Ebola test drugs save monkey lives

An experimental drug saved the lives of monkeys infected with the Ebola virus strain responsible for the current west African outbreak, according to test results published Wednesday.

It was the first trial in primates with a treatment specifically targeting the Makona strain of the haemorrhagic virus that kills both humans and monkeys, its developers said.

The results, which are being reported for the first time, have already been used as preclinical validation for tests in patients, which started in Sierra Leone this year.

The first results from those human trials with the drug, TKM-Ebola-Guinea, are expected in the second half of 2015, study author Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, told AFP.

For the animal testing, Geisbert and a team infected six rhesus monkeys with the Makona strain of the Zaire species of the Ebola virus that has killed over 10,700 out of some 25,800 people infected in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since late 2013.

The specialists then treated three of the monkeys with their specially-adapted, strain-specific version of TKM-Ebola — an experimental treatment that has been given to Western health care workers who contracted the disease in Africa, but whose efficacy in humans has not yet been proven.

The monkeys treated with TKM-Ebola-Guinea were still healthy when the trial ended after 28 days, said the team.

The three not given the drug died within eight or nine days of infection.

“This is the first study to show post-exposure protection… against the new Makona outbreak strain of Ebola-Zaire virus,” Geisbert said.

There is no approved treatment or vaccine for Ebola, and most drugs being developed are based on previously-detected strains of the virus which has caused several outbreaks since 1976.

The UN’s World Health Organization gave the green light last August for experimental drugs to be used in the current outbreak, the deadliest in history by far.

Several drug candidates are being fast-tracked through the normally years-long trial process, and while many have shown promise, it was not known if they would work against the Makona strain specifically.

The new drug gets its name from Ebola-Guinea, the initial title given to the Makona strain.

The drug, said its makers, can be adapted to different strains, and can be produced in eight weeks.

TKM-Ebola works by blocking certain genes of the virus, thereby halting its replication.

Sacked IGP hands-over

The sacked Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba CFR (Rtd) has handed over the leadership of Nigerian Police Force to Ag. IGP Solomon Arase.

President Jonathan sacked Suleiman Abba on Tuesday and appointed DIG Solomon Arase as Acting IGP with immediate effect.

IGP Suleiman Abba, NPM, NPOM, mni was the 17th Indigenous Inspector-General of Police and was appointed by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR. He formally took over on August 1, 2014 formally from former Police boss,IGP MD Abubakar (Rtd)

Abba Suleiman hails from Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa State holds degrees in History and Law and has attended several management and security courses within and outside Nigeria. He is an alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.

Until his appointment as Mr. Abba’s replacement, Mr. Arase was the Head of the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department.

Mr. Arase holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Law, as well as Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Political Science and Strategic Studies.

He is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Defence College.

Am not going anywhere, I love my country- Allison Madueke

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deziani Allison Maduekwe has denied media reports that she was seeking asylum in some foreign countries.  Addressing state House correspondents after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, the Minister said she was not leaving the country, adding that she has no reason to do so.

She blamed what she described as consistent malicious and libelous attacks on her person on the the reforms she brought about in the oil and gas sector in the country.

The minister said: “Let me state it clearly for the records that Nigeria is my country and am not going anywhere, I love my country and I do think that I have done the best for my country and I would also like to point out that these malicious, malevolence, vindictive libels coming out of places like Osun Defender and other faceless online and other entities need to stop.

“For everything that has a beginning there is an end and that is not a surprise. What is the surprise is the sort of malevolence bothering on personal malicious libel to my person during this period of time. I do believe that I have done the best for Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of time, I have stepped on many big toes particularly the feet of the cabals that were in the industry when we came in. Because I have said severally that we will open up the industry to all Nigerians and we have,  but that is not to the pleasure of certain cabals.  And I have been continuously maligned because of this and we have taken millions and in fact billions of dollars out of the hands of  multinationals and their sub-contractors and put them in the hands of Nigerians through Nigerian Content. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms.

