Suspected Ebola Case in Kwara Tests Negative!

The Kwara State government said its currently free from the deadly Ebola Virus. This came following the receipt of negative test result on the only suspected case of the disease from Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH ).

Special Assistant on Information to the State Governor and member, Kwara State Committee on the Prevention & Control of Ebola Virus, Deji Oni, made the announcement in Ilorin on Saturday.

Speculations had been agog in the state some days ago about a reported case of ebola infection in the state.

"As a responsible and responsive government, we swung into action by closing down the hospital where the suspected case was reported and immediately isolated the patient at the Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin where necessary medication was administered on the child and the blood sample taken to Lagos to ascertain what the real cause of his sickness," Mr. Oni said.

"The test result from LUTH has subsequently proven negative. Effectively, Kwara has no confirmed case of Ebola at the moment. However, the public is urged to remain vigilant and report any suspected case to the nearest hospital while continuing to take precautions against infection."

The statement added, "We wish to remind the general public that shortly after the country recorded the first case, the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, as a proactive measure, inaugurated a 14-man Committee on the Prevention and control of the virus in the state.

"He also ordered the immediate procurement of laboratory equipment and reagents which are already stationed at the Harmony Advanced Medical Diagnostic Centre, Ilorin.

"Also purchased were personal protective equipment for health care givers who well motivated to deliver on the job.

"The State also set up three Isolation Centres, one each in the three senatorial districts -Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin, General Hospital, Omuaran and General Hospital, Okuta. A special training was also organised for health care givers on how to handle Ebola patients.

"Presently two ambulances have been dedicated to handle any suspected case of the virus."

Meanwhile, the state said it set up a seven-man committee, headed by the chairman of the Local Government in each of the 16 local government areas of the state, on the Prevention and Control of the Ebola virus.

"We wish to assure the good people of the state that as a responsible and responsive government, we will continue to keep the populace adequately informed about efforts at keeping this dreaded virus at bay in the state," Mr. Oni said.

Source: Premium Times

NMA Dares Jonathan, Asks Resident Doctors to Reject Sack Letters!

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has ordered all resident doctors to reject the federal government directive and not collect any sack letters from the management of their hospitals.

After a meeting by the association's National Officers' Committee, NOC, on Friday, the doctors were also advised not to sign any register opened by the Nigerian government or any hospital.

On Thursday, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the sack of about 16,000 resident doctors in Nigeria.

Resident doctors are also members of the NMA, which has been on strike since July 1.

The directive by Mr. Jonathan was stated in an internal memo dated August 13 and signed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, L.N. Awute. The memo was addressed to tertiary hospitals.

Mr. Awute said the directive was given in a view of the challenges facing the health sector while hospitals could employ part time doctors (locum) who must be of 'good behaviour'.

The memo also contained a sample of sack letters to be issued all the resident doctors in the different hospitals.

"In compliance with this order, I am to regrettably inform you that your appointment in this hospital is hereby terminated forthwith," the permanent secretary said in the specimen sack letter she asked hospitals to issue resident doctors.

However, the NMA, in its resolution, ordered medical doctors to not apply for part time job as directed by FG's circular.

"For the avoidance of doubt, no medical doctor no matter how hungry, should pick up any locum appointment with the government hospitals as directed by the circular. Any doctor who flouts this directive, does so at his/her own peril," the association said.

All doctors were also directed to remain committed to volunteering to help contain the Ebola Disease outbreak in Nigeria.

The association also advised the Nigerian government to ensure that people under the deadly disease surveillance do not travel outside their domain of residence.

The NMA also admonished all its members to remain calm and wait for further directive from the association.

The association condemned the president's directive and asked him to withdraw the suspension circular and unconditionally reinstate all the 'so-called sacked' resident doctors.

It demanded that the government show commitment in resolving current impasse with the association rather than resorting to punitive measures that will only further aggravate the already deplorable situation.

The federal government had in its circular indicated that the resident doctors were being sacked because the government was suspending residency training "indefinitely."

The NMA, however, advised that rather than abolish residency training, government should show more commitment towards improving the already poorly funded programme.

Family of 5 Die Mysteriously in Abeokuta!

Tragedy struck in Sabo area of Abeokuta on Friday as the whole neighbourhood of Temidire woke to the mysterious death of a family of five.

Leadership WEEKEND  reported that the incident happened at No 3, Ireti Akinbode Street of the community, it was gathered that the polygamous family of late Aliu Adeoye had been wiped out, with the exception of the children of the senior wife.

