Ebola: Nigeria’s 1,479 illegal borders may spread virus

There are fresh fears that porous Nigerian land borders may thwart the Federal Government’s efforts to check the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the country.

Saturday PUNCH’s investigations revealed that the porosity of Nigerian land borders exposed the country to the risk of the deadly disease.

At the last count, there are about 1,479 illegal routes into Nigeria through which smugglers, undocumented immigrants and terrorists have been infiltrating the country.

Checks also show that port health officials, who are usually deployed by the ministry of health in border points, are not available at many of the unauthorised routes where individuals infected with Ebola virus could access the country without let or hindrance.

Findings revealed that the 114 regular border posts manned by immigration and health officers, were inadequate to protect the country from Ebola virus which could be imported into the country through infected migrants and even documented visitors.

Although visitors to Nigeria are expected to possess the International Health Certificate (Yellow card), investigations show that most foreigners using the international land borders do not have the document.

Investigations by Saturday PUNCH indicated that the Nigerian Immigration Service, with 23,000 workers, and other security agencies do not have the manpower, material resources and capacity to secure even the normal legal and massive borders and prevent infiltration of the country by immigrants infected with Ebola disease.

Al-Makura: PDP lobbies Nasarawa CJ......

There are indications that the Peoples Democratic Party has begun moves to lobby the Nasarawa State Chief Judge, Justice Sulaiman Dikko, with a view to influencing and persuading him to disband the seven-man impeachment panel set up to probe Governor Tanko Al-Makura for alleged gross misconduct and abuse of office.

A source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Saturday PUNCH that the PDP during the week dispatched a two-man lobby team to influence the Chief Judge to set up a new panel to probe the governor with promises that he would be elevated to the Appeal Court among other juicy offers.

But the source said the Chief Judge rejected the offer, quoting him as saying that his actions were in tandem with the provisions of the nation’s constitution.

The source said, “Justice Suleiman Dikko has told the PDP’s emissary that he could not set up another panel because he instituted the initial panel according to the spirit and letters of the 1999 Constitution as stipulated in Section 188.

LAGOS 2015: Why The next gov. should be an embodiment of both Tinubu and Fashola – Ologunde

Chief Funsho Ologunde is the Vice chairman Lagos West of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State. In this interview , he boasts that the APC will maintain its hold in Lagos State come 2015. Excerpts:

Chief Bola Tinubu & Gov. Raji Fashola of Lagos State

The outcome of the Ekiti governorship elections took many by surprise especially chieftains of your party. What measures are you putting in place to ensure your party fortunes do not dwindle? We had a bad experience with the Ekiti election but to us, we have taken it as an eye opener. We have doubled our efforts and fine tuned our strategies, first for Osun, which is coming up next week and also for the 2015 general elections. We are ready for the situation. We have seen areas of our weakness and we saw where the PDP was able to manipulate the election process to their own advantage.
Just like it did in 2003, the PDP has vowed to reclaim the South west, how feasible do you think this is?
It is natural for any political party to threaten to be the best in any situation, even if it does not have supporters. The threat of the PDP is not a new thing. They were able to overrun the South west in 2003 but that does not mean that the South west is sleeping.

Jonathan sacks NNPC GMD.....

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday sacked the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Andrew Yakubu.

The President, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, named Dr. Joseph Dawha as Yakubu’s replacement.

Abati also announced the appointment of Mr. Anthony Ugonna Muoneke as the new Managing Director of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Corporation.

Ghana bans flights from Nigeria, Liberia, others....

 Following the death of a Liberian victim of the deadly Ebola virus in the country, Ghana has banned flights from Nigeria and other West African countries, according to allafrica.com.

The Managing Director, Ghana Airport Company, Charles Asare, said it was part of elaborate emergency measures the authorities were implementing to prevent the virus from spreading into the West African country.

Also, restrictions have been imposed on the movement of Liberian refugees who are still at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in the country.

Ever since its outbreak, the Ebola virus has claimed the lives of over 600 victims in the West African sub-region.

Ghana also bans flight from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ghana’s Health Ministry also announced that efforts were underway to establish Ebola treatment centres across the country.

ALARM! Boko Haram sends to A’Ibom, threatens to attack public places...

The Akwa Ibom State Government said it had received text messages from the Boko Haram terrorist group threatening to attack public places in the state.

boko-haram

A statement issued on Friday evening by the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, said the public places targeted include churches, markets and schools, among others. Umanah advised members of the public to be security conscious and be extra-vigilant by reporting suspicious movements to security personnel for immediate action.
He assured residents of their safety, saying government had directed security agencies to step up surveillance to prevent likely attack on the state.

Ebola Virus: Fashola urges FG to close Nigeria borders......

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has urged the Federal Government to shut down its borders with affected West African countries to prevent outbreak of Ebola virus in the country.

Ebola Virus: Fashola urges FG to close Nigeria borders

Fashola on Friday at Lagos House, Ikeja, said Ebola was no longer a local problem, but an international one that required urgent measures in place to prevent its spread. He said, “This is because it is easily transmittable across the borders and boundaries.
“The Federal Government team has been working with the state’s team. But I think what the Federal Government should do is to consider closing down some of our borders.
“It is difficult to stop this epidemic and we must now choose the treaty obligations that we hold under the ECOWAS treaty and perhaps short term benefits in terms of economic cost to human life. We must make that choice and consider it very seriously. It is a national security issue and I think that we should give it that attention.