Mrs Deziani Alison-Madueke

“Quite frankly, I think as unprecedented as it is, it does not please everybody and that cannot be helped but let us remember the unprecedented reforms that have happened in the oil industry during our time, such as major gas reforms, the Petroleum Industry Bill, which has been completely revised, reformed and put into the hands of members of the National Assembly where it has languished for two years in the National Assembly” she said.

On allegation that she was seeking the intervention of prominent Nigerians, especially former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to  protect herself being held accountable for some of her actions in office, the minister said there was no truth in the allegation.

“I believe that His Excellency, (Gen. Abdulsalami)  has already answered that and called it unnecessary mischief and I will ask that the media do its research properly and deal with the  facts. I have the privilege of meeting with many senior statesmen during the course of my job in the Federal Executive Council and I was surprised that he should be singled out in any such form. The short answer is no.

“I have not sought such assistance because I am not aware that I have been indicted of any crime that I will need a soft landing. Over the last four years, I have been severally and unfortunately accused and labeled in so many malicious and vindictive ways. I have explained these things and pushed back robustly on these accusations  and I have even gone to court on many of them. Yet they keep being regurgitated. And I think it is unfortunate, particularly when we are moving into a transition period and looking forward to an incoming government  which is coming to take over where we have ended” he said.

The minister also dismissed the allegation by  the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) that the NNPC failed to remit money in its custody to the federation account.

According to the Minister, the NNPC has since commenced remitting money that was found through the audit of its operations into the Federation Account.

“The Price Water House Copper forensic audit that was done few weeks ago in its recommendation mentioned that $1.48 billion was owed by NPDC for a block that had hitherto been assigned from the NNPC to Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) which is its subsidiary and they felt that the right process would be that NPDC will refund that money to the Federation Account. NPDC has  apparently started those refunds and it is also in discussion with NNPC and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on same. So the refund has actually began.

Speaking on the reforms that she introduced to the Oil and Gas sector, Mrs Deziani Allison Maduekwe said the Petroleum Industry Bill, if passed by National Assembly would further get more Nigerians into the oil industry.

“In that bill are all the reforms needed to tear NNPC apart, make it a National Oil company, an equity share company through transparency, accountability and responsibility and reduce corruption in the industry. We did all these and we put them in place to reduce corruption so for me to be tagged with various tags of corruption, $10 million jet purchases, who buys jet for $10 million dollars for goodness sake? And $20 billion missing money for which Pricewater Copper (PWC) had done a report and the $1.48 billion which is not missing, which is actually money transferred by the NNPC to NPDC which is a subsidiary and NPDC has actually started making payments under my directives.

“I have said during our time that there are gaps in the NNPC and I said that openly. But I can also say that there is no time in Nigerian history in the oil and gas that the NNPC has been as open and audited as it is today.

“It has been positioned to go forward in the industry, it is true that the revenue profile is not sustainable. But we have done our best and the Nigerian oil and gas sector is today in a better shape than it has ever been in terms of achievements that we have recorded.

“We have done enough for this industry, we cannot please everybody. Yes, we have stepped on toes but we did that in the best interest of Nigeria and we have opened up the oil and gas industry to all Nigerians, thousands of Nigerians have benefitted from our reforms in the system”.

On the emergence of fuel queues, she blamed it on the distributors insisting that there were enough petroleum products available for Nigerians.

Alison-Madueke said, “This is very unfortunate and you know that product supply and distribution have been one of the high points of this administration when we came in. We have kept queues to the bearest minimum. We have moved away from the challenges of the past and ensured through our various flexible product arrangement that we kept Nigeria wet with fuel supply.

“Unfortunately, you are coming into a transition, whenever certain things are happening, intruders will hijack the process and certain amount of hoarding taking place for various reasons, this is what we are experiencing and there is no reason for this because our reserves are enough to keep the country wet with products throughout this period.

