The Hood – Hearing from your neighborhood

PDP Has Not Conducted Any Congress in Ogun State – NWC

The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party during the weekend nullified a purported inauguration of Organs of the party in Ogun State as organised by an NGO with the name “Omoilu Foundation”.

The National Working Committee in the statement jointly signed by the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus and the National Secretary, Sen. Umaru Ibrahim Tsauri said:

“The attention of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been drawn to some media publication, especially, the online media concening a purported inauguration of certain unknown persons as State Officers of the Party in Ogun State on Friday, May 8, 2020

We want to advise members of the public, especially, the teeming members of our great

Party in Nigeria and Ogun State in particular, that the Peoples Democratic Party has not

conducted any congress for the election of the Party officers at any level of the Party:

Ward, LGA Chapter and or State, in Ogun State”

The NWC also said the decision in order to allow rule of law, “this is in obedience to the interim order made by His Lordship, Hon. Justice Inyang Ekwo, in Suit No. FCT/AB/ CS/208/2020 on March 4, 2020 directing the maintenance of the status quo until the hearing of the motion on notice which is still pending on account of the disruption caused by COVID-19”

The outgoing PDP Chairman, Engr Adebayo Dayo also affirmed the position of the National Working Committee, according to him “the said Congress is nothing but a sham and scam, where was the Congress held? A normal State Congress should have nothing less than one thousand delegates, that is one thousand people must converge in order to have a state Congress – the lockdown and restriction of gathering of over twenty people is also in place”.

Engr. Bayo Dayo also concluded by saying the fake Congress can not hold water.

PDP National Working Committee disowns Kashamu and associates over Congress

The National Working Committee of People’s Democratic Party has been disassociated from the Congress/inauguration of Ogun State PDP State Excos.

The disclaimer was done through a press release duly signed by the National Chairman of the Party Prince Uche Seconds and the National Secretary Sen. Umar Ibrahim Tsauri, the press release read thus:

“The attention of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic

Party (PDP) has been drawn to some media publication, especially, the online media

concening a purported inauguration of certain unknown persons as State Officers of

the Party in Ogun State on Friday, May 8, 2020

We want to advise members of the public, especially, the teeming members of our great

Party in Nigeria and Ogun State in particular, that the Peoples Democratic Party has not

conducted any congress for the election of the Party officers at any level of the Party:

Ward, LGA Chapter and or State, in Ogun State.

This is in obedience to the interim order made by His Lordship, Hon. Justice Inyang

Ekwo, in Suit No. FCT/AB/ CS/208/2020 on March 4, 2020 directing the maintenance

of the status quo until the hearing of the motion on notice which is still pending on

account of the disruption caused by COVID-19.

The NWC states for the benefit of emphasis that:

1. There is only one PDP, as a political Party in Nigeria whose National

Headquarters is at Wadata Plaza, Plot 1970 Michael Okpara Street, Wuse

Zone 5, Abuja.

It is the sole responsibility of NEC/NWC of the Party to conduct congresses

for the elections of party leaders at all levels of the Party; and

2. No State organ or individual has such power except as may be expressly

donated by the NEC/NWC and same has not been exercised with regards

to Ogun State.

We therefore advise all members of the public and appropriate institutions especially the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ignore any purported elections and or inauguration of any officer of the Party at any level in Ogun State as same is unconstitutional, null and void.”

Sir Cameron Mackintosh: ‘Theatres could be closed until next year

Theatre producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh has said that West End and Broadway theatres are unlikely to be able to stage musicals until early next year.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2, Sir Cameron said it’s impossible for theatres to plan for the future while social distancing is in place.

“We want the audience to feel safe, and we want the actors to feel safe.”

Theatres in many countries have been closed indefinitely in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the UK, all West End performances have been cancelled until at least 31 May.

Sir Cameron is a lauded theatre owner and theatrical producer, who has staged musicals including Cats, Les Miserables and the Phantom of the Opera.

His comments follow calls from other theatre professionals for urgent government bailouts, in order to save the industry from collapse.

What did Sir Cameron say?

Sir Cameron told Michael Ball it looked as if the West End and Broadway “are going to be the last to go back”.

“For major producers both sides of the Atlantic, the truth is until social distancing doesn’t exist anymore, we can’t even plan to reopen,” he said.

