Indignant at what they refer to as the illegal takeover of the Sickle Cell Centre by Edo state government, persons suffering from sickle cell anaemia disease took to the streets of Benin protesting the government’s high-handed action of renaming of the Centre after the State Ministry of Health by the state government.

Storming the centre accompanied by family, friends and other concerned citizens, the protesters virtually halted all activities at the centre as they started several fires with used tires on the Reservation Road leading to the Government House.

The protest cause a gridlock on the major streets and motorists plying the route to connect Government House at Osadebey Avenue, Sapele and Airport roads had to take alternative roads to escape the ensuing logjam.

Speaking on the incident that led to the protest, one of the parents, Aisekhomen Abenoga said he almost lost his 27-year old son who is a Science Laboratory Studies finalist at the University of Benin as a result of the ministry’s decision to send home all out patients who come for treatment at the centre by 6.00 pm daily.

“We are protesting to create awareness that the sickle cell centre set up by law as a health centre to cater for the treatment of sickle cell sufferers has been converted into the office of the state ministry of health,” he stated.

He lamented that the ministry had “driven out our children out of the centre which is supposed to render 24-hour services, adding that the excuse given is that there is no space.

The Sickle Cell Centre was set up in 1990 with funds raised by the wife of the then governor of defunct Bendel state, Jackie Ogbeha.

By 2005, when the State House of Assembly enacted a law establishing the centre to serve exclusively for the treatment of sickle cell sufferers in the state, the state health ministry had taken up a substantial number of rooms which were initially designated as wards.

A protest by the Sickle Cell Club in 2002 against this move elicited a response from government in a letter dated 25 October 2002 by the then Commissioner for Health to the effect that, “the use of part of the centre by the ministry of health was temporary.”

Dorothy Osuji, a lawyer, who chairs the Eric Edoja Foundation and one of the leaders of the protesters described as “preposterous” the decision of the state government to keep the temporary offices of the Ministry of Health in the Centre for thirteen years.

“What we are saying is that the government has confiscated the Sickle Cell Centre and decided to use it as an office instead of a centre which should have its own blood bank and retinue of doctors and nurses, well-equipped to deal with sickle cell challenges in the state,” she stated.

The House of Representatives has accused the Goodluck Jonathan administration of spending N16 trillion on its super offices yearly while the entire country is given a meagre budget of about N4 trillion, alleging that the Presidency has been complicit in what may turn out to be Nigeria’s biggest fraud yet.

The House Public Accounts Committee made this allegation Sunday, alleging that government has allowed dozens of powerful offices, graded as “statutory and extra-ministerial departments” to spend a minimum of N16 trillion yearly while in the same breath complaining of a lack of revenue to fund key projects.

The committee also stated that though the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, made adequate provisions on how these bodies should be held accountable, the law has been observed in breach.

According to the House committee, the amount spent by the offices are not regulated, audited or appropriated by the National Assembly and most figures tendered are generated by the respective offices and are deployed at the whims of their chief executives.

The committee alleged that it had unearthed findings showing that these agencies, which are not captured in the regular budget, generated and spent money as they pleased without seeking the approval of the National Assembly.

The committee alleged that statutory offices involved in this malpractice include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Central Bank of Nigeria, National Communications Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Services, and Nigerian Ports Authority.

The revelation came as part of an on-going examination of finances of government and its 601 agencies, the committee said.

Speaking through its chairman, Adeola Solomon-Olamilekan, on Sunday, the committee declared that when combined with Nigeria’s official annual expenditure of more than N4 trillion, the country spends over N20 trillion yearly.

According to Solomon-Olamilekan, the N4.3 trillion budget for 2015, amid an oil crisis, is a “far cry” which does not include the finances of “statutory and extra ministerial departments” that have been running “about N16 trillion” without public auditing.

“The N4.9tn, N4.6tn or N4.3tn, as the case may be, is the budget that the whole Nigerians are listening to but in the true sense of it, the budget of other statutory and extra-ministerial departments put together is about N16tn,” he said.

