Startech Safety And Security News Blog

Ex-Prime Minister of Cook Islands, Joseph Williams   The Pasifika Medical Association announced on Saturday the death of Joseph Williams, a former prime minister of the Cook Islands after contracting the novel coronavirus. He died in a hospital in New Zealand. Williams was admitted to hospital on Aug. 13 after contracting the novel coronavirus. The New Zealand Ministry of Health confirmed that the 82-year-old’s death was the second COVID-19 death in the country in as many days. Ashley Bloomfield, the Director General of Health, said in a statement that Williams was a “leading figure” in the Cook Islands medical community. “Our thoughts are with his family and community at this time of loss and grief,” Bloomfield said. Williams had served the Cook Islands, “his community in New Zealand and his many patients” for more than 60 years, the Pasifika Medical Association said in a statement. “His love, generosity and kindness have touched so many families, friends, and colleagues. “He has ...

A COVID-19 patients in the US being stretchered to the hospital COVID-19 pandemic has now killed 192,012 Americans, with fresh 984 deaths by Friday night, according to the tracking by worldometers.info. The number of confirmed infections has also hit 6,385,367. Over 50,000 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, as the Trump administration appeared to be clueless in stemming the virus. With the daily death rate of about 1,100, America’s fatality number will reach over 200,000 in another 7 days. The numbers make America unassailably the grim centre of the world, leading in both cases and deaths. Brazil is second in both virus cases and deaths toll. The South American country has recorded 4,091,801 cases and 125,584 deaths. On Friday, it posted comparative figures to America’s, with 855 deaths and over 45,500 new cases. India is playing catch-up with Brazil,as the two countries are now almost neck and neck in confirmed virus cases. After reporting another world record 87,115 new ca...

Covifor Remidesivir The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned the general public not to use ‘Covifor Remidesivir 100 mg Injection for treatment of any illness. The warning was contained in a statement signed by the agency’s Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja. She said that the label on the vaccine indicates that it was “Not for distribution in US, Canada or EU”, thus creating suspicion about its efficacy and could also have negative effect on the body system. The product is suspicious, and it could possibly be a falsified product, the general public is hereby warned to desist from the use of such product,”  Adeyeye stressed.

A Union Bank of Nigeria branch For allegedly refusing to settle a tax overhang of N147.3 million, the Kogi State Government has shut branches of Union Bank of Nigeria, UBN Plc in Lokoja, the State capital. This was disclosed to newsmen on Friday by Barrister Isah Jamil, Director of Legal Services, Kogi Internal Revenue Service, KGIRS, the agency that sealed up the premises. Jamil noted that the High Court of Kogi State on August 21, 2020 granted an application by KGIRS to distrain the premises of Union Bank PLC on account of her default in the payment of the tax liability. He added that the bank was owing the sum of ₦147,343,407.32k noting that the premises of the bank in Kogi State were sealed pursuant to the said Order of the Court. He disclosed that the Union Bank of Nigeria after the judgement filed a motion before the High Court of the State seeking to set aside the Order of distrain. He revealed that the court having heard the application on August 26, 2020 dismissed the applicat...

CEO Diaspora Commission, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa. Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) said on Friday that the commission was not created for the deportation of Nigerians. The chief executive officer of the commission said this in a statement by Abdur-Rahman Balogun, NIDCOM’s Head of Media and Public Relations Unit. Dabiri-Erewa said the malicious reports about the commission were false. Our attention has been drawn to a malicious, mischievous and fabulous story where the leader of the proscribed Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Uchenna Madu, alleged that NIDCOM is the medium used by the Federal Government to forcefully deport persecuted Biafrans. In a statement entitled “security agents killing our members secretly,” the group had alleged that NIDCOM was being used to crack down on its pro-Biafra group’s leaders in the diaspora. “These and other fabricated stories by the group are false, misch...

North Carolina sends ballots today for mail-in-voting   North Carolina is kicking off the U.S. election today as it distributes ballots by post to registered voters. It is the first state to start sending mail ballots to those who have already requested them, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. This is almost 60 days before Election Day on 3 Nov. Several other states will join the state mid-September. North Carolina allows any registered voter to vote by mail, without them needing an excuse. On Thursday North Carolina State Board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell warned voters that voting twice, as being suggested by President Donald Trump, is a federal crime. “Electronic pollbooks with information about who has already voted are used at every early voting site. If a voter tries to check in who has already voted, they will be prevented from voting a regular ballot,” Karen Binson Bell said in a statement also published on Twitter. It is a Class I felony unde...