“We will be back, but we need time to get back. If we don’t hear [about lockdowns lifting] in a few weeks, I think the truth is we won’t be able to come back until early next year. I think that’s quite clear.

“And the longer it is until we can say social distancing is gone, the longer it’ll be for the theatre to come back.”

Last month, playwright James Graham said an “aggressive government bailout” would be needed to save UK theatres from the impact of the pandemic.

In several months’ time, “all of the reserves will have dried up and there will be no money left”, Graham warned.

“I don’t even know if there will be a theatre or film industry that we can recognise when this is all over.”

Federal Medical Centre Abeokuta Records Cases of CoronaVirus

Authorities of the Federal Medical Centre Idi-Aba, Abeokuta have confirmed the record of two Coronavirus cases in the Centre.

Three suspected cases were managed at the Accident and Emergency Complex of the Centre within last week. However, two of the patients tested positive while one was negative.

One of the patients who tested positive was a pregnant woman who passed on on Friday. Her result returned positive on Saturday. Her corpse was released to her husband after careful counseling and due adherence to the World Health Organization ( WHO) guidelines on such a matter.

The second patient is a young man who has been transferred to an isolation centre in the state. He is clinically stable.

Both patients were managed in the Accident and Emergency Complex. They were suspected cases right from onset and hence were isolated from other patients and staff throughout their stay in the unit.

Similarly, the staff that attended to them observed the prescribed standard protocols and procedures.

The standard practice of contact tracing, decontamination amongst others have commenced.

To this end, the Accident and Emergency Complex where the patients were admitted has been temporarily shut down to allow for a thorough on-going decontamination exercise while patients have been properly re-located .

Similarly, the Hospital ambulances, Ambulance bay are being decontaminated.

It should be stated that the hospital embarked on a comprehensive fumigation of all buildings in the Centre a month ago. The exercise is still on-going.

In addition, the Management has put in place additional measures which includes the following:

¶ All persons entering into the hospital premises are required to observe hand-washing protocol or use hand sanitizer at the entrance gates.

¶ All persons within the hospital premises are required to wear face masks.

¶ Henceforth, patients’ relatives in the vicinity of the wards must hold valid visitors’ cards.

¶ All members of staff MUST wear face masks while attending to patients.

The Medical Director, Prof Adewale Musa-Olomu, has allayed the fears of the staff, patients, their relatives and the general public stressing that there was nothing to be afraid of, assuring that the Management was on top of the situation.

“ As a responsible health institution, we have initiated some anti panic measures to put the mind of all our people at rest that there was nothing to be afraid of after all.

“As of now, the hospital does not have any coronavirus patient.* We will ensure a total adherence to all the measures earlier mentioned in this statement.”

Farouk Adeniyi Akintunde Supports Party Leaders With Ramadan Packages

The leading chairmanship aspirant for Abeokuta South Local Government, Hon. Farouk Adeniyi Akintunde on Friday gave out Ramadan packages to the leaders and party faithful of All Progressive Congress ,APC, in the local government area of Ogun state.

While presenting the packages to the leaders in Abeokuta Farouq said it became necessary for him to support the party faithful during Ramadan period.

He submitted that the leaders have been doing great in the state, saying that doing the gesture is a way to appreciate them.

The leading chairmanship aspirant urged the leaders to continue to support Abiodun’s government, adding that the governor is a blessed man.

He also called on the people of the state to obey the directives of governor Abiodun during this trying period.

Kaduna Records Fresh Case of Covid-19

A fresh case of Covid-19 has been recorded in Kaduna, raising the number of active cases in the state to four.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Baloni, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday in Kaduna.

She said the new patient had contact with the three patients who tested positive earlier in the week.

The commissioner said: ‘’Contact tracing is ongoing to identify persons the new case had interacted with so that they can be monitored and tested if they meet the case definition.’’

She said medical professionals were attending to the four active cases in the state who are receiving treatment at the Infectious Diseases Centre (IDC).

Baloni said: “Medical professionals in the Ministry of Health have already successfully managed the first six Covid-19 cases in the state to full recovery and discharge.

‘’The index case, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, was discharged on April, 22, 2020, after two consecutive negative test results. Five cases were earlier discharged in the one week, starting from 14 April 2020.’

The commissioner said testing capacity in the state is improving, adding that Kaduna State has ‘’one lab that has been accredited by NCDC to conduct Covid-19 tests”.

