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Pate Lauds U.S. Govt, Partners Over $900m Investment In Malaria, Others

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The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, has commended U.S. Government and other partners for investing $900million in Nigeria’s malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis programmes.
He made the commendation in Abuja when he received the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Dr John Nkengasong.
Also among the delegation was Executive Director, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Peter Sands, and U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), Dr David Walton.
According to Pate, the US Government support which is about $900million over the years is already a significant amount of support.
The minister said: “We appreciate the generosity of the American people and American government and other governments that contribute to the global fund because the global fund comprises seven countries, not only the United States Government.”
Pate said that the visit symbolised the significance that the delegation places on the health and well-being of Nigerians and on Nigeria’s positioning in the global effort to improve people’s health.
He, however, said that financing and technical capability were not the only challenges the nation’s health sector faced though financing was very important.
Pate said that overall governance was very important and that the ministry would support the vision of President Bola Tinubu to ensure the health sector was better covered.
He added: “Which means that to govern health better, we have to look at the intergovernmental aspects as well as what we do as a Federal Government.
“We have to do it with our development partners like yourself and others who are going to come after to serve Nigerians, to improve their health and wellbeing and have good data to tell the story of where we are going.
“To hold ourselves accountable and also hold you accountable, even as the source countries also called institutions accountable. That’s the pillar of governance.”
Pate said that to strengthen the platform for delivery of health services, the nation had to retrain and update standards of practice for its frontline health workers.
The U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, Dr David Walton, commended Nigeria on the progress that had been made in healthcare deliverables, especially ensuring that Nigerians were protected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He added that the global fund was proud to be a partner with Nigeria and the fund has a lot at stake.
Walton said: “Nigeria is the country that receives more global fund investments than any other country in the world so your success is our success.
“We are completely united with you in the objective of saving lives, improving the health systems, improving health and well-being for people all across this country.
“This visit is a very deliberate effort to ensure we are coordinated in supporting you and particularly at this really important moment where we have a new government, new president, new leadership in Ministry of Health.
“We want to be aligned in the way we put our resources and capabilities behind the government. We are delighted to engage in these discussions, but we should see this as just a first step of ongoing dialogue.”
“However, it is also about action because ultimately it’s the actions that counts and that is what will save people’s lives and improve people’s health.”
Also at the event, the 2022 Nigeria Malaria Report was inaugurated.
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, acknowledged the commitment of the Global Fund and the US Government through PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative, which continues to support disease elimination efforts in the African region.
The director said that as one of the region’s largest and most economically important countries, Nigeria had a major role in tackling disease prevention and control among its population.
She, however, said that Nigeria had made great strides in improving the health of its population and that the country made progress on HIV between 2015 and 2021, meeting two of the 95-95-95 goals.
According to her, tuberculosis intervention coverage is improving, with increasing case detection over the same period.
Moeti said: “The African Region carries a high proportion of the global malaria burden, accounting for about 95per cent of all malaria cases and 96 percent of all malaria deaths in 2021.
“While Nigeria accounts for around 27percent of the global burden of malaria cases, the country has seen major progress.
“Malaria incidence has fallen by 26percent since 2000, from 413 per 1000 to 302 per 1000 in 2021. Malaria deaths also fell by 55percent, from 2.1 per 1000 population to 0.9 per 1000 population.”
Moeti said that the drivers of the continuing disease burden include the size of Nigeria’s population, making scaling up intervention challenging; suboptimal surveillance systems, which pick up less than 40percent of the country’s malaria data.
Also, inadequate funding to ensure universal interventions across all states and health seeking behaviour, where people use the private sector, with limited regulation, preferentially.
She added: “Further, learning from COVID-19, we know that continuity of provision of essential health services is critical to interventions in malaria and other diseases.
“This is particularly in populations affected by humanitarian emergencies and changing environmental factors, such as climate change, and farming and mining practices that may increase transmission.
“Addressing the prevention, elimination, and control of malaria and the burden from other diseases requires critical data and information gathering for evidence-based investment and decision-making.”
According to her, the report on malaria in Nigeria 2022 is an excellent model from which to use data to prioritise health interventions.
Moeti added that using data, Nigeria could prioritise and target interventions, optimise allocation of resources and facilitate the monitoring of performance at federal and state levels.
She also said that the report was a result of the collaboration between the Nigeria Malaria Elimination Programme, the WHO Regional Office for Africa, and the Global Malaria Programme.
It provides critical information on the status of malaria in each of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, making it unique in providing data at the state level.
According to her, this is to guide a truly subnational response to malaria, providing an overview of the malaria situation across all states.
Also focusing on population demographics, malaria interventions, climate and disease burden.
“Going forward, the regional office must support the generation of the data and evidence required to develop similar reports on other diseases and conditions.
“This will enable countries to monitor interventions at national and sub-national level, to tailor the use of funds by donors and government in the control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
“WHO will continue to play a central and connecting role in working with government, the global fund, PEPFAR, PMI and other partners in Nigeria, at national and state level, to optimise investments to reduce the burden of malaria and other diseases in the country.”

