Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with the Presidential Committee on the impact of the coronavirus on Nigeria’s economy, and directed the Ministry of Finance and National Planning to ensure that salaries were paid.

He also directed the ministry to ensure that critical infrastructure like roads, rails are protected and as much as possible, use local inputs so that the country retains value within her economy.

The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), has donated protective gears for port users worth N5 million and an additional N5 million to curb the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Lagos and FCT respectively.

The Nigerian authorities must adopt a rights-respecting approach and give clear instructions to security agencies not to abuse their powers as the nation tightens its effort to tame the COVID-19 pandemic, Amnesty International, a non-governmental organisation, has said.

The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) have collaborated to pull banks back to Apapa port.

Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum PGF, Salihu Moh. Lukman has again asked those still debating the legality of the lockdown imposed on Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states to focus on the bigger picture, saying asking President Muhammadu Buhari to have consulted a National Assembly that is on recess is unrealistic, simplistic and academic.

The Presidency has urged Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, to stick to his field of expertise – English and Literature – instead of dabbling into the coronavirus disease and the legality of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 14-day lockdown order under the Quarantine Act.

The presidency has responded to Monday’s rebuke by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, who criticised President Muhammad Buhari’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the president had been conspicuously absent as the virus gained a foothold across the country.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, has written to heads of various courts in the country to hear time-bound cases during the ongoing lockdown.

Owners and operators of petrol stations across the country, on the platform of Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, on Wednesday, disclosed that the recent fuel price reduction was a risk to their businesses operations.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday mourned the death of a foremost Nigerian educationist and author, Phoebean Ogundipe.

The Federal Government Wednesday announced that it has released 70, 000 metric tonnes of grains from the Strategic National Reserve to alleviate the sufferings of many low-income earners whose sources of livelihood have been cut off by the two-week lockdown of Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states in the wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Member, representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency, Benue State, in the House of Representatives, Dr Francis Ottah Agbo, has called on the Federal and state governments, to immediately set up Price Control Units to check ‘crazy’ hikes in prices of goods and services as Nigeria take giant steps to curb the spread of COVID-19.

In his broadcast to the nation on Sunday, March 29, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that “in Nigeria’s fight against Covid-19, there is no such thing as an overreaction or under-reaction. It is all about the right reaction by the right agencies and trained experts.”

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has called on security agencies to allow petroleum products tanker drivers move freely, despite the lockdown ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari in some parts of the country.

The Federal Government has commenced payment of N20, 000 each to five thousand beneficiaries of its Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Lagos State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, and the Medical Guild yesterday alleged undue “harassment” of medical doctors and other health workers in Lagos even as they decried what they described as ‘uncomplimentary’ statement credited to the State Commissioner of Police, CP, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, on the movements of health workers following restriction of movement informed by the fight against the spread of coronavirus in the country.

This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by Comrades Bio Joy Josiah, and Mrs Ekpebor Florence, National Chairman and Secretary respectively of Joint Health Sector Union, JOHESU.