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How corper met untimely death at brother’s graduation party

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How corper met untimely death at brother’s graduation party

The killing of a serving corps member, Damilola Iyanda, by a policeman while celebrating the convocation of his younger brother who recently graduated from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State, has left his family in grief and students of the university crying for justice, BABATUNDE TITILOLA writes

On Monday, April 24, Damilola Iyanda, travelled From Ibadan to Ogbomosho town in Oyo State to celebrate with his younger brother, Oluwafemi, who was graduating from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho.

Oluwafemi, a student of Accounting and Management Sciences, participated in the convocation ceremony of the institution which started that Monday. His older brother, Damilola, was a serving corps member whose place of primary assignment was in Ibadan, the state capital.

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The two brothers decided to share a memorable night after Oluwafemi became a fresh graduate of the institution by having a night out at a popular club near the school’s gate.

However, what was thought to be a night of joy soon turned sour for the two brothers as one lost his life while the other escaped death by the whiskers.

Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that a disagreement ensued between a partygoer and a bouncer while the Iyanda brothers were having fun in the club. The disagreement escalated into a frenzy and a policeman started shooting indiscriminately in a bid to disperse the irate crowd.

Our correspondent gathered that the brothers went outside to see what was going on when a bullet hit Damilola in the head and he died within minutes while his brother, Oluwafemi, got shot in the arm. In a matter of minutes, the Iyanda family lost a son while the other was left battling for his dear life.

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“We were at a lounge in the Under-G area for a convocation party,” Oluwafemi, who survived the gunshot, began his story.

“Around 2 am, we heard that some people were fighting outside. When we discovered that the place was getting rowdy, we stepped out only to see policemen dispersing the crowd and shooting directly at the people.

“I sustained bullet wounds, but my brother, who came for my convocation, was shot in the head. He was confirmed dead at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital and was taken to the mortuary this morning (Tuesday, April 23, 2024).”

An eye-witness who preferred to be identified as Abiodun told our correspondent that the two brothers had nothing to do with the argument that resulted in the shooting. Narrating how it happened, Abiodun said a disagreement ensued between another graduating student and the bouncer in the bar.

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“The policeman came in between the person arguing with the bouncer. That was when the shooting started. It was later we saw that two people had been shot and they were brothers.

“The older one was shot in the head while his brother who was a fresh graduate was shot in the arm. The one who was shot in the head died immediately. The brother who was shot in the head was not a student of LAUTECH but was a serving corps member; he came purposely to celebrate with his brother who was graduating that day,” the eye-witness added.

Distraught family

When our correspondent reached out to the family on Wednesday, it was confirmed that Oluwatobi had been discharged from the hospital and now receiving treatment at home in Ekiti State.

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The uncle to the brothers, Lawrence Iyanda, who spoke on behalf of the family said the pain of losing a son and almost losing another had been unbearable for the parents.

Being a godfather to both Damilola and Oluwafemi, Lawrence told our correspondent that the loss was a heavy burden to bear while narrating how the achievements of the two brothers made the family proud.

He said that he left his house in Ado after he was informed of the incident and travelled to Ogbomosho where he learnt that Oluwafemi’s brother, Damilola, had been lost to the cold hands of death.

“I live in Ado and had to travel down to Ogbomosho to rescue Oluwafemi when I had what happened. We have taken him out of the hospital in Ogbomosho and now at home in Ekiti. I have been consoling the parents since and other people are here too.

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When our correspondent reached out to Lawal on Friday, he said the family was still in shock.

He said, “The whole family is still in shock. As we are talking now (on Friday morning), I am going to buy another set of drugs.”

Asked what steps the family was planning to take regarding the deceased, Lawrence said the family would be seeking justice and called on the government and relevant authorities to come to their aid.

“We want justice to be done in this matter. We also want the government to come to assist us because we do not know where to turn now. We learnt that the police command has arrested the police officers involved in the matter. We appreciate that,” he said.

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Authorities react

The Oyo State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps, Odoba Oche, confirmed that the deceased was a corps member.

He said, “We have confirmed that the deceased was a corps member serving in Ibadan North Local Government. He was reportedly invited to his brother’s convocation at LAUTECH where the unfortunate incident happened.”

When contacted, the Dean of the Division of Students’ Affairs, Dr Adewusi Adepoju, told our correspondent to reach out to the school’s public relations officer instead.

