National Chairman of All Progressives Congress(APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has insisted on direct primary to pick Edo Governorship candidate on June 22.
He stated this after a meeting with members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and Governors elected under on the platform of the party.The Chairman disclosed this after the meeting, which lasted for over three hours at the National Secretariat in Abuja.
The Nation
THE Federal Government has pushed the battle to contain Coronavirus to states and communities, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the pandemic, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said on Sunday.
According to him, the Federal Government will henceforth only provide supervision and coordination.
Mustapha, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), spoke on Sunday at the State House after members of the PTF briefed President Muhammadu Buhari and discussed their recommendations on the next phase of the battle.
With him at the briefing were Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire; National Coordinator of the PTF Dr. Sani Aliyu; Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekwaezu, and Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola.
Mustapha said: “The ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states because we have gone into community transmission.
Tha Nation
EKITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi has relaxed the state’s lockdown to allow residents to pursue their businesses from Mondays through Fridays from 6am to 8pm.
Fayemi, who stated this in a broadcast yesterday evening, added that public officers on Grade Level 8 and above are to resume for duty. Those on Grade Level 7 and below are to remain at home till further notice.
The governor stated that the new directives take effect from today, adding that consultations are underway to reopen religious worship centres, schools and big markets in the state.
The coronavirus is disappearing in Italy, with some Italian doctors suggesting the virus is losing its potency.
Alberto Zangrillo, who heads Milan's San Raffaele Hospital in the badly hit northern region of Lombardy, told Italian TV on Sunday that "in reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy," Reuters reported.
"The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago," Zangrillo added.
Zangrillo urged Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government to continue lifting lockdown measures, saying that warnings of a second wave of the virus were creating unnecessary fear in Italy.
"We've got to get back to being a normal country," he said. "Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country."
Matteo Bassetti, the head of San Martino Hospital's infectious-diseases clinic in Genoa, in northwestern Italy, agreed with Zangrillo that the coronavirus was not as lethal as it used to be.
"The strength the virus had two months ago is not the same strength it has today," Bassetti told an Italian news agency, adding that "it is clear that today the COVID-19 disease is different."
Yahoonews/Reuters
Following a weekend in which protests over the death of George Floyd raged in virtually every major American city, President Trump on Monday told U.S. governors they were “weak” for not being more aggressive in enforcing laws against the demonstrations.
“You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time,” Trump said during a video teleconference with governors, law enforcement and national security officials, audio of which was obtained by CBS News.
“They’re going to run over you,” the president said. “You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate.”
“You’ve got to arrest people,” he continued. “You have to track people. You have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again."
Trump’s comments came after a weekend of unrest over the death of Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis police officer one week ago. In cities across the country, protesters broke curfews, set fires and looted stores, and police responded with shows of force, lobbing flash bangs, spraying tear gas and firing rubber bullets.
In Washington, D.C., Sunday, fires burned as demonstrators clashed with law enforcement for the third straight evening outside the White House. On Friday night, Secret Service agents rushed Trump to a White House bunker designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks as hundreds of protesters fought with police about 100 yards from the executive mansion.
The Federal Government on Monday lifted the ban on religious gatherings across the country.
This was disclosed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, at the daily media briefing in Abuja.The PTF submitted its recommendations and the PRESIDENT has approved the following for implementation over the next four weeks spanning 2nd – 29th June, 2020, subject to review-
Cautious advance into the Second Phase of the national response to COVID-19; application of science and data to guide the targeting of areas of on-going high transmission of COVID-19 in the country;
“Mobilisation of all resources at State and Local Government levels to create public awareness on COVID 19 and improve compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions within communities; sustenance of key non-pharmaceutical interventions that would apply nationwide and include: ban of gatherings of more than 20 people outside of a workplace;
“Relaxation of restriction on places of Worship based on guidelines issued by the PTF and protocols agreed by state governments.”
Details shortly…
The Nation
Former President Barack Obama on Monday addressed the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, praising the “overwhelming majority” of peaceful demonstrators, condemning the violence brought on by a “small minority” and calling on a “new generation of activists” to “bring about real change.”
“The waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States,” Obama wrote in an essay published on Medium.com. “The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation.”
The former president then lauded police in Camden, N.J., and Flint, Mich., for publicly supporting peaceful protests before criticizing demonstrators who have been acting violently.
"On the other hand, the small minority of folks who’ve resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause," Obama wrote. "Let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves."
Obama dismissed suggestions by some activists that "only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time."
"I couldn’t disagree more," he explained. "The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout American history, it’s often only been in response to protests and civil disobedience that the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands.”
The Ojude Oba festival is an annual celebration by the Yoruba people of Ijebu-Ode, a major town in Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria. This v...
