Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh dies from Ebola virus

Just confirmed from a family source. Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, the Senior Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist who was one of the doctors who attended to Patrick Sawyer at First Consultant Hospital has died from the Ebola virus which she contracted from Sawyer.

Dr. Ameyo died this afternoon Tuesday August 19th at the isolation unit of the Mainland Hospital in Lagos where she'd been quarantined. She died a hero because she was the doctor who refused to let Patrick Sawyer, the man who brought the Ebola virus to Nigeria, leave the First Consultant Hospital in Obalende, Lagos, when he attempted to leave. She saved many lives by doing this. Her death is so heartbreaking. 

She's survived by a son and her husband. May her beautiful soul rest in peace...Amen.

WTF, is Lady Gaga going nut???

Breaking: Jackie Chan’s son Jaycee arrested for drugs.

The son of Hollywood actor Jackie Chan has been arrested on drug-related charges, Chinese state media say.

Actor Jaycee Chan, 31, and Taiwanese movie star Kai Ko, 23, were detained last Thursday, Beijing police said in a statement on their official microblog.

Police said both men tested positive for marijuana, with more than 100 grams of the drug found at Mr Chan’s home.

Their arrest comes amid an ongoing crackdown on drugs which has already netted several celebrity figures.

In June Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “forceful measures” to tackle illegal drug use.

Gao Hu, 40, who appeared in the 2011 Zhang Yimou film “The Flowers of War”, was detained earlier this month for possession of marijuana and methamphetamines, state media said.

Beijing Municipal Anti-Drug Office deputy director Jin Zhihai said that police were not specifically targeting celebrities.

“If there is an increased crackdown on drugs, the number of celebrity offenders will also rise,” he told the Beijing Times on 14 August.

Last week, 42 artist management agencies in Beijing signed an agreement with police pledging not to recruit celebrities with reported drug use problems.

Students on FG scholarship begging for food in Russia

Failure by the Federal Government to pay allowances of 322 Nigerian students on scholarship in Russia forces them into begging and illegal jobs, TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI reports