“So, the total overall budget year in year out is over N20tn, which the executive arm operates, but nobody is asking questions as to the implementation of all these budgets.”

The House committee alleged that by deliberately refusing to fund the office of the Auditor General of the Federation, to weaken its capacity to check the violation, the federal government had aided and abetted the budget fraud.

The committee asserted that when a huge budget cut approved by the Ministry of Finance reduced the budget of the Office of Auditor General from N1.9‎ billion to N100 million in 2015, it lost the capacity to audit 601 departments and 144 foreign missions.

The committee alleged that while the Ministry of Finance had cited “falling oil prices” as the reasons for the budget cut, the real reason was to incapacitate the Office of the Auditor General, and prevent it from performing its oversight function on the 601 departments and foreign missions.

“How can we imagine that the capital budget of the office of AGF for the year 2015 was reduced from N1.9bn to N100?

The committee queried further: “Can you also imagine an office of the AGF that has 144 foreign missions to audit and as we speak, between 1999 to date, that office has not audited up to 30 of these foreign missions while three quarter of these foreign missions are also revenue generating agencies? “

“The office of the AGF has been short-changed and the budget has been reduced to nothing. As such, the government of the day is having a field day to carry out whatever its wants to do because they know they have an office that is not functioning,”‎ Solomon-Olamilekan said.

The committee has also been saddled with the responsibility of retrieving the full report on the audit investigation into the $20bn reportedly ‘missing’ from the accounts of the NNPC from the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The House had during a plenary session on last Wednesday given the minister seven days to submit the full report to the lawmakers.

The Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG, campaign group has called for verification of the military’s claims of victory over Boko Haram insurgents in the North east.

Speaking on the renewed efforts to rid the nation of the insurgency that until recent times had paralysed the North east, the group urged the military to designate independent journalists as part of its contingents within the Multi-national Joint Task Force, to ensure third party independently verified accounts of the war against insurgency and terrorism.

This call formed part of the group’s second week brief on the monitoring initiative, which they said was set to help entrench accountability and improved performance in the on-going counter insurgency operations.

Stating that BBOG fully supports the on-going offensive which is expected to quell insurgency in Nigeria, the group, however, requested that the military should publish the list of towns and communities still under the control of the Boko Haram insurgents, to enhance the people’s appreciation of the reclamation victories made by the soldiers.

The group which had earlier expressed hopes that the heightened counter-terrorism offensive by the military against the terrorist group in Nigeria’s north-east, would lead to the rescue of the over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped last year in Chibok in Borno State, recalled that the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh had announced that the whereabouts of the girls was known shortly after they were abducted.

Since the postponement of the general election in February due to security concerns, the military has stepped up the fight against insurgents, in the process claiming back many of the territory previously taken over by the terrorirsts.

The director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade, a Major Genera;l, said in a statement released last Thursday that the Nigerian military backed by air strikes had recaptured the town of Baga in Borno State, north-east Nigeria from the Islamist group Boko Haram.

He said further that “similar exercise is being carried out in over 15 locations namely Gajigana, Ngaze, Ngenzai, Marte Junction, Mile 90, Yoyo, Kekeno, Kukawa, Cross Kauwa, Kangarwa, Amirari, Kichimatari, Borokari Barati, Kauwa and other localities where troops have flushed out the terrorists in the operations preceding the entry to Baga.

A new dawn appears to be breaking in the fight against the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, HIV/AIDS, as leading specialists in the United Kingdom have announced positive ground breaking results in clinical trials of a pill which they say can dramatically cut a person’s risk of contracting the virus.

The pill used in the trial, Truvada, is a combination of two antiretroviral drugs- tenofovir and emtricitabine- that are used in combination with other medicines to treat HIV.

Developed by Gilead and described as a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, PrEP, its recently established ability to prevent as well as treat the virus marks a major turning point in efforts to combat HIV among high-risk groups.

