Entertainment : Baba Ijesha Maximum sentence must be passed on actor – FG

 

The case of Baba Ijesha defiling a teenager has gotten the attention of Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

In the past few days, heated arguments have ensued between entertainers in Nigeria as they expressed divergent views on the matter.

While some appeared sympathetic to Baba Ijesha’s plight, others are drumming support in the fight for justice for the defiled minor.

Dabiri-Erewa in a thread on Twitter described the act by Baba Ijesha as despicable.

She demanded support for the victim’s foster mother, Princess, noting that his plea should not be accepted and that maximum sentence must be passed on him.

Her tweet read: “ So despicable! The act by Yoruba actor, Baba Ijesha who defied a girl, at 7 and later at 14 years!! Who knows how many the paedophile could have damaged if he was not caught. I sponsored the violence against person’s law. The penalty is nothing less than 14 years in prison.

“His plea bargain on some video I watched should not be acceptable. We should all do all we can to support the girl’s foster mother, Princess, to ensure this case goes to court, fully tried and maximum sentence passed on him.”

Meanwhile, the Lagos Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, on Thursday, while giving update on the matter said the allegation against Baba Ijesha was on sexual and indecent assault which is bailable, and not defilement.

He debunked news that Baba Ijesha would be released soon, adding that he was still being held at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, pending legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

 

BIAFRA NEWS : IPOB alleges secret killing of Biafrans in Akwa Ibom, Benue

 

The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the military and security operatives of allegedly killing innocent Biafrans in Essien Udim Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom and some parts of Benue states.

It said the army had claimed their victims were the phenomenal unknown gunmen behind the spate of attacks against security formations in the region.

 

In a statement from the Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB said the action had exposed the military’s hypocrisy and their backers within the Foreign and Commonwealth office in London.

 

The statement partly reads: “We, the Indigenous People of Biafra of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to bring to the attention of the world how Nigeria government and her security operatives are massacring innocent Biafrans in Essien Udim Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State.

 

“In February, it was Orlu in Imo State where civilians were massacred using the same aircrafts supplied by western allies to aid the fight against Boko Haram and other forms of Fulani terrorism.

“Now it’s Essien Udim in Akwa Ibom. But an Islamic cleric has been dinning and wining with terrorists, taking pictures with them, yet the double-faced military cannot use the same aircraft to trace and bomb the location of these Fulani murderers.”

BIAFRA NEWS : IPOB Renames Imo Government House, Others After Late ESN Commander, Demands Official Compliance

 

While Nigeria’s security agencies claimed Ikonso was killed in a gun battle at ESN camp, the IPOB said he was murdered in his father’s camp while sleeping.  

The Indigenous People of Biafra has demanded that the Imo State Government House should be named after the Eastern Security Network commander, Ikonso killed by the security operatives on Saturday.

The group stated further that Douglas Road and Awomamma Junction where the joint operation that brought an end to his life happened should be named after him.

 

Ikonso and other six members of the ESN were killed by the operatives of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police and the State Security Service on Saturday, though there have been conflicting accounts of how he was killed. 

While Nigeria’s security agencies claimed Ikonso was killed in a gun battle at ESN camp, the IPOB said he was murdered in his father’s camp while sleeping.

The IPOB, through a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful on Wednesday said Ikonso must be immortalised for his bravery in defending the people of Imo state against the terror of killer Fulani herdsmen.

In the statement entitled, ‘Imo Government House, Douglas Road Owerri Named After Ikonso The Brave ESN Commander Murdered By Nigeria Security Agents – IPOB,’ the group said all governmental institutions in the state must comply to re-christen such places after its fallen commander.

“We the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Biafrans worldwide ably led by our great and indomitable leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to announce to the world, our unanimous decision to rename the Imo State Government House, Douglas Road Owerri, and Awomamma Junction after the late heroic Commander of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), Ikonso, murdered in cold blood by cowardly Nigeria security operatives.

“The affected places will henceforth be called Ikonso Government House, Ikonso Way and Ikonso Junction respectively. This is with immediate effect and compliance is required of all ministries and parastatals beginning from today, the 28th day of April 2021.

