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Panic as 100 students are hospitalised in Ekiti after inhaling “poisonous chemicals”

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Panic as 100 students are hospitalised in Ekiti after inhaling “poisonous chemicals”

About 100 students of the College of Health Sciences and Technology in Ijero Ekiti, Ekiti state, were hospitalised on Wednesday, after reportedly inhaling chemicals used for a fumigation exercise in the school.

The students, who were furious about the smell of the chemical and the instant effect on over 100 female students who collapsed after inhaling the chemical, protested against the exercise.

The development was confirmed in a statement on Wednesday, the Ekiti ministry of health said about 100 students were affected, but some of them were later discharged after receiving treatment.

“Today, we received information that a number of students from the Ekiti State College of Health Technology, Ijero, were hospitalised at State Specialist Hospital Ijero, as a result of an ill-timed fumigation exercise,” the statement reads.

“About 100 students were affected, but when the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Oyebanji Filani, and other representatives of the State Government got to the facility, only 36 students were still admitted as others had been treated and discharged.”

The ministry added that two of the students were transferred to the Afe Babalola Multi-System Hospital in Ado Ekiti, and the Federal Medical Centre in Ido “for further treatment and observation”.

“More resources have been deployed to the State Specialist Hospital to support treatment. These supplies include oxygen cylinders and IV fluids. Also, more doctors have been deployed from Aromoko in addition to the existing team to facilitate faster and better treatment,” the ministry said.

“We regret this situation and we are closely monitoring the hospitalised students to ensure they fully recover.

“We are also in close communication with the school and other concerned bodies to ensure that we investigate the incident to prevent another occurrence.”

The state also disclosed that the incident was the result of a fumigation exercise carried out in the school.

The state appealed for calm, adding that they “understand that the students of the college are upset about the incident and we duly empathise with them”.

The students were also urged “not to destroy health equipment and facilities as this could have a negative counter effect on the situation”.

“Today, we received information that a number of students from the Ekiti State College of Health Technology Ijero were hospitalised at State Specialist Hospital Ijero, as a result of an ill-timed fumigation exercise.”

Cheta Nwanze: Hostile policing, Let’s look at some numbers…

Cheta Nwanze
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Cheta Nwanze: Hostile policing, Let’s look at some numbers…

On Tuesday, 26 March 2019, a police Deputy Superintendent, Godwin Oshiogbuwe, was kidnapped from a checkpoint along the Ubiaja-Ewohimi-Agbor road by unknown gunmen. His body was found the next day by a police tactical team at about 1640 hours. It had been mutilated, and his gun had been taken away. To my knowledge, none of the men who found the late Oshiogbuwe, was ever received any counselling. His killers have, to my knowledge, not been found.

One thing that has increasingly become a problem in Nigeria is the inability to talk through a problem, because all sorts of people, many of whom are frankly, quite deficient, pollute the discussion with noise. That noise tends to block out nuance. 

Nuance, in the case of the discussion regarding the police, means that the nuance that the police have been very badly behaved, and have thus over time lost the trust of the very population they are meant to be policing, AND at the same time that killing policemen is bad, is absent. 

In February I wrote a piece about the “Enemies within” in Igboland, where I criticised this new phenomenon of UGM. I got a lot of flak for that from one side of Nigeria’s internecine divide. Earlier this month I wrote about “Buhari’s new security measures” and got pilloried by the other side. From my viewpoint, both pieces are accurate. The President’s hostility towards people of the Igbo ethnic group, my ethnic group, has made the voices of separation a lot stronger among the Igbo. I predicted all this in a 2017 piece about “Creating a hero“. No, I’m no prophet, some things are just too bleeding obvious. 

But I want to talk about the police today.

Let’s look at some numbers…

As per data compiled by SBM Intelligence from a variety of sources, 497 policemen were killed on duty in various attacks around the country between the start of 2015 and the end of Q1 2021. The breakdown of these deaths by geopolitical zone shows that 85 of these were killed in the North-Central, 49 in the North-East, 59 in the North-West, 58 in the South-East, 72 in the South-West, while the South-South has been the most dangerous zone for the police in six years, with 174 of their men killed there.

This is not to say that the issue isn’t getting worse in the South-East for instance. In Q1 of 2021, the South-East trailed only the South-South as 20 policemen were killed in the SS, and 16 in the SE. The corresponding numbers were 2, 2, 6 and 2 for the NC, NE, NW and SW respectively, showing that both the South-East and South-South have a problem that has been amplified in recent times. It is impossible to dissociate the amplification (particularly in the South-East) from the call by the leader of the IPOB movement on his followers to attack the security services. This call was made at the end of October 2020. 

