Good day, good citizens of Nigeria, here are headlines from Nigerian Newspapers that may interest you today, Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
1. Omicron variant: Travel bans loom as Canada detects Nigeria-linked cases [Punch Newspaper]
Medical experts on Monday warned that Nigeria risked travel bans with Canada’s detection of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in two travellers from Nigeria.
Virologists, including the Chairman of the Expert Review Committee on COVID-19, Professor Oyewale Tomori, who stated this in separate interviews with The PUNCH, lamented that the variant of the virus in Nigeria was detected in Canada.
Tomori berated the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control for its failure to coordinate genomic sequencing of samples of coronavirus obtained from laboratories across the country.
He said although there were laboratories, which could do the genomic sequencing of coronavirus in Nigeria, the NCDC had been bypassing them and taking samples to South Africa.
2. Despite FG’s revenue crunch, NIS projected passport revenue drops by 96% [Punch Newspaper]
The Nigeria Immigration Service has dropped its projected passport revenue from N27.18bn for 2021 to N1.03bn for 2022, an analysis of the proposed budgets of government-owned enterprises has shown.
While N24.43bn was proposed as passport revenue, N2.75bn was proposed as e-pass revenue for 2021. For 2022, N1.03bn was proposed as passport revenue, and N201.81m was proposed as e-pass revenue.
3. 80 pellets of cocaine I excreted to raise N7m for IVF – Lesser Hajj-bound woman arrested in Abuja [Punch Newspaper]
An Ogun State-based businesswoman, Olayinka Adisa, travelling to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for Umrah (lesser Hajj) has been arrested by operatives of the National Law Drug Enforcement Agency for allegedly ingesting 80 pellets of cocaine.
Adisa was arrested on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, at the boarding screening area of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, during an outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight 1418.
4. Omicron COVID: We’re on alert, don’t be complacent, FG warns [Vanguard Newspaper]
In the wake of recent discovery of a new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, the Federal Government said last night it is on alert, warning Nigerians against complacency.
Government’s position came on a day the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, said that all relevant agencies in charge of health checks at the nation’s airports had been placed on high alert to prevent the importation of the new COVID-19 new variant, Omicron, into the country.
5. Ebonyi, Anambra tense over killing of youth, 3 policemen [Vanguard Newspaper]
Tension yesterday, gripped Ebonyi and Anambra communities as three policemen and a 20-year old girl were feared killed and another officer was declared missing.
In Ebonyi, four officers were injured during an attack in Effium Community of Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State while the Police in Ihiala and Azia local government area are trading words over the killing of a 20-year-old girl and the alleged murder of two policemen during a reprisal attack.
6. China pledges one billion additional COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria, other African countries [Thisday Newspaper]
As countries across the world continue to take measures to prevent the spread of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday said his country would offer another one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria and other African countries. Jinping also promised to encourage Chinese companies to invest at least $10 billion in the continent over the next three years.
The pledge of additional vaccine doses on top of the nearly 200 million that China had supplied to the continent came as concerns mounted over the spread of the new disease variant, which was detected in South Africa.
7. In most bestial, horrific manner, IPOB beheads, cannibalises two police officers
A disturbing, hard to watch two minutes and eight seconds video of how the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the acclaimed security wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), celebrated the abduction and beheading of two out of three police officers, has surfaced online, causing shock and disbelief across the social space.
The repulsive video, which was also seen by THISDAY, featured some young men, believed to be IPOB/ESN members, communicating in the Igbo language and surrounded two severed heads of the police officers, placed by a fire they set up as if being roasted, in a remote place.
