Agip explosion: ERA demands $28m for bereaved families

Environmental Right Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria has demanded $28m from Nigerian Agip Oil Company for the families of victims of fire explosion in Azuzuama, Bayelsa State, which claimed the lives of 14 persons.

In July 2015, fire exploded in the oil facility operated by a multinational oil company, Agip, in Azuzuama in which 14 persons died and scores injured.

Executive Director, ERA/FoEN, Dr. Godwin Ojo, at a news conference tagged, ‘Environment Parliament’, demanded $28 each for the families of 14 victims that died in the explosion.

He said beyond the need for investigation, Agip must provide public response to the frequent fire explosion incidents as well as conduct immediate clean up and environmental remediation.

Ojo stated, “While a price cannot be placed on the loss of human lives, we urge the payment of the sum of $28m each to the families of the bereaved since their breadwinners have been taken away from them abruptly.

“This will serve as a deterrent to Agip and other oil companies on the need to put lives first before profit.”

The ERA boss also alleged that the impunity and fragrant disregard for environmental regulations by Agip had resulted in massive environmental degradation and destruction of rural livelihoods over several decades of its operation in the Niger Delta.

Ojo, therefore, demanded the revocation of operational licence of Agip for their persistent and criminal liability in the frequent fire explosions and deaths recorded.

He said the laws governing oil spills and prevention of environmental degradation and security of lives and property had been severely compromised.

Six Nigerians die, four missing in Mecca crane crash

Six Nigerian pilgrims have been confirmed dead while four have been declared missing in the crane accident which took place in a Mosque in Kaabah, Mecca, Saudi Arabia on Friday. The deceased, it was learnt on Sunday, had been buried in Saudi Arabia.

The spokesperson for National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Mr. Uba Mana, confirmed the death of the six Nigerians in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Sunday.

He said, “There are six Nigerians that lost their lives; in Islam, you don’t bring corpses back home. You bury them where they died. Preparations are on the way for their burial as I speak with you now. But I’m sure they will be buried here (Saudi Arabia).”

The News Agency of Nigeria also reported on Sunday that four female pilgrims from Gombe State had been declared  missing following the crash. One other female pilgrim got injured during the incident.

The State Amirul-Hajj, Alhaji Abdullahi Mai-Kano, disclosed this while sympathising with the state pilgrims in Mecca over the mishap on Sunday.

Mai-Kano said that the four pilgrims were from Akko, Dukku and Nafada local governments areas of the state.

He said the other faithful sustained injury on her head, but had been treated and discharged.

He said the four pilgrims were declared missing after a thorough verification and bed checking in the three

houses accommodating the state pilgrims. The hajj commission had on Saturday said that while three Nigerians were

injured in the crane crash, no Nigerian was among the dead.

NAHCON had however stated that investigations by the Nigerian medical team and the Saudi authorities “are still ongoing on the matter.”

Mana had said, “For now, no Nigerian has been confirmed to be among the dead. But three Nigerians are believed to have been injured. Investigations by the Saudi authorities and our medical personnel are still ongoing, but not concluded. Our medical personnel are visiting hospitals to find out if there are Nigerian casualties. But so far, no

Nigerian is among the dead.

“The incident won’t affect pilgrimage because airlifting is ongoing. We have already airlifted over 80 per cent of our pilgrims. We don’t intend to stop, people are not scared. We have told our people to be cautious and observe what to do to protect themselves.”

Our correspondent recalls that the crane that was being used for the expansion of the grand mosque crashed killing

many pilgrims with several others sustained varying degrees of injury.

T h e r e h a d b e e n apprehension at home on whether Nigerian pilgrims were involved.

But the government of Saudi Arabia had said they of identifying the victims before their burial.

They promised to contact all countries that might have lost any of her citizens in the crane accident.

While an investigative committee was said to have commenced searching for the cause of the collapse of the crane, a former Head of Mecca’s religious police, Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghandi, was said to have attributed the accident to an act of God.

Members of the Nigerian Armed Forces on Holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia were said to have extended medical treatment to other Nigerian pilgrims in Mecca.

