By Francesca Hangeior

The Abia State Governor, Mr Alex Otti, has reiterated that health care is at the top of his administration’s agenda.

Otti stated this on Sunday when he received a delegation from Belgium, the Revive Medical Team, who came for a Medical Mission in Abia State for the second time.

He thanked the medical team for keeping its promise of coming again to the state for a free medical mission and said that the reports he received from last year’s mission were positive.

He said, “I want to let you know that healthcare delivery is topmost on our agenda. We have driven the healthcare delivery system in Abia from where it was when we came in 2023 to the present level. We are not there yet, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

“The reports I got after you left were very positive. As at the time I was inviting you, I had not gotten the feedback but interacting with you and seeing how serious you were, I was led to say come back next year.

“Just about a year ago, you were here and I had requested that you return and get the government fully integrated into the medical mission”.

The governor assured the team that adequate arrangements had been made to make them comfortable as they carried out the medical mission.

He seized the opportunity to announce that he would be flagging off the reconstruction of 200 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) to be delivered in 100 days. He said that by the time he is through with the reconstruction of the first 200 healthcare centres, he would commence another set of 200 and would continue until all the Primary Healthcare Centres in Abia State are rehabilitated and retrofitted.

“By Monday this week, we will be flagging off the retrofitting and rehabilitation of 200 Primary Healthcare Centers. These primary healthcare centres must be delivered in 100 days.

“We took our time to design a prototype of a Primary Healthcare Center in Abia State. So, when you walk into a primary healthcare centre, you will know it is a primary healthcare centre in Abia State.

“By the time we are done with the first set of 200, we will also flag off another 200 until all the 948 primary healthcare centres are fully rehabilitated”, Otti assured.

By Francesca Hangeior

A mortuary worker has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for hawking body parts including fetuses to a sicko collector covered in face tattoos and piercings.

37 year-old Candace Chapman Scott sold the human remains from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Anatomical Gift Program to Jeremy Lee Pauley, a heavily pierced Pennsylvania man she met on a Facebook group that “openly discussed the sale of body parts,” according to Jonathan D. Ross, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

At her sentencing, Judge Brian S. Miller called her crimes “some of the worst I’ve ever seen” and sentenced Ross, of Little Rock, for transporting stolen human body parts out of the state and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Last April, she pleaded guilty to the charges.

Scott’s disgusting deeds, which included selling a skull, brain, arm, ear, several lungs, hearts, breasts, a belly button, and testicles, along with other parts — occurred between October 2021 and July 15, 2022, prosecutors said.

Pauley, 42, a self-described “oddities collector,” paid her $10,625 for 24 body part boxes, part of a twisted underground national network of body snatching from Harvard Medical School and the Arkansas mortuary.
When investigators searched Scott’s home, they found several body parts and she admitted to bagging them at her job.

The heartless morgue worker even told Pauley that the wrong ashes from a cremated body would be returned “to the parents of the deceased fetuses,” prosecutors said.

“Imagine learning that the cremated remains of your child given to you after their death were not actually those of your child, because instead, the FBI recovered the body of that child in another state. That is the shocking truth that happened in this case for the family of “Baby Lux,” Ross, said in a press release.

“Baby Lux was named ‘Lux Siloam,’ which means ‘light sent,’ and now his light has illuminated an evil and dark underworld of criminals who engage in the trafficking of stolen human bodies and body parts,” he added.

At the sentencing, Doneysha Smith, Lux’s mother, told the judge she was heartbroken after hearing of the heinous crimes.
She’s haunted at night by “my son being sent around the mail like an Amazon package,” the Gazette reported.

Miller, meanwhile, sobbed before her sentencing and apologized.

The FBI called it a “truly incomprehensible and detestable crime.”

“This sentencing does not reverse the immeasurable damage that has been caused to the victimized families, however, the FBI and our partners will continuously work to ensure justice is served for all,” said FBI Little Rock Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder.

For his part, Pauley is on bond awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in Pennsylvania to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property, according to the Gazette.

By Francesca Hangeior

On the eve of his swearing-in ceremony, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump told supporters that he would implement anti-immigration measures from day one of his second term in office.

“By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt.

“All the illegal border trespassers will, in some form or another, be on their way back home,” the Republican said at a rally in Washington.

As during his election campaign, Trump used broad generalisations and portrayed undocumented migrants living in the U.S. as criminals.

While there has been a rise in crime in some areas of the U.S., experts attribute this to complex socio-political causes.

There is no evidence of a migrants-driven crime wave, nor of migrants committing crimes at higher rates than U.S. nationals.

One of Trump’s key election promises was to carry out mass deportations.

To implement this plan, Trump has nominated several right-wing hardliners to join his government.

According to U.S. media, the first raids are set to begin shortly after his swearing-in on Monday.

These are initially planned in Chicago and may also extend to other cities.

The action is scheduled to last for a week.