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Reps Committee Seeks Collaboration to Enhance Specialised Healthcare
By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives has called for partnerships to support the implementation of a Legislative Activity Framework aimed at improving specialised healthcare services across the country.
Chairman of the House Committee on Specialty Healthcare, Rep. Alex Egbona, made this appeal during a stakeholders’ roundtable in Abuja on Wednesday.
He highlighted key focus areas for collaboration, including mental and brain health, trauma care, and obstetric fistula treatment. Other priority areas include oral health, ear and eye care, blood transfusion and management, as well as anaemia treatment.
Additionally, Egbona emphwelsed the importance of advancing traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine, alongside innovations in specialised healthcare.
“In the course of our legislative duties and committee activities, we discovered some cross cutting challenges faced by all specialised healthcare providers and institutions in Nigeria.
“They include infrastructural decay, lack of requisite medical equipment, poor electric power source/ supply and poor / inadequate funding.
“The committee sadly notes that the specialised hospitals and healthcare centres serving the nation as referral hospitals on specialised health emergencies are the lowest funded in the health sector budgets.
“The Committee therefore invited you all here today as professionals and experts to review the Draft Legislative Activity Implementation Framework, make your observations, contributions, interventions and inputs on the document,” he said.
Rep. Egbona said that the expected outcome include improved legal and legislative framework for robust legal environment that enables the deployment of secure and efficient e-Health systems.
The reps said that enhanced digital healthcare access, increased adoption of digital health technologies to improve patient outcomes and access to care was expected.
“It seeks Improved Mental/brain Health Services for better allocation of resources to underserved areas and addressing gaps in service delivery.
“It also seeks increased awareness and reduced stigma for greater societal understanding of mental/brain health, leading to reduced stigma and better utilisation of mental/brain health,” he said.
In his remarks, Country Programme Manager of Christian Blind Mission (CBM), Mr. Michael Idah, called for greater attention to be given to the elderly and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), emphasizing their frequent exclusion from essential services, particularly healthcare.
He stressed the need for stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of the framework, noting that this would prevent the need to restart efforts in the future.
Similarly, Rev. Fr. Sebastian Sani, who is the Executive Director of the Justice, Development, and Peace Commission (JDPC), an agency of the Catholic Church, expressed the commission’s support for the initiative. He reaffirmed the church’s commitment to caring for people with special needs, particularly the underprivileged in society.
“Currently, we have up to 100s of people with disability that as a church, we are paying for their health insurance.
“This gathering and meeting with stakeholders, will further encourage us to do more,” he said.
Sani called for the establishment of Specialty Healthcare Trust Fund that cooperate and private individuals will contribute to in support the sub sector.
The Deputy Chatman, FCT Association of Integrative Medicine Practitioners, Dr Jackie Ikeotuonye called for a regulatory council.
She said that regulation of alternative medicine especially traditionalist who inherit some form of skills from their mentors or parents was imperative.
Ikeotuonye said that there is need to regulate and determine dosage as people are made to drink all sort of concentrated mixtures.
“You see the way the world is moving now, there is need to put some regulations, especially like where a traditionalist is telling you go and pluck some leaves.
“What leave? What Quantity? Who is directing who? Of course, there is been a lot of abuse in that sector, people drinking all manner of our war with different things, killing their kidneys and all that.
“So this is timely, and we strongly believe that part of the outcome of this, what the committee is doing is to ensure that there is a council, which I we are told, is already on the President’s table, waiting for assets,” he said.
The committee gave stakeholders 10 days to further peruse the legislative activity implementation framework and submit memoranda for implementation.
The refinery announced the increase on Wednesday, hiking the the price from N1,200 to N1,275 per litre.
In the same way, coastal prices have gone up to N1,215 per litre.
This adjustment amid Brent crude trading at $114.80 per barrel marks a 3.15% increase.
Recall that the Brent crude has increased to $115 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose to $103 per barrel on Wednesday.
