Good Morning, Welcome to Daily News 24 Roundup of Top Nigerian Newspapers Headlines for Thursday, Dec. 2nd 2021.
- Omicron: Canada bars Nigerians, fear spreads as NCDC records three casesÂ
Virologists on Wednesday expressed concern that there was a high risk of community transmission of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country.
The virologists, including a professor of Medical Virology at the University of Maiduguri, Marycelin Baba, who stated this in separate interviews with The PUNCH while reacting to detection of three cases of the Omicron variant in the country, called for community testing.
The experts stated these as Canada placed travel bans on Nigeria, Egypt and  Malawi. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had on Wednesday morning announced the discovery of three cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
2. Govt bars unvaccinated civil servants, military issues directive
The Federal Government has threatened to sanction unvaccinated civil servants, who returned home after they were barred from entering their offices on Wednesday.
The Technical lead of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, Dr Mukhtar Muhammed, who disclosed this in an interview with one of our correspondents, said the adamant civil servants would be sanctioned according to the civil service rules.
The PSC on COVID-19, headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, had in October said that federal civil servants without proof of COVID-19 vaccination or test results done within 72 hours would be denied access to their offices starting from December 1.
3. Kano Boat Mishap: Death Toll Hits 29, Rescue Ongoing
The death toll from the boat mishap which occurred in Kano on Tuesday has hit 29.
Twenty corpses, including those of pupils, were recovered on the day of the tragic incident.
When Daily Trust visited Bagwai, where the incident happened, Senior Fire Superintendent, Saminu Yusuf Abdullahi, confirmed that nine more corpses had been recovered.
The boat capsized while conveying passengers, who were mostly pupils of Madinatu Islamiyya School, from Badau village to Bagwai to participate in Maulud celebration marking the birth of Prophet Mohammed.
4. Why Bandits Were Declared Terrorists – Malami
Attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Malam Abubakar Malami (SAN), has explained why the federal government took steps to secure a court order declaring bandits as terrorists.
The AGF, however, said he was not aware that live ammunition were used on #EndSARS protesters at Lekki Tollgate in Lagos on October 20, 2021.
Malami, who spoke last night on Channels Television programme: “Politics Today”, said cattle rustling, kidnapping and banditry were all connected to Boko Haram activities.
5. Fayemi, Kukah, Others Decry Worsening Living Conditions
Ekiti State governor and chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Kayode Fayemi; the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Bishop Mathew Kukah, and some other Nigerians have passed a damning verdict on the state of the nation, saying the country is in the doldrums and Nigerians are angrier now more than before.
This is even as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) noted that the country is going through enormous challenges, adding that “Nigeria is not in its most healthy state.’’
Speaking during the Annual Lecture and Gold Prize of ThisNigeria Newspaper in Abuja yesterday, Fayemi noted that when he received the invitation from the publisher and chief executive officer of ThisNigeria Newspaper, Eric Osagie, his point to him was how to wake up a sleeping giant.
6. Why we found #EndSARS panel’s report unreliable – Lagos AG
The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), yesterday, explained that many contradictions in the report of the state’s judicial panel on police brutality made the findings of the panel unreliable, leading to the rejection of some conclusions of the report.
The state government had on Tuesday released the white paper on the reports submitted by the judicial panel. The panel had submitted two reports — one on cases of police brutality and another on the Lekki shooting incident of October 20, 2020, on November 15, where it listed nine fatalities from the Lekki shooting.
But the white paper, citing what it described as “fundamental inconsistencies,” rejected the figure, adding that the findings were not supported by evidence.
7. Nigeria, South Africa review MoUs on military cooperation, power others
President Muhammadu Buhari and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, have reviewed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between both nations.
This came as Buhari described as successful the state visit by Ramaphosa despite the scare generated by the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
Omicron has been classed as a “variant of concern”, with early evidence suggesting it has a higher re-infection risk. The heavily mutated variant was detected in South Africa earlier this month and then reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) last Wednesday.
8. CAN tasks Buhari on killing of Christians in Zamfara by terrorists
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to end the killing of Christians by terrorists in Zamfara State before they resort to self-defence.
It also urged the security agencies to defend Churches in the state to prevent terrorists from carrying out their threats against Christians.
General Secretary of CAN, Joseph Bade Daramola, made the plea, while reacting to threat letter sent to Christians in the state asking them to stop worship and to close down churches or risk attacks.
9. 2.9bn people still have never used Internet – UN report
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the estimated number of people who have gone online in 2021 actually went up, to 4.9 billion, partially because of a “COVID connectivity boost”.
This is good news for global development, but ITU said that people’s ability to connect remains profoundly unequal – as many hundreds of millions might only go online infrequently, using shared devices or facing connection speeds that hamper their internet use.
“While almost two-thirds of the world’s population is now online, there is a lot more to do to get everyone connected to the Internet,” Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General said.
10. BMO to Iyorchia Ayu: You’re a criminal revisionist
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has accused the new National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr Iyorchia Ayu of engaging in what it termed “criminal revisionism” in his comparison of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration with previous governments.
The group said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, that it was criminal for an academic to seek to manipulate recent history in the name of partisan politics.
“Our attention has been drawn to a recent interview that Ayu granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in which he claimed that the country had recorded no progress in the Buhari years.
