FG - Pilots, other crew members must wear PPEs

The Federal Government has declared that pilots and other crew members operating international flights must now wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and observe infection prevention and control measures for the duration of the flight.

It disclosed this in the COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health Protocols for Nigeria-based crew, which was released by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

The protocol also stated that the flight crew would not be quarantined but would undergo mandatory testing for COVID-19 every 14 days at a cost to the air operator upon return to Nigeria.

It added that flight crew members who test positive for COVID-19 would be taken to a treatment centre for further management.

In a letter with reference NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/120, 27th May 2020, signed by the Director-General, Capt. Musa Nuhu, to all operators, airports, and other service providers, the agency said the new protocol had been approved by the Federal Ministry of Health.

It said that the protocol replaced the current practice where Nigeria-based flight crew members who operate international flights were quarantined for 14 days upon their return to Nigeria.

It stated that Nigeria-based airlines/aircrew wishing to conduct flight operations outside the country shall ensure the orientation and sensitisation of crew on Infection Prevention and Control measures as per training and guidance from public health authorities.

The authority said the airlines must ensure they have adequate stock of PPE, a minimum of 70 per cent alcohol-based hand sanitisers and Universal Precaution Kits onboard aircraft before the flight.

Providing further guidelines on how the crew should use the PPEs, the NCAA said flight deck crew should wear non-medical face mask and gloves.

“Face mask can be removed when the cockpit door is closed for safety reasons,” it stated.

For cabin crew, it said they should use a non-medical face mask, gloves, disposal surgical gowns, and safety visors/goggles.

“Ensure the safe removal of gloves after performing specific tasks. Avoid touching their face and eyes with unclean hands,” the agency said.

It added, “Flight crew is to ensure that all passengers wear a non-medical face mask for the duration of the flight except when eating or using emergency oxygen.

Flight crew are to ensure that passengers rub their hands with alcohol-based sanitiser as they embark on the aircraft.

Put up a notice in the lavatory/washroom on handwashing that requests passengers wash their hands after using the lavatory."

The NCAA said flight crew was to maintain a safe distance between passengers and themselves, avoiding direct physical contact.

It said the cabin crew would serve only pre-packed meals to passengers, adding that where practicable, the flight crew would reserve one lavatory for their own use.

Police torture man to death, detain corpse

Members of the Inspector-General of Police Special Tactical Squad have been accused of torturing an electrician, Olaoluwa Bolarinwa, to death while trying to use him as a bait to arrest his friend.

We gathered that the policemen stormed Olaoluwa’s house in the Ekotedo, Iyaolobe area of Ibadan, Oyo State, on March 26, 2020.

They were said to have arrested Olaoluwa and his nephew, Oreoluwa Abiona, and took them and two televisions, decoders and phones, and detained the two men at the Mokola Police Station.

The police reportedly called Olaoluwa’s wife, Blessing, the following day to come and bail Oreoluwa, saying her husband’s friend was their main target.

The operatives were reported to have ordered the 46-year-old Olaoluwa to give information that would lead to the arrest of his friend, identified simply as Bosun, who was suspected to have been involved in a bank robbery.

Blessing said after securing Oreoluwa’s release on bail, all entreaties to get her husband freed were rebuffed by the policemen.

The victim’s brother, Boyo Adeshina, told reporters that Olaoluwa was later moved from the Mokola Police Station to an undisclosed location, which made the family to search for him. He said,

“It was at the Mokola Police Station that we got to know that my brother had been moved to the Obada Police Station. The following Saturday, we went to the Obada Police Station, where I was told that there was no record of him there and we were directed to the Ogun State Police Command’s Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department, Eleweran.

When we got there, we were directed to the IGPSTS and with the help of my sister, who is an army officer, we got to know that the policemen were from the IGPSTS in Lagos.

We called the phone number that the IPO gave Oreoluwa and Truecaller identified the number as belonging to System, but immediately we asked him about Olaoluwa, he dropped the call.

My brother-in-law called him and the policeman told him that he was in Lagos that we should come and meet him at the police headquarters in Obalende, but when we got to Obalende and called him, he told us that he was on his way to Abuja and would call my brother-in-law and give him the details of my brother’s offence, but whenever we called him after that, he used to cut off the phone."

Adeshina said he got a lawyer to call the policeman to demand his brother’s offence and his whereabouts. He said,

“The cop said my brother and others were involved in armed robbery, which was different from what we were told at the Mokola Police Station that Olaoluwa was just needed to track a suspect and would be released as soon as the suspect was found.

