Boko Haram 'Carries Out Mass Abduction'!

According to eye witnesses, suspected Boko Haram Islamists reportedly kidnapped scores of people from remote villages in northeast Nigeria, several people were also reported to have died in the raids.

Fighters thought to belong to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram have raided fishing communities in Nigeria's far northeast, abducting some 100 people and killing several others, witnesses who survived the raids said on Friday.

The attacks in the Kukawa Local Government area in Borno state - a Boko Haram stronghold - occurred last Sunday, they said. Many of those abducted are said to have been men and boys aged between 15 and 30.

It was reported that a witness identified as Halima Alhaji Adam, said the hostages "were forced into motorboats and taken into Chad."

A member of the vigilante force that is helping the military to fight Boko Haram, Mohammed Gava, said a number of girls and women were also taken.

Some of those abducted were reportedly later rescued in an operation by the mulitinational force from Nigeria, Chad and Niger that is nominally responsible for security in the area. The military could not be reached for comment.

Deadly project

The remote area has poor mobile phone coverage and the news of Sunday's attacks was slow to emerge. A few survivors traveled to Borno's capital, Maiduguri, where they gave an account of the abduction to reporters.

Boko Haram, which says it wants to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, is accused of killing more than 10,000 people since 2009.

The group rose to even greater notoriety after it abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Southern Borno on April 14. The kidnapping drew international attention to the conflict along with offers of help from major Western powers.

Despite this, 2014 so far seems to be the deadliest year in the conflict, though it is difficult to ascertain any exact death toll.

Source: Reuters

Ebola Nurse Flees Lagos for Enugu!

One of the primary contacts of the late American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who escaped quarantine on suspicion of having the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in Lagos, has been tracked to Enugu.

The suspect, identified as a nurse, said to have travelled to her home town to visit her family, is now under surveillance with 20 others she came into contact with in the city.

With the development, the total number of Nigerians under monitoring for the dreaded virus is now 198.

Revealing these facts yesterday after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, explained that Nigeria currently has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola, all stemming from the visit of the late Sawyer.

Maku explained that of the 198 persons under surveillance, 177 of them are in Lagos while 21 are in Enugu.

He said: "All those who had primary contact have been quarantined. Secondary contacts have also been traced. So far, the number of people that have been traced is 198.

"Of this number, 177 are in Lagos and are being traced. Some are in quarantine, some are being monitored by health specialists."

Meanwhile, the death toll world wide from the outbreak stands at 1,069 and total number of infections 1,975, according to the World Health Organisation.

Liberia was hit extremely hard this week, with 71 cases and 32 deaths from Sunday to Monday. Fifty-six deaths and 128 new cases were reported in that same period across all four West African countries affected by the virus.

21 Ebola suspects in Enugu under watch

Giving details on the escapee, Maku revealed that she travelled to Enugu from Lagos against instruction not to leave Lagos State.

He said: "The 21 persons in Enugu under watch now is as a result of their involvement with the nurse who disobeyed medical instructions and somehow travelled to Enugu. All those who she was in contact with, including her husband, are under quarantine. The medical team has been able to trace all those who made contact with her."

While warning that government would prosecute anybody found spreading false rumours or unverified reports over the Ebola epidemic, Maku said government was expanding presence of health officers to strategic entry points in the country.

"Health workers are now in all our border units. At all the entry points into this country and exit points, we have port health workers that are working in our airports and seaports.

"We are calling on citizens, specifically, to co-operate. If health workers say you have had contact with A, B, C, don't move to anywhere, respect that judgment. It is very important. In one or two cases where we have had disobedience, we lost one of them and this one now moved with it to another place (Enugu).

"So we are urging Nigerians, please to help us in making sure that all these messages and appeals we are making, we implement them."

He noted that the Ministry of Health had set up a special committee specifically to take claims from Nigerians who believe they could help and so far "we have had a lot of reports from Nigerians at home and abroad who come forward to say they have possibility of developing therapies that could help in fighting the virus.

"There is no cure so far, anywhere in the world. Even the trial drug in the US is still a trial drug; it has not been established.

"One of the doctors and research experts that came forward was Dr. Simon Agwale, who has been one of the frontline global researchers on developing vaccines for HIV and other viral diseases.

"He also came forward and said he could help, both in terms of working to develop a vaccine, which he said he has started work on between himself and his fellow experts in the US and he said this is ongoing."

