Month: June 2020

How COVID-19 rocked Nigeria’s Offshore, Remote Oil Facilities, created panic for government

Tim Bauer

  Blow-by-blow accounts of the how and the why questions agitating minds of millions on virus outbreaks in oil facilities located as far as over 1000 km offshore Nigeria   More facts have emerged on reasons the offshore and remote oil facilities in the Africa’s biggest crude exporter is rocked by the novel COVID-19. Some of the affected oil platforms where some personnel have been confirmed to have tested positive for the dreaded virus, according to checks by Platforms Africa, are located as far as over 1000 kilometers offshore Nigeria…

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Scores of Africans Vaccinated as COVID-19 vaccine’s Clinical Trial began in continent

Damola Oyede

  Scores of participants in South Africa’s first clinical trial for a vaccine against COVID-19 have been vaccinated. The first clinical trial in South Africa and on the continent for a COVID-19 vaccine was announced on 23 June, at a virtual press conference hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits). Wits University is collaborating with the University of Oxford and the Oxford Vaccine Group on the South African trial. The South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial aims to find a vaccine that will prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus…

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Divided They Stand: APC and The Mega Troubles Ahead by NURUDEEN OYEWOLE

ADEOLA YUSUF

With Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s recognition of Victor Giadom as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party may have arrived at the tipping point   The ruling APC from the beginning was never a political party. What was in place was a hurried amalgam of people who want power by all means. They found a short cut in Buhari who has lived large on fable integrity and has consistently enjoyed some sort of occultic followership from the part of country he hails from. The political merchants…

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How NNPC’s gas output surged to 218.37bn bcf in March

Efe Wellington

  The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has given details of how its natural gas production peaked at 218.37billion Cubic Feet (BCF) in March 2020 despite heavy burden novel Coronavirus placed on global oil and gas industry at the period. The output translated to an average daily production of 7493.65Million Standard Cubic Feet (mmscfd). This was contained in NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report for March, 2020, a release by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, stated. The release said 3,119.89BCF of gas was…

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Nigerians reject Ghanaian President’s apology, demand action as diplomatic row over demolition saga worsens

Tim Bauer

Outrage from a cross section of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora worsened, forcing Ghanian President Nana Akufo-Addo to apologise to President Muhammadu Buhari over demolition of a building on the premises of Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana. The Nigerian Government has summoned the Chargè d’ Affaires of the High Commission of Ghana to Nigeria, Ms Iva Denoo, as diplomatic row degenerated between two West African nations over the demolition of a residential quarters at the Nigeria High Commission in Accra, Ghana.   The action in Ghana described…

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Power market’s debts profile to NDPHC hits N190bn

Efe Wellington

  The total debts profile of the Nigeria’s electricity market to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has hit N190 billion. Managing Director of the NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, who said this during a presentation at the Senate hearing on power, declared that the N190 billion debts has become one of the challenges hampering the growth of the power market. Despite the challenge posed by the debts, the NDPHC is still working assiduously to deliver on its mandate, Ugbo said.   Stating that the firm’s output is also being hampered…

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11 terrible lies you probably believe about COVID-19 prevention

ADEOLA YUSUF

You, in the course of seeking knowledge about how to prevent yourself and family from COVID-19, have been told a lot of lies and you probably believed some or all of them. Platforms Africa takes the pain through various documents and interviews with experts to debunk 11 of the terrible lies government officials and opinion leaders tell, which have been found to be the major cause of panic among the people. Many researchers particularly those of the University of Maryland, United States, say that the World will live with COVID-19…

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Nigeria’s President Buhari probes anti-graft boss, Magu over recovery funds’ diversion

Aliyu Aliyu

  It is now the case of hunting the hunter in the Nigeria’s anti-corruption war as the President, Muhammadu Buhari, began the probe of the acting Chairman of the country’s anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, over his alleged diversion of funds his agency recovered from looters. Magu may be on his way out of office, and also may be looking forward towards accounting for alleged infractions preferred against him by Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice. Sources within…

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Ikeja Electric deepens metering target to 520,000 households by 2022

Damilola Olonade

Ikeja Electric Plc (IE), a major utility firm that connects major part of Lagos – Nigeria’s commercial  capital – to the grid, on Monday declared plans to hit 520, 000 mark in metering of its customers by 2022. The company, which stated that it had begun implementation of new price hike for prepaid meters on June 1, added that it had already connected over one hundred and twenty thousand households out of the 520,000 on metering system between 2018 and June 2020. This feat, which the company said is in…

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Nigeria May Be Counting Bodies in Hundreds in Next 3 Weeks, Says COVID-19 team leader

Aliyu Aliyu

Head of Nigeria’s COVID-19 team, Mr. Boss Mustapha has warned that the Africa’s most populous nation might start to count dead bodies in their hundreds in the next three weeks. This, Mustapha who doubles as Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 said, is following the spread of coronavirus in the country. Nigeria’s ThisDay newspaper, which reported this added that the country’s CDC announced it had recorded 661 new cases, raising tally to 19,808, discharges 6,718, deaths 506. As usual, Lagos, commercial nerve…

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