Rapes in Nigeria now three times the typical level as women and children were locked down with their abusers due to Coronavirus pandemic, Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs Pauline Tallen, has said.

Tallen said rapes had reached an “alarming rate” as every state in Nigeria, West Africa’s most populous nation, was affected by sexual violence and a series of high-profile rapes.

Read the detail here:
https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/11/nigerian-women-now-three-times-likely-to-be-raped-than-before-minister/

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/09/numbers-of-registered-oil-gas-firms-in-nigeria-hits-8060/

The number of registered service providers and operating firms in the Nigeria’s multi-billion dollars oil and gas industry has hit 8,060.

Minister of state for petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who declared this during the inauguration of the Governing Council for the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) give details including where the list of the companies to include ....

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/09/numbers-of-registered-oil-gas-firms-in-nigeria-hits-8060/

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/09/how-covid-19-killed-589-in-kano-minister/

The death of 589 people, being the 60% of the “mysterious” deaths in Nigeria’s northern Kano state was triggered by or due to COVID-19, Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has declared as he gave graphical details of deaths between April and May.

Here below, given by Ehanire, are some highlights of the report of the team President Muhammadu Buhari drafted to Kano for an on-the-spot assessment.

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/09/how-covid-19-killed-589-in-kano-minister/

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/10/3700-journalism-scholars-schools-condemn-journalists-arrest-molestation-during-blm-protest/

The Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) comprising of 3700 educators and student of about 190 journalism programmes have jointly condemned arrests and violence toward journalists covering widespread citizen protests for racial justice.
ASJMC is a non-profit, educational association composed of some 190 JMC programs at the college level. The majority of the association’s members are in the United States and Canada. AEJMC on the other hand is a nonprofit organization of more than 3,700 educators, students and practitioners from around the globe.

Here below is the statement issued by the two groups;

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/10/3700-journalism-scholars-schools-condemn-journalists-arrest-molestation-during-blm-protest/

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/11/production-cost-scam-mass-oil-contracts-projects-cancellations-loom-in-nigeria/

It costs oil firms about $4 to produce a barrel of crude oil in Saudi Arabia but it costs these companies over $18 to produce same one barrel in
Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Melle Kyari, who revealed how oil companies swindle the system of millions of dollars through production cost padding, vowed that recalcitrant firms may be shown way out of the country.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude oil exporter, uncovered these sharp practices by oil firms and contractors who pad oil production cost with frivolous claims and charges, fleecing the country of millions of dollars translating billions of naira daily even before a barrel of the commodity is produced.

Here are the details

Production cost scam: Mass oil contracts, projects’ cancellations loom in Nigeria
https://platformsafrica.com/2020/06/11/production-cost-scam-mass-oil-contracts-projects-cancellations-loom-in-nigeria/

NAFDAC denies knowledge of drug’s location 10 days after Buhari promised clinical trial
Fateemah OLONADE

Controversy raged in Nigeria on Tuesday over the whereabout of Madagascar’s COVID organic drug imported into the country 10 days ago.

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/05/26/exclusive-controversy-rages-in-nigeria-over-imported-madagascar-herbal-cures-whereabouts/

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari who received the drug at his Aso Rock office May 16, promised to ensure the drug is subjected to clinical trial before use.

He received samples of the herbal concoction that Madagascar claims can cure people infected with the new coronavirus, his office said, from President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau who visited him in Abuja, stating the native remedy would be scientifically tested before use.

“We have our institutions, systems and processes in the country. Any such formulations should be sent to them for verification,” he said.

“I will not put it to use without the endorsement of our institutions,” he added.

Buhari’s statement was corroborated by the ministry of health, which also two weeks ago, stated that the drug would be moved to the country’s National Agency for Foods and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for the trial.

The Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, however, on Tuesday, denied knowledge of the whereabouts of the drug two weeks after the drug has been promised to be sent to her agency for trial.

“As I speak, the drug (COVID organic, is not yet in NAFDAC for clinical trial,” she declared on a Television Continental programme; “Your View,” monitored by Platforms Africa in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/05/26/exclusive-controversy-rages-in-nigeria-over-imported-madagascar-herbal-cures-whereabouts/

She however added that her agency would not stop the ongoing clinical trial of Hydroxylchloroquine despite a stand against furthet trial of the drug by the World Health organisation (WHO).

“We have heard of the report by WHO on hydroxylchloroquine. But we do not have the full teport to know the data on the sample size they used. Are the patients who made up the sample size from the Cacartian population or from Blacks population?” She asked.

“The clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine is on going in our laboratory and we are going ahead with this trial,” she concluded.

https://platformsafrica.com/2020/05/26/exclusive-controversy-rages-in-nigeria-over-imported-madagascar-herbal-cures-whereabouts/