Maku stated that the Minister of Health had given support and directed him to the committee. He also discussed the possibility of certain therapy which could be applied and again that is being discussed. Once it is approved, it could be used."

Escapee nurse, husband arrested, returned to Lagos

There was anxiety among residents of Enugu, yesterday following reports that 21 persons have been quarantined in the city for having direct contact with a suspected Ebola patient who escaped from Lagos.

Officials of Enugu State Government claimed ignorance of the development but there were fears that the government might be keeping the information secret to prevent panic among residents.

The telephone line of the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. George Eze, remained switched off yesterday while another commissioner who was contacted said he was not aware of anybody being quarantined in Enugu.

But a medical consultant with the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu, told Vanguard that some officials of the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, in Lagos were in Enugu last week to pick the suspected female Ebola victim who escaped from a quarantine centre in Lagos.

Source: Vanguard

Leadership Lessons from the Papal!

He may not have an M.B.A., but Pope Francis can teach you a thing or two about running a business.

The pontiff, who landed in South Korea on Thursday, marking the first papal visit to Asia in 15 years, has been dubbed a turnaround artist on the level of Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs and International Business Machines Corp.’s Lou Gerstner by the Economist magazine. He has worked miracles in steering a bloated bureaucracy ridden with scandals and a decline in followers, according to his admirers.

Chicago-based author Jeffrey Krames, was so inspired by the Pope’s leadership that he decided to write a book on the topic, Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis.

So, how do you lead like a pope? Here are four lessons from the book:

1. Be humble.

Pope Francis has written that humility is one of the most important qualities a true leader should possess. But it’s not enough to act humble: Francis says it has to be authentic.

Krames writes that the Pope has consistently put himself on the same level of his followers, and notes that business leaders like former eBay Inc. CEO Meg Whitman, now chief of Hewlett-Packard Co., and former Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso, now head of online fashion retailer Gilt Groupe Inc., have done the same by ditching corner offices for the commoner’s cubicle.

“There’s plenty of room for CEOs to become far more humble,” Krames said in an interview, noting that the Pope isn’t anti-capitalist, but likely thinks the wealthy could be more charitable.

2. Have an open mind.

Pope Francis’s motto is “people first, and then everything else follows,” according to Krames, who writes that the Pope’s career has been much less about holding Catholics to the age-old tenets of their faith and more about serving people. For example, though previous popes have ceremonially cleansed the feet of only Christian men, Pope Francis has washed the feet of both men and women of varying faiths.

Krames writes that the Pope has refused to judge individuals that would otherwise have been shunned by the Church, including the LGBT community. He notes that good leaders don’t talk down to their followers—rather, they engage in open dialogue:

“It is important, says Francis, not to deliver a monologue when speaking with your people and to take into account the changing nature of our culture,” Krames writes.

3. You can’t do everything from your desk.

Pope Francis thinks the Church should be run like a military field hospital, Krames writes, in that leaders can’t just stand idly at the altar.

“He doesn’t want pencil pushers,” Krames says. Similarly, he writes that great business people spend time in the field getting to know their clients. And, great managers decentralize decision making by avoiding micromanagement and trusting their employees to get the job done in the field.

4. Don’t let failures get you down.

In a move that stunned many, Pope Francis gave his own confession this past year before hearing the confessions of others, acknowledging that he too makes mistakes. Referring to the handling of child sexual abuse scandals faced by the Church, Krames notes that Pope Francis himself has learned that “sidestepping adversity seldom works.”

“Dwelling on past injuries will not help you in the future. To be a leader of the magnitude of Pope Francis, you have to recognize that sometimes you will falter, and that mistakes are acceptable as long as they can contribute to future triumphs,” he writes.

Mmmm...Now that's what i call some practical steps to achieving greatness.....

Union Shuts Down Firstbank Head Office Over N1.8 Billion Debt!

The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE) on Wednesday temporarily shutdown banking operations at First Bank of Nigeria head office in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the industrial action paralysed activities at the bank for more than four hours, as the aggrieved union officials refused customers entry into banking hall for any business transactions.

Lagos State Secretary of AUPCTRE, an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Biodun Bakare told NAN that the picketing of the FirstBank headquarters followed the N1.8 billion outstanding arrears of emoluments the bank owed 1,100 AUPCTRE members.

