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  • No meningitis case in Lagos, says commissioner

    No meningitis case in Lagos, says commissioner

    There is no case of meningitis in Lagos State, Commissioner for Health Dr Jide Idris said yesterday.

    Reacting to the claim of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that two persons have died of the disease in the state, Idris described the report as “false and misleading”, adding that it can create “unnecessary panic among residents”.

    The commissioner said: “The report carried by some newspapers and online platforms is untrue and does not represent the reality of the situation in Lagos State as at today.

    For the avoidance of doubt, there are two main types of meningitis. The epidemic prone meningitis which is referred to as Cerebro-spinal meningitis (CSM) is caused by a bacteria called Neisseria Meningitis and its occurrence is seasonal or cyclical depending on the level of herd immunity and climatic conditions.

    “The second type of meningitis is Non-Epidemic Meningitis. This type of meningitis is usually caused by a virus or other bacteria, but not by Neisseria Meningitis. The Non-epidemic meningitis occurs without any seasonal pattern or periodicity.”

    He said the two deaths from the suspected nine cases of meningitis at Massey Street Children Hospital reported by the Disease Surveillance Notification Officer at Lagos Island Local Government in Week 13 of this year were not confirmed to be caused by CSM.

    The nine cases, he said, presented with clinical features of meningitis, but laboratory tests proved that they were either due to Haemophilus influenza or Streptococcus pneumoniae and not Neisseria meningitis.

    His ministry, the commissioner said, was also notified last week of a three-year-old boy presenting clinically as meningitis at a registered private facility in Lagos but the laboratory investigations did not confirm CSM.

    “The blood culture yielded no growth but the urine culture yielded Klebsiella and not meningococcus.  The patient is already responding to treatment. None of these cases presented with a history of recent travel to any area with an outbreak of meningitis and neither were visits from such areas recorded with the aforementioned cases,” he said.

    Idris reiterated the government’s resolve to prevent and control the spread of the epidemic, urging the public to support such efforts by reporting suspected cases to public health facilities or by calling these lines: 08037170614, 08023169485.

    The commissioner stressed the need for high standard of personal and environmental hygiene, such as washing of hands with soap and water frequently, avoiding direct contact with the discharges from an infected person and covering of mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing to prevent contracting the disease.

    “It is strongly advised for people to avoid overcrowding in living quarters, provide cross ventilation in sleeping and work-rooms and other places where many people come together and get vaccinated with CSM vaccine when you are travelling to areas where meningitis outbreaks have been reported”, he added.

    Health workers, he said, had been placed on alert on the disease and surveillance teams consisting of epidemiologists and are also intensifying their surveillance and monitoring activities.

    Idris added: “Health workers are also advised to avoid close and prolonged contacts with suspected and probable cases of CSM, ensure proper disposal of respiratory and throat secretions of cases, report suspected or probable cases and observe universal precaution and make use of personal protective equipment when in contact with such cases. There is no need to panic. We will continue with our surveillance activities, constantly review our records and brief the public from time to time”.

  • Benue: Ortom sends names of 4 commissioner nominees to Assembly

    Benue: Ortom sends names of 4 commissioner nominees to Assembly

    Gov. Samuel Ortom has forwarded the names of four nominees to the Benue House of Assembly for confirmation as commissioners.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Gov. Ortom in February dropped four of his commissioners in a cabinet reshuffle.

    The affected commissioners were those of the Ministry of Water Resources and Environment, Information and Orientation, Tourism and Culture as well as Women Affairs and Social Development.

    According to a letter signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Anthony Ijohor (SAN), the commissioner-nominees are Dr Utsev Terlumun, Mr Isegbe Ladi, Mr Joseph Shimaor and Mr Unenge Bernard.

    The Speaker of the House, Mr Terhemen Ikyange, said the nominees would appear for screening before the Assembly at a later date. (NAN)

  • Lawmaker, commissioner bicker over disruption of project

    The lawmaker representing Remo in the House of Representatives, Ladi Adebutu, has lamented the disruption of his constituency water project.

