Two years after former Governor of Lagos state Akinwunmi Ambode commissioned a statue of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti at Allen Avenue in Ikeja, the monument has been pulled by the state’s government.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s spokesperson, Gboyega Akosile who confirmed that the statue has been pulled down, said the roundabout where the statue was situated made the list of four roundabouts identified by the current administration as the major cause of gridlock in the state.

Other roundabouts that causes gridlock in the state were said to be located at Ikotun, Lekki-Epe expressway and Maryland. Akosile also told newsmen that the artwork will be relocated to a spot where it won’t cause traffic jam.

Here are before and after photos of the spot the statue was placed at;

18 year old Abigail Felix, who was working as a househelp for a family in the Alausa, Ikeja area of Lagos state, has allegedly committed suicide.

Abigail who is from the Republic of Benin, was said to have taken the deadly DD insecticide without leaving any suicide note.

According to a police source, Abigail who moved in with her employers, the Akinrinmades, two years ago, was responsible for cleaning the house as well as attending to customers at her madam’s shop. A day before her death, Abigail had reportedly left the house without informing anyone of her whereabout. After searching for her without any result, a case of a missing person was lodged at the nearest police station.

The police says the next day, Abigail snuck into one of the rooms in the house. When interrogated, she failed to disclose where she was the previous night. She allegedly ran into another room in the house where she locked herself in and refused to open the door. Efforts to get her out failed until the door was pulled down and she was found with foamy substances around her mouth with a bottle of the DD insecticide by her side.

She was immediately rushed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital LASUTH where she died as doctors battled to save her life.

Confirming the incident, the spokesperson of the Lagos state police command, Bala Elkana, says Abigail’s body has been released to the family as no foul play was suspected.

Two men allegedly transporting 40 bags of Indian hemp and 11 packs of skunk a.k.a Next Level, have been arrested by the Ogun State police command.

The suspects arrested at Igboora Road with their Chevrolet bus marked KSF 390 XS, were identified as Sulaiman and Ganiyu.

Sulaiman and Ganiyu who were paraded alongside 24 other suspects arrested for crimes ranging from armed robbery to kidnapping, burglary, vandalism and impersonation, were arrested on Thursday January 9.

New Telegraph reported that Ogun State’s Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson promised that the suspects will be prosecuted after investigation has been concluded.

He said;

“On the 9th of January, 2020, about 4a.m., based on technical intelligence gathering, some hoodlums who specialised in large quantity supply of weeds suspected to be Indian hemp as means of livelihood, operatives of SARS led by ASP Olayiwola Babatunde, who were on pin-down point on Igboora Road, intercepted a Chevrolet bus with registration number KSF 390 XS loaded with 40 bags of weeds suspected to be cannabis. The two occupants of the bus were arrested along with the exhibit.”

Sulaiman who confessed to the crime, told newsmen that he and his partner who were into rice smuggling were promised N100k for transporting the hard drugs.

He said;

“We were transporting the bags from Idere near Igboora in Oyo State. I don’t know the owner but I know the destination point. I also knew the bags contained Indian hemp. This is the third time I’m transporting it.

“For this trip, we agreed on N100,000. The first consignment I conveyed for them, I collected N60,000. The second trip I collected N40,000. I used to smuggle foreign rice before now.

“I was taking this consignment to Rounder area in Abeokuta to meet Mr. Samuel. He is supposed to receive it. But he is now on the run.”

Also speaking to newsmen, Ganiyu claimed to be a mechanic before venturing into smuggling of cannabis. He also claimed he was only a motor boy on the recent trip that got them arrested.

Police in Anambra on Monday, shot dead two armed robbery suspects following a gun battle and recovered arms, ammunition and a snatched SUV.

Spokesperson of the State Police Command, SP Haruna Mohammed, who disclosed this in a statement said that police operatives attached to the Command Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) today January 13, at about 1:15pm, responded to a distress call and stormed the hideout of a robbery gang who allegedly attacked one Chiegulem Chidera ‘m’ at Agouye Umuko Awka and snatched his Nissan Xtera jeep with Reg number Cross River GGJ 402 AA at gunpoint.

“The suspects were trailed to Nkwo Agulu and on sighting the Police opened fire after which the police responded promptly. As a result,the two suspects one Onyebuchi Ngala ‘m’ aka Ceaser and Izuchukwu Okoro ‘m’ were fatally wounded during the gun encounter.They were taken to the hospital for treatment but confirmed dead on arrival by the medical doctor,” Mohammed stated.

View graphic photo HERE

SP Asanayin Ibok, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ekpan Police Division in Uvwie council area of Delta State has been accused of stripping two sisters naked after being invited to a landlord/tenancy dispute in Warri.

The sisters identified as 28-year-old Mercy and 19-year-old Lucy Okoro, alleged that their widowed mother Mrs. Lucy Okoro was also arrested after Ibok was invited over by a tenant Andrew Obas, who they confronted and issued a quit notice for owing their family three months rent.

Recounting how the incident occurred, Mercy said;

“We gave him four months which elapsed this January, but he refused to pay. We asked him to pack out, instead, he brought armed Policemen.

