FG confirms two new polio cases

The World Health Organisation and the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole have confirmed an outbreak of wild polio virus in Borno State.

Adewole in a statement on Thursday said the outbreak has affected two children from Gwoza and Jere Local Government Areas of the State.

The Minister said the fresh cases were detected during an surveillance of North –Eastern states by health officials from the ministry.

Adewole who charged parents in the region to stay vigilant said a national emergency response team has been sent to Borno State for immediate polio vaccination campaign to prevent the spread of the virus locally and internationally.

He said, “Our overriding priority right now is to rapidly boost immunity in the affected areas to ensure that no more children are affected by this terrible disease.

“Local health officials with the support of partners including WHO and UNICEF are conducting detailed risk analysis to clearly ascertain the extent of circulation of the virus, and to assess overall levels of population immunity in order to guide the response.

“As an immediate response, about one million children are to be immunised in four local government areas in Borno State. Children in adjoining states of Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe will also be immunised bringing the number to about five million in the four states.”

The new cases of the wild polio virus recorded in Gwoza and Jere in Borno state has set back efforts towards declaring Nigeria polio free in 2017.

Nigeria was going to be declared polio free on July 24 next year, if the country did not record any new case.

Health authorities from the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja and its counterpart in Borno state have been silent on the reported new cases.

Our correspondent learnt that the World Health Organisation was about to issue a statement confirming that Africa has began the process of eradicating the disease on the continent on Wednesday. The organisation, however, recalled the statement after it learnt of the new cases in the Northern Nigeria state.

It was learnt that the Executive Secretary, the United Nations Populations Fund, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, made an emergency visit to the country on Thursday morning.

He was said to have met with President Muhammadu Buhari and Prof. Adewole to devise a 48 hours strategy to quickly address the spread of the wild polio virus in Borno State.

The Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, in July had met with top-ranking government officials and stakeholders to discuss efforts aimed at certifying Nigeria polio-free.

She expressed worries on the poor state of the primary health care system of the country and warned that this may frustrate the immunisation of children against the polio virus and the elimination of the diseases in the country.

Buhari who assured Moeti that all hands were on deck in Northern Nigerian states admitted that security problems in region, which had the highest number of unimmunised children, was a challenge that the Federal Government needed to tackle urgently.

He said, “The breakdown of law and order in the Northeast has posed challenges to regular immunisation. The condition of children in Internally Displaced Persons camps around the country is very pathetic.

‘‘But I know that the Federal and state governments in partnership with international organizations and NGOs are doing so much to provide healthcare, rebuild infrastructure and facilitate voluntary return of displaced persons to their communities.”

Why Buhari, IGP must disarm Fulani herdsmen in Adamawa

Jos – Following the recent attacks on its people by suspected Fulani herdsmen, the Beatify people of Demsa local government of Adamawa state, resident in Jos, have asked the federal government and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris to as a matter of urgency, disarm the Fulani herdsmen in their locality so as to safeguard the lives of the remaining members of the ethnic group.

