political majority in the country. This strong coalition will present a candidate to contest against Buhari with the hope of being able to win.”
“We recognize the fact that the APC has not done well. We are convinced that the decision by Buhari to contest again will not augur well for the country. To allow the APC to win means Buhari will continue and that would not be in the interest of Nigerians.” [myad]
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus has written a letter to the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu with a complain that he never collected money from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
Secondus, through his lawyer, Emeka Etiaba in a letter with reference numbr EESE&C/02/03/05/1 and dated 3rd May, 2018 titled: “Re: Mention of Prince Uche Secondus on the list of Looters of Nigeria Economy” insisted that he never sent anybody to collect on his behalf money at any time from the former NSA.
The PDP boss expressed fear that the continued listing of his name might be a deliberate ploy by the Commission to implicate him, scandalize his name in a desperate attempt by the ruling APC to suppress him, dent the credibility of our great party which is being rebranded by him.
The letter also reminded the EFCC that the issue concerning him is already in court and wondered why the commission should not approach the court with its evidence, if any, than continuously indulging in the media trial.
He drew the attention of EFCC to the suit before the Chief Judge of Rivers state in Port Harcourt where an interlocutory order was granted against the defendants and same restrained them from further publishing his name.
He also drew the attention of the commission to the injunction order published in the dailies as ordered by the court a copy of which was attached to the letter to the commission.
“The said publication by the Minister has become a subjectmatter of Suit No: PHC/1013/2018 in Prince Uche Secondus Vs. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Federal Government of Nigeria and Vintage Press Limited (publishers of The Nation Newspapers). The above Suit is pending at Court 1, High Court of Rivers State, Holden in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and same has been adjourned to the 28th May, 2018 for hearing”
“Having regard to the fact that the subject matter has become subjudice and having drawn the attention of the Commission to the facts contained in this letter, it is our hope that the subsisting Order of Court should be obeyed and if the Commission has evidence of collection of money from the office of the National Security Adviser by Our Client, (as an Agency of the Federal Government which is the 2nd Defendant in Suit No: PHC/1013/2018), the Commission should avail such information to the Federal Government for its defence of the Suit.”
“Our Client wishes for the umpteenth time to state that he neither collected money from the office of the National Security Adviser nor instructed anybody to collect money on his behalf. He also wishes to state that he never had a Special Assistant by name Chukwurah who is being touted as the one that collected the sum of ₦200,000,000.00 (Two Hundred Million Naira) on his behalf.
“Finally, the letter said, “Our Client hopes that the ongoing scandalization of his name is not a ploy by the Commission to give effect to the desperate attempt by the federal government to intimidate him and destroy his credibility and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as other opposition leaders as the general elections approach in the pretext of war against corruption” [myad]
Each morning, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, wife of the President of Nigeria wakes up with a picture of women and children struggling through challenges of hunger and sickness, having to choose between food and medication. Sometimes they lose both, even as they battle the lack of education and harmful cultural practices. More often than not, they suffer permanent wounds and scars of these challenges, at other times, succumbing to the cold hands of death.
Each time, she would flash options in her mind; what to do, how to do it, who to do it with – all in a bid to ensure that one more life is saved, one more prospective contributor to national development. Is it easier to give women education or to empower them with self-reliance? How much impact can one make?
She has keyed into the RMNCAH+N Policy, (Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition) through her Future Assured Programme and has already made a lot of impact through advocacy campaigns on breastfeeding, de-worming, killer diseases, complementing this with food, nutrition and medicinal aid, calling on government and privileged Nigerians to save more lives of women and children.
At a recent event she organized for the private sector, she spoke on the need for them to embrace RMNCAH+N as their Corporate Social Responsibility and advocated for Innovative partnerships for investment in the sector. She presented a portfolio of areas of support for them to choose from. Captains of industry attended, listened and keyed in. Most importantly, they understood the precarious lives that women and children go through because of lack of access to essential health services.
Every year in Nigeria, 58,000 women are said to die from pregnancy related complications; from excessive bleeding after child birth, to complications of hypertension in pregnancy, unsafe abortions, infections and obstructed labour. At the event, Mrs. Buhari stressed that interventions to save the lives of these women are low cost, but of high impact because with only N58,381 it is possible to save one pregnant woman from dying in the process of giving birth to another life. She requested private sector to join her in saving at least 5% of these each year over the next 5 years.