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“You can call the university’s public relations officer. He is in the best position to attend to you,” he said.

During a call with our correspondent on Wednesday, the institution’s PRO, Lekan Fadeyi, confirmed that the incident happened in the early hours of Tuesday but refuted claims that it happened within the school premises.

Fadeyi said the school’s convocation ceremony which started on Monday was concluded in the afternoon and that the management did not sanction any party outside the premises.

He said, “The incident you are talking about did not take place on our campus. There was no fracas on our campus. We had our convocation on Monday and it started at 10 am and we concluded everything by 1 pm. There was no incident. Later, we heard that some students and their friends went into a nightclub.

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“We do not have a hotel on campus not to talk of nightclubs. The incident you are talking about did not take place until around 2 am. As a non-residential university, we wouldn’t have kept any student on campus till 2 am because we have no business keeping anybody on campus till that time.”

He also said the deceased was not a student of the university.

“But when we heard, we conducted investigations and discovered that the student that died was never our student. I challenge anybody who claims the person was our student to tell us his name, course of study, and matriculation number,” he added.

The spokesperson told Saturday PUNCH that the school would not get involved in matters that were not connected to it.

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Fadeyi said, “Some people gathered to protest on the streets that were not on our campus because someone got killed. As Students’ Affairs, we feel concerned, but it has nothing to do with LAUTECH.”

The PRO, however, neither confirmed nor denied when our correspondent asked him whether the second victim who suffered a gunshot wound was one of the students who took part in the convocation on Monday.

“Please, provide me with his matric number so I can verify,” he said.

However, the institution’s Registrar, Dr. Kayode Ogunleye, in a release on Thursday, confirmed that Oluwafemi graduated from the university. Ogunleye added that the deceased had no association with the university.

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He said, “The university management has been able to confirm that an ex-student of the university, Iyanda Femi Israel, who is a graduate of the Department of Management and Accounting, sustained a gunshot injury during the incident that occurred in a club outside the university and was immediately rushed to the hospital.

“Furthermore, information made available to the management confirmed that the person who was reportedly shot dead was neither a student nor a graduate of the university. Since the occurrence of the incident, appropriate government agencies have swung into action to investigate the matter and take appropriate actions. Meanwhile, necessary actions are already being taken to monitor the health of the injured ex-student.”

Arrests made

Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the police arrested the partygoer who caused the rancour and the policeman alleged to have fired shots that killed Damilola and injured Oluwafemi.

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It was gathered that the two were transported to the police headquarters in Ibadan on Tuesday for questioning.

A student in the institution, Yinka (surname withheld), however, told our correspondent that the police later released the partygoer on Tuesday after students’ leaders reached out to the appropriate authorities.

Yinka said, “After the whole incident, the police initially left but they came back to arrest the guy that was disagreeing with the bouncer. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, we got to the police station and they told us that the student had been transferred to Ibadan and the police officer who was said to have fired the shots had also been taken to Ibadan.

“After that, we spoke with them at the station and we were told that the student was only invited for questioning, which is normal. We spoke with him over the phone too, and he said he was alright. We were promised that he would be released and that we should send someone to stand as surety. We sent some people to Ibadan and they went there yesterday to secure his release. He has been released and they came back to Ogbomosho yesterday (Tuesday).”

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During an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, the Secretary of the Joint Campus Committees of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Olayinka Tiamiyu, said the students would seek justice for the deceased.

He said, “We wanted the student who was arrested to be released and he has been released. Now, we demand justice for the victim who died and his brother who was shot in the arm. Also, we demand that there should be an immediate withdrawal of police officers from the school environment.”

Tiamiyu, who doubles as the Acting Vice President of the National Association of University Students, told Saturday PUNCH that the police officer who allegedly fired the gunshots that killed Damilola and wounded Oluwafemi had been identified by the students. He noted that the policeman was a known face in Ogbomosho.

He said, “There were some eyewitnesses who saw the police officer and they identified him. He is known to everyone in that area. He was a top SARS officer. He was part of the reformed SARS.

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“There have been a lot of allegations against him. That is why everybody knows him. He is a known police officer. During the #EndSARS protests, he was arrested. People identified him to be the same person who shot the two brothers.”

