Category: General News

President Muhammadu Buhari has secured 2,931,235 votes at the just concluded presidential primary election held across the 484 wards in the 44 local government areas of Kano State.

The figure is contained in a statement signed by Mr Abba Anwar, the Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje, and made available to newsmen in Kano on Saturday.
According to him, Ganduje announced the result of the election at the party collation centre.

He explained that the governor retired to the state party secretariat, which served as the collation centre for the exercise after casting his vote at his Ganduje Ward in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of the state.

Ganduje assured Kano’s total support to the candidature of Buhari as the sole candidate who will carry the party’s flag come 2019.

“Our support is without any doubt looking at the result of this all-encompassing and highly participatory process,’’ Anwar quoted the governor saying after announcing the result.

He attributed the massive turnout of registered party members during the primary to stakeholders’ effort at mobilising party members to consolidate the gains of direct primary election process.

“People believe that President Muhammadu Buhari is up and doing. While APC manifesto is a clear and direct manifestation of Buhari’s love for the country.

“Ours is just to replicate the good work enunciated by this complete gentleman, our dear leader,” Ganduje said in the statement. (NAN

A U.S.-based Nigerian heart surgeon, Dr Jonathan Nwiloh, said that he had carried out free heart surgeries for no fewer than 200 indigent Nigerians in need of life-saving interventions.

Nwiloh told the News Agency of Nigeria that the open heart surgeries were carried out through his foundation, Joe Nwiloh Heart Foundation, in the last 15 years.

The Nigerian founder of the foundation said that he had a passion to help advance the field of cardiovascular surgery in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.

He said: “Over the last 15 years since reintroducing open heart surgery in Nigeria, I have been performing free open heart surgeries for indigents who were otherwise doomed to untimely death without these life-saving surgeries.

“We have performed free heart surgeries to more than 200 indigents and also trained hundreds on emergency cardiovascular resuscitation for cardiac arrest victims,’’ he said.

According to World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide while in Africa, it is second to HIV and AIDS and projected to become the overall number one killer over the next decade.

Nwiloh said that because more than 70 per cent of the populations of sub-Saharan Africa live below poverty level, majority of patients needing this life-saving modern surgery do not have access and often die prematurely.

“Joe Nwiloh Heart Foundation was founded to help tackle some of these societal challenges, which we have been championing over the last 15 years.

“To extend the benefits to more people, we are trying to form partnerships and solicit support for expansion of our various programmes to transform more lives,’’ he said.

He explained that the foundation had partnered the Federal Government and several state Governments, including Lagos, Kaduna State and Anambra since 2003, when Nigeria was in dire need.

“More than 15 years ago, I reintroduced the practice of open heart surgery in Nigeria after the only programme at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Nsukka, shut down over a decade earlier

“I subsequently helped to establish several heart surgery programmes after demonstrating that it could be performed safely in Nigeria with acceptable outcomes leading to its proliferation across the country.

“This led to my partnership with Anambra Government under then Gov. Peter Obi, with the establishment of Dr Joe Nwiloh Heart Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Adazi.

“The hospital is presently the only heart surgery programme in the whole South-East and South-South geo-political zones outside of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu.

“We are starting in Nigeria but intend to extend the training to other countries in sub Saharan Africa; we are also forming partnerships with other Nigerian and international non-governmental organizations,’’ he said.(NAN)

Members of Lagos State House of Assembly have adopted Mr Babajide Sanwo-olu to be chosen as the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the party’s governorship primary election on Sunday.

Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode, who is seeking a second term in office, has been at loggerheads with party stakeholders in the state.

Mrs Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy, Publicity and Security, said in a statement that the lawmakers had resolved to support the governorship ambition of Sanwo-olu.

Tejuosho said that the decision was taken at a parliamentary meeting at Lateef Jakande Auditorium in the House of Assembly Complex on Saturday under the chairmanship of the Speaker, Mr Mudashiru Obasa.

Tejuoso said out of the 40 members of the House, 36 were present at the meeting and endorsed the decision, adding that the statement was duly signed all the lawmakers.

Tejuosho said that the lawmakers were in agreement with the leadership of the party and the Governor’s Advisory Council which earlier endorsed Sanwo-olu for the governorship ticket.

Ambode’s second term ambition has been facing opposition within his party following speculations that he had fallen out of favour with his political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu is said allegedly supporting Sanwo-Olu, a former commissioner in the state, who has already declared his intention to contest the governorship on election on the platform of APC.

Analysts view the development as a trying political season for Ambode, who has since announced his readiness for the party’s direct primary on Sept. 30 to slug it out with his opponents.

Another APC governorship aspirant in the state, Mr Femi Hamzat, a former commissioner for works, has reportedly stepped down his ambition to support Sanwo-olu.

Local government chairmen and former council sole administrators in the state are among groups rooting for Sanwo-olu to succeed Ambode in 2019. (NAN)

Mr Victor Emuankhagbon, the Chairman of Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo, on Saturday confirmed that six deaths were recorded in the flooded communities in the area.

Emuankhagbon disclosed this when he received a delegation of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and officials of the Federal Ministry of Health at Ubiaja.

He said from the casualties, one of the bodies was yet to be recovered from the flooded area.

He said no fewer than 42 communities, 8,000 houses and 35,150 were affected by the flood.

The council boss, who also bemoaned the time of response by the concerned agencies, called for a change of attitude in the manner specific responsibilities were handled by those mandated to implement them.

He also called for effective measures against natural disaster such as flooding.

According to the chairman, “the time has come for those saddled with responsibilities that affect Nigerians to focus more on long term plans rather than short term solutions.

“We are reacting to the crisis in the same old ways by adopting quick fix, temporary approach, thereafter, we all go home and relax until it happens again.

“We do this over and over again. The truth is that the time has come for us to start planning ahead because if we fail to plan, we are planning to fail.” (NAN)