“This decision is one of the ways IPOB members and Biafrans all over the world have agreed to immortalise the name of our brave Ikonso and his men killed by callous cowardly Nigeria security agents that flee from terrorists and bandits but derive pleasure in killing unarmed Biafra agitators.

“Ikonso and other fallen heroes with him did nothing to warrant their summary extrajudicial execution. They made the supreme sacrifice in defence of our ancestral land against Fulani terrorists, jihadists and killer herdsmen. Biafra shall never forget them.

“We, therefore, expect maximum cooperation from relevant government agencies, officials and the Imo State House of Assembly because we don't know who this Douglas is (such) that a road in Owerri was named (after him) but we know who Ikonso was. He defended Imo State with his life, for without him, most Imo indigenes would be in Internally Displaced Persons' camps by now courtesy of Fulani terrorists,” the statement read.

Covid-19 : India’s worsening Covid crisis is a dire problem for the world

 

The catastrophe unfolding in India appears to be the worst-case scenario that many feared from the Covid-19 pandemic: unable to find sufficient hospital beds, access to tests, medicines or oxygen, the country of 1.4 billion is sinking beneath the weight of infections.

The two opposed assumptions of the global response to coronavirus – wealthy countries in the west prioritising vaccines for their own need in one camp, and the argument led by the World Health Organization for global vaccine equality in the other – are also failing to hold as the scale of the crisis in India points to an urgent need to prioritise the response there.

With the global supply of vaccines unlikely to pick up until the end of this year, what is required now is international leadership and a recognition that, despite the best intentions of the World Health Organization and the vaccine-sharing Covax initiative to fairly distribute jabs, the pandemic may require a period of more focused firefighting where difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions need to be made.

That will require countries to look beyond their own health crises to see that the pandemic could still get much worse without intervention. Experts have repeatedly warned that allowing the virus to circulate unchecked increases the risk that dangerous new strains will emerge and prolong the pandemic.

Models already exist for what could be done, including George W Bush’s initiative to fight Aids in Africa under the president’s Emergency plan for Aids relief and the 2014 global response to Ebola in West Africa, which was seen as an international priority.

The reality is that the magical thinking displayed by the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s government – which claimed the pandemic was in its “endgame” in March as the country careened towards a second wave of infections – was not much different from the mistakes of other leaders, including the former US president Donald Trump, who thought the virus would simply disappear, or the mistaken boosterism of the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson.

What is different in India – a country with a fragile health system and even weaker surveillance – is the huge possibility for harm locally and globally, perhaps on a scale not yet seen in the pandemic.

 

BIAFRA : Killing of ESN commander, Ikonso Don disastrous – Ohanaeze

 

 

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has described the killing of a top commander of the Eastern Security Network, ESN, Ikonso Don as a disaster.

 reports that this was contained in a statement by the Secretary-General of the organization, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro.

He said the killing had made Ikonso a martyr and further worsened the tensed security situation in the Southeast zone.

Isiguzoro while questioning the circumstances surrounding the killing of the IPOB member, declared that “we have taken time to study the entire situation before issuing this statement and we feel that many questions are left unanswered.

“There are strong counter claims that Ikonso was not killed during a gun duel contrary to the statement by security agencies. And our question is: why kill a man you have taken captive? Why did they not arrest and prosecute him in a court of competent jurisdiction?

“So, we are questioning the circumstances surrounding his death. Ikonso should not have been killed. His death has huge consequences because he has been made martyr, a hero, you can even see that the IPOB said they have renamed the Imo Government House after him.

“The escalation of violence we are witnessing in the Southeast now won’t be happening if they didn’t kill him. Southeast is now at the mercy of herdsmen and unknown gunmen.”

 

He accused federal government forces of trying to recycle violence in the Southeast, wondering why the zone should be so militarized whereas people still moved freely in the Northeast.

“Military action is not the solution, they should withdraw troops from the roads. What the Federal government must do at the moment is to give the Southeast governors all the support they need. We are not seeing it at the moment, federal forces are rather making things difficult for them. The governors should take the lead with the Federal government supporting them.

