Atiku departs Abuja for European business trip
Photo Credit: Punch Newspaper
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, departed Abuja for Europe on Wednesday.
The former Vice President has faced significant criticism for often leaving Nigeria soon after each election.
In contrast to the post-2015 and 2019 elections, Atiku stayed in the country for several months following the 2023 election.
During this time, he engaged in party activities and consultations that many believe are in preparation for the 2027 elections.
Atiku’s Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, stated on Wednesday that the former Vice President had gone on a brief foreign business trip accompanied by family members, friends, and associates.
The statement read in part, “Nigeria’s leading opposition figure and former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has embarked on a business trip to Europe.
“The former Vice President departed from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja at 11 AM on Wednesday, the 26th of June, 2024, for his first port of call.
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Suspect in Port Harcourt blast arrested
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The Rivers State Government said it has found the suspect who detonated an explosive device near the state-owned Presidential Hotel during a pro-police protest in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
This came less than 24 hours after the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, alerted management of both public and private medical facilities in the state on the identity of the suspect, injury signs and the need to detain him if found.
A substance believed to be dynamite went off near the Presidential Hotel axis of the Aba expressway causing panic in the area.
Oreh, while speaking to newsmen on Tuesday evening said, “Now the Rivers State Ministry of Health is calling for an alert to all medical facilities in the state, both public and privately owned facilities to be vigilant and look out for an individual, a young man with a traumatically dismembered upper limb because this injury which was sustained will require medical attention.
“If such an individual and their accomplices are present in any of the facilities, immediately notify the Commissioner for Police, Rivers State and the Rivers State Ministry of Health.”
However, later on Tuesday night, Oreh, told newsmen that the yet-to-be-identified suspected bomber, was rushed to the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital for treatment by his friends who are now at large.
We are hungry, malnourished’, Niger refugees cry out
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Internally Displaced Persons in Shiroro, Munya and Rafi camps have accused the Niger State government of negligence, claiming that their conditions were getting worse by the day.
The refugees voiced their complaints during a visit by the Niger State Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists to the IDP camps in Gwada and Kuta, Shiroro Local Council.
The Shiroro Internally Displaced Persons Desk Officer and Coordinator, Yusuf Kuta, while addressing newsmen, listed some of the challenges confronting the camps, noting that a good number of unspecified victims, mostly women reside outside the facility.
He hinted that attacks on rural communities by bandits and Boko Haram terrorists had affected 42 settlements across the three councils.
Kuta revealed that 50 malnourished children are undergoing treatment owing to a lack of adequate foods for breastfeeding women and called for urgent intervention from relevant authorities.
He, however, lauded the Nigerian Red Cross for its recent support.
“Kuta IDP camp has been in existence since 2019. And to the glory of Allah, we are managing it. But the IDPs here are suffering because their communities have been burnt down by bandits. Some of them are sick and currently in the hospital, and we don’t have adequate drugs.
Lagos links cholera deaths to late presentation, 30 still hospitalised
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The Lagos State Government has attributed the alarming number of deaths recorded in the latest cholera outbreak in the state to late presentation.
It disclosed that the total number of cholera cases has increased to 579, out of which 43 were confirmed through laboratory analysis, with Lagos Island, Kosofe, and Eti Osa Local Government Areas recording the highest numbers.
Disclosing the figures at a press briefing on Monday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, said the death toll had risen to 29, an increase of five from the previously reported 24 fatalities.
Abayomi also revealed that 30 patients were currently hospitalised for varying degrees of the disease at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.
The commissioner said, “Most of these deaths were caused by patients presenting very late at a stage where we could not resuscitate them because they had severe rehydration and many patients were brought in dead.
“So far, we have not been able to identify a source yet, but investigations are ongoing. Moving forward, we are going to keep active surveillance around our water sources and beverages in Lagos state.”
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera.
It appears periodically in countries unable to secure access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation like Nigeria.