She said the two labs located in Kaduna and Zaria were undergoing NCDC verification and are expected to secure test accreditation shortly.

She disclosed that as at Friday, 24 April, 2020, the state had tested 133 persons, out of which 10 tested positive.

The statement reiterated the need for people to always wash their hands and imbibe the culture of personal hygiene, social distancing and the avoidance of large gatherings so as to stop the spread of Covid-19.

NCDC confirms 114 new cases of COVID-19, Lagos leads with 80 cases as death toll hits 32

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 114 new cases of COVID-19, bringing to 1,095, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.

It said that 80 of the new confirmed cases were reported in Lagos, 21 in Gombe, 5 in FCT, 2 in Zamfara, 2 in Edo, 1 in Ogun, 1 in Oyo, 1 in Kaduna and 1 in Sokoto.

NCDC said in a tweet on Friday that as of 11:30 pm 24th April, there were 1095 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Nigeria.And 208 patients have been discharged while 32 patients have died of the disease.

Breakdown of cases by states indicated that Lagos has 657, FCT-138, Kano-73, Ogun-35, Gombe-30, Katsina-21, Osun-20, Edo-19, Oyo-18, Borno-12, Kwara-11, Akwa Ibom-11, Kaduna-10, Bauchi-8, Delta-6, Ekiti-4, Ondo-3, Rivers-3, Jigawa-2, Enugu-2, Niger-2, Abia-2, Zamfara-2, Sokoto-2, Benue-1, Anambra-1, Adamawa-1 and Plateau-1.

IBEDC worker attacked while distributing bills in Ogun

A staff of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company IBEDC, Ayorinde Olajide, was attacked by aggrieved residents of Isale Igbeyin/Grammar school areas of Abeokuta in Ogun state on Thursday April 24th.

Ayorinde while narrating his ordeal, said he was out distributing bills to the residents who were at home due to the lockdown when he was attacked. Advertisement “I was busy distributing electricity bills to houses around Isale -Igbehin and Grammar School area of Abeokuta and I was attacked by a group of people asking me to stop the unnecessary distribution of bills. Before I could even explain to them, they started throwing stones at me which affected my left eye.

I was badly beaten without pity for discharging my duty, even when my boss arrived at the scene to rescue me into her vehicle, a guy came and hit me on my my left eye. I was later rescued by my boss who reported the attack at the Ibara Police Station after which i was taken to a nearby Hospital for medical attention.” he said

COVID-19: Ogun Protective Glass Box Now IN Use For Sample Collection

The protective glass box recently unveiled by the Ogun State Government is now in use by health workers in the State to collect samples for forward testing at the Ogun State Walk-in & Drive-through Testing Centre at the Ijamido Town Hall, Opposite Ansar-u-Deen Comprehensive College in Ota.

This was disclosed during an inspection visit by the Deputy Governor, Engr Noimot Salako-Oyedele and the Hon. Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker who assessed the high-end method used by the health experts.

According to analysis earlier given by the State Ministry of Health, the protective glass box, which is the first in Nigeria, has the advantage of being reliable against infection unlike disposable personal protective equipment (PPEs) with boots, which at the point of removal may put the geared worker at risk.

To ensure its reliability against the risk of infection for collection officers, the built-in hand gloves are disinfected by standby trained hygienists after each sample is collected.

The testing centre has welcomed a number of suspected patients, most of whom presented themselves on reasonable grounds.

Their samples are immediately transferred for testing, with results getting ready within a shorter time than it used to take before this laudable innovation.

Ogun begins distribution of 80,000 relief materials Saturday

Ogun State Government has announced that the second phase of distributing 80,000 relief materials to residents in the state will begin on Saturday.

The State Deputy Governor, Naimot Salako-Oyedele disclosed this on Wednesday during a strategic meeting with all the twenty Local Government Transition Committee Chairmen in her office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The Deputy Governor urged the local government chairmen to ensure the second batch of distributing relief materials is targeted at the vulnerable and the poors in the State.

Explaining how the stimulus package would be distributed, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Shuaib Salisu, disclosed that 80,000 relief materials were ready for distribution in the second phase.

He noted that, the palliative materials would be distributed according to the size of the ward.

Salisu claimed that the aim of the state government was to ensure fair distribution in the second phase.

He also disclosed that, the state would soon commence distribution of face masks across the State.

The Chief of Staff said, wearing of face masks would be made compulsory in public places after the distribution of face masks.