Allegations against errant cop

Saturday PUNCH gathered that the policeman who was alleged to have shot indiscriminately into the air was known for causing panic in the area before the Tuesday incident.

A former student of the institution who wanted to be identified as Oluwamayokun said, “The policeman who shot at the student is known for such an act. He once worked in Igbeti before he was transferred because of how he used to disrupt the peace of the community. The residents of Ogbomosho too have always complained about his unprofessional conduct and ethics.”

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Saturday PUNCH monitored comments across social media platforms showing the outrage that resulted from the incident.

On Instagram, a user, lil_vastsmg, said, “Na king lifestyle dem dey live for here. They arrest people for no reason and take money from dem.”

Another student who did not want to be named told our correspondent that the protest was needed due to the increasing cases of police brutality and unprofessional conduct against the youths in the town. He added that the police were fond of visiting certain spots around the school area to demand money from students.

“We protested after the incident on Tuesday. During the protest, we met with the dignitaries who came for the convocation on Tuesday and they said they would do something about it,” he added.

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An X (formerly Twitter) user, @yomicoalx, in a post, said, “This particular guy (policeman) has been terrorising Ogbomosho for years.”

Another user, @OluPetersJr, said, “He trended during the EndSARS period too na. So, SARS still dey terrorise students for that way? Omo, ikunle abiyamo o.”

Police blame cultists

The Oyo State Police Command, while confirming the incident, said the policemen who were involved in the incident had been detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, and case has been transferred to the homicide department of the SCID.

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The police spokesperson, however, explained that the incident happened after the police reacted to a distress call from a nightclub about cultists who were allegedly disturbing the public peace.

In a statement on Thursday, he said, “Investigation report reveals that during the early hours of the same date and time, a distress call was received by operatives of the command’s monitoring unit stationed within Ogbomoso through the director of a popular night club within the axis, requesting immediate intervention and protection from rampaging suspected student cultists who were at the time harassing guests and destroying club property.

“In a swift response to the call by the club director, a team of officers led by one Insp Rasheed Saheed arrived at the scene. The fracas worsened as deliberate efforts were made by the suspected cultists to prevent the police from further gaining access into the crime scene while shots were allegedly fired from different angles, including from the intervening officers who fired warning shots to disperse onlookers.

“While the Oyo State Police Command maintains its stance towards having a people-friendly police Force driven by professionalism and respect for the rights of the citizens, it also awaits the result of the post-mortem on the deceased to further assist with the investigation.”

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However, a security consultant, Anselm Ozueh, in an interview with our correspondent, said not all conflicts required the discharge of live ammunition by the police.

He said, “Why would the police resort to shooting people in public? When there is a conflict, they could use teargas canisters to suppress it and it will work maximally. It shows that the police need training and retraining on how to approach situations in public.

“What happened in the school area was not the case of armed fighting. So, why would guns be needed to suppress the conflict? You do not need live ammunition to disperse students in a university environment.

Even for a criminal, a policeman cannot just shoot a criminal in the head or anywhere.”

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The security expert, Ozueh, noted that the police needed to undergo a reform that would improve their public image and how they solve problems.

“Their brand is already damaged and they need to clean themselves of the negative perception from the public. Police are supposed to be our friends. In saner climes, when a citizen is stranded, it is the police that will help that person find their way and protect them all the way.

Another security expert, Akin Adeyi, said cases of unprofessional conduct by police officers would continue to rise until there was proper training and sensitisation on the mode of engagement.

“This has been a recurring topic in Nigeria. How well-trained are the police? How well-trained are they in gun handling? How well-trained are they in diffusing conflict in school communities?

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“A campus community is quite different from other communities. The way you manage conflict in a university environment is different from how you manage conflict in other environments,” Adeyi added.

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Rotary Steps Up Hepatitis Fight as Abuja Clubs Deliver Lifesaving Health Outreach

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By Gloria Ikibah

As the world marks the 2026, World Hepatitis Day on July 28, Rotary leaders have called for stronger public awareness, wider access to testing and affordable vaccination against hepatitis, warning that the disease continues to pose a major public health threat despite receiving far less attention than other infectious diseases.

The call was made on Tuesday during a joint Maternal and Child Health and Hepatitis intervention organised by the Rotary Club of Abuja Apo Resettlement and the Rotary Club of Abuja Metro at the Apo Resettlement Primary Health Care Centre in Abuja to mark World Hepatitis Day.