Also important, 839,500 children do not make it to their 5th birthday because of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, HIV and malnutrition. N28,454 is required to save each of these children so that they can live their lives. Some of the interventions include simple prevention and treatment, case management, therapeutic foods, fortifications and the like, some as simple as zinc, vitamin A and folic acid. In fact, it has been established that folic acid taken before conception and in the first few months of pregnancy can prevent spina bifida and associated complications.
Deficiency of these drugs causes problems for both the mother and the unborn child, Sometimes these deficiencies are attributed to poverty and illiteracy rather than lack of the drugs at the ante-natal clinics. A lot of mothers get to know the dangers only too late. Some of them, after suffering from a traumatic pregnancy and even child birth, now have to contend with a perpetually sick child, whose ailment can only be treated at a huge cost. Most of the support in this area is therefore slow and low.
This is why Mrs. Buhari has come in and supported the surgeries of eight children aged from a few months to 6 years. The surgeries were principally in three areas; Hydrocephalus, Encephalocele and Myelomeningocele.
Hydrocephalus results from complications of premature birth, diseases such as meningitis, tumors and traumatic head injury. It is typified by accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) within the brain. This fluid compresses the brain, causing neurological symptoms such as convulsions, intellectual disability and epileptic seizures. Fetuses, infants, and young children with hydrocephalus typically have an abnormally large head, excluding the face, because the pressure of the fluid causes the individual skull bones — which have yet to fuse — to bulge outward at their juncture points.
Encephaloceles causes a groove down the middle of the skull, or between the forehead and nose, or on the back side of the skull. Symptoms may include neurologic problems, cerebrospinal fluid accumulated in the brain, paralysis of the limbs, an abnormally small head, uncoordinated muscle movement, developmental delay, vision problems, mental and growth retardation, and seizures.
Myelomeningocele is the type of spina bifida that often results in the most severe complications. In individuals with myelomeningocele, the un-fused portion of the spinal column allows the spinal cord to protrude through an opening. The membranes that cover the spinal cord also protrude through the opening, forming a sac enclosing the spinal elements, such cerebrospinal fluid, and parts of the spinal cord and nerve roots.
These children have undergone successful surgeries so far, while others are receiving attention. Ya’u Usman, male, 9 months old had Hydrocephalus; Ma’aruf Abdulsalam, male, 3 months had Hydrocephalus and Myelomeningocele; Muhammad Auwal, male, 1 year old had Encephalocele. Nana Khadija Adamu, female, 1 year old, had Hydrocephalus and Myelomeningocele; Asmau Sabiu, female, 6 years old, had brain tumour and Hydrocephalus.
Mrs. Buhari’s acts of compassion continues to show the way for others to emulate. If the private sector can sponsor one hundred or one thousand lives of women and children, then our collective humanity has been proven, our women and children will have a chance be full and not temporary members of our national reality.
Haruna, Director of Information to the wife of the President, wrote in from Abuja. [myad]
Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic, Emmanuel Kayode Oguntuase, handing over his letter of Credence to the President of Benin Republic, Patrice Athanese Talon (right) at the Presidential Palace to assume duty in that country. [myad]
Nigerians Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, acknowledges cheers from traders when he visits Isikan Market in Akure, Ondo State capital today, Friday, May 4 to witness the ongoing solar electrification of the market. He was accompanied by the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. Photo by Novo Isioro. [myad]
The Kogi State Chief Judge, Justice Nasiru Ajanah, has given an interim order that Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial Areat at the National Assembly, should be transferred to the National Hospital, Abuja to continue his treatment while under the custody of the police.
Justice Ajanah, gave the order when counsel to Senator Melaye, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) approached the court to seek for bail for the embattled senator.
Justice Ajanah said that the court will look into the bail application for the senator on Monday May 7.
Senator Melaye, who was arraigned before a Lokoja Magistrate Court yesterday, Thursday on a seven-count charge of criminal conspiracy and unlawful possession of firearm, was denied bail and remanded in police custody until June 11. [myad]
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has said that the Commission spent N100 million to execute the failed attempt to recall Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi State West Senatorial Area in the red chamber of the National Assembly.
