PINK REPUBLIC/ MY BLOG IS A STORY MARATHON.

      Photos: President Buhari shows the way. Wash your hands, as many times as you can.One more photo below.

       By Ede Ogaba Ede The Benue State Government yesterday explained its position over the controversy surrounding the woman who came into the state from London, and tested positive for the novel coronavirus. State Deputy Governor and chairman, State Action Committee on COVID-19, Engr Benson Abounu took questions from journalists after a meeting of the Committee. He stated that everything done by the state government in respect of the index case was done in the best interest of the woman, her family and the entire people of the state. THE STORY IN BRIEF The woman; one Susan Okpe, a Benue indigene with British citizenship arrived Nigeria from London on Sunday last week to attend her late mother’s burial. On getting to the state, on Monday, she went straight to a meeting of the committee planning the burial. However, she felt unwell and so on Tuesday evening, reported herself to a private hospital in Makurdi, where the doctor after seeing her symptoms and learning that she came

          Following the lockdown directive by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari on the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sun 29 March, 2020, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has ordered the shutdown of Driver's License Centres in Abuja with immediate effect, in line with the President’s directives to lockdown. Expectedly, the Drivers License Centres wil l not be able to process licenses for applicants nationwide. However, applicants can go via the By-pass mode to process for the license to be delivered after the lockdown period. In a press release by the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, he revealed that the shutdown is aimed at sustaining existing endeavours already in place by the Federal Government to curtail further spread of the menace. He added that the Corps Marshal had in the wake of the pandemic directed all DLCs to maintain maximum hygiene through provision of adequate water, soap and alcohol-based sanitizers at the Centres. You

      The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has tested negative to Coronavirus. The IGP received the result of the test this morning, 31st March, 2020 having submitted samples on Friday, 27th March, 2020. Other officers who also tested negative include the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, the Principal Staff Officer to the IGP, DCP Idowu Owohunwa, Head of the Force Technical Intelligence Unit, DCP Lanre Ogunlow o, Personal Physician to the IGP, CSP (Dr) Nonye Welle, Medical Officer, Police Clinic, Force Headquarters, Abuja CSP (Dr) Titus Adegbite, Secretary to the IGP, SP Moses Jolugbo and five (5) other close aides to the IGP. While noting that policing is a high-contact job with its attendant risks, the IGP enjoins police officers nationwide to adhere strictly to all precautionary and safety measures in the course of their day-to-day activities. He equally enjoins members of the public to voluntarily obey all restriction orders emplaced by the c

     In the rekindle spirit of professionalism, the Nigerian Army has released the postings and appointments of some affected senior officers. The posting which was approved by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt Gen TY Buratai is a routine/normal exercise intended to reinvigorate the system for greater professional effectiveness and efficiency. The major highlight of the posting includes - the posting and appointment of Maj Gen ACC Agundu from Special Task Force (STF) Operation SAFE HAVEN Jos to Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) Abuja as Senior Research Fellow, Major General HI Bature from Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Defence Liaison Office National Assembly Abuja to Army Headquarters Department of Civil Military Affairs and appointed Chief of Civil-Military Affairs, Maj Gen UM Mohammed from Nigerian Army Property Limited (NAPL) to the Office of the Chief of Army Staff and appointed Special Adviser Nigerian Army University Biu/Deputy Chairman Board of Trustees NAPL, while the erst

     Four new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria; 3 in Osun and 1 in Ogun As at 11:15 am 31st March there are 135 confirmed cases of  # COVID19  reported in Nigeria with 2 deaths. As at 11:15 am 31st March, there are 135 confirmed cases 2 deaths For a breakdown of cases by states in real-time, please see  http://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng Currently; Lagos- 81 FCT- 25 Ogun- 4 Enugu- 2 Ekiti- 1 Oyo- 8 Edo- 2 Bauchi- 2 Osun-5 Rivers-1 Benue- 1 Kaduna- 3.

     INSTALLATION OF MOST REV. MATTHEW ISHAYA AUDU AS THE CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF JOS. WELCOME AND VALEDICTORY REMARKS BY ARCHBISHOP IGNATIUS A. KAIGAMA, 31.03.2020. My dear brothers and sisters, please allow me to use my remaining last few minutes as a member of the Catholic Archdiocese of Jos to express a very profound gratitude to God Almighty for giving me the privilege and honour to serve Jos Archdiocese and its wonderful people for very close to twenty years. Let me first of all welcome you all to this ceremony that brings on board a new chief shepherd and thus a new phase in the history of Jos Archdiocese. Thank you for coming. I thank God for using the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to give Jos Archdiocese the gift of a new Archbishop in the person of Most Rev. Matthew Ishaya Audu. Welcome Archbishop Audu and “bon travail” I also thank the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi for his very dedicated service to the Nigerian Church and I welcome him in absentia

      In view of the coronavirus pandemic altering socio-economic activities around the world and as part of the on-going efforts to mitigate the effect on businesses and taxpayers, the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has extended the deadline for filing of Annual Returns for Individual taxpayers including self-employed persons for two (2) months from April 1 to May 31, 2020. Statutorily, the filing of a nnual returns expires on the March 31st of every fiscal year, and attracts stiff penalties for defaulters. With this extension as announced by LIRS, taxpayers are given a breather. According to the Chairman of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service Mr. Ayodele Subair, the extension of deadline of the Annual Returns is in response to appeals made by taxpayers as well as a policy shift by the agency to assuage the effect of COVID-19 on the taxpayers and residents of Lagos State. “We implore the taxpayers to access our eTax platform for all tax operations and administrat