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Unbelievable: Police say officer who publicly executed handcuffed Delta man was under “spiritual attack”
The Nigeria Police Force has claimed that the extrajudicial killing of a handcuffed suspect by Officer Usman Nuhu in Delta State to potential spiritual forces, a statement that has sparked widespread outrage and disbelief across the country.
“I will start with the issue at hand, which is a very sad issue.
” There is no explanation for this. I don’t just get what was wrong with that policeman (Mr Nuhu),” Bright Edafe, the spokesperson for the Delta State Police Command, said in an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday.
“Police cannot attribute problems to spirituality, but that may not be far from it. Because that’s the only explanation one can give to what he did,” Edafe added.
The shocking statement comes days after a viral video sighted showed Officer Usman Nuhu executing a handcuffed suspect in broad daylight along the Warri–Sapele Expressway in Effurun, Delta State.
The victim has been identified as Mene Ogidi, a young man who had been apprehended for allegedly attempting to waybill a parcel containing a Beretta pistol with four rounds of ammunition.
In the graphic video, the handcuffed suspect was seen begging for his life, shouting, “I will talk! I will take you to the person who gave me the waybill!”
Despite his pleas, Officer Nuhu was seen taking a magazine from a fellow policeman, inserting it into his AK-47 rifle, and shooting the suspect at close range. The victim died instantly.
The police spokesperson’s suggestion of a spiritual explanation has been met with widespread condemnation from human rights activists, legal experts, and ordinary Nigerians who view it as an attempt to deflect responsibility from the officer’s actions.
Many have pointed out that the police force had already condemned the killing and transferred Officer Nuhu to Force Headquarters in Abuja to face the Force Disciplinary Committee for summary disciplinary measures and prosecution.
The Inspector-General of Police had also extended condolences to the family of the deceased and assured them that justice would be served.
However, the latest statement from the Delta Command appears to contradict the earlier stance of the Force Headquarters, raising questions about whether the police are seriously pursuing accountability or seeking supernatural excuses for extrajudicial killings.
The police have nabbed two suspected human trafficking operatives in connection with the alleged removal of the womb of a 19-year-old girl in a disturbing case of gender-based violence and organ trafficking.
Commissioner of Police, CP Yemi Oyeniyi, made the disclosure on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, during the Command’s first quarter press briefing, where he outlined operational achievements from February to date.
According to a report filed on April 3, 2026, at about 5:30pm., a woman from Ekpan community in Uvwie local government area raised alarm after her teenage daughter returned home in a visibly deteriorated state of health.
The victim, who had been residing with her father in Okpaka, reportedly visited her mother in Ekpan, where concerns about her condition prompted questioning.
In her account, the 19-year-old disclosed that in September 2025, she and two friends were introduced to a woman identified as Blessing Mongo, 47, who allegedly linked them to another suspect, Esther, 32.
The suspects reportedly facilitated their movement under the pretext of travelling to Ivory Coast.
The victim alleged that shortly after arriving in Ivory Coast, she was injected with an unknown substance and subsequently taken to a hospital.
Upon regaining consciousness, she discovered that her abdomen had been surgically treated.
She further claimed that she was later returned to Nigeria and abandoned in Lagos before finding her way back to Delta State.
Following the report, police operatives arrested two suspects, Blessing Mongo and Esther, while investigations commenced.
The case has since been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for a more detailed probe.
Medical examination conducted as part of the investigation reportedly confirmed that the victim’s womb had been removed without her consent, raising serious concerns over an alleged organ trafficking operation.
Police authorities confirmed that the two suspects remain in custody as investigations continue, with efforts ongoing to apprehend other individuals linked to the case.
The police assured the public that justice would be pursued and urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities, particularly those involving human trafficking and exploitation.
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Unbelievable: Police say officer who publicly executed handcuffed Delta man was under “spiritual attack”
Police nab suspects over alleged removal of 19-yr-old girl’s womb
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