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313 New Cases of COVID-19 Recorded in Nigeria, Total Now ‪7,839

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Nigeria has recorded 313 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 7,839.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control made this known on Sunday.

Data from the NCDC showed that five more patients died of coronavirus-related complications in the country.

Nigeria currently has 5,350 active cases after discharging at least 89 patients on Sunday, The PUNCH reports.

The centre said, “On the 24th of May 2020, 313 new confirmed cases and 5 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.

“No new state has reported a case in the last 24 hours.

“Till date, 7839 cases have been confirmed, 2263 cases have been discharged and 226 deaths have been recorded in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The 313 new cases are reported from 17 states- Lagos (148), FCT (36), Rivers (27), Edo (19), Kano (13), Ogun (12), Ebonyi (11), Nasarawa (8), Delta (8), Oyo (7), Plateau (6), Kaduna (5), Kwara (4), Akwa Ibom (3), Bayelsa (3), Niger (2), Anambra (1).”

COVID-19 has killed at least 343,216 people since it first emerged in China last December.

Tally compiled by AFP as of 07 pm on Sunday showed that at least 5,362,160 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 2,079,300 are now considered recovered.

According to data from the World Health Organisation since 07 pm on Saturday, 3,441 new deaths and 99,827 new cases have been recorded worldwide.

The countries that registered the most deaths are Brazil with 965 followed by the United States with 951 and Mexico with 190.

The US, which registered its first case of the virus in early February, is the worst-hit country, with 97,430 deaths and 1,633,076 cases. At least 361,239 are now considered recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Britain with 36,793 deaths from 259,559 cases, Italy with 32,785 from 229,858 cases, Spain with 28,752 deaths and 235,772 cases and France with 28,367 deaths and 182,584 cases.

China – excluding Hong Kong and Macau – has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 82,974 cases. It has recorded 78,261 recoveries.

Europe overall has 173,915 deaths from 2,021,900 cases, the United States and Canada have 103,889 deaths from 1,717,158 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 39,166 deaths from 720,260 cases, Asia 13,992 deaths from 441,447 cases, the Middle East 8,805 deaths from 343,372 cases, Africa 3,314 deaths from 109,562 cases, and Oceania 130 deaths from 8,466 cases.

 

States Affected No. of Cases (Lab Confirmed) No. of Cases (on admission) No. Discharged No. of Deaths
Lagos 3,505 2,805 658 42
Kano 896 727 133 36
FCT 505 347 144 14
Katsina 308 243 51 14
Borno 250 81 144 25
Jigawa 241 159 78 4
Oyo 240 178 58 4
Bauchi 232 62 165 5
Ogun 231 123 101 7
Edo 191 126 58 7
Kaduna 189 68 116 5
Gombe 145 24 118 3
Rivers 116 78 30 8
Sokoto 116 12 90 14
Plateau 83 55 27 1
Kwara 79 44 34 1
Zamfara 76 8 63 5
Yobe 47 33 8 6
Nasarawa 46 26 18 2
Osun 42 5 33 4
Delta 39 19 13 7
Ebonyi 33 27 6 0
Kebbi 32 11 17 4
Niger 28 22 5 1
Adamawa 27 7 18 2
Akwa Ibom 24 9 13 2
Ondo 23 4 18 1
Ekiti 20 4 14 2
Enugu 18 12 6 0
Taraba 18 8 10 0
Bayelsa 11 5 6 0
Anambra 9 8 1 0
Imo 7 0 7 0
Abia 7 6 1 0
Benue 5 4 1 0

The Punch

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Trump Claims US Now in Total Control of Strait of Hormuz

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United States President, Donald Trump, says his country is now in “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz amid ongoing tensions with Iran over the reopening of the strategic waterway.

Trump made the claim while speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, saying the situation with Iran was progressing well despite continued disagreements between both countries.

“Iran is going fine – going just absolutely fine. We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it; nobody else, only us. Our navy is unbelievable, and things going great for our country,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.

“I don’t trust Iran. I’m the last person to trust Iran; they’ve lied to me constantly. We have total control over the Hormuz Strait right now; they don’t have control,” he added.

The claim comes as the United States and Iran continue to exchange demands over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, casting further uncertainty over negotiations aimed at ending their five-month conflict.

Although the US has confirmed its involvement in the talks, Iran maintains that it is negotiating directly only with Oman. Tehran has also proposed that the future management of the strategic waterway be shared with Oman.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global energy route, with about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passing through it before the US-Israel war with Iran began at the end of February.

On Monday, Trump said he would seek compensation from Iran for deaths and injuries associated with conflicts and attacks spanning several decades.

His position followed Iran’s demands for reparations over the war last week, as Tehran said it would not reopen the strait until Washington addresses its political and  economic conditions.

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ADC Rejects ICPC Report on PFIPC, Queries N1.3bn Budget Allocation to Fake Agency

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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), arguing that the findings leave some of the biggest questions surrounding the scandal unanswered.

The opposition party said the report appeared to focus more on limiting political fallout than establishing how a purported  government agency allegedly gained access to official institutions, occupied  government office space and received other forms of state recognition despite questions over its legal status.

The ADC’s position was contained in a statement issued on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi.

The controversy surrounding the PFIPC has intensified in recent weeks following allegations that the organisation operated as a government agency despite questions over its establishment, with its purported Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, facing scrutiny from law enforcement agencies and lawmakers.

The party said the ICPC’s interim findings had failed to provide satisfactory explanations for how the organisation allegedly secured office accommodation within the Federal Secretariat, attracted civil servants, obtained official recognition and appeared in the 2026 federal budget with a reported allocation of N1.3 billion.