When Moyosore Ojuri lost her father at age 11, her world practically came crashing. Her father had promised to give her the best of education. Although he was not a millionaire, the man had struggled to enrol her in one of the top private secondary schools in Lagos. But with the death, her mother, a retired civil servant, could not pay her tuition when due. Luckily, the authorities of her school recognised the young lady’s academic exploits and gave her family the concession to pay her tuition in installments. Even with that, her mother had difficulty doing so as she occasionally ran into debts. However, on completion of her secondary education in 2010, Ojuri passed the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, obtaining six distinctions and two credits. But accessing university education did not come that easy, due to lack of funds. Fortunately for her, in 2012 she came across the Bilateral Education Agreement Scholarship Awards advertised by the Federal Scholarship Board through the Federal Ministry of Education and grabbed the opportunity. Ojuri passed the series of tests and interviews and was given admission to study Metallurgical Engineering at the Volgograd State Technical University, Russia. On touching down at the Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow, Russia on September 22, 2012, Ojuri concluded that her pains and frustration had come to an end. Nigeria has BEA for undergraduate and post-graduate studies with Russia, Cuba, Morocco, Algeria, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Japan, Serbia, Macedonia, China, and Mexico. Under the arrangement, the Federal Government pays for the upkeep of the students, while the countries where the scholarship award is tenable provides the tuition. Two years after, Ojuri has a different story to share. Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone from Volgograd, she says that the Federal Government has since abandoned the BEA scholars to starve to death. According to her, for eight months running now, the over 322 promising Nigerian students on the BEA initiative in the former Soviet Union have not been paid a dime by the government. Each of the beneficiaries’ monthly stipends for feeding is $500, while their annual allowance for medicals and clothing is $450 each. But from January till date, none of these allowances have been paid by the Nigerian government, despite repeated appeals and other forms of representations to the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow and the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja. Following the non-remittance of funds, Ojuri and her Nigerian colleagues, of late, have no choice but to borrow money as a survival strategy from their fellow African students enjoying similar BEA. The 20-year-old asks rhetorically, “We are not private students. We came to Russia on the bill of the Federal Government. Why haven’t the authorities paid our stipends and other allowances for eight months now? For how long shall we continue to borrow money?” The youngster, who says she has a huge debt on her neck at present, notes that their colleagues from other countries are no longer comfortable lending them money. She adds, “On many occasions, I have had cause to go to class on an empty stomach. Getting money for transportation from my hostel to school has become very problematic. More worrisome is the fact that I will soon be homeless as my hostel fees will expire at the end of August. We are grateful to the Federal Government for the scholarship opportunity, but there is no sense in leaving us here to starve to death in a foreign land.” Findings by our correspondent reveal that the inability to get work permit by foreign students in Russia is further compounding their problems. So, how do they survive the starvation and hard times in the Eurasian country? Another Nigerian, Akinola Akindamola, pursuing his Master’s degree at the Volgograd State Technical University, explains that they engage in all kinds of oddities to survive. According to him, the pressure is even more on his female colleagues. Akindamola, a first class Mechanical Engineering graduate, says, “It is unfortunate that girls with exceptional academic brilliance are now forced to indulge in all manner of indecent lifestyles. These girls now go to clubs and dance semi nude for a fee that could be as low as $20. For the boys, employers use us for odd jobs, such as clearing of snow and as labourers on construction sites. Even as we do that, there is this perpetual fear that the police will arrest us.” A final year Medicine and Surgery student of the Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, David Ikenna, also admits that the failure of the Federal Government to remit their allowances exposes them to risks in the country. Ikenna states, “We have been finding a way to survive by circumventing the laws, but it is at great risk to our personal safety and academic pursuits in Russia. Our situation is frustrating. My brother, we are suffering. How I wish I could bring you here to see how miserable our conditions are. The Nigerian government has failed us miserably. “Even with the illegal jobs we do, we still find it hard to make ends meet. It is shameful that we have got no alternatives but to beg for food and money from Ghanaians, Namibians, Ugandans and Sierra Leoneans who are on the same bilateral educational scholarships like us.” Besides welfare, some of the students who are to return to Nigeria for their mandatory internship programmes are also stuck in Russia, due to lack of funds. Julfa Timkuk, a student of International Law at the Southern Western University, Rostov, Russia, wonders if they were indeed on a scholarship. The 25-year-old, who hails from the Langtang North Local Government Area of Plateau State, says he now lives on cheap white bread. “My colleagues and I are tired of clearing snow, working at warehouses or helping to lift heavy equipment at night. Our suffering is no longer bearable. Please do us a favour and beg them to free us from this slavery in a foreign land,” he appeals. But appraising the situation, a Professor of Microbiology, University of Ilorin, Poju Akinyanju, chides the Federal Government for sending the students overseas on scholarship without making proper funding arrangement for them. The experience, he says, is not only traumatising to the scholars but also a dent on Nigeria’s image. He states, “It is unfortunate that they do not care about these youngsters. Are you telling me that the authorities cannot pay for the students’ stipends? There must have been some budgetary provisions for them. How can these traumatised students be loyal and patriotic to their fatherland when they eventually return home?” Also, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, Prof. Alani Ramoni, describes the condition of the students as unfortunate. According to him, even under the military regime he enjoyed his scholarship offer without any hindrance. When contacted, the Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Olu Lipede, confirmed that there were challenges remitting the money to the students. He nonetheless blamed their travails on the “budgeting process” and problems associated with “banking transfers.” Prodded to be specific on when the students will be paid, Lipede states, “That I cannot say because I am not the Central Bank of Nigeria. There are processes between the Federal Ministry of Education and the CBN as well as between the CBN and Nigeria’s foreign missions.” Lipede adds, “We do care about their welfare. Last year (2013), we went to visit them in Russia and we inspected where they sleep and we made known to the Russian Government those things we were not satisfied with. These students have been told that their money will be remitted to them. If there is any delay it should not be blamed on the ministry.” But a source familiar with the administration of the scholarship scheme says the matter is beyond the Federal Ministry of Education. According to the source, the students have yet to get their allowance because there has not been a release for their payments. The source adds, “It is beyond us in the Ministry of Education. Their money is in capital allocation. How do we go ahead and circumvent the rules? Their stipends should be extricated from the regular budget. Unless this is done, they would continue to experience this problem every year.”

SOURCE: PUNCH 

FACE OF THE ROBBERS WHO RAPED THE NURSING MOTHER!

Two of the eight robbers who accosted a couple and their three months old baby on their way to their village in Kogi have been arrested and will soon be prosecuted. The robbers were eight in number and after robbing them of their cash and valuables at gunpoint; they tied the husband to a tree and r*ped his wife until she fainted in his presence.

The eight of them took turns in r*ping her until she fainted before escaping with their car and valuables. As God will have it; two of the robbers were later apprehended while trying to escape from the scene of the crime. Here’s how The Sun puts it;

Tears flowed freely as people beheld the pathetic sight of a middle-aged nursing mother whose three-month old baby was thrown into the bush while an eight-man gang of devilish souls r*ped her to a point of uncon­sciousness right in the presence of her husband.

