Former Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao Akala is dead.
The former governor reportedly battled a terminal ailment for a while before he died.
According to Daily Trust, the former governor’s death was confirmed on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, by sources close to the late politician.
Details of his death are still sketchy but the politician was said to have battled a terminal ailment before his death.
Alao-Akala died at the age of 71.
Details later….
The Lagos State Government has cleared five students and five employees of Dowen College accused of complicity in the death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni.
The state cleared them as well as the school following the Legal Advice of the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Ms. Adetutu Oshinusi.
According to the legal advice addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID and the trial magistrate, Magistrate Olatunbosun Adeola, the interim and final autopsy reports issued by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and toxicology report of post mortem samples and that of the Central Hospital, Warri were in agreement as to the cause of death namely: Septicaemia, Lobar Pneumonia with Acute Pyelonephritis, Pyomyositis of the right ankle and Acute Bacteria Pneumonia due to severe Sepsis.
The legal advice added that the result of the toxicology is also not indicative of any toxic or poisonous substance in the body of the deceased as claimed by the family.
The DPP’s legal advice, therefore, concluded that based on these findings, there is no prima facie case of murder, involuntary manslaughter and or malicious administering of poison with intent to harm against the five students, Favour Benjamin aged 16, Micheal Kashamu (15), Edward Begue (16), Ansel Temile (14) and Kenneth Inyang (15).
The state also cleared the minors of belonging to unlawful society due to insufficient facts to establish the offence.
”From available facts in the duplicate case file, the investigation carried out by the Police did not reveal that any secret society name, tattoo or insignia of any unlawful society was found in the possession of any of the suspects during the investigation carried out by the Police.
To hold otherwise would amount to sniffing for an offence and a speculative act which is not permitted in law. It is trite law that suspicion no matter how grave cannot be a ground for conviction”the legal advice read in part
The DPP also cleared the school and five employees: Celina Uduak, Valentine Igboekweze, Hammed Ayomo Bariyu, Adesanya Olusesan Olusegun and one Adeyemi of the offence of Negligent Act Causing Harm contrary to section 252 of the Criminal Law Ch. C17, Vol.3, Laws of Lagos State 2015.
The state, therefore, directed that all the suspects should be released if they are still in custody.
The school is however still closed.
Bandits, who abducted the wife and two daughters of a lecturer with the Federal College of Education (Technical) Gusau in Zamfara State, Dr ABDURRAZAK MUAZU, have demanded N50 million ransom.
A family member, MOHAMMED JAMILU, said that the bandits have called and informed them that they needed the sum of N100 million but later reduced the amount to N50 million.
JAMILU, however, explained that negotiation was still ongoing, stressing that the amount was outrageous.
Some gunmen suspected to be bandits, last Friday, kidnapped the three family members.
The wife, BINTA UMAR JABAKA and the two daughters were kidnapped in their house, in Mareri village the outskirts of Gusau town, the state capital at about one o'clock in the night on Friday.
Medical experts have expressed fear and warned that Nigeria risks a further surge in COVID-19 cases following complete disrespect for safety protocols at crowded fun spots, including beaches, during the New Year celebrations.
Renowned virologists, lambasted state and federal governments for not enforcing safety rules and bringing violators to book.
The experts said this as the Federal Government said it distributed 400,000 COVID-19 test kits in the last one week as the rate of recovery from the virus dropped by 73.2 per cent.
On Sunday, beaches in Lagos including the ones at Oniru, Eleko and Elegushi were crowded with fun seekers not adhering to safety rules.
Also, contrary to the directive by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, which restricts gatherings at religious centres to 50 per cent, crossover services at most worship centres were full to capacity.
In Lagos, government officials were not around to enforce safety rules at crowded fun spots and worship centres despite the risk of transmitting COVID-19.
On Monday, a professor of Medical virology at the University of Maiduguri, Professor Marycelin Baba; a former Chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians, Professor Tanimola Akande and an associate Professor of virology at the Osun State University, Dr. Waheed Sule warned Nigerians that uncontrolled gatherings at fun spots, beaches and non-adherence to public health measures would lead to a surge in cases and fuel community transmission.
The experts also predicted that more individuals would be infected with the Omicron variant due to the high transmissibility of the variant.
Speaking in an interview with Professor Baba, he stated that the omicron variant had the ability to spread faster than other variants.
She said, “One thing about the omicron is its ability to spread faster. This can only mean that more people will come down with the virus after the testing season. The sad thing is that most of them will not know this because they will refuse to get tested.
“The same set of Nigerians who refuse to follow public health protocols are the same Nigerians who will also refuse to get vaccinated. Nigerians need to see the need to adhere to these rules, from now, we will likely witness a huge surge in cases and most of those cases would be traced to the festive seasons especially when people start to travel back to their respective bases.
The former chairman, Association of Public health Physicians of Nigeria, Akande in a separate interview with Professor Baba. He said, “It does have an implication. We know that Omicron spreads faster than the other variants. The whole world has been wary of the holiday period because of a lot of travel and fun. The number of people that will come down with omicron will be so many.
“The best thing is to adhere to instructions. We should have been used to these instructions. Government needs to test people more because if they test people more, people who are infected will know but because we are not testing enough, people feel they do not have it hence they go around infecting others. That is the challenge.”
Also, an associate professor of virology, Osun State University, Dr Sule Waheed, said, “Disregarding the protocols has implications. The government can do little to stop people from gathering. It is very difficult for the government to enforce the protocols because Nigerians will never listen.
“We have been hearing news of enforcement but I am yet to see a case of enforcement or arrest. People should understand that if they cannot adhere to the measures then they should stay at home.”
On his part, a medical virologist at the Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Dr Kolawole Oladipo, said the neglect of COVID-19 protocols by Nigerians would lead to more surge.
Oladipo, in an interview on Monday said it was unfortunate that many Nigerians had neglected the non-pharmaceutical preventive measures.
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