    Adebutu accused the Ogun State government of disrupting the project at Lugoke in Iperu-Remo, Ikenne Local Government Area.

    The lawmaker, who spoke with reporters at the weekend, alleged that Commissioner for Finance Wale Osinowo, masterminded the disruption.

    He said Osinowo, who hails from the area, led thugs to stop construction at the site.

    Adebutu, who is the chairman of the Committee on Rural Development, explained that the project was part of the goodwill of the Federal Government towards providing clean, potable and safe water.

    “Unfortunately, what we are seeing now is that the government is denying its people the opportunity to get safe water for reasons other than good sense. It is really sad and quite unfortunate,” he said.

    According to him, the incident has been reported to the leadership of the National Assembly.

    The leader of Lugoke community, Aliu Fatoye, appealed to the government to allow the community host the project.

    But Osinowo denied the allegation.

    The commissioner said: “How can I invade the site? Am I a politician? My mother lives in the area where the project is sited and I only went there to visit her. Is there a crime in that?

    “When I got there, there was disorderliness and I tried to settle the matter. What I saw was that the project  supervisor was very rude.”

  • Wike sacks health commissioner

    Wike sacks health commissioner

    Governor  Nyesom Wike of Rivers has sacked his Commissioner for Health, Dr Theophilus Ndagene.

    Wike in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Simeon Nwakaudu, in Port Harcourt on Wednesday wished Ndagene luck in his future endeavor.

    The statement, however, did not disclose any reasons for the sack. (NAN)

  • Commissioner, provost lead 200 youths to leadership training

    Commissioner, provost lead 200 youths to leadership training

    Lagos State Commissioner for Youth and Social Development Princess Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf and Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) Provost, Prof Babatunde Solagberu, will lead 200 youths for leadership training.
    The workshop, organised by the Medical Group of the Guild of Muslim Professionals (GMP), will hold at the Learning Centre of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), Ikeja on Sunday.
    Among the resource persons expected at the event include a Professor of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Fatimah Biade AbdulKareem, a pharmacist and Chairman, Islamic Medical Association (IMAN), Lagos chapter, Dr Mustapha Alimi, former Managing Director of Glaxo-SmithKline (Anglo and West Africa)-cum-Chairman, Muslim Pharmacists Association of Nigeria, Mr Lekan Asuni, Chief Executive Officer, Brainy Educare, Mrs Shakira Olajobi, Mr Sesan Kareem, a pharmacist and Dr Ibraheem Akosile.
    According to the Coordinator of GMP Medical Group, Dr Fatima Rabiu, the economy loses on the average, over N billion yearly due to challenges in the health sector.
    Nigeria, she said, loses promising health professionals to brain drain owing to lack of adequate welfare and motivation for life savers.
    Another challenge is the increasing rate of quackery in the healthsector coupled with irresponsible self-medication, she added.
    “GMP realises that there is a gap in the health sector occasioned by lack of comportment by health professionals and their inability to go the extra mile at work, hence, most energetic individuals, whose lives could have been saved, have died. To this end, we bring forth, a leadership workshop where icons in the health profession will interact with upcoming health professionals to stem the tide. The workshop is strategically planned to propel participants to be better health workers and vanguards of professional ethics,” Dr Rabiu said.

