NEWS: Greece & India Advice Citizens Not To Travel To Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia & Sierra Leone Because Of Ebola Outbreak

Greece and India have warned their citizens to avoid non-essential travels to Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the outbreak of Ebola virus in these west African countries.

A statement issued by the Greek Health Ministry said the recommendation was after a meeting with the Hellenic Center of Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO).

The ministry said the country would take “precautionary measures” at ports and other entry points to monitor people coming into the country.

“Our country has a low level of risk in terms of the virus entering the country.

“But it is deemed appropriate to issue strict travel instructions to the public and to boost the level of preparedness at the entry gates to the country,” the ministry’s statement said.

Greece is just the latest among countries advising travellers to cancel trips to countries affected by the virus.

Similarly, India Union’s Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, was reported as saying that the country had taken precautionary steps to deal with any case of the virus.

In a statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Vardhan recommended that non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria be deferred.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported 1,603 cases, including 887 deaths (as of Aug. 4), in West Africa from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

The Indian health minister also said the government would be obtaining details of travellers originating or transiting from Ebola virus affected countries to India from the concerned Airlines and Indian Missions.

He said the government would track these persons after their arrival in India, up to their final destination in the country.

According to the India’s External Affairs Ministry some 40,000 Indian citizens are currently living in Nigeria.

NAN reports that Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, is due to brief members of the diplomatic corps later on Thursday.

Chukwu will brief the diplomats on Nigeria’s response to the Ebola virus outbreak, after the country recorded two deaths from the virus in Lagos.

The U.S., Germany and France are among those who have warned travellers to cancel trips to the countries affected by the virus!

PHOTOS: Monie E Performs "DoReMi" in OBONG UNIVERSITY, NIGERIA

Few weeks after the release of "DoReMi" by fast rising star Monie E A.k.a Monie Esong, he performed at The '2014 MR/MISS OBONG UNIVERSITY PAGEANTRY NITE'.

The event which was proudly Sponsored by Globacom, one of Nigeria's Giant Telecommunication Campany, had the entertainer performing to a wide number of Admirers and Fans.

Sources has it that Monie E happened to headlined the event which was held Akwa Ibom State.

See pictures below:

NEWS: Kefee's Burial On July 11 In Sapele, Nigeria

The remains of late pop-gospel singer, Kefee Irikefe Don-Momoh nee Obareki, will be laid to rest next Friday, July 11, 2014 in her hometown, Okpara-Inland, Ethiope East Local Government area of Delta State.

The deceased’s family said this, while receiving members of the Kefee Memorial Committee, a collection of artistes and entertainment personalities, who paid a condolence visit to the late singer’s parents in their Sapele home in Delta.

A statement released by her publicist in Lagos, Thursday, states that Kefee’s husband, Teddy Don-Momoh has been making frantic arrangements to bring her body back from the United States, where she passed on at Desert Spring Hospital, Las Vegas, after 15 days in coma, resulting from lungs failure on June 13.

According to reports, the husband would arrive the country first to receive her body before taking the corpse down to Delta State for burial!

NEWS: Professor Dora Akunyili’s Corpse Arrives Nigeria

The remains of the former Director General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof Dora Akunyili, arrived the country today in preparation for burial.

A former aide of the former Information Minister confirmed to Vanguard that the remains of the late NAFDAC boss had been deposited at the National Hospital mortuary in Abuja.

According to the source, the corpse, which was ferried by a chartered aircraft, arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at about 5:30 pm on Wednesday from an Indian hospital where she died last week.

The body of the late national delegate was accompanied by the former Anambra State Governor, Mr, Peter Obi, Mrs. Uche Ekunife, the husband and children of the deceased.

The family will meet with the officials of the Federal Government before a burial date and programme is agreed upon, according to a competent source!

NEWS: Governor Jonah David Jang Says 'Nigeria Is At War With Unknown Enemies'

Gov. Jonah Jang of Plateau State, on Friday,  said Nigeria was at war with unknown enemies and urged well meaning people to rise to the country’s defence.

Jang made the remark when he visited the scenes of the Tuesday twin bomb blasts in Jos after cutting short his medical trip abroad.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that 78 persons were confirmed dead and several others receiving treatments for injuries.

“This is a different type of war from the wars that we all know; these are enemies that are unknown.

“And these are the worst enemies that you can fight because you don’t know where they are coming from, you don’t know where and how to tackle them until suddenly you are taken by surprise as it is now’’, he said.

The governor was of the view that most of the perpetrators of the heinous crimes were non-Nigerians, employed by the evil people in Nigeria to kill Nigerians.

“These people are being sponsored, they come to a place. They don’t stay on trees, but with people.

“We are made to understand that they bring in these bombs not as bombs but they bring them as materials and assemble them in one of our houses.

