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Three States Report 76 Deaths From Yellow Fever In 11 Days —– NCDC

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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says three states have recently reported a total of 76 deaths suspected to be from yellow fever.

Bauchi, Delta and Enugu states reported that the deaths occurred between November 1 and 11, the Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, told the News Agency of Nigeria.

It is reported that the recent fatalities from ‘strange illnesses’ suspected to be yellow fever in these states.

On Friday, Mr Ihekweazu told NAN that the cases and deaths were reported to the agency by the state epidemiologists of the three affected states.

He disclosed that 74 suspected cases involving 35 deaths were reported from Delta State, 70 suspected cases with 33 deaths from Enugu, and 78 suspected cases with eight deaths from Bauchi State, respectively.

He said from preliminary investigations, three samples from Delta, one sample from Enugu, and eight samples from Bauchi were confirmed as yellow fever from the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test conducted at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Gaduwa, FCT.

“Between November 1 and 11, 2020, a total of 222 suspected cases, 19 confirmed cases and 76 deaths have been reported from these three states,” he said.

Mr Ihekweazu stated that most of the cases were males, with ages ranging from 1-55 years, presenting symptoms that included fever, headache, fatigue, jaundice, abdominal pain, vomiting with or without blood, epistaxis, blood in stools/urine.

According to him, as at November 7, the National Yellow Fever Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated to coordinate all response activities across the affected states.

“The State Epidemiology Team in the affected states is leading the response with support from NCDC, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and World Health Organisation (WHO).

“National Rapid Response Teams (RRT) from the NCDC have been deployed to support response activities in Delta and Enugu States,” he said.

NAN reported that as at early October, Nigeria had reported a total of eight confirmed cases of yellow fever from seven LGAs across four states with no deaths, as a multi-agency yellow fever Technical Working Group coordinated by NCDC, has kicked in response activities in the country.

“Yellow fever is a vaccine-preventable disease. A single vaccination provides immunity for life. Symptoms of the disease include yellowness of the eyes, sudden fever, headache and body pain,” the NCDC boss said in a statement last Saturday.

“The yellow fever vaccine is available for free in primary health care centres in Nigeria as part of the national childhood routine immunisation schedule,” he added.

Unfortunately, the low immunization rate in the country has been a major contributing factor to the increasing prevalence of the disease in the country.

The yellow fever vaccination was introduced in Nigeria in 2004 as one of the routine vaccines expected to be given to children during routine immunisation. In spite of this, the country is still witnessing outbreaks of the disease.

The increasingly regular occurrence of yellow fever outbreaks is largely because many people are unvaccinated, according to the NCDC.

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US Court Sends British-Nigerian To Seven Years In Jail Over $5m Cyber Fraud

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Oludayo Adeagbo, a British-Nigerian, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar business email compromise (BEC) scheme.

According to the US Department of Justice, Adeagbo, who also goes by John Edwards and John Dayo, conspired with others to steal over $3 million from various entities in Texas, including local government bodies, construction companies, and a Houston-area college.

Adeagbo and his co-conspirators also defrauded a North Carolina university of more than $1.9 million.

The case began in August 2022 when Adeagbo and two other Nigerian citizens, Donald Echeazu, 42, and Olabanji Egbinola, 44, were extradited from the United Kingdom (UK), where they had been residing, to face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering.

The US Department of Justice stated that the offences were committed in North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

On April 8, Adeagbo pleaded guilty in two cases against him in North Carolina and Texas for participating in a business email compromise scheme, which is also referred to as a “cyber-enabled financial fraud” scheme.

A business email compromise scheme can be initiated by scammers creating fake accounts that mimic companies a business regularly deals with.

Court records revealed that Adeagbo and his co-conspirators gathered information about significant construction projects across the United States, including a multi-million-dollar project at a university in North Carolina.

“To execute the scheme, Adeagbo, Echeazu, and others registered a domain name similar to that of the legitimate construction company in charge of the university’s project and created an email address that closely resembled that of an employee of the construction company,” the Department of Justice said.

“Using the fake email address, the fraudsters deceived and directed the university to wire a payment of more than $1.9 million to a bank account controlled by an individual working under the direction of Adeagbo and his co-conspirators.”

Adeagbo and his co-conspirators employed the same tactics in Texas, targeting local government entities and universities by impersonating construction companies. They stole over $3 million from the scheme, bringing their total haul to $5 million.

Adeagbo has been ordered to pay $942,655.03 in restitution and will serve seven years in prison.

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Nigerian-American Oye Owolewa Re-Elected To US Congress

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Oye Owolewa, a Nigerian-American Democrat, has been re-elected as the shadow representative for the District of Columbia (DC).

Owolewa, a PhD graduate from Northeastern University in Boston, made history in November 2020 when he became the first Nigerian-American elected to Congress.

He secured 164,026 votes, or 82.84 percent of the total votes cast in DC.

His role, while not officially recognized by the US government as a full member of Congress, is to advocate for the district’s interests, particularly its bid for statehood.

On Thursday, Owolewa expressed his gratitude to DC voters via a post on X, thanking them for their continued support.

“Thank you DC again for giving me chance to serve. I also want to thank the organizations that have supported, partnered with and endorsed me,” he wrote.

While shadow representatives like Owolewa do not have voting power in the US House of Representatives, they play a key role in pushing for recognition and state-level advocacy for DC residents, who are otherwise disenfranchised at the federal level.

Owolewa has consistently championed the cause of DC statehood, which has become a central focus of his work.

The re-election took place on November 5, the same day as the US presidential election.

In that election, former President Donald Trump defeated Vice-President Kamala Harris, securing over 270 electoral votes to win a second term.

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Joe Biden Urges Americans To Accept Trump’s Victory, Promises Peaceful Transition

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United States President Joe Biden has urged Americans to accept the victory of Republican Party candidate Donald Trump in the presidential election.

On November 6, Trump won the presidential election after surpassing the magic number of 270 electoral college votes.

Trump defeated Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, who received 219 electoral college votes.

Harris has congratulated Trump on his electoral victory.

During a speech on Thursday at the White House Rose Garden, Biden said, “We accept the choice the country made.”

“I know for some people, it’s time for victory to state the obvious. For others, it’s a time of loss,” the US president said.

“Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other.

“I’ve said many times, you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbour only when you agree.

“I will do my duty as president. I’ll fulfil my oath and honour the Constitution. On January 20, we will have a peaceful transfer of power here in America.

“Remember, defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dream is calling for you to get back up.

“The America experiment endures. We are going to be okay, but we need to stay engaged. We need to keep going. Above all, we need to keep the faith.”

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