The Director of Islamic Affairs in Nigerian Army, Col. Shehu Garba Mustapha, was reported to have said that it was part of their training that anywhere they find themselves, they must protect Nigerians.

Mustapha who is also the leader of the Armed Forces delegation to Saudi Arabia had said, 400 Armed Forces officers

and personnel, including their families were in Saudi Arabia for the 2015 Hajj exercise.

Taiwo Awoniyi joins Liverpool

Nigeria striker Taiwo Awoniyi has joined English Premier League outfit, Liverpool, from Imperial Academy.

The 18-year-old forward who was part of the Flying Eagles squad to the Fifa U20 World Cup and currently represents the Nigeria U23 has been sent on loan to Bundesliga side FSV Frankfurt.

“This is the biggest club in the world and I’m privileged to be here,” Awoniyi told Liverpoolfc.com.

“I’ll try to develop myself very well so that when I come back to Liverpool I’ll be able to add value to the team.

“When I’m in the red shirt, I will always give my very best to make the fans happy,” he concluded.

He would be hoping to get regular playing time at Bundesliga 2 side FSV Frankfurt under manager Tomas Oral.

64 million Nigerians suffer from mental illness – Nebo

A former power minister, Professor Chinedu Nebo, on Monday said the federal and state governments have not provided medical attention to about 64 million Nigerians who suffer from mental illness. 

Nebo spoke during the Second Public Lecture organised by the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, in collaboration with the West African College of Nursing.

Speaking on the theme ‘Psychiatric and mental health in Nigeria: challenges and prospects,’ Nebo noted that, according to medical scholars, out of a population of 160 million or thereabouts, “64 million Nigerians suffer from one form or the other of afflictions of mental illness,” which deserved attention. 

Nebo, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, pointed out that, whereas government had done much in the area of primary health care, nothing had been done to address mental health challenges. 

He also noted that Nigerians were not adequately informed about mental health issues. 

“Nigerians still grapple with many social challenges, including poverty, high level of unemployment and other social pressures.

“The prevalence of these situations have been escalated by the fact that there is high level of poor knowledge and understanding of the malaise of mental health disorder and the positive treatments required by the growing population of mentally ill patients,” he said. 

He identified causes of mental illness to include genetic composition, neurological and psychological experiences and environmental stresses.

He faulted what he described as “the belief that many Nigerians seem to hold that mental disorder is a result of supernatural forces and, therefore, only responds to cure through traditional practices and supernatural incantations.”

Nebo urged Nigerians to give up such beliefs and “face the realities of modern conditions, which in fact, produce the stresses that lead to different levels of mental conditions.”

The former power minister called for adequate funding for research and training of mental health manpower. 

Nebo equally canvassed the provision of community based mental health care services, total integration of mental health care into the primary health care system and periodic review of legislation governing the care of the mentally ill.

The Chief Medical Director of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Dr. Jojo Onwukwe, said the institution has a staff strength of about 1000 workers, including eight consultant specialist psychiatrists, more than 400 psychiatric nurses and 27 resident doctors.

Nigeria’s first test-tube baby gets European varsity admission

Seventeen years after she was born through In Vitro Fertilisation‎, Nigeria’s first test tube baby, Miss Hannatu Kupchi, has made history by securing admission into a Hungarian university to study medicine.

The medical doctor that supervised the first IVF experiment in Nigeria, Dr. Ibrahim Wada, said Hannatu’s birth on February 11, 1998, at Nisa Premier Hospital in Abuja, signalled a significant revolution in the practice of medicine in Nigeria.

Speaking on Sunday in Abuja during a brief reception and presentation of an award to Hannatu Kupchi, Wada said it would be very difficult to make a an elaborate statement on such occasions.

He said, “When I was out of this country, I knew there were people who wanted babies. I made the decision to come back to Nigeria to help people. It happened on February 11, 1998, when this historic event occurred in this hospital.

“The baby of that historic day is going to become a doctor. Because the parents stood firm, we were able to help others. You gave us government recognition and that was important. It was the first time that a federal minister came to receive a baby in Nigeria.

