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COVID-19: UPTH Set To Tackle Pandemic In N’Delta, CMD Assures
The management of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) says the hospital is ready to tackle any atom of suspected Coronavirus in Rivers State and across the Niger Delta region.
This is as the hospital insisted that there was no case of the pandemic in the state even as the hospital has not recorded any patient with such virus.
“There is no single confirmed case of Coronavirus in Rivers State, even in UPTH complex”, the Chief Medical Director, Prof Henry Arinze Ugboma, said.
Briefing newsmen at the hospital complex over the weekend, the CMD, said COVID-19 had hit over 125 countries and had been declared as a pandemic to the lives of humans across the globe.
Represented by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Prof Princewill Stanley, Ugboma said only two confirmed cases of the virus were recorded in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos and Ogun states.
He noted that UPTH was competent and capable to tackle the scourge, if reported, even as he said the hospital has enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the hospital.
The hospital, CMD said, was in strong collaboration with the Rivers State Government to tackle the menace, if any outbreak, as it had competent team of experts to tackle the virus.
“In Rivers State, we have taken a very strong leadership role by carrying out training. UPTH has benefited a lot, and there has been heightened state of readiness on the pandemic”, the CMD said.
“We have heightened our readiness to tackle the pandemic in the state, we have the competence and capacity to tackle the scourge,” he said.
Ugboma, who debunked claims that a suspected patient with the virus reported to the hospital for treatment, said, such information, was false, as UPTH did not attend to any of such case as speculated.
He admonished Nigerians to practice safe hygiene and maintain regular hand washing to reduce the possible contraction of the virus through person-to-person.
The CMD said the hospital had created 23 hand washing points in the clinics and wards for staff and patients to curb cross infection.
“We are practicing safe hygienic conduct in UPTH, we are also making hygienic hand washing compulsory as we have created over 23 hand washing points in the hospital”, Ugboma said.
He added, “We have posters containing steps on how to minimise the scourge, we also have some PPE in our hospital to tackle the virus”.
He advised Nigerians to keep a distance from persons coughing or sneezing to avoid any possible contraction of the virus.
However, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced a suspected case of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Enugu State.
This was disclosed via its official Twitter handle: @ncdcgov, yesterday.
The centre stated that the suspected person had been isolated and sample collected for further verification.
It added that the result of the medical test would be out by today.
The statement on the Twitter handle reads: “Nigeria Centre for Disease Control is aware of the patient in Enugu, suspected to have #COVID19.
“This is one of several alerts received daily at the National #COVID19 Emergency Operations Centre.
“The patient is in isolation, sample collected and results expected tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, the Enugu State Government has also confirmed the suspected case, but assured residents that the state’s Ministry of Health was on top of the situation.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Chidi Aroh, told newsmen that the ministry’s officials were able to detect the case due to its high surveillance of health security.
Aroh said the ministry had earlier issued a statement on the suspected case after reporting the situation to the NCDC.
The commissioner appealed to residents to remain calm as the suspect was being closely monitored.
Chinedu Wosu
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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