Headlines
Edo 2021: Kogi Athletes, Officials Test 100 Per Cent Negative to COVID-19
All 41 athletes and 35 officials from Kogi State in the 20th National Sports Festival have tested negative to COVID-19.
Kogi State government had persistently maintained that the state is COVID-19 free despite reports by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that it had some cases.
The state contingent, who arrived at the festival on Saturday, got their COVID-19 test results early Sunday.
They were reportedly subjected to a lengthy wait under the elements.
Observers noted that the suspicion from the NCDC officials was high and not unconnected with Kogi State’s official stance on the coronavirus disease, which has killed millions around the world and 2, 058 in Nigeria.
Recall that in the early days of the pandemic when panic measures were taken by many world leaders, the Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello, was caught on video declaring, “We ain’t got no COVID.”
He dismissed reports that he either had the disease or that it had reached his state.
The video, which subsequently went viral, was said to have set the pace for the governor’s controversial positions on the disease over the next year.
Governor Bello also refused to institute a universal mask mandate and would not join in the lengthy lockdowns adopted by his colleagues at the NCDC’s insistence.
He kept his state and economy open throughout and this set him on a collision course severally with the NCDC, the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, and other bodies in the coalition managing the disease for the country.
A top health official at the sports fiesta in Benin City said it was against this background that the closer-than-usual spotlight was put on the Kogi State contingent.
“The 100 per cent negative COVID-19 result for Kogi contingents in the ongoing sports festival in Benin is now raising questions. Could Governor Yahaya Bello have been right all along? Should we have listened more to him?” she queried.
The Guardian
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
