The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha on Monday hinted that the surge and violence of infections of the new variant resulting in mass deaths in India, among others, are the reasons the Federal Government re-introduced COVID-19 restrictions.

He explained that the government was being pro-active to prevent a third wave of the virus in the country.

Mustapha stated that; “This step has become compelling in view of the fragile state of our health systems, the disruption to the vaccines delivery and the lack of compliance with the extant public health measures and social measures contained in the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Health Protection Regulations 2021.

“In taking this step, the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) requests the state governments to please step up to play lead roles in the area of enforcement and sanctions.”

He, however, appealed to traditional, religious and community leaders to take up more ownership and responsibility for risk communication and community engagement on the virulent nature of the pandemic, concerns over the variants of concern and the need for compliance.

The new restriction measures announced by PSC incident manager Dr. Mukhtar Mohammed that took immediate effect including:

Nationwide curfew from 12:00am to 4am
Restrictions on mass gathering to a maximum of 50 people in an enclosed place
Restriction on resumption of workers from GL 12 and below
Closure of event centres, bars and night clubs
Restaurants to provide eat-ins at 50% capacity
People 60 years and above or with ailment advised to stay at home or avoid crowds
Dr. Mohammed said military personnel are to monitor and enforce adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions on public transport, that is wearing face masks and maintaining social distance.

He expressed concerns over the shortage of vaccines for the larger population of Nigerians and the delay it would impose on the national rollout programme.

He said the situation was caused by the escalation of the dangerous strain of the virus in India, one of the largest producers of COVID-19 vaccine.

“While our vaccine rollout has begun, there is a shortage in global supplies, affected by the current situation in India. This translates to a delay in vaccinating a large proportion of the population and therefore a risk of a large outbreak, especially in the context of poor adherence to the recommended public health and social measures.

The SGF recalled that the PSC had issued a Travel Advisory which, he said, took into consideration, the utility of travel restrictions, outcomes of epidemiological risk assessment, factors that aid transmission as well as control measures that could be deployed.

He noted that in the Advisory, additional requirements were placed on passengers from India, Turkey and Brazil.

Mustapha regretted that there have been reports of some returning foreign passengers who violated the mandatory quarantine requirement under the advisory by escaping from the facilities.

“We deprecate such violation of the laws of our land and our hospitality. The PSC is awaiting the report of on-going investigations and we wish to assure Nigerians that appropriate sanctions would be imposed on the violators,” he assured.

He remarked that given the challenge of vaccine nationalism compounded by the production situation in India, the PSC is exploring other options to get Nigerians vaccinated.

The SGF reaffirmed that 1,690,719 persons had received their first dose of the vaccine, representing 84% of the targeted persons for this phase.

Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has shortlisted 6,105 candidates out of the 45,323 that applied to be enlisted in its 2019/2020 recruitment.

The spokesman of the ServiceMr James Sunday made this known on Monday in Abuja that further screening of those shortlisted would begin on May 24, 2021, at no cost to the applicants.

Sunday, however, advised applicants to check the NIS website for their recruitment status, examination location and other guidelines for recruitment.

He stated also that those shortlisted for the next screening should print their invitation slips preparatory to the exercise, adding that candidates without invitation slips would not be allowed to participate.The spokesman also advised possible aggrieved applicants to lay their complaints at: [email protected] or at the nearest ICPC or other anti-graft agency.

“Applicants whose names did not appear on the website should not go to any of the venues for the next screening,’’ Sunday warned.

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has asked the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari if he is unable to secure Nigerians.

The president has come under intense pressure as a result of the rising insecurity in the country.

Speaking on Kakaaki, an AIT programme, on Monday, Baba-Ahmed charged those who have constitutional responsibility to realise that the country is in a dire state, and do something other than just talking and making promises.

According to him; “One option we have is that the legislators will look at the record of the administration, understand the areas where the president has failed, understand areas where there is clearly no evidence that they’re going to do anything about it and refer to the constitution that says the whole purpose of government is to secure citizens and pursue their welfare.”

“If Buhari fails to do that, for me, those are impeachable offences. In the last six months, two years, what has the president done to secure the country? Absolutely nothing has been done and yet you see increasing failure of the state to protect citizens,” he said.

“Or, as our democratic system provides, those with the responsibility to get them off, should impeach those who are failing. If the president can’t deliver, he should be impeached.

“We don’t have a national assembly that appears to have the levels of patriotism and concern beyond partisan politics to realise that when this roof falls, it also falls on their heads.

“Partisanship is so pronounced that the people we elected and sent to Abuja think they serve the president rather than the Nigerian people.”

According to Baba-Ahmed, the second option is for citizens to get together and decide to do something.

He said the third option is: “Those leaders who are failing will recognize the fact that they are the problem, and they will resign because they clearly have nothing to offer in terms of leadership.

Baba-Ahmed spoke few days after the presidency said some leaders were pushing for regime change.

Former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), has said that he has no link with any terrorist or bandit group within or outside the country.

He made this “clarification in a statement made available to newsmen in Minna on Monday which was signed on his behalf by his Media Aide, Dr Yakubu Sulaiman.

The former Head of State described the claim of him having such link as “false unfounded and fake news”.

Apparently reacting to the arrest of a helicopter for supplying food and weapons to terrorists and bandits in parts of the country, which was said to belong to him in publications by some social media platforms, Abubakar said he did not own such a helicopter.

He disassociated himself from such “a heinous crime that is unbecoming of any patriotic citizen”, saying that he would have ignored such “spurious reports but had to set the record straight”.

“This kind of fake news has the potential of aggravating the already tensed security situation in the country and should not be condoned,” he said.

He, however, regretted that individuals could be so callous to peddle such news and smear the image and character of people, pointing out that: “I urge Nigerians to ignore such treacherous acts and be careful with the kind of information being dished out and shared on the social media.”

He further urged Nigerians to continue to work and pray for enduring peace in the country, because no nation can attain greatness without peace and security of lives and property of it’s citizenry