Truvada, if the test results are validated, provides a way for people who do not have HIV but who are at substantial risk of getting it to prevent HIV infection by taking a pill every day.

When exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use, PrEPs can work to keep the virus from establishing a permanent infection.

When taken consistently, PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people who are at high risk by up to 92%. But it is much less effective if it is not taken consistently

“These results are extremely exciting and show PrEP is highly effective at preventing HIV infection in the real world,” said Sheena McCormack, a professor of clinical epidemiology at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London.

According to McCormack, “concerns that PrEP would not work so well in the real world were unfounded” as recent results show there is indeed a need for PrEP, and that the trial drug offers hope of reversing the epidemic among high risk groups, especially men who have sex with men.

“The findings we’ve presented today are going to be invaluable in informing discussions about making PrEP available through the NHS,” McCormack added.

The results of trials conducted on the efficacy of the pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP, have been described as “extremely exciting” and a “game-changer” by several experts in the HIV-AIDS research sector.

According to reports, the study revealed that the PrEP cut the risk of HIV infection among gay men who are considered to be at high risk by an unprecedented 86 per cent.

A senior panel of NHS experts is reportedly considering how PrEP could be introduced to the public via NHS, because in spite of major advances in the fight against HIV/Aids reported in the past two decades, the high rate among men who have sex with men, has reportedly remained stubbornly high in the UK.

Funded by UK government agencies, the Medical Research Council and Public Health England, the trial, known as the Proud Trial, which took place across 12 NHS trusts in Brighton, London, York, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield, was set up to provide real-world evidence on the pill’s effectiveness, and to answer outstanding questions, such as whether providing it would lead to reduced use of condoms.

It involved administration of the PrEP to 545 HIV-negative gay men who had been recruited for the study. The volunteers were required to be sexually active and to have recently had unprotected sex.

The PrEP which was administered had been available to at-risk groups in the United States since 2012.

Early findings reportedly proved so encouraging that in October last year the trial was sped up to ensure 269 men whose access was going to be deferred were given the drug straight away.

Among the 276 men given PrEP immediately, there were only three HIV infections in the first year of the study, compared with 19 among the deferred group.

Men taking part in the study reported they did not change their condom use because of PrEP – evidence that was borne out by the fact that infection rates of other sexually transmitted infections, STIs, were similar in both groups.

An estimated 2,800 gay men acquired HIV in the UK in 2013 and the rate of new infections has remained high for a decade. Six per cent of gay and bisexual men are now living with HIV, rising to 13 per cent in London.

The Chief Executive of the National Aids Trust, Deborah Gold, stated that researchers reported 19 HIV infections in the group not taking PrEP during the study period.

“If we can stop people getting HIV by giving them PrEP, we have an ethical duty to do so. Furthermore, over the course of their lifetime the treatment of those 19 men will cost the NHS nearly £7m.

“So the financial argument is clear, as is the ethical one. PrEP needs to be available on the NHS as soon as possible for all those who need it,” Deborah stated.

Simon Barton, chair of the HIV Clinical Reference Group for NHS England, which will review the cost-effectiveness of PrEP, described the Proud trial findings as “very important”.

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Barton, a professor of Medicine and Consultant in HIV and Genito-urinary Medicine at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, said the next challenge was hinged on translating the benefits demonstrated in the study into practice.

“We have already begun work to carefully consider how this treatment could be delivered equitably and most efficiently by liaising closely with the Local Government Association, Public Health England, clinicians and patient representatives,” he said.

By Jessica Tamaraduoye, Asaba

The Police Academy, Kano, has been granted the status of a degree awarding university, President Goodluck Jonathan has announced.

The President, who  made the cheery news known on Friday in Asaba, capital of Delta State, said every graduate of the college will henceforth be awarded a formal degree as is done at the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA.

“We want a situation where you will enter the police academy with your O’ level, as you pass through the academy, you also have formal degree with your police training. The day you are retiring from the police, you are also a graduate and you can take up any job that graduates take,”President Jonathan said.

