Headline

Weeks After, El-Rufai, Abba Kyari, Atiku’s Son Remain Coronavirus Positive

Published

4 years ago

April 17, 2020

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

While the likes of Oyo and Bauchi states’ governors, Seyi Makinde and Bala Mohammed, among others, have since tested negative to the Coronavirus disease days after being infected, the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai; the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari and Mohammed Atiku Abubakar, son of former Vice President, are yet to be cured.

The present state of the three high profile officers continue to raise concern of what the outcome of their cases might be.

Atiku’s son, Mohammed, who is 31, tested positive for the virus on March 19 after neighbours reportedly informed the authorities of his condition. This was however, denied by the former Vice President in a press release. He was subsequently moved to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, the treatment centre for most COVID-19 cases.

Atiku Abubakar’s case has remained unchanged many weeks after despite being placed on medication, including antiretroviral and immune-boosting vitamins, Premium Times reported, saying that his case is a “unique condition”, and has puzzled experts at the NCDC.

Quoting an official, the paper reported: “He tested positive again yesterday. We are doing all that is in our power to ensure his recovery, but he can only be released after he has been deemed completely recovered.

“We have been saying that this is a unique condition, but we are confident he will recover soon,” the official added.

Atiku-Abubakar, like El-Rufai, who announced a few days ago that he was still positive, have remained asymptomatic, days after catching the virus. El-Rufai celebrated his 60th birthday just before the scourge gained ground in Nigeria.

In a Premium Times report, a professor, who doubles as a Microbiologist and Molecular Geneticist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Ms Ifeoma Ezeonu feared that the case of the trio, especially Mohammed, is abnormal considering observatory trends, adding that the case was looking like a prolonged carrier and should be closely monitored by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

She said: “Ordinarily, he should have been cleared by now because of his young age and the period he has spent under treatment in isolation. We know that the virus can be transient or chronic, and this case is looking like a classic case of a carrier.

“We just hope it is not an extended carriage as it is a very dangerous situation because it now looks like his system has come into an agreement with the virus,” she said.

“If someone is asymptomatic as he has been, then you expect the immune system to clear the virus on time so the person can be negative again. They should keep treating him there until he is able to clear the virus.”

Like Atiku Abubakar, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, whose case was first made public on March 23, after series of speculations, has remained a case as his recovery has not been announced yet.

Kyari, on discovering his status, violated the Quarantine Act to embark on a private treatment for his Coronavirus infection in Lagos against the directive and recommendation of senior government and health ministry officials.

He was denied the use of the Presidential Intensive Care Unit at Aso Villa, Abuja, and considered the Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital isolation unit too low for his standard and liking, and therefore opted to move to Lagos to find personal treatment for the virus. Ever since, his whereabouts have remained a mystery and shrouded in secrecy. Once, however, he was reported as speaking from his isolation base, saying he was still working.

Reacting to Kyari’s rejection of public isolation centres, a senior health ministry official, told SaharaReporters that the purpose of insisting that Kyari was placed in a public isolation centre was for proper monitoring and control of the infection spreading further.

“The purpose of the isolation centres is to get public protocols for monitoring and control of infections

“He can’t engage in private treatment since it is an infectious disease. It is wrong under the law.

“It was the same arrogance that led him to bring the infection from Germany after failing to honour protocols that could have prevented spread,” the ministry official said.

Recall that after returning from trips to Germany and Egypt and being infected with the virus, Kyari went about his daily activities as Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s President and in the process exposed dozens of persons to the virus. At least, three of aides were tested positive for the virus afterwards.

As of April 16, a total of 442 cases have been confirmed in the country with 152 recovery and 13 fatalities, according to NCDC. The disease was first discovered in nigeria on February 27 when an Italian index who just arrived Lagos and visited Ogun State tested positive. The Italian has since been cured and discharged.

The pandemic, which originated from Wuhan Province in China, has led to global lockdown even with many countries with functional health systems closing their borders to international visitors. The United States of America has recorded the largest number of fatalities so far even as the index country, China, has said it is now free of the disease and has released its lockdown.

Headline

Breaking: Wike Plans to Attend Thursday’s PDP NEC Meeting

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NECeeting on Thursday is not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

Political stakeholders have concluded that the outcome of Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan.

Headline

Bribery, Corruption: APC Suspends National Chairman, Ganduje

Published

5 days ago

April 15, 2024

Eric

The All Progressives Congress ward in Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, has suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The party ward legal adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, announced the suspension while addressing newsmen in Kano State on Monday.

Gwanzo cited allegations of bribery against Ganduje levelled by the Kano State Government as the reason for the suspension.

“We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Chief Press Secretary to the APC National Chairman, Mr Edwin Olufo, failed as his mobile phone was unreachable.

Headline

Akpabio Commits to Collaboration with Tinubu, Governor Umo Eno

Published

1 week ago

April 12, 2024

Admin

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has stated his commitment to working closely with Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Governor Umo Eno to ensure the delivery of democratic benefits to the people of Akwa Ibom State.

Akpabio stated this in his country home, Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom, while briefing his constituents on the journey so far as their representative in the red chamber.

He assured the people of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District of his commitment to their welfare in appreciation of their total support for him, President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in last year’s election.

The Highpoint of the constituency briefing was the distribution of over 10,000 bags of rice and other essentials for his constituents from the wards, to the local governments.

A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Jackson Udom, quoted Akpabio as saying, “I am here once again, to thank you for standing by me, our President and the party, before, during and even after last year’s elections. I have come to say thank you and also bring Renewed Hope to you all.

“As the President is doing his own, the Senate President is also doing his bit and being complemented by the state governor, Akwa Ibom would be the better for it. We have finished elections and politics, we are now into governance. The governor of the state must touch you, because he is the governor of all the people in the state irrespective of political affiliation.

” As I am touching you now from the political angle, I will also touch the state without any political party affiliation. Most of the projects we are putting in place would be used by people resident in the state. Relax, things are getting better.”

The former Governor of the state, assured his constituents that his current position as the Senate President would be used for the development of the state in collaboration with the President and the Akwa Ibom State Governor.

Hear him: This Senate President is not the one that would be fighting the state government. I will collaborate with , I will collaborate with , to make the state better for us all. We cannot be out of government for a long time. You have to go to a government that carries you along”

Akpabio promised to work for his constituents and Nigeria with all his strength, noting that, “as the President of the Senate, I am for the Southern region and the entire country. I may not come here regularly to tell you what I have been doing for you, but you will be feeling the impact on way or the other. Our unemployed youths would be gainfully employed. I will construct a mini stadium in all the local governments in the district, for our youths to develop their sporting potentials. ”