Top 6 latest news in Nigeria

1) 329 new COVID-19 cases recorded in 20 states, FCT

Nigeria’s confirmed cases of coronavirus reached 48,445 on Friday night following 329 fresh infections, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in an update.

Lagos recorded 113 of the 329 cases, followed by Kaduna with 39, FCT with 33 and Plateau 24.

The rest are: “Kano-16, Edo-15, Ogun-14, Delta-13, Osun-10, Oyo-8, Ekiti-6, Bayelsa-6, Akwa Ibom-5, Borno-4, Enugu-4, Ebonyi-3, Rivers-2, Bauchi-1, Nasarawa-1, Gombe-1, Niger-1”.

The total confirmed cases so far in Nigeria now stands at 48,445 of which 35,998 have been discharged.

However, the infection has claimed 973 lives.

2) Church banned me from choir after I got pregnant - Waje

Singer, Aituaje Iruobe, aka Waje, went down memory lane during the week when she recounted how she got pregnant while writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations.

The ‘Frenemies’ singer shared her experience in a recent Instagram Live chat with gospel rapper, Bouqui.

She said, “I got into a relationship in SS3 and the relationship went from ‘puppy love’ to sexual. At that time, I felt I loved him and that (sex) was the only way I could express my love. At that time, I saw a fine boy who liked me, though we quarreled on several occasions. I didn't understand the responsibility that came with making decisions like that. I got pregnant and I remembered one afternoon, I was in the bathroom when someone came to my house and told me my pastor wanted to see me. I knew that day, there were two things that would happen― either I died or I died. Everything in me got drained. Anyway, I went to see the pastor. He was in a conference room with other pastors and he said to me, ‘If you lie, you will die, because you are standing in front of God, Holy Spirit and me’. He asked me, ‘Are you pregnant?’ and I said, ‘Yes’. He was so disappointed. He told me he wanted to see me in church every Wednesday and Sunday but I would no longer sing in the choir.”

Waje also stated that her mother didn’t know she was pregnant until she was five months gone. She said, “I wrote the WASSCE while pregnant and nobody knew; not even my mother. I told her about my pregnancy after five months. After one morning devotion, I told her I had something to tell her. I told her I was pregnant and wasn’t planning on aborting it. At that point, she already knew who was responsible because he used to come to our house. After telling her, she told me to go back to bed. However, I knew something in her broke because she didn’t go back to sleep.”

3) Man who beat traffic policewoman is a fake soldier - Police

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a passenger of a commercial bus for assaulting a policewoman controlling traffic at Shibiri bus stop, Ilemba Hausa area of the state while posing as a soldier.

The passenger, Yemi Aiyeni, was apprehended following a viral video of the assault which occurred last Sunday.

The police spokesperson in the state, SP Bala Elkana, in a statement on Friday tagged, ‘Police arrested man in a viral video assaulting a policewoman,’ said Aiyeni took on the policewoman, Inspector Martina Onyeacho, who arrested the bus for reportedly obstructing traffic flow.

He said, “Ilemba Hausa Police Station received a distress call that a female police officer, Inspector Martina Onyeacho, on traffic control at Shibiri bus stop is in distress. A patrol team was promptly deployed in the scene to rescue her. Her assailant, Yemi Ayeni, 32, was arrested while the policewoman was quickly taken to a hospital for treatment. She sustained various degrees of injury from beating she received from the suspect.

“According to eyewitness accounts, the suspect who presented himself as a soldier was a passenger in a commercial bus that obstructed traffic flow on the busy road, waiting for passengers. The suspect was angered by the order issued by the traffic policewoman to the driver to move his vehicle away from the main road to the pave way for the free flow of traffic.

“He claimed that the policewoman did not accord him the respect he deserved as a soldier sitting in front of the bus and that she was wrong to have challenged the driver while he was there. He followed up with a physical assault on her, beating her with sticks, punching and kicking her.”

Elkana said during questioning, the suspect stated that he had been posing as a soldier since he was dismissed from the Nigerian Army Depot Zaria in 2002 on mental health grounds after spending four months in training.

4) WASSCE: Rivers, Kwara warn teachers, pupils against malpractice

The Rivers and Kwara state governments have warned candidates sitting the forthcoming West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination to shun examination malpractices, noting that any pupil or teacher caught engaging in such would be punished.

The Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Prof Kaniye Ebeku, stated this in Port Harcourt on Friday during the inauguration of Supervisors/COVID-19 compliance teams ahead of the examinations next week.

Ebeku stated, “I know that there are some schools that are centres of malpractices. Some of you know them. If you go there and fall into it, it will consume you because you will find someone who will not tolerate it.

“If you had brought disgrace to Rivers State in the past and there was no sanction, now there will be sanction.”

Meanwhile, the Kwara State Government has told school authorities and parents that it would not tolerate examination malpractices under any guise, warning that anyone caught in the crime would be punished.

The state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajia Fatimah Ahmed, made the remarks on Friday while addressing the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, Proprietors of Private Schools as well as the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in Ilorin.

Ahmed in a statement signed by the Press Secretary in the ministry, Yakub Ali-Agan, reminded the principals and parents that the state Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, had to pay N30.5m fine imposed on the state following WAEC’s blacklist of 165 Kwara schools over rampant examination malpractices in 2019.

She said, “As we all know, the examinations will start on August 17, 2020. You should all go back home and relay this warning to all your invigilators. Secret invigilators and intelligent officers will be everywhere to ensure compliance. Not only that, but anti-corruption agencies would also be moving around without notice.

“Anybody caught aiding and abetting examination malpractice or involved in any form of sharp practices will be punished according to the law of the land.”

5) Muslims in Ogun observe Juma'at prayer after months of religious lull

Muslim faithful in Ogun State on Friday observed Juma’at prayer in various mosques in Abeokuta, the state capital, and other parts of the state after over five months of ban on religious gathering by the state government following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Worshippers in their large numbers, yet in strict observation of the safe physical distance and other Coronavirus protocols, were sighted at the Central mosques, Kobiti, Abeokuta, with their faces aglow with joy for the chance to resume worship again at their once meeting centres after months of lull.

A similar mood was observed in other major mosques in town as worshippers turned in their numbers.

The gathering for the Juma’at prayer followed an announcement by the state government earlier in the day, lifting the ban on worship centers across the state.

Their Christian counterparts are however, expected to commence theirs on Sunday August 16, 2020 even as the Ogun State Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called on members, ministers of the gospel and denominational heads to ensure that they followed the prescribed guidelines for church reopening in the state to avoid sanctions.

6) Why we lost 18 patients - UCH CMD

The Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, said the hospital has lost 18 persons out of the 159 COVID-19 patients it has treated so far.

Otegbayo spoke on Friday in Ibadan on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Josephus Foundation-aided new Infectious Disease Centre at UCH.

According to him, the coronavirus cases treated by the teaching hospital were severe with some of the patients having underlying health conditions.

“From the last figure I saw, we have treated about 159 COVID-19 patients and 18 of them died,” he said.

“We have those mortalities because we take the sickest of the sick; the most severe cases are brought to the University College Hospital and that is the only place where they can be treated.

“We have some of them with comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes and asthma and some other chronic lung diseases.

“Some of them have kidney failure that requires dialysis which is not available in many other places in Oyo State; that is why we recorded these mortalities at the UCH,” he said.