“They shot sporadically, came to our house and carried my sister, dragging her on the floor and kicking her. I held the Policeman asking him to let my sister go. But the Policeman (DPO) stripped me naked. He pulled the wrapper from my neck, dragged me on the floor and kicked my buttocks.

“They bundled my sister and I into their patrol van and took us to the Police Station. I never knew it was the DPO at first. He asked if we were the people causing ‘wahala’? So I asked my mother to join us in the cell. That was when he slapped me until I fell on the ground and fainted

“The Policewoman at the counter sprayed teargas into my eyes. I thought I was already blind. At night, he (DPO) and some men came and rained abuses on me.”

National Chairman of Human Rights Defenders Organization, Sir. Casely Omon-Irabor (Esq.) confirmed that they’ve been contacted over the incident which occurred on Friday January 10.

He said;

“We sent two of our lawyers to go and find out and we discovered that the Police stripped the first daughter of the widow naked. Our lawyers tried to intervene but they didn’t listen to him.

“It was when I told him that I have him on photographs and video that he pushed for settlement.”

Ibok who denied the incident, claimed he was not around when it occurred. Also commenting on the incident, Delta State Commissioner of Police Mr. Hafiz Inuwa insisted that the allegation was a big lie.

He said;

“As I am speaking with you, this is the second time a journalist is calling me. He wanted to reach me because of what one human rights person alleged.

“But when he could not get me, he just made his enquiry and discovered that it is not even true because the DPO even told him that he was not there at the station when the matter was reported.

“Some of these things, what you need to do is that you first contact the person that the allegation was made against. As I am talking to you now, we did not record anything like this.”

Fresh concerns have been raised by health experts on Nigerians’ increasing use of paracetamol, a drug meant for pain relief, to cook meat for household and commercial consumption.

LEADERSHIP investigation revealed that hundreds of households, restaurants and bars, especially those owned by small operators, have continued to use paracetamol to tenderise meat to save cost as the prices of firewood, kerosene and cooking gas hit the rooftop.

Some food vendors admitted that they use the drug to cook meat because it helps them to spend less on kerosene, cooking gas, firewood or charcoal.

According to them, no matter the quantity, paracetamol softens meat within a few minutes of being placed on fire. They added that the drug is also accessible and affordable as one sachet of 12 tablets is sold for only N50.

This claim was buttressed by a bar attendant in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, who told LEADERSHIP that when some tablets of paracetamol are used to cook cow leg and skin popularly known as “ponmo”, they get softened and ready for eating within a few minutes.

He said: „It is really helpful because now we don‘t spend so much money on charcoal since our pepper soup (local delicacy) doesn‘t take long to cook anymore.“

But medical experts have warned that paracetamol, when cooked, loses its pain-killer property and becomes highly acidic and dangerous for human consumption.

The president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, described the use of paracetamol for cooking as a “wicked act”. The renowned pharmacist said that paracetamol is paraspecific acid of aminophenol and also a chemical substance.

He said that every such substance has both chemical and physical effects, adding that they can help in softening tender materials.

Ohuabunwa expressed worry that the consumers of meat cooked with the drug would only end up consuming something they don‘t need or deserve thereby creating problems for them.

He said: “I don‘t know why people should involve themselves in this kind of wicked act against themselves and consumers of their products. Paracetamol is a medicine and it is paraspecific acid of aminophenol and it is a chemical.

“Every chemical can have some chemical, physical effects and then can help in softening, tender materials but the critical thing is that you are therefore giving people along with the meat, something they don‘t deserve and what they are not in need of, and you are loading up their body with the chemical they don’t need. You are creating problem for them because you are overloading the liver because the liver has to metabolise the chemical and take it out through the kidney,” he said.

This, Ohuabunwa said could lead to liver necrosis because the organ is the chemical factory. He, therefore, urged Nigerians to desist from the act.
He also called for adequate enlightenment because it is assumed that those who indulge in the practice do not understand what they are doing.

He said that anyone found engaging in the illicit act should face the law, lamenting that “it is an act of poisoning people.“

The chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Ekpe Phillips, warned that paracetamol is not a drug that should be abused. He said that the primary area where it is being metabolised is the liver and could, therefore, expose consumers to liver problems.

Philips, who is also the chief medical director (CMD) of Nyanya General Hospital, said that the “normal amount of paracetamol that an individual is supposed to take is two tablets three times a day and it cannot be taken for more than three to four days, maximum of five days if you must.

“If you are using it to cook food, you are going to consume the quantity that you don‘t even know. So, there is no place for paracetamol in the cooking of meat. It is extremely dangerous. Apart from the fact that they are cooking it, they are consuming more of it and the primary effect is in the liver.

“You know that liver problem is on the increase, with that, we don‘t even know if people have been practicing this for a very long time for us to be having this increase in liver diseases; some unexplained liver failure, liver cancer are emanating. Some of these things and unorthodox use of orthodox medications may be the cause.

“Also, you don‘t use paracetamol alongside alcohol because alcohol also is being metabolised in the liver,” he stated.
On the way out, Philips said that national health education should be carried out by both practitioners and other relevant stakeholders.

