Saturday Edition
Sanctity of Truth Facebook.com/newtelegraph
Saturday, AUGUST 16, 2014 Vol. 1 No. 179
N150
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Nigeria’s most authoritative newspaper in politics and business
Doctors Without Borders:
It will take 6 months to curb Ebola spread
l Patients yet to receive experimental drug l Health commissioner claims Lagos yet to ‘get a penny’ from N1.9bn Ebola Fund l Ebola scare: Sick NYSC member abandoned in Ado-Ekiti l Catholic Church in Benue stops Holy Communion on tongues Appolonia Adeyemi, Muritala Ayinla, Adesina Wahab Ado-Ekiti
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s anxiety over the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease mounts, the humanitarian group, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), has said it will take about six months to bring the epidemic under control, noting that the outbreak in West Africa felt like “wartime, is moving, advancing”. There was also another dim report as the Lagos State government yesterday said it had yet to receive “a penny” from the N1.9 billion Ebola fund announced last week by President Goodluck Jonathan. International president of MSF, Joanne Liu, speaking after a 10-day trip to West Africa, said more experts were needed on the ground and was critical of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for declaring Ebola a “public health emergency of international concern” only on August 8. “We need people with a hands-on operational mindset,” to combat the outbreak, Reuters quoted Liu as saying at a news briefing in Geneva. The death toll from the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Northern Elders: Why we gave Jonathan ultimatum on Chibok l ACF kicks against pro-Jonathan rally Ndubuisi Ugah and Ibrahim Musa, Lagos/Kaduna
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lthough the Northern Elders Forum’s declaration that President Goodluck Jonathan should produce the over 200 abducted schoolgirls in Borno by October or forget re-election had drawn the Presidency’s ire, the group has maintained its action was justified. The ultimatum, according to a member of the group, Mr. Solomon Dalung, was premised on what they termed the federal government’s “ineptitude” in resolving the abduction of the Government
Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, students. Dalung, who alongside other members of the group issued the ultimatum to the president, told New Telegraph on Saturday that their grouse was because the federal government had failed to give “substantive reasons why the abducted girls were still being held more than 124 days”, after being taken hostage by the terror group, Boko Haram. Dalung said: “In our press conference, we mentioned specifically that in Gwoza, for over seven days, there was consistent attacks and killings of not less than 50 people everyday. There is even no political will to abate
such killings. But there is the political capacity to campaign for 2015. In other words, 2015 appears to the government as the only agenda in Nigeria. So, we must tie it to its own interest. If we do not tie it to its own interest, the government may not understand. “We have adopted a strategy that the government will understand because so many efforts by Nigerians to draw the attention of government, to the embarrassment that this country has suffered and the damage to our image, have all fallen on deaf ears. So, if 2015 is the issue, the president should know CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
The disc jockey with a billionaire father P.13 Conversation
TAIWO AJAI-LYCETT
‘Why brands ignore the movie industry’ P.22
Ideas & Brands
OKEY BAKASSI
‘Some people mistake fame for wealth’ P.18
Showbiz
MOSES ADIGWE
‘Winning Idol has been an
eye-opener’ P.21 Showbiz
ebola or not, life must continue lDJ Cuppy with her father, Femi Otedola, in his yacht
Why I resigned as APGA BoT leader - Peter Obi P.2
- Neighbours of hospital where Sawyer died p.42 Features