The outreach combined free hepatitis screening and vaccination with maternal and child healthcare services, including the distribution of birth kits to pregnant women and nursing mothers.

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Director of Community Service, Rotary Club of Abuja Metro, Rotarian Hauwa Abbas, said the collaboration was designed to expand Rotary’s impact by working alongside its partner club within its adopted community.

According to her, the project focused on healthcare  education and hepatitis interventions, with this year’s World Hepatitis Day providing an opportunity to offer free counselling, testing and vaccination.

She said: “We are engaging in health projects, educational projects and environmental projects this year. Today is World Hepatitis Day. We are here to offer counselling, free testing and free vaccinations for those that seek medical intervention.

“We came to this community because it is the community of our adopted partners, the Rotary Club of Abuja Apo Resettlement. This is a partnership, so we decided to work together to enhance our intervention support.”

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She disclosed that the project cost between N500,000 and N1 million, depending on the number of beneficiaries.
Highlighting the growing burden of hepatitis, Rotarian Abbas described the disease as an emerging public health concern that now deserves greater attention.

She urged government and development partners to invest more in awareness campaigns and make vaccination affordable for ordinary Nigerians.

“Hepatitis currently is really high in different communities.

“Of course, now it is more alarming than HIV because HIV has been there for a long time. A lot of awareness has been put into HIV through the government, through civil society, through NGOs and CBOs and other stakeholders. So now the focus should shift to hepatitis because there are lots of opportunistic diseases that can arise connected to hepatitis.

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“First of all, we need to increase awareness. Awareness is really important because if there is no awareness, there will be no understanding of hepatitis.

“There are different types of hepatitis by the way. The second thing is to ensure that we get, whether it’s international sponsorship or corporate sponsorship, to ensure that the vaccination is subsidised.

“Two, three years ago, the vaccination, you could get it in government hospitals for N1,000 to N2,000.

“Now, to get vaccinated, one dose is between N5,000 to N8,000 in government hospitals. Remember, there are three doses. So you can imagine it’s capital intensive for families to be able to complete the doses.

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“So what should we do? To ensure that we get partners and funders, whether it’s corporate organisations. Corporate organisations can tap into their CSR pockets to ensure that things are subsidised for community people”, Abbas explained.

President of the Rotary Club of Abuja Apo Resettlement, Rotarian Christian Njoku, disclosed that more than 100 residents had already turned out for hepatitis vaccination.

“Today we’re actually embarking on two projects.

“The first one is actually maternal and child health projects where we actually have 100 birthing kits we wanted to give to pregnant women and people that just delivered the baby.

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“Then the second project is hepatitis. We’re actually giving out hepatitis vaccine for free. That’s the second project and they’re all ongoing.

“As it is now we are almost going above 100 and more people are still coming because we all know what hepatitis is.

“Hepatitis is actually a deadly disease that actually affects the liver and can actually take away someone’s life.

“Rotary decided to give us the vaccine for free and this vaccine is for three months, once in each month.

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“So today, the next time we’ll be coming is by this time next month, August, then we’ll finish the remaining one by September”, he said.

Njoku explained that the vaccine provides long-term protection.

While acknowledging government efforts, he urged authorities to intensify awareness campaigns in rural communities.

“This vaccine lasts for 10 good years.

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“Well, anyway, the government is actually trying their best and that is where Rotary also come in to help the government expand more, create more awareness.

“The government doesn’t have that time to go into the rural areas to create awareness and make sure that the people are taking this vaccine.

“So I only plead to the government, they should actually try as much as possible, see how they can go into the grassroots, go into the rural areas to create more awareness and to make sure there are enough facilities for hepatitis”, he stated.

Also speaking, Past Rotary International District Governor, Rotarian Ayoola Oyedokun described hepatitis as one of Africa’s silent killers, stressing that ignorance and poor testing remain major obstacles to controlling the disease.

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“As we all know that hepatitis is one of the silent killers, which even kills faster than malaria in these sub-Saharan countries.

“And we have some that are prevalent in Africa, Nigeria, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and hepatitis D. And these are some of the silent killers, which is a liver infectious disease.

“And the major problem we have is that a lot of people are not being tested. And when you are not being tested, that means you do not know your status.

