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Sanwo-Olu Boosts Fight Against COVID-19

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Sanwo-Olu Boosts Fight Against COVID-19_newtimes

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has released N200 million to support the Coronavirus (COVID-19) response of the Federal Government-run isolation centres that are based in the state. The grant is specifically to ramp up the capacity of the federal isolation centres in Lagos to efficiently manage and cure infections from all identified COVID-19 variants.

 

This development was disclosed in the governor’s latest update on the state’s COVID-19 response, which was released on Sunday evening.

 

The beneficiary treatment centres are the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in Idi Araba, and Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Ebute Metta, which will get N150 million and N50 million respectively.

 

Also, the state government announced that its isolation centre situated in the Gbagada General Hospital would now be transformed into fee-paying private wards. The move, Sanwo-Olu said, was in response to the growing requests from patients and families willing to pay for personalised care in government-run facilities, while also protecting their privacy.

 

Payable fee for the private treatment, the governor noted, will be moderately lower than charges at licensed private hospitals. Sanwo-Olu said the state-owned treatment centre at Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba would continue to offer high-quality treatment to all persons, free of charge.

He said: “In view of the rising profile of the Coronavirus disease due to the mutating variants now being discovered globally, and to shore up our containment and management capacity, I have approved the sum of N200 million to support the ongoing patient management and treatment efforts in two Federal Government’s treatment centres in our state. To this end, LUTH will be receiving the sum of N150 million and the FMC Ebute Metta will be receiving N50 million. These sums will be disbursed today, February 1.

 

“Also, in response to the growing clamour by patients and families who are willing to pay for COVID-19 treatment but would like to do so at a cost that is lower than is currently obtainable at private facilities, Lagos State Government is making efforts to transform the state-owned isolation centre in Gbagada into a fee-paying facility that people can elect to be treated at. While the treatment facility in Yaba will continue to offer free and high-quality treatment to all persons, Gbagada isolation centre will offer treatments at a moderated and affordable cost to those who wish to take advantage of extra offerings like private treatment rooms and more personalised levels of care.”

 

Despite that oxygen demand has spiked up from 300 cylinders to 400 cylinders per day across state-owned treatment facilities, Sanwo-Olu said the state government would not charge patients who receive oxygen.

 

The governor said Lagos was working hard to ensure oxygen supply met and surpass the demand, disclosing that the state was on the verge of delivering its second oxygen plant at the Gbagada General Hospital. The new plant will be ready in the next seven days.

 

According to Sanwo-Olu, when the COVID-19 vaccines are finally delivered to Lagos in the coming days, distribution priorities would be accorded to frontline workers, persons with co-morbidities, essential workers and the elderly who are within the age bracket of 50 to over 65 years.

 

He said: “The government will keep the integrity of the vaccines intact along the entire supply and distribution chain, while also ensuring approved dosages are complied with. The state will follow up on possible post-vaccination adverse event; the monitoring strategy will be diligently followed in line with protocols of pharmaceutical public safety.”

READ ALSO; COVID-19: Lagos Civil Servants To Work From Home Till Feb 26

The state government condemned what it called “widespread flagrant disregard and non-adherence to COVID-19 guidelines and protocols” issued to stem the tide of infection. Sanwo-Olu particularly noted that some event centres’ owners had been operating their facilities outside the acceptable parameters for usage, warning that defaulters would be decisively dealt with.

 

In line with the COVID-19 Health Protection Regulations of 2021 signed last week by President Muhammadu Buhari, Sanwo-Olu directed that no gathering of more than 50 persons shall hold in an enclosed space, except for religious purposes, in which case the gathering shall not exceed 50 per cent capacity of the space.

 

“A breach of the provisions of the presidential regulations attracts upon summary conviction, a fine or six months imprisonment or both. Our enforcement agencies have been appropriately tasked to ensure maximum compliance,” the governor said.

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BREAKING: I Won’t Resign, Election Free, Fair – INEC Chairman

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We're Ready To Resume Continuous Voter Registration - INEC
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected the call by the Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to resign.

The commission also said the allegation by Senator Dino Melaye that the INEC chairman allocated scores to political parties during the ongoing collation of 2023 presidential election results, was unfounded and irresponsible.

The three opposition parties had earlier on Tuesday passed a vote of no confidence in the INEC chairman and even called for his resignation.

But, reacting to the call in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said contrary to the insinuations by the political parties, election results emanating from the States of the Federation were free, fair and credible.

He said, “There are laid down procedures for aggrieved parties or candidates to follow when they are dissatisfied about the outcome of an election

“Such procedures do not include calling on the INEC Chairman to resign or for the election to be cancelled.

“To be sure, aggrieved parties are free to approach the courts to ventilate their concerns and wait for the matter to be resolved. Making inciting comments capable of causing violence or unrest is unacceptable.”

He noted that the 2023 general election processes were at their final stages of completion.