“I will plead with marketers to please make the fuel available. PMS is available, make it available to Nigerians, we have worked so hard to build the system and we don’t want it distracted in these later days” she said.
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Buhari must be accountable to his campaign promises - Agbakoba

Barely 37 days to the assumption of office of President-elect, Maj Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, human rights lawyer and former President, Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, Wednesday, said the time is ripe to set out a framework to address broad issues concerning Nigeria, which according to him, majorly bothers on lack of constitutional order and endemic corruption in the country.

Agbakoba, who spoke at a press conference in Lagos tagged “Setting a new Agenda for the President-elect on National Order, Constitutional Reform, Devolution of Powers, Anti-corruption, Diversification of the Economy, Driving new Public Revenue, Maritime, Space, Aviation and some other issues,” said Buhari must live up to the trust Nigerians reposed on him, immediately he assumes office, noting that he has to be held to account for all the campaign promises he made.

The former NBA President who said unless Buhari tackles the problem of peace, as well as gather the political will to slash the bogus salary and remunerations earned by the two chambers of the National Assembly, as well as the executive arm, the country will make no headway.

He said: “If you don’t set the framework for order, we are going nowhere. Think of a man who has four wives and many children, if he has not sorted out the peace and stability and how he provides for his home, even though he is a billionaire, he won’t have peace. Nigeria’s problems is not its economic resource s or its finances, but our problem is lack of peace.

“That is Nigeria’s big problem. This lack of peace has a history in the shape of three political constitutions we have operated. The colonial constitutions, which was not in the interests of Nigeria. The civil constitution that lasted between 1960 to 1966 didn’t serve the interests of Nigerians. The military constitutions were designed to enable the various heads of state we had from Gen. Yakubu Gowon to Gen. Sanni Abacha. They didn’t have the interests of Nigerians at heart. They were ruling for the sake of themselves and their constituencies.”

“Therefore, there wasn’t any peace and that was why the pro-democracy movement rose to challenge and confront them. Then, we have had the Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan’s attempt to find peace in Nigeria.”
Speaking further, Agbakoba, said attempts to bringing about peace and stability in Nigeria were the constitutional conferences organised by former President Obasanjo and the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan have proved futile. According to him, while Obasanjo’s conference was to foster his third term agenda, Jonathan’s own is still incomplete at the moment.
He said: “Attempts to bring peace and stability to Nigeria were through the constitutional conferences of Obasanjo, who had a third term agenda and the Jonathan process which I was a party to and was incomplete. As I speak to you, we don’t have any political compass for Nigeria. So, we are a mass of people with various cleavages and fault lines- religious, ethnic, linguistic, roaming in the vast territorial space called Nigeria. This, Chief Obafemi Awolowo referred to as a geographical expression

Plaintiffs withdraw eligibility suit against Buhari

Plaintiffs in the two of the three pending suits challenging the eligibility of the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to contest in the March 28, 2015, presidential election have been withdrawn. Justice Adeniyi Ademola who is presiding over the matters at the Federal High Court in Abuja subsequently struck out the matter after the plaintiffs indicated their intention to withdraw the suits on Wednesday. Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) who is representing one of the plaintiffs, told the judge on Wednesday that his client decided to withdraw his suit to afford the incoming government time to focus on the “enormous task” of governance. When the second case which was filed by Max Ozoaka was called, his lawyer, Dr. Chike Amobi, also adduced similar grounds for withdrawing the suit. With the Wednesday’s development, the remaining pending eligibility suit against Buhari is the one filed by Ayakeme Whiskey (FHC/ABJ/CS/68/15). As of the time of filing this story, no date has been fixed for the hearing in the pending suit. Buhari, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, was on April 1 declared winner of the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party. The plaintiffs had filed the suits challenging Buhari’s eligibility, asking the court to declare him ineligible to contest in the election on the basis of his alleged failure to submit his certificate of academic qualifications along with his Form CF001 to the Independent National Electoral Commission. The plaintiffs claim that Buhari’s failure to submit his certificate of academic qualifications contravened provisions of sections 131 and 318 of the 1999 Constitution and section 31(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010.