Yesterday, I saw a video of locals in Owerri, hailing some armed men, and that video broke my heart. That the police has behaved badly towards people in the region, we will get to that, does not mean that people should take leave of their senses. Supporting a group of people who will ultimately be unaccountable to you can only end up hurting in the long run as they will ultimately trample on you. Nigeria’s short history is full of examples. For a start, every successful coup in this country’s history was praised by the populace. Then the liberators turned out to be oppressors.

The problems of the police are many, and it starts with the structure. Since colonial times, Nigeria’s police has been structured more as an occupation force than as a police force, which is why policemen are deployed away from their regions of origin, and put in barracks away from the civilian population. That will have to change. A policeman can’t be effective if he does not speak the language of those he is meant to police, or understand their cultural contexts. I once met a policeman named Auwal in Akwa Ibom State, who spoke no Efik or Ibibio, had limited Pidgin English, but was posted to keep the peace in Itu, a community where finding people who could string proper sentences in English was tough. How would this policeman then police the policed?

Our police have to routinely undergo therapy. Think of the unfortunate men who recovered the late DSP Oshiogbuwe’s body. They saw a mutilated corpse, came away with nightmares wondering what kind of anger/hate whoever did that to their colleague harbours for them, and then they will be posted away from Edo with the mindset that the people hate them. Imagine if one of those policemen is posted to Lagos, and he is posted to Orile, a place where it has been established on multiple occasions that the locals are hostile to the police. Imagine the toxic mix that his mindset meeting with the native hostility will brew. Is it a stretch to imagine that he will at some point pick up his gun and shoot someone in that place?

Does it surprise you that today, 26 May 2021, the people of Idiroko Road, Ota, Ogun state, blocked the road due to incessant harassment and exhorting of commuters by the police?

This brings us to the next issue in the matter – money. 

In the past I have talked about my 2014 encounter with a police inspector during a survey in Lafia, Nasarawa state where he told me that his monthly salary at the time was ?52,000 per month. The information available to me says that as of the new salary structure approved by President Buhari in November 2018, said police inspector would be earning ?87,000 per month. Below the rank of Inspector are Sergeant Major, Sergeant, Corporal, Lance Corporal and Constable. Each of these people is given an automatic rifle, and inevitably mounts a checkpoint. 

Is it a stretch to imagine that someone earning ?43,000 each month (the Constable) would not be tempted to use his gun to supplement his earnings?

From the viewpoint of a South-Easterner, the region, Nigeria’s tiniest by landmass, has been feeling under the pressure of excessive policing for years. In December 2018, the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law published a reportthat claimed that in the three years prior, the police extorted ?100 billion in roadside bribery and extortion. Shortly before that report, I experienced, and documented, some of that extortion. In the absence of any counter research, let us look at these figures. Let us for the sake of argument, assume that each of these incidents of bribery and extortion was done in ?1,000 notes. This will mean that there were 100,000,000 separate incidents of extortion in three years (1,096 days) or put another way, there were 91,262 incidents of enforced money collection in the South-East each day. Better still, 64 incidents of extortion every minute over the course of three years.

Is that not enough to alienate any population?

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Nwanze is a partner at SBM Intelligence

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Flash! Old video of Radio/TV host, Ahmed Isah assaulting a man resurfaces

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Flash! Old video of Radio/TV host, Ahmed Isah assaulting a man resurfaces

An old video of human right activist and broadcast journalist, Ahmed Isah assaulting a man has resurfaced on social media.

In the video dated October 19, 2020, Isah also called Ordinary President by his fans was visibly angry, was seen interrogating a young man who claimed he was collating the names of people for the Corporate Affairs Commission’s registration.

Isah in the video first published by Sahara Reporters, asked the young man, “You gather people and write their names?”

The young man replied, “I do not gather people, I came for CAC registration. You made an announcement this morning that there are people who dupe others based on the registration. As I came and saw that people were complaining about the cancellation of the registration, so we suggested that this Gwarimpa ward will go by people that are present here so we put their names here. I came here for the CAC, I am not the only one writing names there. I am the only here for the CAC registration, not Survival fund.”

But in the midst of the interrogation, Isah paused and hit the man on the face.

Isah then asked, “Who commissioned you to write their names? Do you work for the CAC, or presidency or Chairman of the local government, who sent you?”

But as Isah slapped the man, the camera’s focus was immediately shifted elsewhere and did not capture Isah’s facial expression properly or that of the assaulted young man. However, some people in the audience had stood up, probably to calm Isah down.