The President explained that his administration had established universities in 12 states that previously had no such institution, thereby ensuring that all the 36 states in the country each had a university to boast about.

In addition, the federal government created a thirteenth university, the Maritime University in Delta State to feed the maritime industry which he said is a sector that creates lots of jobs for the people.

The threat of impeachment hanging on Ebonyi State governor, Martins Elechi,  gained some weight Friday as members of the State House of Assembly unanimously agreed to serve the governor with impeachment notice based on allegations of corruption and misconduct.

Acting Leader of the House, Francis Nwifruru, who read the motion for the governor to be served the notice, accused Elechi of undermining the integrity of the House and financial misappropriation, among other offences.

The motion was moved by Odefa Obasi Odefa, and seconded by Valentine Okike.

On February 18, the House constituted a panel headed by Odefa Odefa to probe allegations of financial mismanagement against the governor and some of his aides, after it received petitions from some groups in the state, and following the completion of its work, the panel submitted its report, necessitating the call for the impeachment notice to be served on the governor.

One of the petitions alleged that the governor, his son, Elechi Elechi, and some aides had used public funds for personal gain.

The House Minority Leader, Enyi Enyi, said the allegations levelled against the governor were serious enough to cause him to be impeached.

Aware of the move by the House, the governor said he would pack his things and head home if impeached.

Speaking to Ezza Ezzekuna Youth Congress, which paid a solidarity visit to him, the governor said that  “some politicians who have vowed to govern this state at all cost have been holding secret meetings on how to impeach me.”.

“They said I’m a bad person and that if I continue to remain in power they will not have their way of ruling the state. All I can say is that if they sack me, I will relocate to my home,” Elechi said.

The coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mike Omeri, has cleared the air on the Presidency’s recent call for the live capture and arrest of the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau alive, stating that apprehending the elusive terrorist alive will help the government to address the controversy surrounding his identity.

Speaking with journalists during a briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Omeri, who is also director general of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, stated that it is necessary to get Shekau alive so that his real identity would be ascertained once and for all.

Omeri alleged that the group’s erstwhile spokesman, Abu Qaqa, had been elusive as well because “he was mutating until it got to a point that he could not mutate anymore; because if one is taken out, they bring another one who will introduce himself as Abu Qaqa”.

According to Omeri, Shekau emerged when the group could no longer sustain the Qaqa identity.

“Even when Qaqa was operating, Shekau was there; he now had to assume the role of commander of Boko Haram and spokesperson.

“From intelligence available and the conclusion of the military, the first Shekau was taken out and another one came. So the military say that they have taken out that one and they are going to take out this one; that there is a trend of a merger of their leadership,” he said.

Omeri expressed confidence in the military’s ability to capture Sheaku alive and shatter the myth of his invincibility, stating that he had no reason to disbelieve the reports provided by the security chiefs.

“I will believe that because I have not been there to see the two of them. They are the ones that have met the first one and they are the ones fighting to get this one this time around. So I will believe them until this war against terror finishes. So let’s get the man. That is why it is important to get him alive so that the full story would be told,” he said.

Omeri further expressed satisfaction with the recent successes recorded by Nigerian military forces in the war against terror, stating that several towns such as Gajigana, Gajiram, Gabchari, Abba Jabari, Damakar, Kumaliwa, Bosso, Karisungul, Wanti and Jeram which had been under the control of insurgents had been recaptured.

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Calling on Nigerians to be patriotic and appreciate the efforts and sacrifice of the military and security personnel, he urged the public to eschew the cynic attitude of some unpatriotic citizens who have ascribed the recent successes in the anti-terror war to the efforts of foreign troops.

Omeri also charged operators of motor parks, gardens, schools, churches and mosques to be vigilant and watch out for fugitive terrorists whom he claimed had resorted to attacking soft targets as witnessed in Potiskum in Yobe and Kano recently.