“Why is it difficult for people to report such cases?’’ he asked.

The governor said that some of the activities of the terrorists could be checked if Nigerians were more security conscious.

“We must be suspicious of everything not just cars, we must be suspicious of everything and we must always call the security numbers given to the public by security agencies to report complaints’’, he added.

Jang further advised politicians to stop using the emergency situation as the one Nigeria has found itself to gain cheap political advantage.

On the Kidnapped Chibok girls, Jang said “we are all sad about the disappearance of these girls and the Federal Government is working seriously with the international community to locate where they are.

“Do they want the President to go to Chibok, to go go the bush to search for the girls himself?’’

According to him, some of those in the streets marching against the government are those who had held government positions and could not perform.

Jang told politicians to assist the government by also using their connections to proffer solutions instead of discrediting the President.

“This is our nation, we don’t have any other nation to go to, Africa is looking up to us, we are the biggest black population and we are behaving as if we don’t know who we are.

“We are all Nigerians, when the time of politics comes, we must play politics but when the time for emergency like this one comes, we must face it squarely and address it’’, he said.

He said the state government would clear the busy Terminus Market where the bombs exploded to avoid a repeat of such incident.

NEWS: Only The US Military Help Nigeria On Finding The Missing Chibok Secondary School Girls: Kerry

The United States is alone in helping Nigeria locate more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamists, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, despite help on the ground from Britain, France and Israel.

With 80 military personnel sent to neighbouring Chad for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, the United States is the biggest foreign participant in the effort against the militant group Boko Haram.

Washington has also deployed surveillance drones, spy planes and about 30 civilian and military specialists to support Nigeria’s security forces.

“Boko Haram, Nigeria, only the United States is there offering the assistance to help find those young women,” Kerry said during a dinner at the State Department.

“Other countries, not only aren’t they invited, but they did not even offer.”

Kerry spoke during a dinner at the State Department on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the US diplomatic corps.

However the United States is joined in Nigeria by Britain, France and Israel, which have sent their own experts. China, which saw 10 citizens likely abducted by Boko Haram in a region bordering Cameroon, has also proposed to help.

The United Nations earlier Thursday imposed sanctions on Boko Haram, blacklisting it as an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organisation.

In his speech, Kerry also lashed out at France, whose Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has expressed regret that the United States did not attack Syria a year ago amid spiralling violence in the conflict there.

“People are angry because we did not strike Syria at one instance but guess what: Today, 92 percent of all the chemical weapons in Syria are out and being destroyed and the other eight percent will get out,” a visibly angry Kerry said, without mentioning France specifically.

“That never would have occurred otherwise.”

Kerry is said to have backed military action against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, only to have US President Barack Obama oppose the move at the last minute.

NEWS: Nigeria Very & Terribly Slow – US Officials #BringBackOurGirls

WASHINGTON  (AFP) – US officials on Thursday slammed Nigeria’s “slow” response to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamic militants and renewed criticism of its military over its human rights record.

Democratic senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said Nigeria had been “tragically and unacceptably slow” to deal with the crisis, despite offers of assistance from the United States and other countries.

“I have called on President (Goodluck) Jonathan to demonstrate the leadership his nation is demanding,” Menendez said.

The militant Boko Haram group is currently holding more than 200 schoolgirls hostage after raiding the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok on April 14.

The Pentagon meanwhile criticized Nigeria for failing to react swiftly to the rise of Boko Haram, who have been blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009.

Nigeria has typically resisted security cooperation with the West over the group.

“We cannot ignore that Nigeria can be an extremely challenging partner to work with,” Department of Defense official Alice Friend said.

“In the face of this sophisticated threat, Nigeria’s security forces have been slow to adapt with new strategies and new tactics.”

US State Department official Robert Jackson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said Washington had been “urging Nigeria to reform its approach to Boko Haram.”

The United States has accused Nigeria’s military of widespread rights abuses in its fight against Boko Haram, which Jackson said had been counter-productive in dealing with the group.

“The State must demonstrate to its citizens that it can protect them and offer them opportunities,” he said.

“When soldiers destroy towns, kill civilians and detain innocent people with impunity mistrust takes root.”

Friend said Nigeria’s “record of atrocities perpetrated by some of its security forces during operations against Boko Haram have been widely documented.”

The United States would not provide assistance to any Nigerian military units who had been implicated in rights abuses, she added.

The United States has sent a team of around 30 civilian and military personnel to help Abuja in its hunt for the kidnapped schoolgirls.

The US military has also confirmed it is flying surveillance drones as well as manned reconnaissance planes over the country in an effort to locate the girls.

Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 girls from their school in Chibok last month. Dozens managed to escape but 223 are thought to remain in the hands of the group.