Play

Isah has been under fire since the BBC Africa Eye exposed how he assaulted a woman who appeared on his show.

The woman, who was accused of setting a young girl’s hair on fire over witchcraft allegation, had feigned ignorance when Isah questioned her.

After several attempts to make her own up ended in futility, Isah slapped the defenceless woman in front of his audience.

He was been invited by the police for questioning but no details were given on what transpired while he was with the police.

Mali’s President, Prime Minister resign

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Mali’s President, Prime Minister resign

Mali’s transitional president and prime minister have resigned after they were arrested Monday by the military in what amounts to a second coup in nine months, an aide to the country’s ruling strongman and a member of an international mission said.

“President Bah Ndaw and his Prime Minister Moctar Ouane have resigned before the arbitrator,” Baba Cissé, the international mediation mission currently in Mali who also doubles up as a special adviser to Colonel Assimi Goïta said.

“Negotiations are underway for their release and the formation of a new government,” he added.

A member of the international delegation confirmed on condition of anonymity to another AFP correspondent that the transitional president had resigned.

An ECOWAS delegation on Wednesday morning went to the Kati military camp, about 15 km from Bamako, to meet the two leaders who have been held there since their arrest.

Colonel Goita, who holds the rank of vice president in the transitional government, accused Ndaw and Ouane of failing to consult him on the reshuffle.

“This kind of step testifies to the clear desire of the transitional president and prime minister to seek to breach the transitional charter,” he said, describing this as a “demonstrable intent to sabotage the transition”.

The transitional charter, a document largely drawn up by the colonels, sets down principles for underpinning Mali’s return to civilian rule.

Monday’s reshuffle came amid signs of discontent among the public, which had initially hailed the army for bringing down Keita.

The opposition M5 movement urged dissolving the interim government and demanded a “more legitimate” body.

Breaking: More than 100 persons including women and children drown in Kebbi

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Breaking: More than 100 persons including women and children drown in Kebbi

Dozens of people are feared dead after a boat they were traveling in capsized in a river in northern Nigeria’s Kebbi State.

BBC Hausa Service is reporting that the incident took place on Wednesday around 10 a.m., and reports from the area say efforts are still being made to rescue the victims.

The boat was ferrying passengers from Lokon Minna in Niger State to Wara town in Kebbi State carrying more than 160 people including men, women and children.

However, he split into two houses and drowned with all the people in it near the town of Wara. gold mines.

The chairman of Ngaski Local Government Area of ??Kebbi State, Abdullahi Buhari Warah, who visited the scene to monitor the rescue operation, said it was a tragedy.

“In fact we went to the main river in Wara town where there were people crying when they came out of the water. There were more than 160 people on board.

“Someone who came out of the boat said there was no rescue and there were many small children who drowned at sea because there was no one to rescue them.

“Someone from Zamfara State told me that there were eight members of the same family and they were all upset.

He said the number of casualties could not be ascertained so far, “22 people were rescued from various parts of other villages near the river and taken to Wara hospital.

“And only one corpse has been found so far by a girl.

Horn. Abdullahi Buhari added that normally the plane was carrying 65 to 80 people but it was carrying 160 people.

He However said it was not the fault of the Kebbi authorities for overloading the ship and refusing to wear anti-drone uniforms.

“We are currently providing seven boats to the navy and other rescue workers to search for corpses and some survivors.

Some of the passengers were wearing life jackets but had to remove them and give them to others because of the heat.

Accidents like this are not uncommon in this part of Kebbi State and are often attributed to overcrowding and collisions with tree trunks growing in the river.

Last September, a similar accident in Kebbi State killed eight people.

Constitutional review: Sanwo-Olu asks for state police, fiscal federalism

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Constitutional review: Sanwo-Olu asks for state police, fiscal federalism

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has made a case for state police, fiscal federalism and a special economic status for lagos state.

The Governor made his demands during the constitutional review public hearing in Lagos on Wednesday.

“For us in Lagos State, the issues of State Police and fiscal federalism are at the top of the priority list for us, in this ongoing review process. Equally fundamental, particularly for us in Lagos State, is the issue of a Special Economic Status for Lagos, considering our place in the national economy and the special burdens we bear by virtue of our large population and limited landmass.

“I believe the need for this Special Status has been sufficiently articulated and justified. It suffices for me at this point to restate that this request is by no means a selfish one, but one that is actually in the interest of every Nigerian and of Nigeria as a nation.” He said.