The story: 

The whole community woke up to find out that the five people were dead while, the elder wife and her children were safe. Members of the community who spoke with Leadership on condition of anonymity alleged that the incident was shrouded in mystery.

They however said the death might be as a result of fumes from a generator.

"Some people are saying it was the fume from a generator; they use generator but it is always at the side of the house, as you can see the compound is not gated. But one thing is that the wives are always fighting, cursing each other, it has gotten to a stage that the community leader had to intervene but all to no avail. There has never been peace among them," a neighbour said.

She explained that the first wife, whose name could not be ascertained, fainted on seeing the tragedy and was rushed to a nearby maternity centre in Sabo area where she was said to have been revived.

But the tide turned against her as she was nearly lynched by members of the community who had gathered at the maternity centre, pointing fingers at the surviving wife, but was saved by the quick intervention of police officers from Ilupeju Divisional Police Headquarters who quickly moved her to an undisclosed hospital.

When the community was visited, the whole area was deserted as no one was ready to speak with journalists but was later directed to the zonal leader of the community who incidentally was the Arabic teacher of the deceased children.

The leader, Alhaji Abubakar Olowoorioke explained that they were in the mosque in the early hours when a woman alerted them, only to get to the scene and found the dead bodies of the deceased. Olowoorioke explained that he could not move closer to the place again because of the shock, but added that odours of chemicals could be perceived from inside the house.

"It was a surprise to us when we got to the place but what we observed was that there was an odour like an insecticide chemical and we had to rush out but someone told us that it could be the fume from the generator," he explained.

The police public relation officer in Ogun State confirmed the information but added the cause of the death was still not clear and that medical examination of the bodies will reveal the cause of death.

"The police found the body of five people in the building this morning, the cause of the death is yet unknown. We also heard an allegation that some people wanted to lynch a stepmother to the deceased children and nearly set the building ablaze.

General Overseer's Wife in Baby Factory Scandal, Flees to U.S!

Vanguard news reports that a Policemen attached to the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton, Ikoyi and those of the Rivers State Police Command, are currently on the trail of a fleeing wife of the General Overseer of a popular Pentecostal Church (name withheld) in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, alleged to be operating the biggest baby factory in the southern part of the country.

The suspect identified as Emeka Precious Chinyere, was alleged to have sold babies to desperate women between N 2.5 million and N6million. Her beneficiaries, we gathered, come from all parts of the world.

Her modus oparandi as gathered, included giving desperate women concoction which would make their stomachs to start protruding, until the day of delivery. However, the delivery process is said to shrouded in mystery which the Police is trying to unravel.

It was gathered that most of the beneficiaries were women who had waited for years without bearing children. The amount paid for each pregnancy as gathered, varied according to the age of the individual and the period of waiting.

This illicit business has reportedly been going at God' s Gift Clinic and Maternity Home located at number 16 School Road, Elelenmo area of Port Harcourt , Rivers State, for years until the bubble burst, following a petition to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Police Special Fraud Unit, by the United States of America Consulate, to investigate an America based- Nigerian woman who applied for American passport for her little baby. The US-based Nigerian identified as Christiana Ogeyi Omagu, with Nigerian passport number AO49173747 and US passport 458926040 , according to the US Consulate, appeared at the consulate in pursuance of a US passport for a male child she claimed to have delivered at God' s Gift Clinic and Maternity , Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

However, when a DNA paternity and maternity test was conducted, the result according to the embassy, indicated that the applicant and her husband, Donald Omagu, were not the biological parents of the baby.

In spite of the result, the embassy said Mrs Omagu insisted that a certain doctor she identified as Chinyere Precious, took her delivery at God' s Gift Clinic and Maternity in Rivers State, hence, the petition to ascertain her claim.

During preliminary investigation, the Police Special Fraud Unit reportedly discovered that several embassies had petitioned them over similar cases, with the mention of the General Overseer's wife as the doctor that delivered them of their 'miracle babies'

It would be recalled that a similar instance was that of one Esther Soyebo, who , two years ago, was arrested following a petition from the US embassy over same reason. During interrogation, the woman told journalists that she was introduced to Pastor Chinyere by a friend in the USA who claimed to have had her three children miraculously from her. The suspect also stated that she paid N2.5 million for the prepared concoction she took , after which her stomach began to bulge . But efforts by operatives to locate the maternity home were futile as the woman claimed not to know the exact location of the centre. She claimed that she was taken there at night and that she left very early the next morning.

But a combined team of operatives from the Unit and those of the Rivers state Police command stormed the maternity home recently where a near gun battle was reportedly averted, following resistance from armed policemen from the Special Protecting Unit , who blocked access to her.

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.....