IMO BREAKING NEWS BLOG

The number of monkeypox cases has risen to 157 in the country, according to health authorities. In its situation report for week 30, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the cases were recorded across 26 states since January.

From January 1 to July 31, 2022, NCDC said four deaths were recorded from 4 states – Delta (1), Lagos (1), Ondo (1) and Akwa Ibom (1). The report also showed that there were at least 413 suspected cases of the disease in the country. It stated that for last week, 56 suspected cases were reported across 19 states, with Ondo topping the list after recording 13 cases.

“There were fifty-six (56) new suspected cases reported in Epi week 30, 2022 (25th to 31st July 2022) from nineteen (19) states – Ondo (13), Plateau (8), Lagos (6), Adamawa (4), Abia (3), Borno (3), Delta (2), Kano (3), Anambra (2), Bayelsa (2) , Kwara (2), Akwa Ibom (1), Gombe (1), Imo (1), Nasarawa (1), Osun (1), Oyo (1), Rivers (1) and Taraba (1),” the report read in part. “Of fifty-six (56) suspected cases, there were twenty-four (24) new confirmed positive cases in Epi week 30, 2022 from twelve (12) states – Ondo (5), Kano (3), Lagos (3), Abia (2), Adamawa (2), Bayelsa (2), Kwara (2), Delta (1), Anambra (1), Gombe (1), Rivers (1) and Nasarawa (1).

“From 1st January to 31st July 2022, there have now been 413 suspected cases and 157 confirmed cases (105 male, 52 female) from twenty-six (26) states – Lagos (20), Ondo (14), Adamawa (13), Delta (12), Bayelsa (12), Rivers (11), Edo (8), Nasarawa (8), Plateau (6), Anambra (6), FCT (5), Taraba (5), Kwara (5), Kano (5), Imo (4), Cross River (3), Borno (3), Oyo (3), Abia (3), Gombe (3), Katsina (2), Kogi (2), Niger (1), Ogun (1), Bauchi (1) and Akwa Ibom (1). “Four deaths were recorded from 4 states – Delta (1), Lagos (1), Ondo (1) and Akwa Ibom (1).

“Overall, since the re-emergence of monkeypox in September 2017 and to 31st July 2022, a total of 925 suspected cases have been reported from 35 states in the country.”

Frenkie de Jong "wants to stay" at Barcelona despite interest from Manchester United, says the club's president Joan Laporta. The Premier League side agreed a £63.5m deal for the Netherlands midfielder, 25, last month, but the move is yet to be finalised. 

De Jong came on at half-time and scored in Barcelona's 6-0 friendly win over Pumas UNAM on Sunday. "He is a Barca player of great quality and we want him to stay," said Laporta. "He has offers but we want him to stay and he wants to stay too." De Jong has been linked with a move to Chelsea, but is also a key target for new Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, whose side lost 2-1 at home to Brighton on Sunday in his first game in charge.

Reports have suggested Barcelona want De Jong to take a wage cut should he remain at the Nou Camp, amid the club's financial troubles. The club are currently involved in a disagreement with De Jong over wages deferred by the Dutchman in the last couple of years which are now due to be paid.

Barcelona have so far spent over £120m this summer on new signings Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, with Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie arriving on free transfers. Meanwhile, Chelsea's Spain left-back Marcos Alonso is also close to joining the club.

The 14th Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has lamented the current state of the nation, saying Nigeria will not be where it is if public office holders take their job seriously.

Sanusi, who spoke in Lagos on Sunday at a stage play titled “Emir Sanusi: Truth in Time”, charged politicians to be accountable to the people. The former Kano Emir recalled how he wrote a confidential letter to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor voicing his strong concerns about the economy.

“If every President, every governor, every minister, every commissioner took seriously, this country will not be where it was,” he stated. “If people are willing to be ministers, commissioners, governors and presidents for eight years, and not tell us how they have improved our lives, we have a problem.” He asked Nigerians to take charge of the country, he said Africa’s most populous nation will not move forward until actual steps are taken.

The ex-CBN governor also spoke on why he usually criticises government policies he found not to be good enough, saying what many do not know is that he would have advised the officials privately for months before going public.

Governor Samuel Ortom has written President Muhammadu Buhari for firearm licensing for the newly established Benue State Community Volunteer Guards inaugurated last week to provide surveillance and intelligence gathering in the wake of persistent herdsmen attacks.

Ortom who disclosed this on Monday while playing host to a delegation from the Northern Christian Women Coalition at the Government House in Makurdi, says the move became necessary following the legitimated process of establishing the Guards to help restore peace in the troubled parts of the state.

He said the President he knows would approve his request to also empower his people against their transducers or at best, leave room for a fair level of response on the defences of his people.

During the launch last week, the guards, the Governor said, are designed to address community security and safety. According to him, the volunteer guards were not established for political purposes ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Frank Lampard must find striker or Everton's season could make dangerous false start

The last thing Everton needed after scraping over the line to survive at the end of one season, was to leave themselves hostages to fortune at the start of the next. Everton did plenty right despite starting the season with a 1-0 defeat at home by Chelsea, but an avoidable flaw was brutally exposed at Goodison Park and must be addressed instantly.

The sale of Richarlison to Tottenham for £60m was an inevitable consequence of last season's struggles, the talisman who did so much to keep Everton in the Premier League understandably seeking a higher stage on the Champions League. Everton's backroom team, and a board who claim they have learned the lessons from their own ruinous mistakes and transfer policies, would have been well advised to have lined up the Brazilian's replacement in swift order, shortly after his departure for north London at the very latest.

The need is now even more urgent as Salomon Rondon looks a spent force, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin's increasingly concerning injury record should have had alarm bells ringing after starting only 15 games in all competitions last season. Everton's failure to act was punished when Calvert-Lewin suffered a knee injury in training days before the start of the season that rules him out for six weeks.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on Sunday said it has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari for imposing fines on media houses for allegedly glorifying terrorism.

SERAP also wants the court to “declare arbitrary and illegal the N5 million imposed on Trust TV, Multichoice Nigeria Limited, NTA-Startimes Limited and TelcCom Satellite Limited, over their documentaries on terrorism in the country.” The suit which was co-filed by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) joined as defendants.

NBC imposed the fines on the media house on the grounds that their documentaries glorified the activities of bandits and undermined national security, an act that contravenes the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. But the groups in suit number FHC/L/CS/1486/2022 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Lagos, SERAP and CJID are seeking: “an order setting aside the arbitrary and illegal fines of N5 million and any other penal sanction unilaterally imposed by the NBC on these media houses simply for carrying out their constitutional duties.”

“The NBC and Mr Lai Mohammed have not shown that the documentaries by the media houses would impose a specific risk of harm to a legitimate State interest that outweighs the public interest in the information provided by the documentaries,” a statement issued by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, partly read.