      The Ogun State Government says the State will be locked down totally on Friday in line with the directive from the Federal Government. The State Goverrnor, Prince Dapo Abiodun stated this at a press conference and inauguration of the State COVID-19 Isolation Centre at Ikenne, Ikenne LGA. The Governor said though the restriction of movement to and from neighbouring states and the international border, would be effective from 11pm Monday, March 30, the total shutdown of the State would commence on Friday, this week. Governor Abiodun noted that the State Government has informed and obtained permission from the Presidency to shift the total lockdown date to Friday, to enable government prepare adequate paliatives for the people. "We are making efforts to give some paliatives to our people. We will do this by creating food banks to store food items like yam, cassava, rice, tomatoes and the like to be distributed to our people, especially the poor and vulnerable in all pa

      The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has written a litigation threat to the PUNCH (Nig) Limited, publishers of The PUNCH Newspapers, demanding for the retraction of its libellous publication against the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, as well as an unreserved apology over the defamatory publication against Mr. Magu. . . Addressed to the Managing Editor/Editor-In-Chief of the newspaper, Mr. Ademola Osinubi, and signed by it’s Secretary, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, the EFCC described as libellous, vexatious, defamatory and damaging, a piece written by Abimbola Adelakun on March 5, 2020 titled, "The Real Trouble With Magu".

      Ubasinachi Ekweozor and his wife Anulika Ubasinachi Ekweozor are in custody in Ikotun Police Station following the attack on their tenant Oyize Peter over unpaid water and electricity bills at their house located at No, 78, Amudalatu Agodo, Ikotun, Lagos. According to reports, Oyize was owing electricity bills and the electricity distribution company disconnected her house. The landlord was angered by this because the tenant’s house was also connected to the pumping machine that serves the entire compound. The landlord then called an electrician to connect the machine’s wire to his own apartment. He also got a plumber to disconnect Oyize’s pipe so she wouldn’t have access to water. Oyize refused to be sidelined in this way so she objected and it led to a verbal altercation. Later, after calm was restored on Sunday, March 29, Oyize was doing chores when the landlady allegedly took her unawares and used an axe to slash her on her face, leaving her with multiple laceration

      There was anger in Warri on Monday afternoon as angry Warri youths threw away the garri of Warri women who were selling beyond normal market price. According to a post made by one Michael Ifeanyi Egunyenga, youths in Ubeji, Warri area of Delta state stormed the market and discovered that the market women were selling buckets of garri for N1500 instead of N750. The youths said that the women were selling at high prices, they described them as crude and wicked for selling garri beyond the recommended price.

      Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has charged security agents to be friendly in enforcing the lockdown order announced on Sunday by President Muhammadu Buhari. The Governor urged those who will be carrying out the enforcement to show high professionalism in dealing with erring persons, cautioning that high-handedness may lead to violation of human rights of residents. Sanwo-Olu gave the charge on Monday in a discussion with commanders of all security formations in the State during a Security Council meeting held at the State House in Marina. President Buhari announced 14-day cessation of movement in Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Ogun State as part of the steps to break the cycle of the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country. Lagos is the worst hit among the three states locked down by the Federal Government. Briefing the press after the meeting, Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who spoke on behalf of the Council, said t

      The Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has distributed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits to its sweepers and PSP operators across the State to protect them from infection in the course of their duties. Speaking at the presentation of the materials at LAWMA Headquarters, Ijora, the Managing Director, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, noted that the move was in compliance with Governor Babajide Sanwo-O lu’s directive that all necessary steps be taken to arrest the further spread of Coronavirus. “We are kitting our sweepers and PSP operators as we have always done, in line with the directive of the Incident Commander, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has repeatedly stressed that all precautionary measures must be taken to curb the spread of Coronavirus,” Gbadegesin stated. He spoke further saying, “We also have over 15,000 sweepers and 4,000 waste handlers working with private PSP operators, and they all must be adequately and properly protected from infection. Our move is

     A STATE-WIDE BROADCAST BY HIS EXCELLENCY, NYESOM EZENWO WIKE, GOVERNOR OF RIVERS STATE ON MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2020 My Dear Good People of Rivers State I am constrained to address you again after my last broadcast of Thursday, March 26, 2020. After some days of monitoring the level of compliance of the State Government's directive for markets in the state to be closed, we were shocked to discover that some markets have continued to violate the sit-at-home order. We have no choice than to make some painful, but necessary decisions to further prevent the spread of coronavirus in the State. Therefore, after a meeting of the State Security Council today, the following decisions were taken: 1. With effect from Tuesday March 31, 2020 there will be a dusk to dawn curfew from Obiri-Ikwerre Junction( Ozuoba, Rumualogu) to Choba and from Education Bus Stop to Agip Junction, Ikwerre Road . 2. All beer parlours and public drinking joints are hereby closed because they have sud