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Jonathan launches New HIV/AIDS Response Plan

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Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday launched a new initiative designed to achieve universal access to the prevention, treatment, care and support for all Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS.

FROM RIGHT, PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, NIGER PRESIDENT, MAHAMADOU ISSOUFOU AND BENIN REPUBLIC PRESIDENT, BONI YAYI ARRIVING FOR THE OPENING OF THE SUMMIT

FROM RIGHT, PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, NIGER PRESIDENT,
MAHAMADOU ISSOUFOU AND BENIN REPUBLIC PRESIDENT, BONI YAYI ARRIVING
FOR THE OPENING OF THE SUMMIT

The new programme tagged “President’s Comprehensive Response Plan”, PCRP, was launched during the ongoing Special Summit of African Union, the Abuja +12 Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and other related infectious diseases in Abuja.

Jonathan said the new initiative on HIV/AIDS was a demonstration of Nigeria’s commitment to the Abuja Declaration 2001 which mandated African countries to take measures to halt and reverse the progression of the infection in Africa.

African Union had in a summit in 2001 among others things, pledged to allocate 15 percent of their annual budgets to the improvement of the health sector.

He added that the programme was developed to promote greater responsibility and accountability for HIV/AIDS responses at national and sub-national levels.

“The government of Nigeria realizes that HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other infectious diseases pose a significant threat to human and economic development. We have developed this plan to accelerate the implementation of key interventions with respect to HIV/AIDS,” the President said while addressing delegates at the meeting with the theme: “Ownership, Accountability and Sustainability of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Response in Africa: Past, Present and the Future.”

He observed that Africa has made significant progress towards reduction of the incidence of the diseases during the intervening years since the national benchmarks of the Abuja Declaration of 2001 and the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment in 2006.

He also noted that the continent is still far from attaining all the targets to sufficiently secure the well-being of their countries and future.

President Jonathan therefore said the new programme will help Nigeria “consolidate our progress in addressing the heavy burden with increased urgency, develop a stronger, home grown, sustainable health financing framework, we must take ownership of the process, and drive its implementation.

“This programme will help us bridge existing service gaps, address key financial, system and coordination challenges in current HIV/AIDS response systems. I have also directed the immediate development of a new and creative framework for sustainable financing of health to meet the targeted objectives,” the President stated.

In a speech he delivered on behalf of the Ban kii Moon, United Nations Secretary General, Professor Babatunde Oshotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Funds for Population Activities, UNFPA noted that strong leadership has pivotal to the successes recorded by African countries in the HIV/AIDS campaign over the years starting from when the Abuja declaration was made in 2001.

“Before the 2001 Abuja Declaration, HIV treatment in Africa was almost non-existent. Just 11 years later, 7.5 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Yet HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other infectious diseases still pose a significant threat to well-being and development in sub-Saharan Africa. The UNFPA Chief noted that with less than 1,000 days remaining to the MDG deadline on HIV/AIDS, failure to maintain momentum can halt and reverse progress being made against the disease currently.

“My call at Abuja+12 is for renewed leadership and increased domestic and international funding – new investment in improved tests and drugs, stronger services to deliver them,” the Secretary General stated.

Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA data indicates that 3.4 million Nigerians are living with HIV/AIDS.

In an address he delivered to declare the summit open, President Jonathan also advised other African countries to seek local solutions to the problems of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases affecting the continent to ensure sustainability. “We must stand in solidarity with one another, be proactive to our health challenges and increase intercontinental scientific research partnerships and development efforts to complement the various national and regional plans underway,” the President said.

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.

The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.

Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.

Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.

Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.

Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.

In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.

Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.

However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.

Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria

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Nigeria News

COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container

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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The market women, said to be  from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.

Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.

A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.

Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that  smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.

 

Sourced From: Vanguard News

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Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

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Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole

The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.

Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.

He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid  in January 2020.

‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.

She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.

He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police  Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.

Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.

He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’

He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.

Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.

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Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

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President Buhari and the Service Chiefs in a meeting. (File photo)

Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend. 

He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart. 

Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.

The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad  problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”

The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad,  saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts.  This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose. 

Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them. 

Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter. 

“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said. 

 

Sourced From: Tribune

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