The people said such exercise was necessary in view of the incessant attacks on the ethnic group by heavily armed Fulani herdsmen which have so far led to the death of about 100 people in the last seven months. In a statement issued on Thursday, in Jos and signed by the National President, Pene Da Bwatiye, Prince Hezron Fada, the people alleged that armed Fulani herdsmen have attacked more than 10 villages in the locality between January and July 2016. According to Fada, “It is with a heavy heart that the Bwatiye Community represented by our umbrella organization, PENE DA BWATIYE wish to draw the attention of Nigerians to the massive destruction of the rural town of Kodomun in Demsa Local Government of Adamawa State and the brutal cold blooded murder of 25 persons comprising our revered elders, young and middle aged men and children. “The attacks has left a population of about 2,500 inhabitants now homeless and scattered in towns and villages as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). From January to July this year, similar mass killings took place in the Bwatiye villages of Koh, Goron, Ndikajam, Tabongo, No-Ine Fawaire and Jimoh in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa State, where 72 deaths were recorded including the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Vunoklang, a suburb of the Jimeta metropolis. “There is no doubt that the killings by the Fulani herdsmen and their hired mercenaries were perpetrated under a grand design to annihilate the Bwatiye race as a people. Upto this time no one has been apprehended, questioned or sanctioned by the authorities over the incidences. Is this not a conspiracy of silence?” The statement added, “As painful as the destruction and looting of property and the brutal killings of our defenceless people and the removal of some vital parts of their bodies for ritual purposes have been, we have managed with difficulty, to implore our communities to refrain from taking law into their hands. While we continue to look up to the State Government for justice and protection, unfortunately, government failed in this regard. “We find this failure of government unacceptable, as it is equally becoming more challenging to restrain our people from rising up to their own self defence by every possible means against armed Fulani herdsmen that are using assault riffles and hard core military weapons, as did in Koh, Ndikajam, No-Ine, Tabong Goron, Fawaire and Jimoh in Girei Local Government Area. The impunity of these invaders will not stop unless the government ceases to treat them with kid gloves. “We are gratified that the President Muhamamdu Buhari has at last directed the security agents to disarm them. However, we wait to see what will happen, for with the likes of Commissioner of Police of Adamawa State, Alh. Ghazzali Mohammed as law enforcement officers, we will be faced with either non-compliance or complicity. You will recall that this Commissioner of Police on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 said no life was lost in the invasion of Kodomun and that he did not allow his men to intervene in the attack because according him, it was a communal clash and to do so, would appear to be taking sides. “This man is therefore not fit for a Command position. He should be removed immediately by the Inspector General of Police. In light of the foregoing, we unequivocally affirm that it is not a coincidence that the brunt of these murderous attacks have been directed mainly at the ethnic nationalities and other well meaning citizens who are opposed to this diabolic agenda. “More importantly, we demand the immediate disarming of all Fulani herdsmen who are taking cover under the guise of grazing their cattle to kill, maim, plunder and economically incapacitate the communities. That, as a matter of urgency, government should immediately come to the aid of the victims of the Kodomun massacre through the provision of relief materials. Government should also rehabilitate and settle the affected community as houses and property have been destroyed and they could hardly afford to provide shelter for themselves.”

Hillary Clinton’s Emails Reveal Ties to Gilbert Chagoury

Newly released emails from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state have revealed that Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Mr. Gilbert Chagoury used his relationship with the Clinton Foundation set up by her husband former President Bill Clinton to seek for favours from the US State Department.

Chagoury is a close friend of the former US president and a top donor to the Clinton Foundation. He has appeared near the top of the Foundation’s donor list as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents. He also pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative.

According to a 2010 investigation by PBS Frontline, Chagoury was convicted in Switzerland in 2000 for laundering money from Nigeria, but agreed to a plea deal and repaid $66 million to the Nigerian government.

The revelation has raised questions about the nature of the State Department’s relationship with the Clinton Foundation, when she was secretary of state.

CNN reported yesterday that Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, released 296 pages of emails from the Democratic presidential nominee, including 44 that Judicial Watch says were not previously handed over to the State Department by Clinton.

The emails, many of which are heavily redacted, raise questions about the Clinton Foundation’s influence on the State Department and its relations during her tenure.

In one instance, top Clinton Foundation official Doug Band lobbied Clinton aides for a job for someone else in the State Department. In the email, Band tells Hillary Clinton’s former aides at the department — Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin — that it is “important to take care of (redacted).” Band is reassured by Abedin that “Personnel has been sending him options.”
The emails were obtained by the group through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the State Department in 2015.

The Trump campaign seized at the new batch of emails, citing them as evidence of Clinton being corrupt.

The prolonged investigations into her use of a private email server while at the State Department has fuelled public distrust of her and plagued her presidential bid.

But the Justice Department declined to press charges against Clinton for her handling of classified information related to the server earlier this year, with FBI Director James Comey saying while she was “extremely careless,” it was his judgment that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

In a 2009 email, Band directs Abedin and Mills to put Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor, in contact with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon.

“We need Gilbert Chagoury to speak to the substance person re Lebanon,” Band wrote. “As you know, he’s a key guy there and to us and is loved in Lebanon. Very imp.”