“The progress and prosperity of Nigeria is inextricably linked to the progress and prosperity of Lagos State. A Special Status for Lagos State therefore must be a concern not only for the people of Lagos State alone, but for all Nigerians.” He stated further.

The House of Representatives special committee on constitution review is presently conducting zonal public hearings across the country’s six geopolitical zones. The Lagos hearing, led by Senator Oluremi Tinubu, is held at the Marriot Hotel, Ikeja in Lagos State

Former Cross River Governor, Donald Duke returns to PDP

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Former Cross River Governor, Donald Duke returns to PDP

The former Governor of Cross River State Donald Duke has returned to the Peoples Democratic Party.

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Caretaker Committee in Cross River State, Effiok Cobham, disclosed this on Wednesday at a press briefing in Calabar.

Duke, who spoke with journalists that he is back to where he rightly belongs, hinted that he will join other leaders of the party to move Cross River and Nigeria forward.

He was the Governor of Cross River State under the PDP between 1999 and 2007.

The former Cross River State Governor briefly left for the Labour Party and later, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, where he was a presidential candidate in 2019.

Gunmen kill policeman, burn patrol vehicle in Delta

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Gunmen kill policeman, burn patrol vehicle in Delta

Gunmen on Wednesday attacked police officers on duty along Otulu-Akwukwu Igbo road, Delta State killing a policeman and burning a patrol vehicle.

NewsWireNGR learnt that the attack occurred around 6:am on Wednesday.

Acting Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe confirmed the incident and revealed that the ring leader of the attack has been arrested.

He said, “Yes, our men were attached this morning about 6:20 am, at Akwukwu Igbo Community.

“One police officer was killed in the attack, they succeeded in burning down police patrol vehicle.

“It was orchestrated by miscreants of the community, and the ring leader has been arrested and investigation is ongoing.”

Edafe also stated that efforts were ongoing to arrest the other fleeing suspects.

Boko Haram abduct over 12 travellers in Borno

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Boko Haram abduct over 12 travellers in Borno

More than 12 travellers have been abducted by terror group while commuting on a Borno highway on Wednesday morning.

NewsWireNGR gathered that the insurgents laid an ambush at a bend between Mainok-Jakana along Maiduguri-Damaturu road at about 9am Wednesday.

According to an eyewitness, Malam Isa, a commercial driver who spoke to the Sun, “The mounted roadblock at a spot where the road is bent, stopped a commercial vehicle and abducted all the passengers.”

A security source also said the insurgents had earlier fired at some vehicles escaping from attack shortly before mounting the roadblock.

The scene of the attack is about 45 kilometres to Maiduguri, Borno capital.

More details shortly…

NNPC renews Oil Mining Lease 118 with Shell, Total, Exxon, Eni

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NNPC renews Oil Mining Lease 118 with Shell, Total, Exxon, Eni

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC has renewed Oil Mining Lease 118 with the local subsidiaries of Shell RDSa.L, Total TOTF.PA, Exxon XOM.N and Eni ENI.MI for another 20 years.

According to a statement released by the NNPC on Tuesday, the deal signals the end of “long-standing disputes over the interpretation of the fiscal terms of the production-sharing contracts” between the investors in the field”.

The Nigerian government will immediately recognise revenues of $780 million from the signing of the agreement, “while it would also free the parties from over $9 billion in contingent liabilities,” the statement said.

NNPC described the agreement as a “watershed” in how it would administer deepwater operations in Nigeria. More than $10 billion of investments will “be unlocked as a result of this development”, it said.

NNPC head Mele Kyari noted there were benefits to the deal beyond paving the way for new projects.

It provides “immediate income for government in the excess of $780 million, opportunity to resolve long-standing dispute with contingent liabilities of $9 billion for all of us and ultimately seeing growth in our country where investments will come in to assets. This country is ready for business and we’re very grateful.”

In particular, it said, the agreement settles a long-standing dispute on the production-sharing contract (PSC). The agreement starts a “new PSC with clearly aligned terms”, NNPC said.

The new PSC will run for 20 years.

The National President of the Ijaw Youth Council has been kidnapped

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The National President of the Ijaw Youth Council has been kidnapped

The National President of Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Peter Timothy Igbifa has been kidnapped.

NewsWireNGR gathered that Igbifa was abducted on Wednesday in Port Harcourt by heavily armed men along the popular Obiri Ikwere axis of east west road while on his way from the Port Harcourt International Airport to a meeting with the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Program.

IYC Publicity Secretary, Ebilade Ekerefe, who confirmed the news to journalists on telephone, called on security agencies to help facilitate the release of IYC President.

