Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Thursday that they would seek regulatory authorization for a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine. It comes after initial data from an ongoing trial showed a third shot pushed antibody levels five to 10 times higher against the original coronavirus strain and the Beta variant, first found in South Africa, compared to the first two doses alone, according to a statement. “The companies expect to publish more definitive data soon as well as in a peer-reviewed journal and plan to submit the data to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), EMA (European Medicines Agency) and…
Author: Editor
South Africa’s army says on Monday it would deploy troops to two provinces, including its economic hub of Johannesburg, to help crush mob violence and looting as unrest sparked by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma entered its fourth day. “The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has commenced with pre-deployment processes and procedures in line with a request for assistance,” the military said in a statement. Personnel will “assist law enforcement agencies deployed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces respectively to quell the unrest that has gripped both Provinces in the last few days,” it said. The violence raged as…
The Police Command in Adamawa says it has recorded no fewer than 25 cases of rape and defilement between January and June 2021 in the state. DSP Suleiman Nguroje, the spokesperson of the command, who disclosed this on Monday in Yola, said that 16 of the victims were minors and nine adults. He added that all the suspects, who were mostly from within the neighbourhoods, had been charged to court. Nguroje advised parents and caregivers to take good care of their children, especially the girl-child, to shield them from rapists. He warned those engaged in such dastardly acts to stop,…
Haiti’s national police on Sunday announced the arrest of the suspected mastermind in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. A Haitian doctor living in the U.S. state of Florida was arrested, police chief Leon Charles said at a news conference. The suspected killers called him after the attack and evidence was found in his flat, Charles said. The 63-year-old doctor recently arrived in Haiti on a private plane to seize the presidency, he said. He allegedly hired Colombian mercenaries through a private Venezuelan security firm based in Florida. The doctor is the third U.S. resident of Haitian origin – and…
Prof Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has faulted National Assembly’s, NASS, exclusion of electronic transmission of results from the Electoral Amendment Act (2010). Jega made the observation when he appeared ChannelsTV’s Sunday Politics on Sunday. According to him, allowing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to use electronic voting without the electronic transmission of results is counterproductive. “You can’t permit INEC on one hand to use electronic voting and not use electronic transmission of results because usually, they go as a package. “Once there is a robust software and hardware for doing so, it…
Prof Attahiru Jega, a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has observed that the presidency could avoid controversy on Lauretta Onochie’s nomination as INEC commissioner. Jega made the observation when he featured on ChannelsTV’s current affairs programme, Sunday Politics, Sunday night. The presidency had nominated Onochie for the second time and Nigeria’s Senate on Thursday, against raging condemnation by Nigerians who claim that she is a card carrying member of the ring All Progressives Congress, APC, screened her. Onochie, during her screening by the Senate Committee on INEC however, denied being a member of the APC since…
…Blocks cocaine, others being freighted to UK, Dubai; frees Uber driver Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have intercepted a consignment of 26.150 kilograms of heroin with a street value of over N6.5 billion at the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos. A statement by the spokesperson of the agency, Femi Babafemi made available to ASHENEWS on Sunday, said “the illicit drug had arrived Lagos in 25 parcels from South Africa through an Air Peace airline flight on 30th June, 2021 and was detained for screening following reasonable suspicion of the content…
Southern governors last week rose from their second-ever meeting with a communique sounding more like one by Niger Delta militants in their heydays. While some of their conclusions are in the national interest, some smack of arm twisting and blackmail. For instance, their position on the removal of electronic transmission of election results from the electoral act is spot on. For us to further develop our democracy, one area that needs upgrading is our electoral system, especially in the method of voting, counting, transmission, collation, and even announcement of election results. Agreed, ours is a nation that a myriad of…
The former deputy governor of Kaduna state, Bala Bantex is reported dead. He died after a protracted illness. Bantex, who was deputy governor to Nasir El-Rufai between 2015 and 2019, in his first tenure, stepped aside to contest for Kaduna South Senatorial district in 2019 but lost to Senator Danjuma La’ah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). El-Rufai confirmed the death saying, “In the midst of trying times, I have received with utter sadness news of the departure of my friend and brother, His Excellency Barnabas Yusuf Bala (Bantex).” The deceased was former chairman of Kaura local government area of…
In what looks like daring president Muhammadu Buhari’s order to security agencies, to deal with bandits and other criminal elements in the country, bandits in Kaduna, in late Saturday night attack, have kidnapped the Emir of Kajuru and 13 of his family members. The 85 year old Alhassan Adamu, a 2nd class Emir, was kidnapped alongside three women, two of his grand children, 3 of his aides and 5 others at about 12.30am. A Kajuru Emirate council member confirmed the incident. ASHENEWS gathered that the Emir had held a security meeting on Friday where he reportedly disclosed that there was…