“The Federal Government must also end all forms of marginalization of the Southeast, that’s why the youths are very angry. We have started the process of restoring peace, we are talking with all stakeholders, every party, but the Federal Government should stop aggravating matters.”

 

He equally berated “Abuja politicians” from the zone, accusing them of keeping silent while the people were being slaughtered.

“All of them have failed Ndigbo, they have not just refused to join in search for solution but are keeping grave silence. Even those of them close to the President are not telling him the truth. They have all relaxed in Abuja while their home is burning, but they must know that if this fire is not quenched, nobody will escape,” he cautioned.

Coronavirus Vaccine : Covid-19: India records highest daily cases amid oxygen shorteage

 

India has shattered a global record of daily coronavirus cases, reporting a grim 314,835 new infections in the last 24 hours.

India further recorded 2,023 additional deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the caseload to 15,616,130 infections and the death toll to 182,553 people, according to data released by the health ministry on Thursday.

There are 2,157,538 active cases in the country, with an increase of 125,561 cases through to Tuesday, while 13,276,039 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals.

At least 22 patients died due to a low oxygen supply after a leakage in the oxygen supply tank of a civic hospital in India's Nashik town, around 167 km from Mumbai.

India's COVID-19 vaccine capacity has been severely affected as the U.S. has restricted exports of more than 30 key vaccine raw materials by leaving the critical raw materials needed for vaccine production to local manufacturers in February, which will further exacerbate the epidemic in India.

Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Serum Institute of India, on April 16 tweeted a post, saying that the U.S. needs to lift the vaccine raw materials export ban.

"If we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details," he wrote.

The export ban has drawn criticism from several Indian media outlets.

Scroll, an independent Indian media website reported on April 19 that India's COVID-19 vaccine production lines will be halted within a few weeks if the U.S. does not provide key raw materials.

Zee News criticized the crucial raw material export ban imposed by the Biden Administration as "an act of vaccine mafia".

 

Coronavirus : Pfizer, Moderna Covid vaccines 94% effective at preventing hospitalizations in elderly, CDC study shows

 

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are 94% effective at preventing hospitalizations among fully vaccinated adults ages 65 and older, according to a real-world study published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The two-dose mRNA vaccines were also found in the study to be 64% effective at preventing hospitalizations in the elderly who received just one shot. The study evaluated 417 hospitalized adults across 14 states from January to March. The U.S. agency said the findings were consistent with those found in clinical trials.

“This multisite U.S. evaluation under real-world conditions suggests that vaccination provided protection against COVID-19–associated hospitalization among adults aged ≥65 years,” the CDC wrote in the study. “Vaccination is a critical tool for reducing severe COVID-19 in groups at high risk.”

The CDC study provides more evidence on the benefits of getting vaccinated against the virus, which has infected more than 32.1 million Americans and killed at least 573,420, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Health officials had previously said Covid-19 hospitalizations among older Americans, who are at increased risk for severe disease, have tumbled since the shots first became available in the United States late last year.

As of Tuesday, more than 81% of U.S. adults ages 65 and older have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data compiled by the CDC. More than 67% of U.S. adults ages 65 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

In a statement Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the agency’s findings were “encouraging and welcome news.”

“The results are promising for our communities and hospitals,” she said. “As our vaccination efforts continue to expand, COVID-19 patients will not overwhelm health care systems — leaving hospital staff, beds, and services available for people who need them for other medical conditions.”

Earlier this week, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans should begin to see a turning point in the pandemic “within a few weeks” as the U.S. continues to vaccinate Americans at a rapid pace.

The U.S. is reporting an average of 2.7 million daily Covid-19 vaccinations over the past week, according to data from the CDC, about equivalent to levels one month ago.

If the U.S. continues its vaccination pace, “literally within a few weeks, we’re going to start to see a turning around of the dynamics,” Fauci said Monday during a virtual event hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Not down to no infections,” he said. “If you’re waiting for classic measles-like herd immunity, that’s going to be a while before we get there. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a significant diminution in the number of infections per day and a significant diminution in all of the parameters, namely hospitalizations and deaths.”