Lagos farm : Swine fever kills N7bn worth of pigs

The Chairman of AFAN, Dr Femi Oke has revealed that swine fever virus has killed N7bn worth of pigs in a Lagos farm.

He said that the farm became infested with the swine fever even before the COVID-19 lockdown began.

African swine fever virus is a large, double-stranded DNA virus in the Asfarviridae family. The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in domestic pigs.

Some isolates can cause death of animals as quickly as a week after infection.

This virus is the biggest threat to commercial pig production the industry had ever seen, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health.

Oke said that many of the affected farmers were unable to visit the farm to attend to the animals owing to the restriction of movement by both the Federal and State governments. This contributed greatly to the death of the animals.

He said that while some of the affected farmers are now deceased, some others are bed-ridden due to the shock of the huge loss in their business and source of livelihood.

He said that very few of the farmers are currently struggling to revive the farm which is now in ruins.

80% of the world to take COVID-19 vaccine - Bill Gates

According to American billionaire, Bill Gates, over 80% of the population of the world will be needing to take a vaccine for the coronavirus disease. He said that this is the only way it will work as a remedy to the pandemic.

The founder of Microsoft, has been the target of many conspiracy theories alleging that he has sinister motives behind pushing for vaccines for coronavirus, and other diseases.

While some conspiracy theorists allege that he wants to use the pretext of the vaccine to inject people with microchips to track them, some others say it's part of his evil plan to depopulate the world.

Others have suggested that the virus was deliberately unleashed on the world so that people can make money from selling a cure.

Some of the theories have circulated in Nigeria where 11,516 coronavirus cases have been recorded, killing 323 people.

In an interview with Radio 4 on Thursday, June 4, 2020, Bill Gates said that such theories are harmful to the efforts to save the world from the coronavirus pandemic.

The billionaire said such outrageous theories could derail efforts to get a majority of the world to take the vaccines and put an end to the coronavirus disease. He said,

"It is troubling that in times like that, and accelerated by digital tools, there is so much craziness.

Eventually when we have the vaccine, we will want to develop the herd immunity to have over 80 per cent of the population taken.

If they have heard that it is a plot, or vaccines in general are bad, and we don't have people willing to take the vaccine, then that will let the disease continue to kill people.

So it is a bit worrying that there is some of that crazy stuff.

We just write cheques to pharma companies (and) we happen to have a lot of the smart pharmaceutical expertise in our foundation, and are considered a fair broker between governments and the companies to help pick the best approach".

Kanye West sets up college fund for Floyd's daughter

It was really a surprise to the world of Internet when Kanye West donated some money for the cause of George Floyd and other fallen black Americans.

The Yeezy Boss really caught a lot of people by surprise when he gave out the sum of $2M to the families and legal teams of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.

Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are African-Americans who met their untimely death in what has been described as racially motivated.

In addition to that, we gathered that Kanye West has set up a college savings fund to cover the tuition of George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Twitter has been ablaze with various reactions to the music star's donation for the families of the deceased men.

Here are some of the reactions on Twitter since the news of Kanye West's magnanimity broke

Ibadan : UI Postgraduate student allegedly raped and killed

A Postgraduate student of the University of Ibadan has been allegedly raped and killed. This is coming barely three days after the rape and murder of Bello Barakat in her home.

We learnt that both gruesome incidents happened in the same area of Oyo State.

It was gathered that the student identified as Shomuyiwa Azeezat, was allegedly raped on Thursday night, at her residence located at Ijefun Moniya road, Akinyele LGA, Ibadan.

A big stone was found on her mattress, raising suspicion that it was used to smash her head which was found covered in blood.

According to a source: 

“Her neighbors discovered her dead this morning in her apartment and quickly informed the police.

Upon interrogation by men of the Oyo State police command, the neighbors claimed not to have heard anything during the night and were whisked away for further questioning.”

In the meantime, a call to action has been raised by social media users using #JusticeForAzeezat.

17 year old girl, boyfriend fakes her kidnap

Identified as Seun Adekunle, a 17 year old girl has been arrested for faking her own kidnap with her boyfriend in Ogun State.

Seun was arrested alongside her boyfriend, Basit Olasunkanmi who is 25 years of age. Their arrest happened after her mother, Bukky Adekunle, filed a report at Enugada police division.

In the report which was made on the 4th of June 2020, she said that she sent her daughter to Lafenwa market since the 1st of June 2020 and she has not returned since then.

She stated further that she received a call from someone two days later who claimed to have kidnap the girl and demanding for the sum of N500,000 as ransom.

The woman said that the caller warned her not to make the mistake of reporting to the police if she still needs her daughter alive.

However, a technical and intelligence based investigation led the police to the hideout where the girl and her boyfriend were hiding and pretending to be with kidnappers.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the boyfriend, who is a butcher, was the one who brainwashed Seun and lured her into the plan because he needed money.

Man remanded for raping 7 month old daughter

A 38 year old man has been remanded in Makurdi Correctional Centre. The man who was identified as Simon Emeka was arraigned for allegedly raping his seven-month-old daughter, Prosper Emeka.

The ruling was made by a Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, on Friday.

When the case came up for mentioning, Police Prosecuting Officer, Friday Kanshio, informed the court that on June 1, one Josephine Habba of No 34 Modern Market Road, Makurdi, went to the Nigerian Police Force ‘D’ Division Makurdi and lodged a complaint.

She said that on the same date, she went to Jestic Hospital in Makurdi with her daughter for treatment and she heard one Favour Emeka crying and telling a nurse that her seven-month-old baby girl named Prosper Emeka was raped by her husband.

