Headline

Ignore false alarm on insecurity – Kogi Govt. urges citizens, travellers

Published

1 month ago

August 23, 2023

Kogi Government has urged citizens and travellers to ignore false alarm on insecurity circulating that the state is not safe.

Retired Commodore Jerry Omodara, Security Adviser (SA) to Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja.

An alarm in in form of a notice in circulation in the state claims, “Kogi State is hot for now. For those visiting kogi State to see family and friends please avoid this areas, Jimgbe, Elete, Emoro, Geregu down to Ajaokuta.

“Also, avoid Obajana old road. Even if you are stick in traffic due to the new bridge construction, please avoid the old road, it’s very dangerous.”

Omodara said there was the need to caution people, to avoid believing in unconfirmed reports like that, especially when it had to do with security in Kogi.

“As things are in terms of security, there is such thing happening in Kogi. It’s all but falsehood.

“Trust us, we will not give anyone the chance to torment the people of Kogi as it used to be in the past. As it is, there is no cause for alarm as long as Kogi State is concerned.

“This is because criminals coming into the state are quickly harvested. We are harvesting them even with those who ran to other states as we ensure we go after them and bring them back to face prosecution.

“All we expect from the public is timely information and the security agencies will do their job, ” he said.

The security adviser explained, “it’s true you can’t completely eliminate criminality in any society, but the compact system of neighborhood and the security architecture put in by the Federal Government in Kogi is working very well along with the will power of the Kogi Government to deal with the emerging security situation.

According to him, “If we have one or two security challenges, be sure we have nipped 6 or 7 or 8 in the bud.”

He said for the fact that there was an incident recently, people should stop enlarging it as if it was a threat to wellbeing of residents and passers-by.

“We all know what the security situation in Kogi was and what we are having now.

“The government of Gov Bello has been able to bring sanity in Kogi, where the people are very free, doing their legitimate businesses without any fear of harassment.

“Therefore, rather than escalating falsehood on social media, it’s better you channel information, whenever you discovered any security challenge or breach to the security operatives for prompt action,” he advised.

Omodara expressed gladness that the government and security operatives were getting it well in Kogi.

“Till the last day of Alh. Yahaya Bello in office as governor, and even to the next government, we will continue to fight insecurity in Kogi for the good of our people.”

Headline

Diphtheria: Children at risk as 7,202 cases are confirmed in Nigeria

Published

1 hour ago

September 30, 2023

Ifunaya Emeka

A staggering 7,202 cases of diphtheria, a highly contagious bacterial infection that can be fatal without treatment, were confirmed in Nigeria last week.

The outbreak has been particularly severe among children under 14, with three-quarters of cases (73.6%) in this age group.

Most cases have been recorded in Kano state, Nigeria’s second most populous state. In the past three months, there have been 453 deaths from diphtheria in Nigeria.

Diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease, but low vaccination rates in Nigeria have made the outbreak possible. Only 42% of children under 15 in Nigeria are fully protected from diphtheria.

Diphtheria symptoms begin with a sore throat and fever. In severe cases, the bacteria produce a toxin that can block the airway, causing difficulty breathing and swallowing. The toxin can also spread to other body parts, causing heart kidney problems and nerve damage.

Save the Children is launching a wide-scale health response in the three most impacted states of Kano, Yobe, and Katsina. The organization is deploying expert health and supply chain staff to help overstretched clinics detect and treat diphtheria cases and to support mass vaccination campaigns.

However, Save the Children warns that a mass vaccination campaign will only be successful if the vaccine shortage is urgently addressed.

Severe shortages in Nigeria of the required vaccine and the antitoxin needed to treat the disease mean that the situation could continue to escalate, placing many children at risk of severe illness and death.

Headline

WHO releases $16m to tackle cholera, says Director-General

Published

1 day ago

September 29, 2023

Ifunaya Emeka

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released 16 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies to tackle cholera.

Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said this during an online news conference.

Ghebreyesus said that the organisation was providing essential supplies, coordinating the on the ground response with partners, supporting countries to detect, prevent and treat cholera, and informing people how to protect themselves.

“To support this work, we have appealed for 160 million dollars, and we have released more than 16 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

“But the real solution to cholera lies in ensuring everyone has access to safe water and sanitation, which is an internationally recognized human right,” he said.

According to him, in the previous week, WHO published new data showing that cases reported in 2022 were more than double those in 2021.

He said that the preliminary data for 2023 suggested was likely to be even worse.

“So far, 28 countries have reported cases in 2023 compared with 16 during the same period in 2022.

“The countries with the most concerning outbreaks right now are Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq and Sudan.

“Significant progress has been made in countries in Southern Africa, including Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but these countries remain at risk as the rainy season approaches,” Ghebreyesus said.

According to him, the worst affected countries and communities are poor, without access to safe drinking water or toilets.

He said that they also face shortages of oral cholera vaccine and other supplies, as well as overstretched health workers, who are dealing with multiple disease outbreaks and other health emergencies.

On COVID-19, Ghebreyesus said that as the northern hemisphere winter approaches, the organisation continued to see concerning trends.

He said that among the relatively few countries that report them, both hospitalisations and ICU admissions have increased in the past 28 days, particularly in the Americas and Europe.

WHO boss said that meanwhile, vaccination levels among the most at-risk groups remained worryingly low.

“Two-thirds of the world’s population has received a complete primary series, but only one-third has received an additional, or “booster” dose.

“COVID-19 may no longer be the acute crisis it was two years ago, but that does not mean we can ignore it,” he said.

According to him, countries invested so much in building their systems to respond to COVID-19.

He urged countries to sustain those systems, to ensure people can be protected, tested and treated for COVID-19 and other infectious threats.

“That means sustaining systems for collaborative surveillance, community protection, safe and scalable care, access to countermeasures and coordination,” he said.