The woman (names with held) who had bruises all over her body especially in the waist region could barely stand unaided when she was sighted at the headquarters of the Kogi State Police Command.

Sunday Sun gathered that the suspects waylaid the couple on their way to the village, and dispossessed the husband and wife of their cash and valuables at gunpoint. Then they took them in the family car to a near­by bush where they tied the husband and raped the wife who was at that time breast feeding her three-month-old baby.

It was learnt that one of the armed robbers on getting to the bush slapped the wife and forcibly took the baby away from her hands and threw the baby aside. He pointed a gun to her head and ordered her to undress.

For more than two hours, the eight robbers, one after the other, there­after engaged the poor woman in a marathon s*x while the husband watched helplessly and the hapless innocent baby cried profusely.

Parading the suspects before newsmen, the Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr Abiodun Odude said the family was travelling from Ogugu in Olamaboro Local Government Area, Kogi State to Iga-Ikeje when the robbers accosted them.

Odude said the victim (names withheld) a native of Ogugu reported at the Olamaboro Police Division and stated that he was travelling in his Toyota Corolla car with his wife and baby when suddenly some eight armed robbers accosted them, dis­possessing them of their car, N6600 cash and mobile phone sets.

The alleged robbers then bundled them into the vehicle and drove them inside the bush about two kilometres from the road, where the man was tied to a tree prior to r*ping the wife. Giving further explanation of what transpired, he said the wife who was oblivious of their plan as she was crying and begging them not to kill her husband. This prompt­ed one of the robbers to give her a vicious slap, took the baby away and ordered her to undress, while point­ing a gun to her head.

He said the woman fainted after the ordeal.

Done with their evil business, they sons-of-the devil tied up the woman’s legs and drove away in the car.

After about 40 minutes, the woman regained consciousness, struggled to free herself and walked to a nearby village, where she informed a group of vigilantes, who later rescued the husband.

On receiving the report, a police patrol team led by Mr. Mbang Eteng, an Assistant Superintendent of Police tracked down and arrested two of the robbers, whose names were given as Vincent Oguche from an uncompleted building, and Femi Simon, who attempted to run away, but was overpowered by policemen and both of them taken into custody.

The police said the two suspects in the course of interrogation con­fessed to the crime and thereafter led the detectives to their hideout, where the stolen car, assorted guns and handsets were recovered. The names of two other members of the gang were given as Friday Oguche and Joe Agbo. The police are still on the trail of the remaining four mem­bers who are still at large.

Vincent Oguche while acknowl­edging that he and the others actually committed the heinous crime, explained why they r*ped the woman despite that she was nursing a baby, saying: “We were not in our right sense because we were very high on drugs.”

Femi Simon who claimed to be a native of Iyah Gbede in Ijumu Local Government Area of the state said he was an unemployed driver who was conscripted into the deal. He said he could not control his libido when he saw his comrades-in-crime ‘enjoying themselves’ so he had to join them to have a taste of the woman.

The police rebuffed the request to speak with the woman, firmly saying she should be left alone on account of the horrendous ordeal she experienced.

Fashola addresses reports of Ebola patients being unfairly treated

Dear Lagosians,

As you must now be aware, we are facing perhaps our biggest challenge to public health and the safety of human lives at this moment with the discovery of the Ebola virus in our state.

This poses a threat to the primary purpose of our Government whi...ch is to save lives.

This address has become necessary to respond to a series of text messages, e-mails and telephone calls that I have received in order to reiterate some of what you may already know, to share information about what you may not know, and to keep everybody safe.

This has become the moreso in the light of allegations that are making the rounds, either that victims are being neglected, orthat a useful drug or vaccine is being rejected or that there is a shortage of funds.

I wish to state very categorically that none of these is true.

What is true is that we should perhaps never have been in this situation, but we are now in it.

What is true is that the Ebola virus did not break outfrom within Nigeria, it was imported into Nigeria.

What is true is that we have followed all the contacts that we know who have had primary and secondary contacts with the patient who imported the virus into our state, or with people who had contact with him.

Because we had to react to an unexpected situation, we had to react in a proper and methodical way, according to acceptable global health standards.

I can now tell you that in the last one week, with the help and advice of our technical partners, such as the World Health Organisation, the Centre for Disease Control and the Medecins Sans Frontiers, who have tracked this virus and studied it for decades, our response is a lot better than when the news first broke; and our capacity is increasing daily.

Although we have suffered very painful losses of lives, I think it is fair to say that we are not yet at an epidemic stage and we are determined to do everything not to get to that stage; because of the grave consequences to the safety of human lives.