“It’s jeff feltman,” Abedin responded, referring to Jeffrey Feltman, who was the US ambassador to Lebanon at the time. “I’m sure he knows him. I’ll talk to jeff.”
Feltman told CNN yesterday that he never met with Chagoury.

“I have never met nor spoken with Mr Chagoury. I was not aware of the proposal that he speak to me until this email exchange was released, but in any case we never spoke,” he said.
Judicial Watch President Tom Filton said in a press release that Clinton “hid” the 44 emails on purpose.

“No wonder Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin hid emails from the American people, the courts and Congress,” he said in a press release. “They show the Clinton Foundation, Clinton donors, and operatives worked with Hillary Clinton in potential violation of the law.”

Clinton’s campaign said the emails didn’t relate to her work at the Clinton Foundation.
“Neither of these emails involve the secretary or relate to the Foundation’s work,” said an emailed statement from Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin. “They are communications between her aides and the President’s personal aide, and indeed the recommendation was for one of the Secretary’s former staffers who was not employed by the Foundation.”

The Clinton campaign said yesterday that Chagoury only wanted to offer insights on the then-upcoming Lebanese election and was not looking for any specific action from the State Department.
“The right-wing organization behind this lawsuit has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s and no matter how this group tries to mischaracterize these documents, the fact remains that Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of state because of donations to the Clinton Foundation,” Schwerin said in a statement.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump sought to use the emails to paint Clinton as corrupt.
The Clinton Foundation was not part of the recent investigation into her private server; it was separate. The FBI went to Justice Department earlier this year asking for it to open a case into the foundation, but the public integrity unit declined.

The Justice Department had looked into whether it should open a case on the foundation a year prior and found it didn’t have sufficient evidence to do so.

Yesterday, Judicial Watch released written testimony from Mills, in which she provides further detail on how Clinton’s private email server was set up to address potentially security concerns.
Mills told the attorneys she spoke with a Clinton IT staffer in 2013, after learning the email account of a close Clinton confidante, Sidney Blumenthal, had been compromised by a hacker.

“As I recall, these discussions involved whether this event might affect Secretary Clinton’s email,” Mills said in follow-up answers to an earlier deposition given to Judicial Watch.
Mills also said she recalls speaking to the same staffer — Bryan Pagliano — about the company overseeing the server set up.

“As I recall, these discussions involved whether Platte River Networks would have the technical capacity and be the appropriate source from which to gather Secretary Clinton’s email from the clintonemail.com system,” Mills said.

UK Launches 24-hour Visa Service in Nigeria

The UK has launched the Super Priority Visa Service in Nigeria to allow prospective visitors to Britain to process their applications within 24 hours.

The British High Commission, on its website, said the new service was targeted at meeting the needs of those who require urgent service to travel.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the High Commission quoted the British High Commissioner, Mr. Paul Arkwright, as welcoming the introduction of the Super Priority Visa service in Nigeria.

“I am pleased to see the Super Priority Visa service being launched in Nigeria.

“This comes with an additional cost but is designed to give greater flexibility to our customers and underlines our strong commitment to make improvements to the visa services we offer.

“We expect this new service to be particularly useful for business. We understand that business opportunities and urgent requirements can arise at very short notice.

“We recognise this and want to facilitate such travel to the UK with this new super-fast service,” Arkwright said.

The High Commission said the introduction of the service allowed customers greater flexibility to choose from a number of visa products to meet their needs.

“It is offered alongside our current Priority Visa (front of queue processing five to seven-day) and standard (15-day) services.

“The UK is the only European country to offer a visa decision in 24 hours.

“The Super Priority Visa service is aimed largely at key business customers and those needing to travel urgently by providing a visa decision for collection at the Visa Application Centre the working day following submission.”

It said the service costs 750 pounds sterling in addition to the visa fee and would be available to eligible customers applying in the Abuja and Lagos Visa Application Centres.

The High Commission said those applying in the “Visitors” or “Points Based System Tier 4” are eligible to use the Super Priority Service.

It said appointments are available from Mondays to Thursday from 8.30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and Fridays from 8.30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Abuja and Lagos centres only.

“Extending the Super Priority Visa service to Nigeria is another example of how the UK is leading the world in the provision of premium visa services for those coming to the UK to visit, do business or study.”