The INEC chairman told news men in Abuja today, Friday said that the figure is nowhere near the N1 billion being bandied by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said that a recall exercise is just like conducting a Senatorial election, adding that Kogi-West which Melaye represents has 552 polling units and seven local governments.
The INEC boss said that ad hoc staff were deployed in all the polling units.
The Court of Appeal has given the Nigerian Federal Government power to extradite a serving senator, Buruji Kashamu to the United States of America to face trial in a drug related offence. The appellate court in a landmark judgment today, May 4, voided and set aside all orders made by a federal high court between 2014 and 2017 restraining the government from proceeding with the extradition. Delivering judgment in an appeal filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Justice Joseph Ikyeghi held that the orders granted Kashamu by Justice Okon Abang were invalid, nonsensical and unacceptable to laws because they were based on hearsays and speculations by Senator Kashamu. The unanimous judgment was prepared by Justice Ikyeghi and was delivered by Justice Yargala Nimpar. The court held that the hearsay that a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was instigating the extradition was not established under any law. The appeal court said that an affidavit deposed to by the senator on the issue was worthless and not in compliance with evidence act because the senator himself claimed that he was told by several persons who were not called to testify in court. Justice Ikyeghi held that Justice Abang in his two judgments on the issue erred in law by playing undue reliance on affidavit that offended evidence act to give judgment against the Federal government. Consequently, the order of injunction stopping the extraction process was voided and set aside. Another order which terminated the extradition process in the second judgment of Justice Abang was also set aside, having been issued in error by the Federal high court. Justice Ikyeghi agreed with counsel to the Federal Government Chief Emeka Ngige SAN that a statutory body like the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) can only be prohibited from performing its statutory functions based on facts and not hearsays and speculations as in the instant case. The Minister of Justice had in the appeal case argued by his counsel Chief Emeka Ngige SAN prayed the Court of Appeal to set aside the two Federal High Court Judgments obtained by Kashamu against his extradition by government and its security agencies. The contention of government primarily was that the senator representing Ogun East in the Senate got the two judgments in the lower court from Justice Okon Abang on mere hearsay and speculation to frustrate his extradition as requested by the America government. The AGF claimed in the appeal that Kashamu suppressed facts before the High Court to secure the restraining order against the Federal Government. The AGF also averred that Justice Abang erred in law by issuing order in favour of the senator without evaluating the documentary evidence placed before him during the hearing and urged the appeal court to void the two judgments and set them aside. Ngige who cited several authorities in support of his submissions told the Appeal Court that the lower court ought to have declined granting of reliefs sought by Kashamu because the foundation of his suit was laid on hearsays from so many individuals. He therefore urged the appellate court to set aside the decisions of the High Court so as to allow the federal government to execute the request of the USA government to extradite the senator to America. But Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who led Kashamu’s legal team comprising Chief Akin Olujimi SAN, Hakeem Afolabi SAN and a retinue of lawyers urged the court to uphold the judgment of Abang on the ground that it was based on fact and not hearsays. Fagbemi submitted that contrary to the Federal Government’s claim, the fear expressed by Kashamu on the plan to extradite him to America was based on facts deposed to by well-wishers of the Senator. Justice Okon Abang had in his first judgment on the extradition matter delivered on January 6, 2014 against six respondents had stopped the extradition of Kashamu on the ground that due process of law was not followed. The same judge in his second judgment on the same issue delivered on May 27, 2015 against 12 other respondents barred the respondents from sending the senator to America by force to go and face trial in his alleged indictment in an alleged drug offence. The Federal Government had in 2014 moved to extradite Kashamu to USA to answer criminal charges filed against him in an American Court on drug offence. The American government had approached the Nigerian Government to extradite the senator in line with the extradition treaty between the two countries. But the Senator through his counsel rushed to the Federal High court with complains that due process of law was not followed in the extradition process. He claimed in his suit that the person indicted for the alleged drug offense was his younger brother who had a striking resemblance with him and who had since died. [myad]
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Aisha Buhari And Kids Dying For Lack Of Folic Acid, Zinc Ind Iron, By Suleiman Haruna
Each morning, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, wife of the President of Nigeria wakes up with a picture of women and children struggling through challenges of hunger and sickness, having to choose between food and medication. Sometimes they lose both, even as they battle the lack of education and harmful cultural practices. More often than not, they suffer permanent wounds and scars of these challenges, at other times, succumbing to the cold hands of death.