Adedayo Ogunleye, Abuja

 By identifying and expelling 15,000 ghost pensioners, the federal government has succeeded in saving N2.1 billion in the last eight months, the coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has disclosed.

The minister, who spoke at the first Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, stakeholders’ forum in Abuja on Thursday, stated that the establishment of the PTAD as an independent agency responsible for the management of federal pensions under the defined benefit scheme made this feat possible.

Expressing appreciation to President Goodluck Jonathan for his unflinching commitment to on-going pension reforms in the country, Okonjo-Iweala said the significant savings recorded by the PTAD was made possible by the agency’s reliance on technology, which aided the identification and removal of over 15,000 duplicate or ghost pensioners from its payroll, as well as its commitment to entrench world class financial management practices in the administration of pension funds in the country.

According to the minister, the recent successes recorded in the pension reforms programme have enabled the government to include an additional 1,354 pensioners from three liquidated steel rolling mills to be pay-rolled.

Noting that Nigeria’s pensions system had been rendered largely inefficient over the years through inefficient payment processes, grand fraud and looting, Okonjo-Iweala stated that it was this that necessitated the establishment of the PTAD to consolidate all federal pension departments to plug all leakages.

“In light of the widespread fraud that was revealed and his commitment to the welfare of pensioners, President Goodluck Jonathan took bold steps to consolidate pension management reforms and clean up the mess in the system,” the minister stated.

A toll free call centre designated to enable pensioners get easy access to information on their pensions, and to enable the PTAD get feedback from all its stakeholders on its operations in the past year was launched during the event.

Federal troops confronting Boko Haram insurgents in the North east received a surprise August visitor on Thursday as President Goodluck Jonathan visited Mubi in Adamawa State, one of the towns recently recaptured from the insurgents.

Accompanied by the Inspector General of Police and all security chiefs, the President arrived the Yola International Airport at about 10:45 a.m, after which he met with the Emir of Mubi, Isa Ahmadu with whom he had a private meeting at the palace.

The president who addressed Nigerian troops in Mubi expressed his appreciation to the troops, stating that he and all Nigerians were very proud of the bravery, competence and patriotism with which they were expelling the insurgents from all parts of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

The president also affirmed that the recent successes recorded have proven beyond any doubt that the Nigerian armed forces were fully capable of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

Noting that all those within and outside the country who cast aspersions on Nigerian soldiers and questioned their ability and willingness to overcome the insurgents were misinformed and wrong, President Jonathan stated that it was inaccurate to give all credit to foreign troops who had cooperated with the Nigerian military to institute a Multi-national Joint Task Force to combat insurgency.

The president also assured the troops that the federal government would ensure that the troops receive all the equipment and logistics required to reassert government’s effective control over all areas formerly captured by Boko Haram.

Promising that all issues pertaining to their welfare would be properly and expeditiously addressed, he also assured the troops that they will be duly rewarded for their bravery and patriotic service to the nation at the successful conclusion of on-going operations against Boko Haram.

The President also assured families of soldiers who lost their lives in battles against Boko Haram that they will be well provided for.

Jonathan, who also visited Vintim Village, the home town of the Chief of Defence Staff, which had earlier been recovered from the insurgents, is expected to proceed to Borno State on Friday, where he would visit Baga, another town recently recovered from the Boko Haram group.

The activities of the insurgent Islamic sect have earned President Jonathan’s administration a lot of criticism, as the federal government has been largely perceived as failing to stem the tide of violence unleashed by Boko Haram since 2010.

However, in the build up to the re-scheduled elections in March and April, government appears to have ramped up military campaigns against the incursions of the insurgents, and had recovered territories from Boko Haram.

In a bid to boost the morale of the troops in the forefront of the fight against the insurgents, the Chief of Army Staff Kenneth Minimah had visited the troops in Baga on Wednesday.

While addressing the troops, Minimah, a Brigadier General, announced the award of promotions to all soldiers involved in the liberation of the town from the control of the insurgents