NewsWireNGR also gathered that the Ijaw Youth Council had earlier in the day shut down the Bayelsa liaison office of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Mbiama-axis of the East-West road in protest, demanding that the Federal Government inaugurate a substantive board of the NDDC.

The protesting IYC members had blocked traffic along the East-West road, causing panic among motorists and commuters.

The organisation had earlier issued a 30-day ultimatum, which expired on May 25th, for the Federal Government and the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs to constitute the board or risk total shutdown of the Niger Delta.

Fredrick Nwabufo: South-east insurgency and the coming refugee crisis

Fola Folayan
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Fredrick Nwabufo: South-east insurgency and the coming refugee crisis

What fuels an insurgency? The combustible mixture of ideology and ignorance. If a clump of uninformed people has an ideology they can die for, they will do the illogical for it. The intercourse of ideology and ignorance does not follow logic. Insurgency ignites and thrives in the residence of seductive dogma.

The Igbo hold life dear. The sacrality of life is ensconced in Igbo cosmology. ‘’Igbu ochu’’ (murder) is considered the most deadly sin in Igbo land. In fact, in the old days where murder is committed, the community will have to proceed on many days of cleansing of the land and atonement for the crime. But what changed?

It is also popularly assumed that the Igbo are natively non-belligerent and that they cannot in any circumstances resort to taking innocent lives violently. Really, the Igbo are a peaceful people, but recent events in the south-east have cast a doubt on this assumption.

Without a doubt, there are genuine grievances regarding the south-east and national government relationship, but these grievances, whether injustice or inequality, are not circumscribed to the south-east. Every Nigerian is aggrieved. Every region — north, south-west, south-south — has a bone to pick with the leadership. All the regions in the country are marginalised as regards the equitable distribution of resources to the people.

To put it clearly, every region is marginalised. But a more factual statement will be ‘’all Nigerians at the bottom rung of the social ladder are marginalised’’. Nigerians are victims of the carnivory of the elite. It does not matter whether they come from the north or the south. We are all victims of elite conspiracy regardless of where we come from.

It is agonising that the scions of the south-east are turning their region into Aleppo in Syria. Who brings violence and war to his own home? As of 2019, the south-east was reputed to be the safest region in Nigeria. It was also buoyant and fared well on the development index. All of that is tumbling down.

The killing of police officers — some of them Igbo — the targeting of northern residents; the destruction of property and arsoning of police stations are tragedies that should have never been allowed to happen. This cancer was fed and allowed to metastasise. The Igbo nourished this beast that is now gnawing at their groin. When the serial murder of police officers began, some applauded the effort of their killers on the inscrutable assumption that the police are in cahoots with criminals to destroy Igbo land. Now, the destruction of the region is not by the hands of some herdsmen or bandits, but by the might of the sons of the land. How is irony defined?

Igbo citizens who hold contrary opinions to the ‘’group sentiments’’ are threatened with violence. This puts a disturbing aspect to the secessionist agitations – if all views must be unitary. The Igbo have never been known to be herded or conscripted into a tyranny of opinions and actions. The Igbo are known to be republican; open to robust arguments and subjecting every thought to scrutiny. But what changed?

The killing of police officers in the south-east has been unmitigated and security agencies appear to have left the people to their own fate. Armed robberies have returned at scale. There are lamentations everywhere. A lady shared an experience of how a mechanic she paid upfront to fix her car in Anambra absconded with the money and automobile, and even threatened her while bragging, ‘’there is no more police in the south-east’’. Cultists and street lords have assumed control of interest areas in the region. There is fear and chaos everywhere. Life has become nasty, brutish and short in a once peaceful region.

As a matter of fact, we are on a familiar path albeit a treacherous one. The signs are ominous. A Nigerian born in 2000 can tell how Boko Haram started in the north-east. Security agents and formations are often the first to be targeted by militant groups. When they are taken out, the people become defenceless and a new order of violence by armed gangs reigns. Security operatives are being killed and security facilities destroyed in the south-east now. After the security scaffold is decimated, innocent residents and even those gloating over the revelry of blood may become the next victims.

Already, there are displaced persons living in IDP camps in parts of Ebonyi state — displaced as a result of internecine clashes among communities. And with the prevailing savagery by the secessionist group, there is bound to be more refugee problems in the south-east – if the attacks persist. Where does that leave a people whose preoccupation is buying and selling?

We cannot end this barbarity if we do not agree. If some choose to keep native sympathies for those taking innocent lives, how then can the bloodletting stop?

It is all in our hands.

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By Fredrick ‘Mr OneNigeria’ Nwabufo
Twitter @FredrickNwabufo

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