Police arrest six bandits in Ogun, recover weapons

The Ogun State Police Command has arrested eight suspected robbers in different parts of the state, and recovered different types of arms and ammunition from the hoodlums. The suspects were arrested in Ago Iwoye, Ota and Ibafo areas of the state between Sunday and Wednesday. In Ago Iwoye operation, police detectives attached to the division, led by the Divisional Police Officer, swooped on the hideout of some armed robbers at Ijesha Road, and arrested three members of the gang. The suspects were said to have  terrorised the people of Ago Iwoye and its environs before they were arrested on Sunday. The three suspected armed robbers, who were arrested are Balogun Akin, Olayemi Mustapha and Mohammed Kola while the police recovered two locally-made guns, live cartridges, complete set of army camouflage uniform, and some masks suspected to have been used for robbery operations in the area. In the same vein, the police anti-robbery teams in Ota and Ibafo have arrested three suspected robbers, who were believed to have been terrorising the people of the areas. The security operatives  in Ota division, led by the DPO, Muideen Adisa, a Chief Superintendent of Police, received intelligence report that some robbers hid in an area in Ijoko-Ota, after every robbery operation. One of the gang members, Peter Babalola, was arrested at the hideout with one Pump Action gun with serial No 9359, on Tuesday. The suspect confessed to belong to a syndicate of armed robbers that operated in the Ota area of Ogun State. The operatives in Ibafo Division, led by the DPO, Salawu Jimoh, also a chief superintendent of police, ambushed a five-man robbery gang after a robbery operation at old Kara in Ibafo on Wednesday and arrested one Onyeka Ude, and Ikechukwu Bernard while others escaped. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said in the process of engaging the robbers, the members of the community in the area came out in large number and assisted the police in apprehending them. He said the police recovered a locally-made double-barreled gun, one short locally-made gun, five live cartridges, one cutter, a dummy gun, five mobile handsets and one iron bar with some blood stains, from the suspected armed robbers.

Missing $20b: NNPC refunds $1.48b to federation account

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Wednesday disclosed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has started refunding $1.48bn into the Federation Account as recommended by an audit firm, PriceWaterHouse Coopers. She however did not disclose how much has so far been refunded by the corporation. She also denied reports that she was seeking the assistance of some highly-placed persons in other to get soft landing from the incoming administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Alison-Madueke spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. It will be recalled that the Federation Account Allocation Committee on Monday night constituted a committee to find out the reasons for the delay in the refund of the sum. PriceWaterHouse Coopers had in its forensic audit report of the corporation recommended that the NNPC should refund the amount to the Federation Account. The firm was last year hired to carry out the audit following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, that $20bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC. PWC had stated in the report that while the total gross revenue generated from crude oil lifting was $69.34bn between January 2012 and July 2013 and not $67bn as earlier stated by the Senate Reconciliation Committee, what was remitted to the Federation Account was $50.81bn and not $47bn. The audit report revealed that $28.22bn was the value of domestic crude oil allocated to the NNPC, adding that total amount spent on subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit was $5.32bn. Alison-Madueke however explained that the unremitted fund was owed by NPDC for a block that had been assigned from NNPC to NPDC. She said, “The PriceWaterHouse Coopers forensic audit that was done a few weeks ago, in its recommendation mentioned that $1.48bn was owed by NPDC for a block that had hitherto been assigned from the NNPC to NPDC which is its subsidiary. “They felt that the right process would be that NPDC will refund that money to the Federation Account. NPDC has apparently started those refunds and it is also in discussion with NNPC and DPR on same. So the refund has actually begun.” While saying that the payment was being done under her directives, she insisted that the sum was not missing but transferred by the NNPC to NPDC which is a subsidiary.