Ibadan Poly manufactures ventilator, hand washer

As part of efforts geared towards combating the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Mechatronics Engineering of The Ibadan Polytechnic has manufactured a ventilator and smart hand-washer

The Rector of the institution, Prof. Kazeem Adebiyi showcased the machines to newsmen in Ibadan on Thursday.

According to him, the feat was possible with the support of the government of Oyo State that released an accreditation grant for the institution.

He said the last time the institution got fund to develop its programmes and made meaningful contributions to technology development in the country was in 2009. Adebiyi said: 

“When we received the letter of accreditation that we passed all our programmes for accreditation. It was a joyful thing. It was an accreditation for 13 programmes and we passed all.

Also, we did three professional accreditations which we passed and that looked like magic to anybody. How are we able to achieve that? they wondered."

Check out official photos from the Fani-Kayodes birthday celebration

It can be recalled that former beauty Queen and wife of Femi Fani-Kayode, Precious Fani-Kayode and their triplet boys celebrated their birthdays on the 25th of May.

While the beautiful mother, Precious turned 31, her boys clocked two years old. They splashed very adorable photos of themselves all over social media to mark the special day and they left a lot of people 'awwwwwing'.

Now, they have released official pictures from the proper birthday celebration. Enjoy the slides!

The Federal Government has said that it would give priority to evacuees in China when evacuation flights eventually resume.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.

He said that the government was aware of the harsh climate against nationals in China, noting that they would be repatriated as soon as new modalities were put in place. He said, 

“We are very hopeful that maybe by next week, we should be able to commence evacuation. There is a large number of Nigerians still wanting to be evacuated. In addition to the UK, there are Nigerians in China, this is something we are not happy about.

It is a real priority for us to bring all the evacuees back home but we know those in China are facing very essential challenges and as soon this mechanism is put in place, I’d like to assure them that we’ll do everything possible to prioritise their return.

In regards to compensation to Nigerians who were caught up in the crisis in Guangzhou, China due to the discrimination on the basis of nationality and race, I spoke to the Consular General in Guangzhou who was in direct contact with the Nigerians there to provide details of any loss they may have suffered. We will now engage on that basis, with the Chinese Government.

When I summoned the Chinese Ambassador, Mr Zhou Pingjian, he also made these commitments, that they will be very interested to receive the details of any complaints or loss, and I must say to date that nothing has come in formally from our Consulate in Guangzhou.”

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.