Diamond Celebrities

Former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has called on stronger economies and international agencies like the World Health Organisation  to support the efforts of Nigeria and other African nations towards procuring the necessary equipment and kits to enable them conduct aggressive COVID-19 testing. He also said lockdown would fail without effective coronavirus testing. He also appealed […]

Tragedy struck on Monday as fire razed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation filling station on Yaya Abatan Street, Ogba, Lagos State. It was gathered that the fire, which started around 1pm, emanated from a diesel-laden tanker that was about to discharge its content into the station’s underground storage facility. Apart from the filling station, over […]

Mohammed Atiku-Abubakar, a son of Nigeria’s former vice-president, has now tested negative for coronavirus. “I have just received my second consecutive negative result,” Mr Atiku-Abubakar told Premium Times Monday afternoon. “My discharge is currently being processed, and I hope to be home this evening.” The Nigerian disease control office does not comment on individual cases. […]

A coalition of Nigerian legal experts has filed a class action suit against the Peoples Republic of China over the effects of the coronavirus pandemic effect on Nigerians. They are demanding $200 billion as damages for the “loss of lives, economic strangulation, trauma, hardship, social disorientation, mental torture and disruption of normal daily existence of […]

The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control,  Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu,  on Sunday said  Nigeria needed to stock more of the RNA extraction kits to cater for the expansion of its COVID-19 testing capacity. Writing on his twitter handle, @Chikwe_I, Ihekweazu, he gave specification of the test kits Nigeria was looking for and […]

Lagos State Health Commissioner, Prof Akin Abayomi, says persons infected with coronavirus can be exercising daily and feel generally well but are secreting and transmitting the virus everywhere they go. He made this known during a chat on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme. He noted that the state has moved from the imported stage to the […]

Coronavirus has spread to four new states in Nigeria – Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Kebbi and Taraba. With the four new states, the disease has spread to 32 Nigerian states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control made this known on its website on Sunday. It also said that 91 new cases […]

Nigerian Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, says President Muhammadu Buhari will determine when to lift the lockdown order in Lagos, Abuja and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Ehanire disclosed this on Sunday while speaking on the efforts made by the Federal Government to tackle COVID-19 pandemic in the country. “The President will make that announcement […]

Nigeria has confirmed 87 new cases of COVID-19, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported Sunday morning. The cases were reported in nine states across the country. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 1182. A breakdown of the latest update shows that 33 of the new cases were […]

A ban on gatherings in an effort to check the spread of coronavirus has left mortuaries in Lagos filled as relatives are unable to hold funerals, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said. Mr Babajide said this at a press briefing on Saturday, saying the mortuaries need to be decongested urgently. The governor said the state of […]

Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has relaxed the coronavirus lockdown imposed on the state and has asked churches to commence full activities. The governor stated this in a broadcast to the people of the state on Saturday evening. Before the broadcast, church activities had been restricted for 14 days as one of the measures to […]

Nigerian governors have advised President Muhammadu Buhari to relax the lockdown that has been in place in parts of the country in the last month in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus. They advised the president to impose interstate restriction but allow intra state movement. They also recommended continued restriction on large gatherings and […]

Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the supreme court announced, hailing the latest in a series of “human rights advances” made by the king and his powerful son. Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia — sometimes extending to hundreds of lashes — have long drawn condemnation from human rights groups. But they say the […]

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved immediate payments of salaries owed some lecturers who are not enrolled in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).  Following the refusal to enrol in the IPPIS, some lecturers’ salaries were withheld, however, President Buhari in Abuja asked that the arrears owed these lecturers be paid. President Buhari gave […]

Nigeria on Friday recorded 114 cases of COVID-19, bringing the total recorded in the country to 1095. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet Friday night said the new cases were recorded in nine states. These are Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ogun, Gombe, Zamfara, Edo, Oyo, Kaduna and Sokoto states. As of the […]

As the airline industry across the world continues to take a beating following the suspension of most local and international flights, Nigeria’s largest commercial airline, Arik Air, on Thursday informed staff it would cut the salaries of its employees by a whopping 80 per cent. In an internal memo obtained by Premium Times the airline’s […]

The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, has explained why the lockdown measure should not be relaxed amid efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic. President Buhari had on March 29 ordered a lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun states for 14 days to curb COVID-19 spread. Many states had […]