“And the moment we don’t know our status, we are not careful on how we know we prevent it from spreading to others”, he noted.

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He explained that Rotary’s intervention centres on advocacy, screening and encouraging people to know their hepatitis status before complications develop.

“So why Rotary has come in and why the Rotary Action Group has also come in is in the place of advocacy and in the place of testing. And let people be aware about the fact that this disease exists and anybody can be a carrier of this disease.

“And when we know our status, then we can prevent it from spreading either by taking the vaccines to prevent us from getting this disease.

“Or if we know our status and we are positive, then we now know how to get the cure. Although it doesn’t have a cure, but it has a system in which it can reduce the rate of it being a killer disease.

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“Because you know your status, then you know how you keep on treating it in that direction. So that’s where Rotary comes in”, he said. 

Oyedokun noted that hepatitis screening has now become a regular feature of Rotary medical outreaches, although funding constraints continue to limit the scale of interventions.

“Rotary has taken it, not only today that it’s Hepatitis Day, but every other medical outreach, medical interventions that we are doing, we always include Hepatitis B, C and D testing in every of our interventions.

“Funding is one of the major problems that we always have.
“In polio, Rotary has taken it as a flagship project and it’s been 100% funded by Rotary.

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“But in case of all these things, we leave it to action groups, we leave it to the district, we leave it to clubs to take it as part of the project.

“And that’s why the action group is working with every district, every club to see how we can partner with them.

“Let’s support you with testing kits. You make your investments in the vaccines because it’s not enough just being tested.

“If we get, you know, like today now we have tested over 100 people, we don’t know how many of them will be positive.
“And definitely when you know that there’s a positive person, you need to refer them to the next health care centre so that they can commence the treatment process”, he added.

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General Secretary of the Rotarian Action Group for Hepatitis Eradication, Rotarian Oye Oyewo, said this year’s World Hepatitis Day theme underscores the urgency of acting now.

“Today is World Hepatitis Day. And the theme for this year is Hepatitis Can’t Wait. So we too should not wait. So you can imagine if you look at the theme for this year, Hepatitis Can’t Wait.

“So we, as promoter of Hepatitis Eradication, we too can’t wait. That is why we are here in this community to make sure that we give our best and make sure that people are vaccinated, tested. If they are negative then they get vaccinated. And make sure that we have a healthy community.

He described hepatitis as inflammation of the liver that often remains undetected until it is too late.

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“And it will interest you to know that Hepatitis is just inflammation of the liver. And because it doesn’t have symptoms, that is why they call it silent killer.

“At any time that anybody have symptoms from Hepatitis, then it is too late. So that is why you see we are giving vaccines to make sure that we prevent, that there is prevention. And you know there are various types of viral hepatitis.

Explaining the different forms of the disease, Oyewo said:
“We have Health A, B, C, D, E.

“Hepatitis A, D, E are the ones that the body system can fight easily.

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“But for B and C, B has a problem. B doesn’t have cure but it can be prevented. C has cure but has no vaccine. You understand the two ways that they have.

“B is not curable but it can be prevented with vaccine. C is curable but it doesn’t have vaccine. So that is why today we are screening people for B and C.

“So that is why we are in this community in Apo Resettlement”.

He commended Rotary’s achievements in the fight against polio but called for similar commitment towards hepatitis eradication.

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“Rotary is doing well in the area of polio. We have done very well in eradicating polio in many countries except for the one that we are working on now. And you agree with me that we have done very well. We are this very close to eradicating polio. But we need to look at what next, what is the post polio engagement that Rotary is going to be looking at.

A lot of people were considering that. Let us look at malaria. And I made an argument, a strong argument about that. That if you say malaria, ordinary pills, ordinary doses, malaria is a parasite. Ordinary doses can take you off malaria level, take you off malaria.

According to him, hepatitis deserves greater priority because of its long-term impact on public health and productivity.

“But when you talk about Hepatitis it is not the same thing. You cannot say okay somebody has malaria and has Hepatitis and if you take pills for malaria it will go. But you cannot take pills for Hepatitis because it is a viral infection and it affects the liver.

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“And study says that about 60-70% of liver cirrhosis, liver problems are caused actually by Hepatitis. And again there are other things that we look at when we are looking into Hepatitis. It is not only just standing alone, it can affect the liver and it affects the productivity of the population.