“I want to assure you (Hannatu), when you graduate, there is an automatic employment when you finish your medicine in Europe.”

Hannatu promised to break barriers and become a doctor in order to help families and parents, who are unable to give birth through the traditional means.

She said by her birth, misconceptions about IVF were broken and that many more children had been brought into this world as well.

“I barely made it beyond the cut off mark. God helped me. I am going to try my best and make everyone proud. I am studying Medicine because I want to be a doctor. I want to study it because I want God to use me to help families who suffered what my parents went through,” she said.

In his remarks, Hannatu’s father, Mr. Hosea Kupchi, said the couple waited for 13 years without a child.

He added, “We had 13 years of marriage without a child and we went through the orthodox method without any success. But along the line, my sister-in-law told me that there was one Dr. Wada that had been helping couples. That is how we came.

“Then challenges came again on how to let the world know that we have achieved this feat locally here in Nigeria. There are a lot of couples out there that are not ready to speak out. One, there is the issue of stigmatisation, but I said to myself that nobody light the candle and put it under the bed.”

’s senseless for govt to fund pilgrimages – Bello

The Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, has declared that it is senseless for government to sponsor people on pilgrimage.

Bello made the declaration in Minna on Monday when he met with the state council of Ulamas during which he told  them that government has finally placed the lid on the sponsorship of pilgrims to Mecca for Hajj.

“It makes no sense to spend billions of  the peoples money on less than one per cent of the population.

“The general population is justified to feel cheated when so much is spent on only about 3,000 people yearly. This is less than one per cent of the population of four million people,” the governor added.

According to Bello, Islam directs that pilgrimage should be for the person with the means and not the individual with access to government.

“I don’t  believe in using government funds to sponsor people for hajj and then expect Allah to reward me for it; no, that is not what Islam teaches us. If I used my own money, that’s a different thing.”

He said henceforth, the govt would not spend money on pilgrimage beyond such as payment for medical personnel.

He alleged that boarding and feeding of pilgrims had often been inflated to siphon money from government.

 

Prioritise your spending, Assembly tells Aregbesola

Osun State House of Assembly has tasked the executive arm of the state, headed by Governor Rauf Aregbesola and other arms of government in the state, to reduce waste of resources associated with governance.

The lawmakers gave this advice in their resolution at the plenary on Monday, after reviewing the journey of the state after its 24th anniversary of its creation.

The Speaker, Mr. Najeem Salaam, who read the resolution of the assembly, also called for change of orientation and attitude of civil servants, while expressing worry at the level of partisanship of the state’s workforce.

The lawmakers charged the state government to “improve on its internal revenue without unnecessarily increasing the burden on the masses to address the present fiscal imbalance and meet up with its vision.”

The Speaker said, “The waste of government must be reduced to a minimal level, so that we will focus on things that would improve the social benefit for our people.

“Political functionaries and technocrats must be called upon to look into this and be ready to develop the state together. It is a collective responsibility that we must all join hands to achieve.

“Also, the attitude of our workforce and the orientation has to be changed. The rate of partisanship of workers has become a thing of worry.

“The ethic of civil service that they should not be partisan seems to have faded out. Workers now express their feeling on pages of newspapers and radio, just like members of political parties.”

The lawmakers also commended the founding fathers of the state who fought for its creation while tasking the current administration to remain focused on the development of the rural areas just like it was doing in the urban centres.

Buhari restates commitment to polio-free Nigeria by 2017

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday restated his commitment to ensuring that the World Health Organisation finally certifies Nigeria as a  polio-free country by 2017.

He has therefore called on all Nigerians to join hands with the Federal Government  to achieve the objective.

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, quoted the President as speaking at separate meetings with governors of polio-vulnerable states and members of the High-Level Advocacy Group at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari’s position at the meeting was that, to become permanently polio-free, Nigeria must build on its achievement of being polio-free for 12 months which was marked in July.

He said he had initiated the meetings with the governors and advocacy group members because the country could not afford a reversal of what had been  achieved after 17 years of the polio eradication programme in Nigeria.