The ADC recalled that it had previously opposed President Bola Tinubu’s decision to assign the investigation to the ICPC, insisting that an independent panel would have been better positioned to investigate the matter without questions about institutional proximity.

According to the opposition party, the interim nature of the ICPC report made it even more difficult to understand why the commission appeared to be pointing responsibility towards Adeyemi while simultaneously maintaining that its investigation was still ongoing.

“The report is not only predictable, it appears more concerned with exonerating government officials rather than providing clear answers to the serious questions that the scandal has raised,” the party said.

The ADC argued that the controversy could not simply be dismissed as an administrative failure.

It maintained that if the PFIPC was indeed established through fraudulent representations, there were still important questions about how those representations allegedly passed through several layers of government without being detected.

“A forgery may explain the first door that was opened. It cannot explain why every subsequent door appears to have opened as well,” the party said.

For the ADC, the central issue is not simply whether Adeyemi allegedly forged documents or misrepresented himself.

The party wants investigators to establish how an organisation whose legitimacy is now being questioned could allegedly secure office accommodation, civil servants, official vehicles and other institutional support.

It argued that such developments would ordinarily require interaction with multiple government departments and officials.

The party therefore questioned whether the alleged activities were facilitated by negligence, institutional failure or possible complicity within government.

The ADC also raised concerns over reports that the ICPC had identified two other allegedly fictitious organisations linked to Adeyemi.

Rather than viewing that development as evidence of an isolated individual operation, the party said it should prompt investigators to widen the scope of their inquiry.

One of the most significant issues raised by the opposition party was the reported N1.3 billion allocation to the PFIPC in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

The ADC argued that a provision of that magnitude should have generated a clear paper trail involving budget submissions, reviews, approvals and verification.

“Budgetary provisions do not materialise by accident,” the party said.

It consequently demanded to know who proposed the allocation, which government officials processed it and who verified the existence and legitimacy of the purported agency before the provision was included in the federal budget.

The party noted that the House of Representatives had already begun its own investigation into how the PFIPC allegedly found its way into the federal budget.

According to the ADC, the legislative inquiry could provide an opportunity to establish whether the budget allocation resulted from deliberate manipulation, administrative negligence or failures within the government’s budgetary verification system.

The opposition party also criticised the reported recommendation that Adeyemi be prosecuted.

It argued that the ICPC’s decision to single out the purported PFIPC director-general appeared premature if, as the commission itself indicated, its investigation remained ongoing.

“If all that the commission had to present was a preliminary report, why not simply present it as a confidential brief to the President instead of making a public drama of it?” the ADC asked.

The party said the investigation should not be structured around finding a convenient individual to blame but should instead establish everyone who may have played a role in allowing the alleged operation to continue.

The ADC described the controversy as a national embarrassment and called on the ICPC to release the full interim report rather than only selected findings.

It also demanded that any public officials whose actions or negligence enabled the purported agency to operate be identified and investigated.

The party stressed that anyone found culpable should face appropriate sanctions after due process.

“What has happened is a national disgrace in the full glare of the entire world. No serious  government should be satisfied with identifying one culprit for prosecution,” the party said.

The ADC maintained that Nigerians were not asking investigators to manufacture suspects or reach predetermined conclusions.

Rather, it said, the investigation should follow the evidence wherever it leads — including into government offices if necessary.

At the heart of the controversy, according to the opposition party, is a simple question: if the PFIPC is not a legitimate  government agency, how did it allegedly get so far inside the machinery of government without multiple officials noticing?

That, the ADC argued, is the question the ongoing investigations must ultimately answer.

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Atiku Raises Alarm over ‘Mysterious’ Credit into Private Bank Account

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Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has raised concerns over what he described as a suspicious and unauthorised payment into one of his private bank accounts.

In a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the transfer originated from an individual or entity unknown to him and carried the narration, “Contribution Electioneering Campaign.”

According to the statement, neither Atiku nor his campaign solicited, authorised or had any knowledge of the payment.

The former Vice President said the account was strictly private and its details were not in the public domain, raising concerns about how the information could have been obtained.

“How did unknown persons obtain the confidential banking details of a private citizen?”

Atiku said the incident raised broader concerns about the security of Nigerians’ financial information, particularly if the private banking details of a former Vice President and presidential candidate could allegedly be accessed without his consent.

“If the private banking information of a former Vice President and a leading presidential candidate can be accessed and deployed for reasons yet unknown, then no Nigerian’s financial privacy is safe.”

He further expressed concern that the alleged disclosure could have involved individuals with privileged access to confidential information.

According to him, if such access is established, it could expose account holders to criminal elements, including kidnappers, terrorists, bandits and fraudsters.

The former Vice President also called the attention of Nigerians and security agencies to the incident, describing it as part of what he termed a series of “suspicious activities” ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“We therefore put the Nigerian public and the security agencies on notice about this latest incident in a litany of suspicious activities leading up to next year’s general elections.”

Atiku also alleged that the incident could be part of an attempt to damage his reputation as political activities intensify ahead of the elections.

He urged Nigerians not to be distracted by what he described as “tired tactics” aimed at character assassination.

“Such desperate antics have failed before and will fail again.”

The ADC presidential candidate said he remained focused on his political agenda and his stated commitment to providing solutions to the country’s challenges.

“The Waziri Adamawa remains focused on offering Nigerians credible leadership and practical solutions to the nation’s challenges.”

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