“And you may have to look at the transmission of Hepatitis too. It is a viral disease so that means it is spread, it is virus and it is spread through blood and body fluids. So through body fluids and the potency of the virus is such that it stays longer on the surface than even HIV. So that makes it very legal.

“So Rotary I would say is doing very well but we should do more because the only thing is that because Hepatitis does not have symptoms. So a lot of people that are carrying it can’t even know, awareness is very low.

“That’s why we are doing the campaign and on every 28th July, which is declared as World Hepatitis Day, we always join WHO, Federal Government and some other partners to make sure that we reach out to people in a logical manner”, he added. 

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Photos: Wike Promises To Deliver Abandoned Goodluck Jonathan Way, Other New Roads In December

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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike has promised to deliver Inner Southern Expressway (Goodluck Jonathan Way) awarded in December 2014, and abandoned for 12 years in December.

Wike gave the promise in Abuja on Tuesday, after inspecting the project, along with the ongoing construction of the service carriageways of the Southern Parkway in Gaduwa District.

He said that the 10-kilometre road project, awarded in 2014, began from the Southern Parkway to Ring Road II at Galadimawa, with five bridges.

According to him, the road was the only project, apart from the Apo-Karshi Road, awarded by previous administration that has not been completed by President Bola Tinubu administration.

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He said that the contractor would complete the remaining six out of the 10-kilometre road and hand it over by end of December, subject to availability of funds.

The minister described the road as a “major road” that would change the landscape of the FCT, if completed, adding that talks were ongoing with Ministry of Finance to make the needed funds available.

“So we’ll continue to dialogue with the Minister of Finance to see how we’ll be able to access the funds and pay off the contractor for it to finish that project.

“It is very, very key to us and that of course will change the entire landscape of the FCT.

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“Apo-Karshi Road awarded in 2010 is almost completed. We were there yesterday,” he said.

Wike said that completing the projects would fulfill Tinubu’s promise to complete all projects awarded by precious administrations from 2010 to 2023.

“It will be a remarkable achievement for this administration to finish all projects awarded by previous administration so that we don’t have abandoned projects everywhere.

“So, it’s a good development for us, continuity. So we’re happy with what we’ve done,” Wike said.

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The minister also inspected the ongoing construction of two service carriageways of the Southern Parkway, spanning from Arterial Road S20 (Oladipo Diya Way) in Gaduwa District to Ring Road II.

The Southern Parkway serves as one of the most essential transportation corridors within Abuja’s southern development axis, linking multiple dense residential districts across Phases I to IV of the Federal Capital City.

“You know, this road was flagged-off during the inauguration of projexts to celebrate Tinubu’s third year in office. We have to come and see what they’ve done.

“The contractor promised to hand over the project by end of December and I believe them,” he said.

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Reacting to Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers recent declaration that he has returned to the Rainbow Coalition and pledged complete loyalty to Tinubu’s re-election, Wike said “there is no sin in politics.

“If someone realises he made a mistake and decides to correct it, there is nothing wrong with that. What matters is recognising that you were on the wrong path and make the right decision”.

The minister said he has welcomed Fubara back into the political fold, insisting that the governor had “no other choice” than to return to the political family that brought him to power.

Wike said Fubara’s decision to publicly align with his political camp was a step in the right direction, adding that the reconciliation would strengthen support for Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general election.

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“I said during my last media chat that he had no other choice but to return to the same political family that produced him,” he said.


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Further plans underway to increase salaries of military personnel -Defence Minister, Musa

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Minister of Defense, General Christopher Musa, rtd, has said President Bola Tinubu will soon announce salary increment for personnel of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

In a statement by his media aide, Leah Katung-Babatunde, the minister said the move is part of the Federal Government’s sustained commitment to improving troop welfare and rewarding their sacrifices to the nation.

He recalled previous welfare benchmarks, noting that military pay was successfully raised from N49,000 to N100,000 during his tenure as Chief of Defence Staff.

General Musa stressed that active steps are currently underway to secure an even better package for the troops.

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“I want to state here that a few weeks ago, I mentioned that soldiers are now receiving N100,000. When I was Chief of Defence Staff, soldiers were receiving N49,000.

About two years ago, I pushed for an increase to N100,000, and that was achieved. We are, however, making further efforts to increase it again,” Musa stated.

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