The President said, “I want to reaffirm the commitment of the Federal Government to sustain the gains and momentum to enable Nigeria achieve certification by 2017.

“I am therefore inviting you to join me in actualising this pledge as experts have cautioned that the progress we have made in the polio eradication efforts is still very fragile and that there is the risk of gains reversal if we don’t sustain this great effort and allow complacency to set in.

“As you are aware, the fact that we have not had any case of polio for over a year now, does not mean that we are polio free. It is just one of the milestones on the path to being polio-free.

“I understand that for Nigeria to be certified polio-free, we have to sustain this zero polio case status, strengthen surveillance in order to detect quickly any case of polio anywhere in the country, improve routine immunisation coverage and provide the needed human and material resources.”

Buhari  urged the governors to diligently supervise the polio eradication programme in their states and join the Federal Government in ensuring that the required resources were provided and efficiently utilised to achieve the desired result.

“Between now and 2017, we must ensure that we continue to build confidence in our people to present their children and wards for immunisation.

“We also need to interface regularly with our LGA chairmen to ensure that there is no complacency.

“We must make Nigeria Polio free in 2017. We must put all our efforts to achieve this milestone for the sake of our children, future generations and the over-all health and well being of the nation,” he told them.

The President also assured the governors and advocacy group members that his administration would continue to give the required leadership towards Nigeria’s final certification as being polio-free through the Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

The representative of WHO in Nigeria, Dr. Rui Gaz, praised the strong political support for the eradication of polio in the country.

He told the President that lessons learnt from Nigeria would be used in the search for ways to end polio in other areas of the world.

Osinbajo to attend Adesina’s inauguration as AfDB president

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will represent President Muhammadu Buhari at the inauguration of former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, as President of the African Development Bank.

Osinbajo is billed to depart Nigeria on Monday for the event scheduled to hold in Abidjan on Tuesday.

The Vice President’s itinerary was contained in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande.

The statement read in part, “It would be recalled that President Buhari actively supported the candidature of the AfDB President-elect in a keenly contested election conducted in May this year even before the Buhari presidency assumed office.

“The Vice President will speak at the event and return to Abuja later tomorrow (Tuesday).”

Lagos inaugurates 20 mobile clinics, 26 ambulances

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has inaugurated 20 Mobile Intensive Care Unit ambulances and 26 transport ambulances.

Inaugurating the facilities in Lagos on Monday, Ambode explained that the move was in fulfillment of his administration’s commitment to bringing quality health care service closer to the people, particularly during emergency situations.

The governor, who spoke at the Lagos State House, Ikeja, said the inauguration of the ambulances, which will be deployed free of charge for Lagosians, was part of his pledge to run a government that would leave no one behind.

“In my inaugural address, I pledged my total commitment to run a government that will leave no one behind; a government that will implement programmes that make life simpler, easier and happier for our people. Today we are inaugurating the free ambulance service as a demonstration of that pledge,” he said.

Ambode added that the acquisition of the new ambulances was also in consonance with his administration’s mantra to run a government of continuity with improvement.

“I recall with much satisfaction the great strides we have witnessed in the health sector in the last 16 years; commencing from the foundational leaps of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to the significant landmarks of Babatunde Fashola (SAN),” the governor said.

He explained that the government was commencing with 26 transport ambulances that would be stationed at the 26 General Hospitals within the state for easy access, adding that his administration had restructured the State Emergency Ambulance Services and increased the fleet of new MICU by 20, bringing the total number to 33 units.

Ambode noted that the feat would widen the coverage of their services beyond the metropolis to the hinterland within the state.

“We have restructured the State Emergency Ambulance Services and increased the fleet of new Mobile Intensive Care Units by 20, bringing the total number to 33 MICUs. This will widen the coverage of our services beyond the metropolis to the hinterland within the state. In total, we are inaugurating 46 new ambulances today,” he said.

The governor stressed that he had given approval for the recruitment of more paramedic staff and special medical coordinators to ensure 24-hour services to the citizens.

He also restated his commitment to upgrade the General Hospitals within the state and embark on the construction of a Medical Park