Bakare said that the money had been paid by the Anambra state government for workers at the state's Water Corporation and Environment Protection Agency for eight years which the bank refused to disburse. 

Ebola - Jonathan Sacks All Resident Doctors!

News making rounds this evening says Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan has sacked all resident doctors in all federal government hospitals across the nation for not teaming up with government to fight the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in the country.

A statement from the Federal Ministry of Health said the action was taken to enable government appraise the challenges in the health sector in a bid to fight the Ebola scourge.

The statement signed by Alhaji Isiaka Yusuf, Deputy Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria said the resident doctors had been frustrating the move by the government to curtail the Ebola virus from spreading.

According to the statement, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, made good its threat of 11 June, 2014 by calling out its members on industrial action on the 1 July, 2014 despite the Federal Government’s successive intervention meetings and dialogue including extensive deliberations with the leadership of the NMA on 25 and 26 June 2014, where agreements were reached on each of the 24 demands and a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties.

It said in the midst of the strike, the government had also cultivated the attention and intervention of some eminent personalities in order to prevail on the NMA leadership to respect the ethics of their profession and end the strike whilst the dialogue was ongoing, adding that some of the personalities included the Governor of Delta State, the Secretary to Government of the Federation, members of the National Assembly, among others.

The government stressed that it has implemented more than 90 percent of its responsibilities as signed by both parties, adding that at the conclusion of each meeting, the NMA promised to call off the strike but would return another day to say that they could not.

“For the whole of July 2014, these doctors did not work yet government, owing to the emergency situation in our country, paid them the July salaries with allowances such as call duty allowance, teaching allowance, hazard allowance, etc, believing that this magnanimity of government would appeal to reason for NMA to call off the strike.

“This strike can be considered as one of the most insensitive steps to be taken by any association or a labour union in the history of this country. Pertinent to the issue under discussion are the current security challenges in the country with the attendant mass casualties. The situation has been compounded by the recent importation of the Ebola Virus Disease into Nigeria on 20 July, 2014.

“Following the Presidential declaration of a National Public Health Emergency on Ebola Disease which has united the entire country in the efforts to contain the disease, it is quite regrettable that the people who should take leadership role in the fight against Ebola disease are now the most unsupportive. All efforts by Government to contain this disease are being frustrated by the continued industrial strike action of the NMA,” it lamented.

The statement added that “the Federal Government has therefore decided that Residency Training Programme in Federal Government Hospitals be suspended pending the conclusion of the ongoing appraisal of the challenges in the health sector.

“This directive is without prejudice to any emergency measure that may be necessary for the hospital management to immediately restore full medical services. The Federal Government wishes to reassure the public that optimal medical health care delivery will be sustained in our hospitals.”
source: PM News

JJ celebrates another year!

Here is wishing a very happy birthday to our very own...JJ Okocha.





Roving Informant wish you many more eventful years ahead.

Ebola check- FG Turns Back Corpse Flown in From Egypt!

In an effort to curtail the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Nigeria, Aviation Authority, Wednesday night turned back a corpse flown into the country from Egypt at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano- Nigeria.

The corpse flown in aboard Egypt Air at about 11.30 pm was disallowed vehemently by Airport official from been discharged into the waiting hands of the immediate family of the disease.

Airport sources said that the stand by Nigerian officials was in strict compliance with the Federal Government directives that bars transportation of corpses within and outside the country to check the spread of Ebola Virus Disease.

The source explained that "though Egypt is not one of the Country with recognized case of Ebola but in this wise the directive has no exception"

The source revealed that the corpse is that of a Nigerian who had gone to the Pharaoh's country for medical treatment."

"We plead with the family members who had turned up at the Airport to received his corpse to bear with us in the face of a big national question that requires the understanding of citizens to surmount", the source explained.

However, Aviation Authority are keeping sealed lips on the incident as attempt to seek their reaction was rebuffed by the Coporate Affairs Manager of the organization, Alhaji Yakubu Datti.

In a telephone conversation, Yakubu Datti allegedly refused to either confirm or deny the story and instead advised that enquiries should be channeled to the Federal Ministry of Health.

According to Mr. Datti " the airport is run by a combination of official drawn from strategic ministries and since your enquiry bothers on health, I would advise you cross check your facts from Federal Ministry of Health", the Aviation spokesperson said.

Source:Vanguard