  • Commissioner seeks training for Armed Forces personnel

    Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs Dr Abdulhakeem Abdullateef, has urged the Federal Government to invest more in the armed forces without further delay.
    He advocated regular capacity building for uniform men to enhance better service delivery.
    Dr Abdullateef made the submission in reaction to the recent bombing of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) settlement by Nigerian fighter Jet mistakenly.
    He noted that the incident was a fundamental mistake, which could be avoided with adequate training most especially on surveillance and targeting.
    He said: “Bombing of IDPs was a test and a trial that it reoccurrence must be prevented. The pilot never intended to kill those they are working relentlessly to rescue and protect from evil hands.
    “Piloting a fighter jet to fight Boko Haram is a risk. Many of these uniform men have died in cause of serving the nation. Nigerians should not condemned them but implore the government to invest more in their training to prevent costly mistakes.
    “Nigerians should recognise the sacrifice of the armed forces, lets continue to pray for them and the success of their mission to eliminate insurgents in the country.”
    On the need to resettle those who have been displaced by the activities of insurgents, Abdullateef stressed that the plight of IDPs requires urgent attention.
    The Commissioner, who noted that the state of the people at the resettlement camps was worrisome, implored Nigerians to support efforts at resettling the IDPs.
    “IDPs not a good thing, some people are now taking advantage of it to enriching themselves. Some of the IDPs have been raped. They are becoming second class citizens in their father land. It is disturbing to see widows, widowers not having the good shelter and children of school age are out of schools.
    “Government should declare a State of Emergency on IDPs. All hands should be on deck to resettle those who are displaced. What do you expect from people who lack good housing, qualitative health care and education and other basic amenities that could add value to standard of living?
    “What affect them affect us as fellow Nigerians irrespective of our status, background and cultural affiliations. When you eat and sleep peacefully in your house, remember that some people are displaced. They deserved our support,” he said.
    Dr Abdullateef advised the public to always be security conscious and support security operatives with useful information to ensure safety of lives and property.

  • Commissioner challenges youths on leadership roles

    Commissioner challenges youths on leadership roles

    Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs Dr Abdulhakeem Abdullateef has urged youths to brace up for leadership roles by developing themselves for greater heights.
    He spoke at a Leadership Training organised by Joint Mandate Youths, Oworonshoki, an arm of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oworonshoki, Lagos.
    Delivering a lecture entitled: “Impacting Community: The Role of A Political Group”, Abdullateef noted that no one was a barrier to the success of any youth.
    He emphasised the need for the youths to develop their skills by acquiring necessary training that would stand them out as a responsible individuals among their peers.
    “Develop yourselves, what you don’t have you cannot give. Acquire academic qualifications, attend trainings and workshops to equip yourselves. The era when some politicians use youths as political thugs are gone.
    “Youths should see themselves as leaders of today and they must take charge of affairs by demonstrating convincingly leadership character,” he said.
    Noting that all power belongs to God, the Commissioner observed that if people understand the revolution of power, they will enjoy politics.
    Abdullateef urged youths to complement government efforts by embracing voluntary activities that promotes good standard of living.
    “Government alone cannot do it, youth groups are expected to help their communities. Make a difference today. You must not keep quiet when you see people blocking drainage channels because you are a potential victim of flood. When you see people destroying public amenities, you must take action because it was produced with the tax payers’ money. You risk being in the dark if the electricity transformer that supplies power to your community is being vandalised and you keep mute”, he stressed.

  • We need 1m policemen for Southern Kaduna – Commissioner

    KADUNA State Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh on Thursday said that the command needed about one million policemen to effectively cover every nook and cranny of Southern Kaduna.

    The Police boss, who was commenting on efforts of his command to protect lives and property of people of troubled parts of eight local government areas that make up of Southern Kaduna at the Command’s headquarters maintained that the need for people themselves to cooperate with the police through dialogue remains the surest way to resolving differences.

    According to him, the police are already using 40 patrol vehicles, deployed more men and will soon come up with strategies that will reduce the spate of crime not only in southern Kaduna, but across the state.

    “As I speak to you, the area is very calm and there is no any record of any incident after the unfortunate  major incident in Goska. We have deployed enough of our men on ground to ensure that they curb any acts of lawlessness.

    “Like I always say, if you can bring the whole police in Nigeria, we cannot achieve the desired result without the people. All the people themselves, must prepared to embrace peace and must accommodate one another.

    As regarding illegal roadblocks mounted by some youths aimed to attack unsuspecting passengers plying the trouble spots, Abeh admitted that, “so far “we have been dismantling them each time there is any.”

    “We have the department of security service and we are working in conjunction with the military intelligence. Just yesterday, I ordered the police to dismantled illegal gathering and check point around Kagoro”, said the commissioner.