According to him, „the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should get this information across so that we will have a good health-seeking culture. The government should seriously educate the people on the issue. I don‘t know why the Nigerian governments are allowing things to happen haphazardly. So, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should take lead.“

While also decrying the practice, the immediate past president of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Dr. Godswill Okara, said that paracetamol is not a drug to be taken on a regular basis.

He said that research had shown that when humans take paracetamol, the breakdown period stays long in the tissue and builds up over time, which means it is not completely excreted from the body.

Okara said that to that extent, “it is really dangerous, which means the medicine is not to be taken anyhow.

“Certainly, it has health implications because even the use of paracetamol is normally controlled because it can cause liver failure if taken in an excessive dose.

“I wonder how people came about using it to cook meat because the chemical and pharmacological content of paracetamol is not what one should be consumed on a regularly basis,“ Okara warned.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had on December 31, 2019, issued a public alert on the dangerous and unapproved Use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation.

The agency asked Nigerians to use genuine NAFDAC registered table salt (in moderation) to tenderise meat by soaking it in salted water for about 30 minutes prior to cooking to prevent serious health consequences that may result from dangerous and illegal use of paracetamol tablets in food preparation.

Other established and safe methods for tenderising meat, according to NAFDAC, are cooking with a pressure cooker, marinating (soaking) with vinegar, citrus juices or wine before cooking.

In its reaction, the Federal Ministry of Health said that NAFDAC is the agency responsible for food and drug advocacy, noting that it had done so by issuing a public alert on the use of paracetamol.

The ministry‘s director of Food and Drug Services, Mosud Lawal, however said that the ministry had a food safety programme through which it communicates with the state ministries to ensure that there is adequate education at the grassroots.

“We do advocacy as issues emerge. Definitely, this issue (paracetamol) will be included,“ he said.

EHORECON Challenges Academia On Toxic Paracetamol

Relatedly, the Environmental Health Officers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) has challenged the academia to embark on research to certify the correlation between the toxic chemical in paracetamol that damages the liver.

In an interview with LEADERSHIP, the director of Education and Training of EHORECON, Dr. Yakubu Mohammed Baba, lamented that food vendors use paracetamol to cook meat to cut the cost of burning firewood, kerosene, and gas.

Baba said: “Paracetamol is an analgesic and when you take it ordinarily, it will go through the normal process of digestion and kill the pains in the body. But when it gets heated by using any fire mechanism, it will hydrolyse and produce four-aminophenol which can cause kidney failure and it also affects the liver.”

Baba said that there have been reported cases in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State where eateries cook meat with paracetamol, adding that the council was yet to receive any formal report in Abuja that food vendors or eateries cook meat with paracetamol.

He posited that the skyrocketing cases of kidney and liver diseases might be related with the eating habits of Nigeria, especially in public places, adding that the issue of food safety was part of the cardinal principles of the council.

Baba maintained that the council had a series of Mandatory Professional Development Programmes (MPDPs) to enhance and build the capacity of its members on health and environmental issues, noting that the practitioners were ready and well-equipped to address the issue.

The EHORECON director stated that the council set standards and guidelines on food safety and hygiene, adding that it’s the responsibility of local governments to provide the logistics for the environmental health officers (EHOs) to do their jobs, especially in the areas of food safety and hygiene.

Also, the Nigerian Association of Nephrology (NAN) said that about 25million Nigerians have kidney failures, adding that hypertension was a major effect. It said that drugs such as paracetamol used for cooking meat may be a major contributor.

A staff of the department of environmental health and safety, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), said that his section only monitors the environmental sanitation of places where food is sold to the public.

He said that the department does not go into the technical aspects of monitoring the content of food sold to the public because it does not have the relevant instruments to conduct such test.

The official maintained that the responsibility of testing the content of food sold to the public lies with NAFDAC, which has all the equipment for testing food meant for public consumption.

A mentally challenged woman has welcomed a baby boy after being rescued and rushed to Onitsha General Hospital.

The lady was rescued and assisted after the Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs, Lady Ndidi Mezue received a distress call from a concerned citizen.

Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Assistant on New Media, Vincent O Ezechukwu also disclosed that another heavily pregnant mentally challenged woman was rescued by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs’ security team. The woman has been relocated to a government facility where she will be cared for until her due date of delivery.

The statement read;

Anambra State Ministry of Women Affairs, during the weekend, Saturday 11/1/2020, through the assistant of spirited individuals rescued a heavily pregnant mentally challenged woman at Onitsha, who few hours after her rescue gave birth to a bouncing baby boy.

The pregnant woman was rescued when the Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs, Lady Ndidi Mezue, received a distress call from a concern citizen who spotted the woman. On receiving the call, the Honorable Commissioner, swung into action and immediately seek the assistance of the Women Development Officer (WDO)Of Onitsha North local government area who with a nurse rushed the woman to Onitsha General Hospital, where she was delivered of a bouncing baby boy.

In a related development this time at Awka, another heavily pregnant mentally challenged woman was also rescued by the ministry’s security team. The Honorable Commissioner, on getting informed about the rescue ordered for the woman to be relocated to a government facility where she will be cared for until her due date of delivery.