“It is only fair for aggrieved parties to allow the conclusion of the process and approach the courts with their evidence to pursue their cases,” he added.

 

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BREAKING: PDP, LP, ADC Demand Fresh Election, Resignation Of INEC Chairman

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Following allegations of rigging, three political parties (Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Labour Party, LP, and African Democratic Congress, ADC) on Tuesday demanded a fresh election.

The aggrieved political parties alleged that the February 25 presidential election has been “irretrievably compromised”.

According to them, the refusal of the INEC chairman to respect the upload of results electronically as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022 is unacceptable.

LP National Chairman, Julius Abure; the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; as well as their ADC counterpart, Ralph Nwosu, made this known at a joint press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.

They alleged that Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections were manipulated by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at polling units by their failure to upload results electronically on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

Abure, who spoke on behalf of the LP, PDP and the ADC, said, “This election is not free and far from being fair”, adding that there are “ongoing cancellation of results from areas of strength of the opposition parties”.

They declared a vote of no confidence in INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, and asked him to immediately step aside for an unbiased person to take over and conduct a fresh election.

The LP, PDP and ADC said the deliberate refusal of the INEC chairman to respect the upload of results electronically as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022 is unacceptable.

The three parties said the result so far by INEC showed “monumental disparities” between what the party agents signed and what INEC officials announced in Abuja.

They said the manual transmission of results compromised the integrity of the election process.

Also, Ayu said the INEC should not turn himself to a “dictator” and demanded that he step aside for another person to take over.

The agents of the PDP and the LP stormed out of the National Collation Centre for the presidential election results at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on Monday.

A member of the 8th National Assembly from Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye; and a former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha; an agent of the Labour Party, amongst others staged a walkout on the INEC chairman over dissatisfaction on the process of the collation of results from state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs).

The drama ensued around 4:30pm on Monday at the resumed collation exercise of the February 25 presidential election results for the second day.

Melaye, Ihedioha, as well as the agents of the Labour Party and others, had complained that the results presented by INEC SCOPs weren’t uploaded on IReV as repeatedly promised by the electoral umpire before the February 25 presidential poll.

Melaye argued strongly that without the upload of results electronically on IReV, this year’s election was not in any way different from the manual transmission of results done in 2015.

 

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Oyetola’s Victory Threatened As INEC Opens Up On Osun Guber Poll

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Oyetola Stops Prosecution Of Attackers Of APC Secretariat

The victory of  Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal is being threatened with fresh revelations by a former Director of Voter Education and Publicity of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi..

READ ALSO:Tribunal Sacks Adeleke, Declares Oyetola Osun Governor

Thetribunal judgment sacked Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the 2022 governorship election in the state.

The tribunal had on Friday ruled and nullified the election of Adeleke and directed INEC to withdraw his certificate of return and issue a new one to Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.

READ ALSO:Oyetola Left Behind Over N40b Debts – Adeleke

But during an appearance on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Osaze-Uzzi said the discrepancy in the 2022 Osun State governorship election, as it related to the BVAS, was owing to the fact that the APC obtained an incomplete report upon which the judgement was based.

“The second member [of the tribunal] – the Honourable Justice who dissented from his two colleagues – said, ‘I would rather use the primary source of this information, and the primary source of this data is actually the machine itself.

“lt is basically a computer. So, rather than go to the server where it transmitted data, I would use the printout from the machine itself,” he said.

He added: “The machines were tendered, so were the reports from the server, and there ought not to have been a discrepancy, but somewhere along the line, not all the data had been transmitted at the time the APC obtained the certified copy of the initial server report.”

“It was BVAS that exposed that as it were, and the fact that the BVAS report was relied on. But we have to be careful; which of the BVAS reports was relied on? Was it what was transmitted to the server – to the backend – or was it the BVAS itself?”, he further stated.e

He said there was a need to break the verdict of the tribunal, adding that the majority of the tribunal members – “the chairman and the second member” – relied on the initial report and the initial report of the backend, duly certified by INEC.

Osaze-Uzzi explained that the APC obtained a certified copy of the initial server report while the remaining data was transmitted by the BVAS hardware.

“It was downloaded from the server [after it was] transmitted. But a couple of days later – INEC used the word ‘synchronised’, I’m not too sure I like that word, but – you synchronise it and say, ‘Have all the results been transmitted – has all data been transmitted from the machine, BVAS itself, to the server?’

“The machine is a physical one and then it transmits to a physical one. It now went, checked and said, ‘There’s a problem here.’ The BVAS report now downloaded itself, [we] now brought it out and examined each BVAS machine and now found out that no, some data was not transmitted to the server,” the ex-INEC director said.

Osaze-Uzzi, however, encouraged stakeholders to be optimistic about the use of BVAS as it exposed the over-voting in the election as ruled by the tribunal, describing the judgement as a validation of the role BVAS has played in enhancing the electoral process.

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