26 people rescued in human trafficking bust in south Nigeria

At least 26 persons including 19 children have been rescued from trafficking during a law enforcement operation in Nigeria’s southern state of Edo, authorities said on Tuesday.

In a statement, Kontongs Bello, a police spokesperson in Edo, said the victims comprise 19 children, one teenager and six women who were trafficked from the southeast states of Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Anambra and Akwa Ibom.

He said they were heading toward Evbuotubu in Ekenwan road axis of Benin city before rescue came their way.

According to the police spokesman, the women were lured from their various home states by a woman named “Jennifer”, noting that the suspect is now on the run.

“They were lured in a guise that Edo state government is giving financial support to single mothers with newborn babies especially twins,” he said.

“The women said they were forced to go for street begging for their mistress Jennifer. They further stated that only peanut is given to them to take care of their children,” he said.

By David Ochieng Mbewa

CGTN

Related story: New Nollywood film shines a light on human trafficking in Nigeria

 

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'Ogogoro' or as it's commonly known, local gin, is consumed not only throughout Nigeria but across the West and Central African region. On Grassroot tonight, CGTN's Wilkister Nyabwa brings you the story of Pedro's, the Nigerian brand that's refining and rebranding 'ogogoro' to meet growing demand for premium spirits amid the pandemic.

At least 7 killed in Nigeria's fuel tanker explosion

At least seven people have been confirmed dead following a tanker explosion in Nigeria's north-central state of Benue, an official said on late Sunday.

The fire was caused by a tanker, which lost control and fell after experiencing brake failure, according to Yakubu Mohammed, head of the state's Federal Road Safety Corps.

About 50 houses were destroyed in the fire accident occurring at the Agatu local government area of the state on Sunday, confirmed Emmanuel Shior, a staff member of the state's Emergency Management Agency, adding that a detailed assessment would be carried out on Monday.

Xinhua

Nigeria records lowest daily COVID-19 infections in one year

Nigeria on Sunday recorded 26 new coronavirus infections, the lowest daily figure recorded since April 15, 2020, when Nigeria recorded 11 infections.

At that time, the disease had just started spreading in a few states with only about 400 infections recorded in the entire country.

Sunday also became the sixth consecutive day that Nigeria recorded no daily fatality from the virus which has caused over 3 million deaths globally and over 2,000 deaths in Nigeria in the past year.

Sunday’s tally brings the total number of infections in the West African nation to 164,233.

This is according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sunday night.

While some countries such as Brazil and India are witnessing a resurgence in COVID-19 infections, Nigeria has witnessed a massive reduction in new cases from an overage of over 1,000 daily cases between December 2020 and February 2021, to less than 200 in the past month.

Also, with no new deaths in the past six days, the fatality toll from COVID-19 in Nigeria remains 2,061, according to the NCDC data.

Only three deaths have been reported from the pneumonia-like disease in Nigeria in the past two weeks, an indication that Africa’s most populous nation has gone past its worst phase, although experts warn it might be too early to celebrate.

There is still low testing for the disease across Nigeria, a situation health experts believe could be masking the severity of the outbreak.
 

Specifics

The 26 new cases were reported from six states- Ebonyi (10), Lagos (9), FCT (2), Kano (2), Osun (2), and Oyo (1).

Since the pandemic broke out in Nigeria in February last year, the country has carried out over 1.8 million tests.

More than two-thirds of the over 164,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeria have recovered after treatment.

According to NCDC data published Sunday night, a total of 154,332 people have recovered after treatment.

The data showed that the country’s active COVID-19 cases increased by 19, bringing the total number of people being treated for the virus to 7,840.

More than 140 million people have been infected with COVID-19 globally leading to over 3 million deaths, according to worldometer.info.
 

Vaccination

Having received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX facility in early March, Nigeria commenced vaccination beginning with healthcare workers and other priority groups.

Nigeria on March 21 received another 300,000 doses of the same vaccine from telecom giant, MTN. On April 6, the government of India also delivered 100,000 doses of vaccine to Nigeria, bringing the total number of vaccines in stock to about 4.4million.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, on Friday, announced that about 1,071,346 Nigerians considered “eligible” for the first phase of the rollout have been vaccinated six weeks into the process.

Nearly 900 million vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, equaling 11 doses for every 100 people, according to latest figures from research and data provider firm, Our World in Data.

The U.S is leading in the vaccination race, having inoculated nearly 200 million of its population. It is closely followed by China with over 183 million people vaccinated in the Asian country.

Africa has the lowest vaccination rate of any continent, with many countries yet to start mass vaccination campaigns.

By Ebuka Onyeji

Premium Times

Media portrayal of Nigeria led Twitter to choose Ghana for Africa office -minister

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) failed to choose Nigeria for its first African office because the media misrepresents the country, its information minister said on Thursday, citing coverage of police reform protests last year.

The social media giant on Monday said it would set up its first office on the continent in neighbouring Ghana, as the company seeks to make inroads in some of the world's fastest-growing markets. read more

Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, has a thriving technology sector that has attracted international investors but faces numerous security challenges including a decade-long Islamist insurgency in the northeast, mass abductions from schools in the northwest and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

Rights group Amnesty said soldiers and police shot dead at least 12 people on Oct. 20 after largely peaceful protests calling for police reforms in the wake of alleged brutality turned violent. The military and police deny the allegations.

"This is what you get when you de-market your own country," Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters, in a video posted on Twitter by his ministry, when asked about Twitter's decision.

"Nigerian journalists were...painting Nigeria as a hell where nobody should live," he said of coverage of the protests in which Twitter users coalesced behind the #EndSARS hashtag in reference to the widely feared Special Anti-Robbery Squad that was disbanded after abuse allegations surfaced.

"The natural expectation would have been for Nigeria to be the hub for Twitter in this part of Africa," said Mohammed.

In the weeks before the shootings, protesters used social media to organise, raise money and share what they said was proof of police harassment. Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey, tweeted to encourage his followers to contribute to the protests using bitcoin.

Mohammed, days after the circulation of images, video and an Instagram live feed of the incident, said "some form of regulation" could be imposed on social media to combat "fake news".

Twitter described Ghana as "a champion for democracy" and "a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet".

By Alexis Akwagyiram

Reuters