Four new polio cases reported in Adamawa
Four new cases of Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type 2 ( CVDPV) has been reported in Adamawa State.
This was made known by
Dr Sulaiman Bashir, Executive Chairman, Adamawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, at a news conference to mark the 2021 World Polio Day in Yola.
According to Dr. Bashir, one case was reported in Gombi and 3 cases in Yola South Local Government Areas.”
Nigeria had been certified a wild polio-free nation on Aug. 25, 2020.
Declare Bandits as Terrorists – Conference of Speakers to FG
At at a Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly in Katsina State, 36 House of Assembly Speakers, by resolution, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and enemies of the state.
This was part of their five-point communiqué as the conference observed that the activities and operational modes carried out by the bandits were the same as used by terrorists.
The Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, who was the host of the Conference of Speakers, and whose state suffers greatly from the activities of bandits, expressly added his voice in support of the Speakers and also called on the federal government to declare bandits as terrorists.
PMB launches e-Naira, puts Nigeria among Global firsts
President Muhammadu Buhari launched the country’s digital currency, the e-Naira, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Monday.
Nigeria, therefore, becomes the first African country and among the first countries globally to effect the
Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Other countries include South Korea, Sweden, Cambodia, and the Bahamas.
In attendance at the event were the Vice President, Yemi Osibanjo; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele; Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; among others.
Buhari visits Saudi Arabia: Attends Investment Summit, Lesser Hadj
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday October 25, 2021, departs for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to participate in a three-day investment conference organized by the Future Investment Initiative Institute tagged: ‘INVESTMENT IN HUMANITY’.
This was stated in a press release by
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity). The statement also informs that at the event, global executives and asset managers will deliberate on progress and prosperity with energy; true final frontiers in investments; science in action; and impact of climate change on communities among others.
The President who will also use the period to perform the lesser Hajj in Madina & Makka before returning to the country on Friday will be accompanied by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb Zubairu Dada; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva; National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen Babagana Monguno; Director General of National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; Managing Director of Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, Uche Orji; and Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
Some participants from the private sector expected at the finance & investment event include: Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Tope Shonubi , Wale Tinubu, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, Hassan Usman, Omoboyode Olusanya, Abubakar Suleiman, Herbert Wigwe and Leo Stan Ekeh.
Sudan: Fears of a Coup d’etat
The Sudanese Information Ministry has reported that a number of senior Sudanese government officials were detained on Monday in what observers fear might be hints of a probable coup d’etat attempt in the country.
Unconfirmed reports allege that some of the detained government officials include Industry Minister Ibrahim al-Sheikh: Information Minister Hamza Baloul; Mohammed al-Fiky Suliman, member of the country’s ruling transitional body, known as The Sovereign Council; and Faisal Mohammed Saleh, a media adviser to Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. Meanwhile, Mr Hamdok’s current whereabouts are uncertain and some reports have it that security forces are deployed outside his home in Khartoum.
Since independence, Sudan has been ruled by a series of unstable parliamentary governments and military regime culminating in the toppling, via mass public protests in 2019, of 30-year-long military dictatorship led by Omar al-Bashir accused of widespread human rights abuses including torture, persecution of minorities, allegations of sponsoring global terrorism.
Following Omar-Al-Bashir’s overthrow on April 11, 2019, the country is still divided along old lines, with conservative Islamists who want a military government opposing those who toppled al-Bashir in mass protests. This is despite the agenda for a
2019–2024 Sudanese transition to democracy which was being driven by a Transitional Council in consultation with ‘Forces of Freedom and Change’ alliance (FFC) a wide political coalition of civilian and rebel coalitions of Sudanese groups, including the Sudanese Professionals Association, No to Oppression against Women Initiative, MANSAM, the Sudan Revolutionary Front, the National Consensus Forces, Sudan Call, the Unionist Gathering, and the Sudanese resistance committees, created in January 2019 during the 2018–19 Sudanese protests.
Kidnap of Nigerian School Children: ICC wades in
As a result of a petition by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to the International Criminal Court (ICC),
dated 4 September 2021, urging the ICC prosecutor, Mr Karim A. A. Khan, QC, to “push for those suspected to be responsible and complicit in the commission of these serious crimes, to be invited and tried by the ICC”, the Court is said to have started procedures towards the investigation of the Nigerian government on the kidnapping of school children by the Boko Haram in the northeast and bandits in the northwest.
The Deputy Director of Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) , Kolawole Oluwadare, in a formal statement to the public disclosed that
SERAP held, as part of their petition, that “The severe and lifelong harms that result from depriving children the right to education satisfy the gravity of harm threshold under the Rome Statute”. In a letter signed on the prosecutor’s behalf by Mark P. Dillon, Head of the Information and Evidence Unit, with reference number OTP-CR-363/21, and dated 22 October 2021, the ICC confirmed to SERAP that “the criteria for opening an investigation into a string of abductions and closure of schools in some parts of Nigeria have been met.”
The ICC informed that the next step in the judicial process is for the Prosecutor’s Office to prepare and submit a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber for authorisation to open an investigation on Nigeria.
SERAP holds the position that the victims of these crimes deserve justice, and impartial justice and reparation will deal a decisive blow to impunity of perpetrators, improving access of Nigerian children to education. Mr. Oluwadare added that they will work closely with the ICC to achieve these important objectives.