Four weeks after that, I went to their office at Ayobo. The policemen we met there denied knowing any cop called System. They also said there was no case of any Olaoluwa there. My sister and I went back the following week and met another policeman, who told us that all the suspects and their IPOs had been moved to Abuja.

He asked us to go home and wait until after the lockdown. We went back but the following week, we were chased away because we asked for their phone numbers to enable us contact them to know when the commandant would be available.

I later went back to the station with my sister. They brought out their register; I was behind the policeman who brought out the register and he asked me to call System; they spoke with him after which they allowed us to see the commander.

The commander asked me if Olaoluwa had been arrested before and I said no. She asked if I knew he was an armed robber and I told her it was not possible. The commander ordered that the suspects be brought out, but four men were brought and the first man, who claimed to know Olaoluwa, said he was their sponsor and that he was in charge of providing guns for them during operations.

The commander told us that Olaoluwa died three days after his arrest. She and her men had forgotten that two weeks after Olaoluwa’s arrest, they gave him a phone to speak to his wife. We asked them to release his corpse to us, but the commander said because he was an armed robber, they would not release his corpse for burial. She didn’t allow us to ask how our brother died.

They called my brother an armed robber and killed him without taking him to court; we want Nigerians to stand up and fight for us. My brother’s death is a case of extrajudicial killing. My brother was not a thief and he was murdered. We want justice.”

When the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, was contacted on the telephone by our correspondent, he did not pick his calls and is yet to reply to an SMS sent to his telephone as of the time of filing this report.

Umahi inaugurates panel to probe Pastor's torture

Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has inaugurated an investigative panel to look into the alleged torture and humiliation of one Pastor Okochi Obeni. 

The sad incident was said to have occurred at the Amasiri community, Afkipo North Local Government Area of the state.

Obeni was allegedly flogged by members of the Isi Oru Age Grade for making a post on Facebook in which he criticised the immediate past chairman of the local government.

The pastor was allegedly given 36 strokes of the cane and made to drink from the gutter.

The incident attracted condemnation from local and international human right organisations.

Following the condemnation and call for justice, Umahi inaugurated the panel with a charge to do its work without fear or favour

Umahi, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr Eric Igwe, gave the panel two weeks to submit its report.

The panel is chaired by a former Minister of State for Health, Chief Fidelis Nwankwo.

Other members are Mr Chris Usulor, Mr Ray Nkama, Aleke Ude and Emeka Nwode, who will serve as the secretary.

India : Police arrest pigeon for being Pakistan spy

The Indian police have arrested a pigeon on suspicion that it is a trained spy for Pakistan.

Indian officials said that the pink painted bird carrying a “coded message,” attached to its foot was alleged to have flown from across the border that separates Indian and Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir.

Sky News reported that villagers living close to the border in Manyari turned the pigeon over to authorities after catching it along the border.

Geeta Devi, a resident of the Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir, reported that the bird flew into her home Sunday night. 

Police logged the animal as a “Pak Suspected Spy” and launched an investigation to decipher the message.

“We don’t know where the bird has come from. Locals on our side captured it near our fence,” Kathua police’s senior superintendent Shailendra Mishra told the Times of India.

“The pigeon, suspected to be trained in Pakistan for spying, has a ring with letters and numbers written on it,” a police source said.

“Though birds have no boundaries and many fly across international borders during migration, a coded ring tagged to the captured pigeon’s body is a cause of concern as migratory birds have no such rings,” the source added.

However, in an update, a Pakistani villager has urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to return his pigeon, currently being held in India on charges of spying.

The man identified as Habibullah, who lives just 4km (2.5 miles) from the border, said he flew his pigeons to celebrate Eid festival.

This is not the first time birds have reportedly been used for espionage in the disputed territory in the past.

In 2016, the Indian police arrested a pigeon that was found carrying a warning note to Prime Minister Narendra Modi near the nation’s heavily militarized border with Pakistan.

In 2013, Indian security forces found a dead falcon fitted with a small camera, and in 2010 another pigeon was detained over spying fears.

"Pay property tax" - Senator Smart Adeyemi to elites

Senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Smart Adeyemi has asked affluent Nigerians to pay property tax to save the nation's dwindling economy from total collapse.