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Drug Party: NDLEA Arrests Over 100 Suspects At Lagos Night Club 

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Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday arrested over 100 suspects at Proxy Night club located at No. 7, Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, where a drug party was going on.

Spokesman of the Agency, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this yesterday, said the suspects arrested include the owner of the club, Mike EzeNwalieNwogu, alias Pretty Mike, who was taken into custody for screening.

“Cartons of illicit substances, including Loud and laughing gas, were recovered from suspects at the party and the club’s store,” Babafemi said.

The raid followed intelligence about the drug party. NDLEA operatives who were embedded in the party between 11 pm on Saturday, 25th October, however, disrupted the gathering at 3 am on Sunday, 26th October, in line with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Similarly, NDLEA said a total of 70 parcels of cocaine factory packed in walls of cocoa butter formula body cream containers heading to London, United Kingdom, were uncovered at the export shed of the MurtalaMuhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, with three suspects arrested in a series of follow-up operations across Lagos.

According to the statement, “The cocaine consignments weighing 3.60 kilograms were discovered on 14th October 2025 during examination of cargoes packaged as personal effects going to London, UK on an Air Peace flight.

“A cargo agent, Lawal Mustapha Olakunle, who presented the consignment for airfreight, was promptly arrested while investigations stretching into two weeks led to the arrest of two principal suspects linked to the attempt to export the concealed Class A drug to the UK.

“In a follow up operation on 18th October, a female healthcare worker OgunmuyideTaiwo Deborah was arrested following which Mutiu Adebayo Adebiyi, the Chief Executive Officer of a travel agency, MutiuAdebiyi& Co, was arrested at his 23 LadokeAkintola Street, Ikeja GRA Lagos office on Monday 20 th October”.

In a similar development, an attempt by a 35-year-old Lesotho national, Lemena Mark, to export 103.59 grams of methamphetamine concealed in a diabeta herbs coffee tea pack to the Philippines on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from the AkanuIbiam International Airport (AIIA) Enugu on Wednesday, 22nd October, was thwarted by NDLEA officers who arrested him and recovered the illicit drug.

No fewer than 21,950 capsules of tramadol 250mg concealed inside a 100-litre water heater were recovered from a suspect, Umar Abubakar, 40, who was arrested by NDLEA operatives at Bode Saadu, Morro local government area of Kwara state, following credible intelligence on Tuesday, 21st October.

In Taraba, the duo of Auwal Musa, 26, and SalihuBala, 22, were arrested on Tuesday, 21st October, with 450,000 pills of tramadol and Exol-5 at Dan-anacha checkpoint while conveying the consignment in a truck loaded with building materials from Onitsha, Anambra state, to Mubi, Adamawa state.

Also, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Okene/Lokoja highway, Kogi state, seized 162.200kg skunk, a strain of cannabis, from a truck on Friday, 24th October. Operatives in Nasarawa state on Wednesday, 22nd October, recovered 128kg of the same psychoactive substance from a suspect, Abubakar Muhammad, 55, in the Keffi area of the state.

A mother of two, Oyonumoh Glory Effiong, who is a major distributor of Canadian and California Loud, both strong strains of cannabis, in Lekki, Ajah, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and VGC areas of Lagos, has been arrested by NDLEA operatives on Friday, 17th October, during a raid at her Lekki home, where 500 grams of the illicit substances were recovered.

In the Ikorodu area of Lagos, NDLEA officers on Thursday, 23rd October, raided the home of a suspect, OgunyaboAdenigbigbe, at Solomade estate, where 275 litres of skuchies, a new psychoactive substance produced with black currant drink, cannabis and opioids, were recovered.

A 75-year-old grandpa, EchenduOnuoka, was arrested on Wednesday, 22nd October, at Ovum village, Obingwa LGA, Abia state, with 4.7kg skunk seized from him, while a 60-year-old grandma, Aukana John, was nabbed with 225 grams of the same substance at Apanta village, in the same LGA.

While a 150kg skunk was recovered during a raid operation at Lot camp, IkunAkoko, Ondo state, two suspects: Bashir Mohammad, 50, and Samini Ahmed Tijjani, 35, were nabbed with 234.5kg of the same substance at Yan aya ,Saminaka in Lere LGA, Kaduna on Friday, 24th October, just as another set of suspects: IsahUsman, 50, and Salvation Okoler, 18, were arrested with 8,600 pills of tramadol 225mg and rohypnol along Abuja/Kaduna highway.

At the Seme border area of Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, 22nd October nabbed Jacob Ojugbele with 55kg skunk at Ashipa area of Badagry, while AmusaOluwabukola was arrested with 121.3 litres of skuchies at ItogaBadagry.