    On whether there has been any arrest and prosecution in connection with the Southern Kaduna crisis, he said, “We have number of people arrested and we are going to arrest the rest because we have evidences. Its just that we are following them gradually. We have been charging a lot of suspected criminals to courts.

    “We also intend to within next few weeks, come up with various strategies to curb some menace like drug addiction among youths which has become a source of concerned. That is why we said community policing remains the only option while parents also need to bring up their children in godly way”.

    He however disagreed with number of death reported in some media over the Southern Kaduna crisis, saying the figure was exaggerated, though he couldn’t give any figure.

  • Kogi commissioner resigns

    The Kogi State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Tim Diche, has resigned his appointment.

    The Director-General, Media and Publicity to the state governor, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, confirmed the resignation of Diche to newsmen in Lokoja on Wednesday.

    Fanwo, in a statement circulated among media houses, said that Diche resigned on personal grounds.

    Diche, a Pharmacist by profession, resigned his appointment on Tuesday after serving in that capacity for seven months.

    He and the incumbent governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello participated in the All Progressives Congress’ governorship primaries conducted in August 2015. ( NAN)

  • Ebonyi can feed Nigeria, says commissioner

    Ebonyi can feed Nigeria, says commissioner

    Ebonyi State Commission for Information and State Orientation, Emmanuel Onwe, has said the state has the capacity to feed the country, if the Federal Government allows it to use some of its idle facilities.
    The commissioner, who visited Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation titles yesterday in Lagos, said Ebonyi State could adequately take care of local rice consumption, export some to other countries, if the resources were harnessed.
    Onwe noted that shrinking Federal allocation to states could no longer take care of recurrent expenditure, much less the capital projects.
    The commissioner said despite the fallen finances, Governor David Umahi had not failed to respond to the domestic needs of the people.
    He said: “The governor is building bridges, constructing roads and embarking on other capital projects. But we recognise that the only thing we can do to make us to become one of the states that are viable is to look into agriculture. As it stands now, the Federal allocation is drying up.
    “In April, for instance, the total allocation that came to the Ebonyi State was N1.45 billion. That was so challenging because the subventions to the state university, college of education, the general hospitals and salaries, all put together, must be settled. Yet, you find out it is not enough, not to talk of maintaining security.”
    According to him, to meet its rice production project, Ebonyi State had to obtain a loan from a bank.
    Onwe said: “The governor took very positive steps to invest in the production of rice. The Ebonyi State Government borrowed N2 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to finance its agriculture project.
    “We are aware the Federal Government spent lots of money on rice importation. So, if it invests the money in the project and releases its facilities for use, it will help in the long run.
    “According to Minister of Agriculture (Chief Audu Ogbeh), the Nigerian government spent about $9 billion on the importation of the rice. Why can’t the money be ploughed into local production? We map out plans to enhance food security. So, our plan of contributing 10 per cent to food production in Nigeria is beginning to become a reality.
    “Going by the harvest of Abakiliki rice that is on in the state, by the end of this year, we would have produced 105,000 metric tonnes of rice. This is a positive step toward the self-sustaining food efforts in the country. All things being equal, the price of rice remains positive with the way things are going. Processed rice of 50 kilogrammes sells between N13,000 to N15,000.
    “We are also calling on the Federal Government to release some of its grains reservoirs (silos). For instance, the one that is directly opposite my farm has the capacity to hold grains that will last 12 months in any emergency situation in the Southeast and Southsouth. But no single grain has ever gone into it since 1979.
    “It has the capacity to store 300,000 tonnes of grains, rice, maize and other produce. When the Minister of Agriculture and CBN officials visited the state, the repeated calls made by Ebonyi State were that they should hand over the silos to us. It is lying fallow. If we put all this into use, we should be able to meet the rice need of Nigerians.”
    The commissioner noted that some imported brands of foreign rice would have spent some years under preservation before finding their way to Nigeria.
    He added that such products have negative health implication on the consumers.
    Onwe said the Abakiliki rice was well processed, nutritious and better than imported brands.
    The commissioner said Ebonyi State used its comparative advantage over other states in the production of rice to make the country self-sufficient.