Each time, she would flash options in her mind; what to do, how to do it, who to do it with – all in a bid to ensure that one more life is saved, one more prospective contributor to national development. Is it easier to give women education or to empower them with self-reliance? How much impact can one make?
She has keyed into the RMNCAH+N Policy, (Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition) through her Future Assured Programme and has already made a lot of impact through advocacy campaigns on breastfeeding, de-worming, killer diseases, complementing this with food, nutrition and medicinal aid, calling on government and privileged Nigerians to save more lives of women and children.
At a recent event she organized for the private sector, she spoke on the need for them to embrace RMNCAH+N as their Corporate Social Responsibility and advocated for Innovative partnerships for investment in the sector. She presented a portfolio of areas of support for them to choose from. Captains of industry attended, listened and keyed in. Most importantly, they understood the precarious lives that women and children go through because of lack of access to essential health services.
Every year in Nigeria, 58,000 women are said to die from pregnancy related complications; from excessive bleeding after child birth, to complications of hypertension in pregnancy, unsafe abortions, infections and obstructed labour. At the event, Mrs. Buhari stressed that interventions to save the lives of these women are low cost, but of high impact because with only N58,381 it is possible to save one pregnant woman from dying in the process of giving birth to another life. She requested private sector to join her in saving at least 5% of these each year over the next 5 years.
Also important, 839,500 children do not make it to their 5th birthday because of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, HIV and malnutrition. N28,454 is required to save each of these children so that they can live their lives. Some of the interventions include simple prevention and treatment, case management, therapeutic foods, fortifications and the like, some as simple as zinc, vitamin A and folic acid. In fact, it has been established that folic acid taken before conception and in the first few months of pregnancy can prevent spina bifida and associated complications.
Deficiency of these drugs causes problems for both the mother and the unborn child, Sometimes these deficiencies are attributed to poverty and illiteracy rather than lack of the drugs at the ante-natal clinics. A lot of mothers get to know the dangers only too late. Some of them, after suffering from a traumatic pregnancy and even child birth, now have to contend with a perpetually sick child, whose ailment can only be treated at a huge cost. Most of the support in this area is therefore slow and low.
This is why Mrs. Buhari has come in and supported the surgeries of eight children aged from a few months to 6 years. The surgeries were principally in three areas; Hydrocephalus, Encephalocele and Myelomeningocele.
Hydrocephalus results from complications of premature birth, diseases such as meningitis, tumors and traumatic head injury. It is typified by accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) within the brain. This fluid compresses the brain, causing neurological symptoms such as convulsions, intellectual disability and epileptic seizures. Fetuses, infants, and young children with hydrocephalus typically have an abnormally large head, excluding the face, because the pressure of the fluid causes the individual skull bones — which have yet to fuse — to bulge outward at their juncture points.
Encephaloceles causes a groove down the middle of the skull, or between the forehead and nose, or on the back side of the skull. Symptoms may include neurologic problems, cerebrospinal fluid accumulated in the brain, paralysis of the limbs, an abnormally small head, uncoordinated muscle movement, developmental delay, vision problems, mental and growth retardation, and seizures.
Myelomeningocele is the type of spina bifida that often results in the most severe complications. In individuals with myelomeningocele, the un-fused portion of the spinal column allows the spinal cord to protrude through an opening. The membranes that cover the spinal cord also protrude through the opening, forming a sac enclosing the spinal elements, such cerebrospinal fluid, and parts of the spinal cord and nerve roots.
These children have undergone successful surgeries so far, while others are receiving attention. Ya’u Usman, male, 9 months old had Hydrocephalus; Ma’aruf Abdulsalam, male, 3 months had Hydrocephalus and Myelomeningocele; Muhammad Auwal, male, 1 year old had Encephalocele. Nana Khadija Adamu, female, 1 year old, had Hydrocephalus and Myelomeningocele; Asmau Sabiu, female, 6 years old, had brain tumour and Hydrocephalus.
Mrs. Buhari’s acts of compassion continues to show the way for others to emulate. If the private sector can sponsor one hundred or one thousand lives of women and children, then our collective humanity has been proven, our women and children will have a chance be full and not temporary members of our national reality.
Haruna, Director of Information to the wife of the President, wrote in from Abuja. [myad]