Alexei Navalny: confirmed to have been poisoned in Russia   U.S. President Donald Trump said he had not yet seen any direct evidence of Russian state involvement in the poisoning of dissident Alexei Navalny, but had no reason to doubt the German assessment. Trump, who said this while speaking during a news conference at the White House on Friday, however, described the suspected poisoning of Navalny as “horrible”. German authorities say toxicology tests have revealed that Navalny, who is currently comatose in a Berlin hospital, has been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. Based on what Germany is saying that seems to be the case. I would be very angry if that’s the case,” Trump said. Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun met with Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov to express “grave concern about the German government’s findings that Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny was poisoned by a chemical nerve agent.” At the meeting in Washington, Biegun urged R...

Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has cautioned Nigerians against relaxing in the observation of necessary protocols as COVID-19 cases drop. The monarch spoke with State House correspondents after a courtesy visit to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Ogunwusi said he looked forward to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and return of normal lives and activities. No, we cannot relax; it is not possible; COVID-19 is real; we have to keep protecting ourselves. “ We have to be very careful; thank God the Federal Government is looking at how to open the economy the more. “ We should follow the COVID-19 guidelines and we should not relax; but what the government is doing is that they are opening up the economy. “We will continue to live and continue to pray that Covid-19 should finally leave us alone so that we will continue with our normal lives and activities.’’ He said that traditional rulers have been doing a lot to guard agai...

Kola Aluko The United States Department of Justice has begun proceedings to seize a $25m mansion in Los Angeles belonging to Kola Aluko, an ally of Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria. Aluko and Olajide Omokore, had in 2011 to 2015 allegedly conspired with others to bribe Alison-Madueke in order to win oil production contracts worth $1.5bn, according to a civil forfeiture complaint. According to Africa Intelligence, the US government told a US District Court in Southern District of Texas that the mansion was bought to “launder ill-gotten gains” from Nigeria. Aluko, an ally of Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former minister of petroleum resources, has been the subject of various investigations in Nigeria and abroad for allegedly taking part in shady oil contracts. Properties, including a yacht used by Beyonce and Jay Z for vacation, and a New York penthouse, have been seized from him. The 65-metre Galactica Star superyacht was later auctioned in J...

Buhari   The Presidency on Friday reacted to the judgment by the UK Court granting Nigeria’s application for an extension of time and relief from sanctions in a $10 billion arbitration case with Process and Industrious Development Limited (P&ID) in Nigeria. A statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said “In our view, the judgment is right, just and provides a strong prima facie case that the fraudulent gas deal with P&ID and the subsequent judgment debt of $10 billion against Nigeria was a clear attempt to cheat the country of billions of dollars by a company that had not invested one Naira in our country.” The statement said on the arbitration award, it was a source of huge satisfaction that the UK Court, among others, had ruled that Nigeria has established a strong prima facie case that the Gas Supply and Processing (GSPA) was procured by bribes paid to insiders as part of a larger scheme to defraud Nigeria. The p...

Top-B, left, Cahill, Grace Taiga, Supo Shasore. Middle, Quinn who started the scam, Kuchazi of P&ID Nigeria and Mohammed Adoke, ex-Justice Minister Sir Ross Cranston of the UK High Court of Justice Queen’s Bench Division Commercial Court, today allowed the Nigerian government to appeal the $10 billion  awarded in arbitration to Process and Industrial Developments Limited(P&ID), for alleged breach of contract. The ruling was given after Nigeria proved a prima facie case of fraud, around the contract about a so-called supply of wet gas to P&ID in Calabar. In a nutshell, Nigeria, through the NNPC was said to have signed the contract with P& ID in 2009, during the Yar’Adua-Jonathan administration, with some public officials compromised with gifts of dollars and in some cases millions of Naira. The contract was not meant to be implemented, but was meant as a vehicle to commit grand larceny against Nigeria, through some arbitration arising from a pre-arranged failed contr...