Headlines
COVID-19: NCDC Raises Alarm, Says Hospitals Won’t Be Able to Handle Serious Cases Soon
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says the country is now reaching a critical level, adding that the hospital capacity will no longer be able to cope with more serious COVID-19 cases.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this in a series of tweets on Monday while reacting to the spike in COVID-19 infections in the last one month.
Ihekweazu said this as the fear of COVID-19 spread at the National Identity Management Commission grew on Monday because Nigerians besieged the NIMC offices following the workers’ suspension of the strike they embarked upon on Thursday.
Recall that Nigerians have been trooping to the NIMC offices since December 14, 2020 when the Federal Government ordered telecommunications firms to disconnect telephone lines of subscribers who failed to link their NIN to their subscriber identification modules.
No fewer than 164 million Nigerians, whose telephone lines could be disconnected on the grounds of not having the NIN, have been thronging NIMC offices, disregarding COVID-19 protocols such as wearing of face masks and social distancing.
The matter came to a head on Thursday when the NIMC workers began a strike over the fear of COVID-19 spread in the agency.
The President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, NIMC unit, Asekokhai Lucky, had exclusively told The PUNCH on Thursday that three workers of the agency at its headquarters had been infected with COVID-19.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, had, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme earlier on Monday said the Federal Government might soon suspend the registration for the NIN.
The minister said, “My understanding is that the whole process may be suspended so as to reorder the whole process in terms of management of the crowd because it was never intended that it would become a rowdy process like that. So people may have to wait and be called at intervals to go through the process.
But later at a press conference of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mamora ruled out the suspension or postponement of the NIN, blaming the challenges on the attitude of Nigerians.
The Punch
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made changes in the hierarchy of the Service Chiefs in furtherance of the efforts of the federal government of Nigeria to strengthen the national security architecture.
The President appointed General Olufemi Oluyede to replace General Christopher Musa as the new Chief of Defence Staff.
The new Chief of Army Staff is Major-General W. Shaibu. Air Vice Marshall S.K Aneke is Chief of Air Staff while Rear Admiral I. Abbas is the new Chief of Naval Staff. Chief of Defence Intelligence Major-General E.A.P Undiendeye retains his position.
The President expressed appreciation to the outgoing Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa and the other Service Chiefs for their patriotic service, and dedicated leadership.
The President charges the newly appointed Service Chiefs to justify the confidence reposed in them to further enhance the professionalism, vigilance and comradeship that define the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
All appointments take immediate effect, Special Adviser to the President
Media and Public Communication, Mr Sunday Dare, said in a statement in Abuja.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned the trial of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, till Monday, October 27, to enable him to open his defence in the terrorism charges filed against him.
Justice James Omotosho fixed the new date on Friday, after Kanu informed the court that his former legal team, led by former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), had yet to release his case file to him.
At the resumed hearing, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) appeared for the Federal Government and reminded the court that the matter was fixed for Kanu to begin his defence as earlier directed.
However, no counsel represented Kanu.
He pleaded for an adjournment to allow him to retrieve and study the file to prepare adequately for his defence.
He said, “My lord, my counsel left the case yesterday, and I have not received the file from them.”
He also informed the court of his intention to call 23 witnesses, both local and foreign, and requested an order directing the Department of State Services to allow his foreign witnesses access to him.
Additionally, he sought permission for his lawyers to visit him on non-working days — a request Omotosho granted.
Counsel to the Federal Government, Awomolo, however, described Kanu’s complaint as “strange”, noting that the defendant had spent hours in court with his former lawyers. He further urged the court to strictly enforce its earlier directive giving Kanu six days to open and close his defence.
The prosecution said, “I’m aware that there is a standing order for the defendant to defend himself within six days. The defendant wasted yesterday. This is the second day, my lord. I urge your lordship to keep to the standing order of the number of days given to the defendant,” Awomolo said.
In his ruling, Omotosho said while Kanu’s claim about the withheld case file was “strange and difficult to believe”, he would still grant a short adjournment in the interest of justice.
The judge cautioned against unnecessary delays, stressing that several other cases had been affected by the protracted proceedings.
The matter was subsequently adjourned to Monday, October 27, for Kanu to open his defence.
US President, Donald Trump, has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire who built the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and later served prison time for compliance failures linked to money laundering and illicit activity.
The decision ends a months-long push by Zhao, known widely in the crypto world as “CZ”, to clear his record. The Binance founder has long been seen as one of the most influential figures in the digital asset space and a key supporter of the Trump family’s crypto ventures.
“Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice,” Zhao wrote on social media on Thursday.
The case against Zhao
Zhao served a four-month sentence for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, becoming the first person ever jailed under the law, which requires financial institutions to verify customers’ identities and report suspicious transactions.
Prosecutors said Zhao’s violations were unprecedented, accusing Binance of facilitating more than 1.5 million illegal crypto trades worth nearly $900 million. Those transactions allegedly included dealings with sanctioned groups such as Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, al-Qaida, and Iran.
Judge Richard Jones, who oversaw the case, said Zhao’s refusal to comply with US banking rules allowed Binance’s explosive growth. Prosecutors cited Zhao telling employees, Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, when referring to the company’s approach to regulation.
“I failed here,” Zhao told the court during sentencing. “I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”
Zhao’s rise is one of tech’s most striking rags-to-riches stories.
Born in rural China, he immigrated to Canada with his family after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. As a teen, he worked at McDonald’s before turning to tech in college.
He launched Binance in 2017, and within a few years, it had become a global powerhouse in digital finance.
White House defends pardon
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the pardon, saying the counsel’s office had thoroughly reviewed the request.
She accused the previous Biden administration of pursuing “an egregious oversentencing” and adopting a very hostile stance toward the crypto industry.
“President Trump wants to correct this overreach,” Leavitt said, drawing a clear contrast between the two administrations’ approaches to digital finance.
Trump’s move continues his pattern of using presidential clemency to aid political allies, public figures, and others convicted of controversial crimes.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has dropped several enforcement actions against crypto firms initiated under Biden and even dissolved a Justice Department unit focused on crypto-related crimes.
Trump and his sons have also embraced crypto. Their venture, World Liberty Financial, launched a dollar-backed stablecoin that gained early traction after an Abu Dhabi investment fund used $2 billion worth of the token to buy a stake in Binance.
Following news of Zhao’s pardon, the value of another Trump-linked token, World Liberty Finance’s secondary coin, surged sharply, outperforming every major cryptocurrency on Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap.