He said during Police investigation, the said Simon Emeka was arrested for committing the crime which is contrary to section 391 and 284 of the penal code law of Benue State.

No plea was taken for want of jurisdiction. However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The Police Prosecuting Officer further told the court that further investigation into the matter was on and asked for another date to enable the prosecution to prove its case.

Magistrates Isaac Ajim agreed with the officer and ordered that the accused be remanded at the Nigerian Correctional Service.

He adjourned the case till August 31, 2020, for further mention.

Fire outbreak in Aso Rock

Aso Rock, which is the popular name for the Presidential Villa has experienced a fire outbreak. The incident which can be described as minor took place yesterday, Thursday, June 4, 2020.

The Presidency revealed that the fire broke out at a store close to the Aso Rock villa chapel.

President Muhammadu Buhari's senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu said that the outbreak was triggered by an electrical spark, but was quickly contained. 

"The incident, linked to an electrical spark, was immediately brought under control by alert staff using available fire extinguishers well ahead of the arrival of the Federal Fire Service trucks stationed just outside the premises," Shehu said.

The president's aide noted that no injury or serious damage was caused by the fire.

Borno : Governor suspends entire hospital staff

We gathered that Ngala town liberated from insurgents in 2015 is the Headquarters of Ngala Local Government Area with an international land route into Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Central Africa.

Zulum’s spokesman, Mallam Isa Gusau, in a statement said the development followed a surprise visit to hospital by the governor where he met only the NGO staff attaining to many patients mostly Internally Displaced Persons that besieged the hospital.

Gusau said those affected by the suspension included; doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory technicians.

“The governor was disappointed to find out that inspite of the high turn-out of patients, not one of the many government paid staff, from doctors down to clerical staff, was at the hospital as at 11am,” Gusau said.

He explained that the governor was received at the hospital by the Field Coordinator of the fhi 360.

“This is a General Hospital belonging to Borno State Government, unfortunately there is no single state government staff here to attend to all these patients, and we promptly pay all of them salaries.

These humanitarian workers from the iNGO (fhi360) are supposed to complement the state government staff but not to completely take over the hospital.

I am directing the Borno State Hospitals Management Board, if there is any staff on the payroll of this Hospital, to immediately suspend all the workers on government payroll.

I will be back to this hospital, hoping to see the opposite of what I saw today,” Gusau quoted Zulum as saying.

While in Ngala, the governor also visited three schools and ordered the rehabilitation of classrooms destroyed by insurgents.

He also announced plans to resettle displaced persons in neighbouring communities of Logumani and Gajibo.

Kogi government not aware of third COVID-19 case

The Kogi government has denied knowledge of a third coronavirus case detected in the state. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced in its daily update that one new case was recorded in the state on Wednesday, June 3, 2020.

However, the state's Commissioner for Health, Saka Haruna, announced in a Facebook post on Thursday, June 4 that the patient is unknown to the state's authorities.

"We are not aware of who the patient is, where and when the test was conducted. No sample sent from KG (Kogi Government)," he said.

Kogi had similarly rejected the first two coronavirus cases which were announced as belonging to the state last week.

The cases were tested at the National Hospital in Abuja, after the patients were moved from Lokoja, Kogi's capital, after showing COVID-19 symptoms.

The state's Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, said during an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, May 28 that the declaration of the cases is fraudulent and fails a major credibility test.

"It's a backdoor declaration laden with a lot of fraud and falsehood.

As a state government, we completely reject such declarations because they do not even conform to the protocol set by the NCDC itself," he said.

Fanwo claimed the cases didn't show any coronavirus symptoms when admitted at the Federal Medical Centre in Lokoja.

He said all 13 contacts of the cases, a chief imam and his son, that had been located by the government all tested negative for the novel disease.

Despite the government's denial, Governor Yahaya Bello this week ordered 14-day total lockdown of Kabba-Bunu LGA where the cases were detected.

Nigeria has recorded 11,166 coronavirus cases in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Kogi attack : Police on the search for bank robbers

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered a full-scale manhunt of an armed robbery gang that killed eight police officers and one woman in Kogi State.

The gang used a dynamite to bomb a police station in Isanlu community, Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi, on Thursday, June 4, 2020, killing the eight officers; and then proceeded to rob an old generation bank branch in the community.

During the attack on the bank, they killed a woman who had been there for business and then robbed the bank after gaining entrance with dynamite.

Many more civilians are reported to have been killed during the attack but an official death toll has not been announced yet.

In a statement released by the Police on Friday, June 5, IGP Adamu deployed a team of crack detectives from the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), the Special Tactical Squad (STS), and Federal-SARS to Kogi State to ensure that the criminals are apprehended and brought to book.

He also ordered the Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of Police in charge of the Zone 8 Police Headquarters, Lokoja, Yunana Babas, to immediately assess and review the security arrangement in Kogi and surrounding areas so as to prevent any future occurrence of such an incident.

"The AIG is to personally oversee the ongoing investigations into the attack and coordinate intelligence that will lead to unearthing the whereabouts of the hoodlums and the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate incident," the statement read.

The IGP condoled the families of those who lost their lives in the attack, and called for calm in the community, and cooperation with authorities.

The vicious attack is similar to one that happened two years ago in Offa, Kwara when a gang of robbers attacked six banks and a police station on April 5, 2018.

Nine police officers and 24 others lost their lives during the attack that was partly masterminded by Michael Adikwu, a former SARS officer.

More than 20 suspects were arrested in connection to the attack. Adikwu died in detention before he could be charged to court with others.