While speaking at the Senate on Thursday, Adeyemi said that Nigeria's squandered resources in the time of oil boom had come back to bite President Muhammadu Buhari as oil prices crash. He said,

“When we were asking the government of the day at that time to diversify the economy at the time oil was selling at $100 to $150, that party squandered our resources. 

Roads were not built, road lines were not constructed, where did the money go? Who were the people who were in charge of our resources?

I pity this President, I pity this government now that oil is selling at $22 or $30.”

The Senator said those living in mansions should pay property tax to save the country’s economy. He added, 

“In the last decade or so, we used to have some of these toll gates but suddenly they were removed by other party when they were in government.

“I think the time has come for those who drive exotic cars, SUVs to pay tax to government.

Before the masses will rise, we should start looking at introducing property tax. For those living in mansion, they should start paying back to the society to save the economy of our nation from collapse.”

From Klopp target to Dortmund scrapheap: Why has 'talent of the century' Gotze failed to live up to the hype?

At 27, the Germany international should be in his prime, but a once promising career has not panned out how most predicted it would.

It was the kind of stage that was once made for Mario Gotze.

Instead, as Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich duked it out in their top-of-the table Bundesliga clash on Tuesday night, German football’s one-time boy wonder watched on, his contribution limited to a 10-minute cameo from the bench – and an underwhelming one at that.

When you have scored the winner in a World Cup final, it is hard to describe your career as anything other than a success. But as Gotze approaches his 28th birthday, and with his Dortmund contract set to expire this summer , the question is a fair one.

Why has the “talent of the century” been unable to live up to his vast promise?

It was Matthias Sammer who labelled him that. Robert Lewandowski has called him “an extraordinary player”, while Jurgen Klopp has said he was “the best young player I ever coached.”  To Joachim Low he was the “wunderkind” of the national team, while to Franz Beckenbauer he was “the best attacker Germany had.” 

Big praise, from big names.

Certainly, the teenage Gotze was something special. Dynamic, intelligent, quick, creative and outstanding technically, he looked the ideal 21st-century footballer; versatile, exceptional in transition and tactically astute. “Super Mario,”  Bild  labelled him. 

By his 20th birthday he had helped Dortmund to two Bundesliga titles and a DFB-Pokal, while in 2010 he became the youngest player to appear for the national team since Uwe Seeler in 1954, coming off the bench in a friendly against Sweden. “He is one of the best talents we’ve ever had,” said Sammer, then the technical director of the German Football Association (DFB).

The trouble is that the young Gotze is now the old Gotze. Football moves quickly and, for one reason or another, the boy from the Swabian town of Memmingen has struggled to keep up. 

In a few weeks he will be a free agent, Dortmund confirming earlier this month that they would not be renewing his contract at Signal Iduna Park. “He’s a great man,” said Michael Zorc, the sporting director. “It was a mutual and respectful decision.”

A far cry from 2013, when Gotze’s first exit from Dortmund left the club in a state of mourning. “It was like a heart attack,” Klopp said of his €37 million (£33m/$41m) defection to Bayern – news of which broke in the media on the eve of Dortmund’s Champions Leaguesemi-final with Real Madrid. 

Klopp had warned Gotze and his agent, face-to-face, that they were making a mistake by moving to Bavaria. “He knew,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke, Dortmund’s chief executive. “He was 100 per cent convinced that the lad was making an error, and it hurt him.”

Gotze’s respect for Klopp remains. They are still in contact, and the player’s memories of his former coach are happy ones. 

“He knew how to handle me,” Gotze told The Players Tribune  in 2019. “He was an outstanding coach, but his personality was the most important thing. I have never met a manager in football who was so naturally funny.”

It was surprising, then, that when Klopp offered him the chance to join Liverpool in the spring of 2016, Gotze declined. His spell at Bayern, as Klopp had predicted, had not gone to plan – he started brightly but struggled to nail down a place under Pep Guardiola - and the Reds were ready to pay big money to bring him to Merseyside.

“Liverpool was just too far away for me,” Gotze has since said, while at the time a disappointed Klopp made his point in the media.

“It’s about pushing the train,” he told reporters, pointedly. “Not jumping on a running train. That is what we need here. If somebody says ‘but you don’t play Champions League next year’ then goodbye and thank you, have fun next year, wherever you will be.”

Gotze instead returned to Dortmund that summer, while Liverpool turned their attentions elsewhere. Four years on, the man they did sign, Sadio Mane, is one of their biggest success stories. The Red ‘train’ is now running at full speed. 