In Zamfara state, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Gummi-Anka road on Monday, 20th October arrested a suspect, Abubakar Ibrahim, 30, in possession of an AK-47 rifle and 1,746 assorted calibres of ammunition, for AK-47 and GPMG  rifles while moving them from Sokoto  to Bagega forest, Anka LGA, Zamfara. Both the suspect and the exhibits have since been handed over to the appropriate security agency for further investigation.

With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities, among others, in the past week.

These include: WADA sensitization lecture to students and staff of Asabari Grammar School, IluwaIsaleOke, Saki West LGA, Oyo; Government Day Girls Secondary School, BirninKebbi, Kebbi; St. Mark’s College, Nsude, Enugu; Kusaki Secondary School, Gboko North, Benue; Government Day Secondary School, Serti- Baruwa, Gashaka LGA, Taraba; Police Children School 2, Port Harcourt, Rivers and Hajara Ahmad International School, Tudun Wada, Kano state, among others.

While commending the officers and men of MMIA, AIIA, Lagos, Kwara, Abia, Nasarawa, Kogi, Ondo, Anambra, Taraba, Kaduna, Seme and Zamfara Commands for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed BubaMarwa (Rtd) urged them and their colleagues across the country to continue the Agency’s balanced approach to drug control efforts.

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SERAP Demands NNPCL Account For Oil Revenues, Threatens Legal Action 

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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), BayoOjulari, to provide a detailed account of oil revenues reportedly flagged by the Auditor-General of the Federation in the 2022 annual report.

The report, published on September 9, 2025, raised questions over the management of multi-billion-naira transactions, including over N22 billion, $49 million, £14 million, and €5 million in oil-related revenue, handled by the national oil company.

In a letter dated October 25, 2025, and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, KolawoleOluwadare, the organisation called on Ojulari to ensure transparency by identifying those responsible for any unaccounted funds and forwarding the findings to the appropriate anti-corruption agencies.

“These findings raise serious concerns about transparency and accountability in the management of public resources,” SERAP said.

The group urged the NNPCL to recover any unremitted or misapplied funds and return them to the national treasury, stressing that proper management of oil revenues was crucial for national development.

“The allegations, if not promptly and transparently addressed, could undermine public confidence and economic stability,” SERAP stated.

According to the organisation, the Auditor-General’s report drew attention to issues such as irregular payments, uncompleted projects, and documentation lapses relating to oil sector transactions.

SERAP argued that corruption and financial mismanagement in the oil sector had long hindered Nigeria’s ability to channel its vast petroleum wealth into improved public services.

“Despite the country’s enormous oil resources, citizens continue to face hardship due to a lack of accountability and transparency in revenue management,” the statement noted.

The organisation maintained that if the flagged funds were properly accounted for, more resources could be made available for sectors such as education, healthcare, and social welfare.

It added that the NNPCL must take proactive steps to comply with audit recommendations, including closing identified loopholes and enhancing oversight on contract execution.

SERAP also warned that it would take legal action should the NNPCL fail to respond within seven days.

“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and publication of this letter.

“If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel compliance in the public interest,” the organisation said.

The group cited Section 15(5) of the Nigerian Constitution, which mandates public institutions to prevent corrupt practices and abuse of power.

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N’Assembly Committee Approves New State ForS’East

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The Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Constitution Review has approved the creation of an additional state in the South-East geo-political zone.

According to a statement by the media unit of the committee, the resolution was reached on Saturday at a two-day retreat in Lagos, where it reviewed 55 proposals for state creation across the country.

The session, chaired by the Deputy Senate President, BarauJibrin, and co-chaired by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, resolved that, in the spirit of fairness and equity, the Federal Government should create another state for the region.

Kalu, who joined other lawmakers to champion additional state creation for the region, argued that a new state would give the people a sense of belonging.

When created, the South-East will be at par with the South-South, South-West, North-Central, and North-East zones, each having six states.

The South-East is the only geo-political zone with five states comprising Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.

The North-West comprises seven states: Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, and Jigawa.

According to the statement, Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) moved a motion for the creation of the new state, which was seconded by Ibrahim Isiaka (Ifo/Ewekoro, Ogun State) at the retreat.

“The motion received the unanimous support of committee members and was adopted,” the statement read in part.

Similarly, the committee also established a sub-committee to consider the creation of additional states and local government areas across all six geo-political zones, noting that a total of 278 proposals were submitted for review.

Speaking at the event, Jibrin urged members to rally support among their colleagues at the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly to ensure the resolutions sail through during voting.

“We need to strengthen what we have started so that all parts of the country will key into this process.

“By the time we get to the actual voting, we should already have the buy-in of all stakeholders—from both chambers and the state Houses of Assembly,” the Deputy Senate President was quoted as saying.

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