Ihekweazu: COVID-19 Triggered Rapid Investment in Nigeria’s Health Security Four million vaccines expected from COVAX next week Festus Akanbi Exactly one year after Nigeria recorded its COVID-19 index case, the federal government yesterday stated that the pandemic had triggered
a rapid investment in the Nigerian health sector. Also yesterday, World Health Organisation disclosed that Nigeria would get its first four million doses of coronavirus vaccines next
week from the global COVAX programme for poor and middle-income countries. The index case was an Italian, who came to Nigeria on February 25, 2020 and whose health status was
confirmed on February 27, 2020. But taking stock of the management of the disease in Nigeria in the past one year, the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease
Control, (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, disclosed that COVID-19 had set in motion rapid investment in Nigeria’s health security, high level of coordination, collaboration, and solidarity across federal
and state governments. Listing specific gains so far, the director general said: “In one year, molecular laboratories have been Continued on page 5
Military Warns against Blocking Trucks Conveying Food from North to South… Page 6 Saturday 27 February, 2021 Vol 26. No 9456
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In Bid to Free Schoolgirls, Matawalle Taps Mastermind of Kankara Abduction Military, police, DSS in manhunt for captors No freedom yet for Kagara boys UN: Schoolgirls must be released unconditionally Buhari: We have the capacity to tame bandits; our limitation is the fear of heavy casualties of innocent people Our Correspondents In a desperate bid to secure freedom for the 317 female students abducted yesterday morning at Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, Governor Bello Matawalle has engaged Auwal Daudawa, who last December masterminded the abduction of over 300 students at Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, to help plead with the Jangebe kidnappers. While Matawalle is battling to free the schoolgirls, his counterpart in Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello is still struggling to secure freedom for the 17 students and workers of Government Science College in Kagara, abducted since February 19. In a swift reaction to the Jangebe abduction, President Muhammadu Buhari described the incident as inhumane and totally unacceptable, adding, Continued on page 5
BRAINSTORMING ON ECONOMIC GROWTH... L-R: Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele; Managing Director/CEO, Bank of Industry (BoI), Kayode Pitan; and Group Managing Director/CEO, Zenith Bank Plc, Ebenezer Onyeagwu at a special summit on the economy by bank CEOs under the CBN/Bankers Committee’s Initiative for Economic Growth, in Lagos… yesterday
Bandits Kill 6, Abduct 15 in Niger LGAs... Page 6