Gotze, meanwhile, must now weigh up his next move. There has been talk of a switch to Italy, with Lazio and AC Milanamong those linked, but the nagging suspicion is that his days at the highest level may be behind him.

“He must find his real self again,” Lothar Matthaus, the Germany legend, told  Sky recently. “That’s not a physical thing, but a mental one. Football is not the same anymore [and] his way of playing is not wanted that much anymore. He lacks the pace to keep up with the football Dortmund and other top clubs are playing.”

That, really, is the rub. Gotze’s talent is still there – “it’s like cycling,” says Sammer, “you can’t unlearn it” – but injuries and illness have taken their toll. The pubic inflammation suffered as a teenager, the ankle problem sustained in a horror tackle from Chelsea’s Ramires in the UEFA Super Cup in 2013 and, most significantly, the metabolic disorder – myopathy, according to German media reports – which cost him almost six months in 2017 have all chipped away at his speed and sharpness.

Katsina Governor lifts ban on religious gatherings temporarily

Governor Bello Masari of Kastina State has announced the temporary lifting of lockdown throughout the state every Friday.

Masari also lifted the ban on religious gatherings and inter-local government movements across the state. 

The governor said the decision was to enable Muslim and Christian faithfuls observe their weekly religious activities while every Friday of the week was declared lockdown-free for residents to get essential items.

He said hand sanitisers must be provided and used by each worshipper at every entry point and at other convenient points of religious premises.

Kebbi discharges last two COVID-19 patients

The government of Kebbi State has discharged the last two COVID-19 patients in its isolation centre after their recovery.

This was made known by the Task Force Chairman on COVID-19, who is also the Commissioner for Health, Jafar Muhammed. He stated that the follow up tests conducted on them came back negative.

He said that with the latest discharge, the state no longer had any active case of COVID-19.

"Our two remaining COVID-19 patients at the isolation center in Kebbi Medical Center, Kalgo, are discharged today.

So, by implication, they are free to be integrated back into the mainstream society because their results turned out to be negative after their two weeks stay in the isolation centre," Muhammed said.

Kebbi State recorded 32 cases of persons infected with Coronavirus.

President Donald Trump signs executive order

On Thursday, the President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to limit the broad legal protection that federal law currently provides to social-media and other online platforms.

This move was probably triggered by the occurrence few days ago when Twitter called two of his tweets "potentially misleading". 

Speaking from the Oval Office ahead of signing the order, Trump accused Twitter of acting as an editor “with a viewpoint” and described the platform’s fact-check of his tweets as “political activism”. 

He said that he would delete his Twitter account “in a heartbeat” if he felt the news media were fair to him. He said, 

“We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers. 

A small handful of social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States. 

They've had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences."

Trump said that if his lawyers could find a way to legally shut down Twitter, “I would do it.”

The order escalates an already heated fight over how big social-media platforms handle politically charged content. 

The companies long resisted stronger moderation efforts and have struggled to address growing pressure to combat the proliferation of misinformation and other problematic content in a way that avoids fueling criticism that they are inconsistent, biased or stifling free expression.

The executive order marks the Trump administration’s most aggressive effort against social-media companies. 

The President has threatened for years to counteract what he and many conservatives see as a systemic bias against their political positions on social media. 

His campaign on Thursday sent supporters an email seeking to raise money off the President’s feud with Twitter.

Yo Gotti spends $1.3m to celebrate 39th birthday

American rapper, Yo Gotti has splashed $1.3million on Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini Urus, Ferrari F8, and a Richard Mille watch to celebrate his 39th birthday.

Gotti went on Instagram to flaunt his new rides – the new Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini Urus, Ferrari F8, as well as the Richard Mille wristwatch. 

The three whips and the wristwatch were customized in Yo Gotti's favorite color, Tiffany blue. 

"Shout out to the streets for always supporting me, shout out to all the fans," he said in the clip. "Appreciate y'all for putting me in a position to spend a million dollars on my birthday." 

According to Gotti's team, the Rolls-Royce Truck cost about $450,000 plus $30,000 for customization; Ferrari F8 was $375,000 plus $25,000 for customization; and the Lamborghini was about $260,000 plus $30,000. 

The customized Richard Mille watch, which was purchased at Avi & Co., was priced around $180,000. This brought his grand total to about $1.3 million.