We have provided information to the public on all state-owned media, while the private media have commendably joined in this effort. There is also information available on the social media platform.

Since Monday last week, precisely on the 11th of August, I commenced meetings on an almost daily basis with stakeholders in our society, religious leaders, traditional rulers, market men and women, community development associations, to brief them of the risk, to re-assure them that we are daily gaining control, to advise them and all of you to be cautious but not to panic.

My view of the fact that we are gaining control, is informed by verifiable facts that I receive daily from our health workers that all the cases of those who have either unfortunately died, or those who are sick, and those who are contacts under surveillance are directly traceable to the imported case.

There is also now the news that a confirmed victim has fully recovered, which reinforces the advice from our experts that it is not an automatic death sentence.

This is encouraging news from which our containment strategy can profit greatly; because it means that we do not have any case of unknown origin, which will raise the risk of an epidemic.

Dear Lagosians, the challenge of managing the Ebola virus is big but our resolve to contain and defeat it is bigger.

That resolve is demonstrated by the courage shown by the first set of health workers at state and federal levels who stood up to be counted, and the leadership of the state and federal Ministries of Health with the support of our international partners.

In spite of fear, they stood up to be counted at a time of grave danger.

We should salute their courage, professionalism, patriotism and humanitarian disposition.

They are the heroes and heroines that we have looked for for a long time. I cannot thank them enough.

While we are doing everything to assure their safety and to give them confidence to proceed; I want to passionately appeal that we must not do anything to distract them or demotivate them.

What they need now is our encouragement and support to gain even stronger control of the situation.

What they do not need are rumours and the distractions that they can bring with them.

I appreciate the concerns and anxiety that friends and relatives of sick victims must be going through. I assure you that our thoughts and prayers are with you.

I understand that you expect special care for your loved ones, and this is to be expected.

I assure you that they are receiving the best care that the experts have recommended to us, given the circumstances; because they say that this is the best way to proceed especially because experienced personnel in Ebola containment and management have always been a challenge.

What will be helpful to the situation now is additional medical personnel, who are willing to volunteer to join hands with those on the frontline.

But the experts also caution that those who sign up cannot immediately start to participate in the isolation ward, where sick people are being treated, no matter how qualified and experienced they are.

They must undergo a few days of training by our international body of advisers and understand the protocol for operation in the isolation ward for their own safety, and the sustenance of the containment plan to stop the virus from spreading.

To those who are seeking to do brisk business from this situation, I offer a word of caution and re-assessment. This is not our way.

I must also say to those who are seeking to raise funds that we appreciate your concerns but we are not yet at a fund raising stage and I cannot foresee that eventuality.

For now, the state has enough resources to fund everything that is needed. This is what your taxes can do in emergencies. Our House of Assembly has thankfully approved a request for any needed expenditure.

The President, Dr.GoodluckEbele Jonathan and the Honourable Minister for Health have shown the appropriate level of concern about the national and global risks that this poses and I am sure they will provide funds should we be unable to do so, if we ask for it.

The combined team of State and Federal personnel, our international partners, are daily sharing information with the public and the Federal Government about the status of the patients and contacts in a transparent way, and we should all please listen to them. They are the ones who have the facts.

What all of us must do is to follow all their advice, especially about reporting any suspected cases and about increasing our personal hygiene by constant washing of our hands with soap and water.

We should stop unhygienic practices of urinating in public and defaecating in public because those are body fluids and waste through which the virus is known to thrive.

This new week, starting from today and the next one, will bethe sharpest part of the curve that we expect to negotiate.

Last week we cleared a total of61 (SIXTY ONE) contactsafter the 21 days surveillance which is the known lifespan of the virus.

These people were not sick. They were persons who needed to be monitored because of real or suspected contacts to be certain that they did not eventually fall sick.

We cautiously wait to see how many more people will be cleared and hope that there will be no new cases.

Nevertheless, our strategy is to prepare for the worst by making plans to expand the facility to take any new cases, while we hope for the best.

There is a lot to do, and we need your collaboration to remain focused on containment and treatment.

Finally, I will like to say that this is the first time that the virus has infected people in an urban centre. It is a steep learning curve for everybody but it presents a huge opportunity for us as a people to show the world how to overcome it.

With your support and understanding, we will do no less, because we intend to overcome and defeat this threat.

BabatundeRajiFashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State

Photo: police arrest Boko Haram suspect at NAMA office In Lagos

A suspected Boko Haram member was arrested this afternoon by policemen after he allegedly attempted to bomb the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority, NAMA, office in Lagos. Some explosive materials were found with him.

Jim Iyke set to launch his own brand of bottled water