Abuja Bloggers

HIV can rapidly form invulnerable strongholds in the body, dashing hopes that early treatment might cure the virus, according to new research. A baby was thought to have been cured with treatment hours after birth, but the virus emerged years later. Monkey research, published in the journal Nature, suggests untouchable “viral reservoirs” form even before HIV can be detected in the blood. Experts described it as a “sobering” and “striking” finding. Reservoirs of HIV in the gut and brain tissue are the massive obstacle in the way of a cure. Remarkable progress in developing antiretroviral drugs means HIV can be kept in check in the bloodstream and patients have a near-normal life expectancy. But if the drugs stop, the virus will emerge from its reservoirs. International research is focused on flushing the virus out of its reservoirs, but there had been hope that early treatment could prevent them forming in the first place. In the study, rhesus monkeys were infe...

The Federal Government on Monday ordered state governments, which had been registering and deporting some Nigerians from parts of the country because of terrorism, to desist forthwith. The government also directed security agents not to be involved in such unlawful activities or risk severe punishment. This was one of the decisions taken at the National Security Council meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan. The meeting was attended by all service chiefs, Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Muhammad Abubakar; Director-General of the Department of State Security, Ita Ekpeyong; Minister of Interior, Abba Moro; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aminu Wali, and the Minister of Police Affairs, Abduljelili Adesiyan. Abubakar and Ekpeyong briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting. Ekpeyong said the council reviewed the reports from states where such exercise was already taking place and resolved that it was more potent than the Boko Haram sect. ...

Order Now Vanila Cup Cake For Just 100 naira only. OLabluetooth is set to lunch the 1st edition of his Cup Cakes to Abuja Residence which includes skills acquisition and entrepreneural development(SAED) WUSE. Order for your cup cakes now and save cost and transport risk...Available only to Abuja residence for now.

A socio-cultural group, the Jukun Development Association (JDA), has called on the people of southern Taraba in Taraba State to defend themselves by any means possible against external aggression aimed at exterminating them in the country. JDA also demanded the immediate evacuation of all Fulani herdsmen from southern Taraba, claiming that the presence of “these violent herdsmen, driven from Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue States, was responsible for the rising cases of violence in their homeland and that the herdsmen must leave for peace to reign in the area.” The group threatened that if the herdsmen refused to leave their homeland, they would take up arms against them. In a statement signed by JDA National President, Mr. Benjamin  Danborno, the group said the call to take up arms became necessary due to federal government alleged failure “to check the violence and protect the Jukun people from the clutches of the blood-thirsty Fulani herdsmen, who have been killing...

The increased security checks at the nation’s seaports in the wake of the insurgency in the North-eastern part of the country has yielded fruits as a young man, Emmanuel Eko, has been arrested for importing  of army camouflage boots, belts and other military accessories. The 38-year-old man who has Nigerian and British international passports was apprehended yesterday officials of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Ports and Terminal Multi-Services Limited (PTML) Command, Apapa, Lagos. The suspect, who claimed to be a soldier with the British army was arrested becaused the items are listed.  Army camouflage, military uniforms, boots, belts and other military accessories are items listed in the Import Prohibition List (IPL) maintained by the NCS. Eko who looked undisturbed as he answered questions from reporters, said the items were reportedly approved for clearance by the NCS and he was on his way out of the terminal when he was stopped at the exit gate ...

Scores were killed and several others injured on Tuesday after an early evening explosion that rocked one of the pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at the Takwa Bay Beach area of Lagos. Although the inferno had been contained as at press time, the entire area was still pervaded with a thick smoke and the stench of petrol. According to eyewitness accounts, some vandals had beforehand, visited the area, vandalised the pipeline and successfully siphoned fuel by digging a pit where the stolen products from the ruptured pipeline flowed into. Although the cause of the explosion was yet to be ascertained, the deceased and injured persons were said to have been among those that stormed the site of the spillage to scoop fuel after the vandals had disappeared. Some of the villagers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the vandals had stormed Takwa Bay in canoes laden with several hundreds of 50 liter jerrycans. According to...

The Verdict By Olusegun Adeniyi;   olusegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com In what turned out to be perhaps his last public outing, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua spent practically the whole of July 18, 2009 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja. It was to attend a fundraising event organized by his wife and then First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua to build an international cancer centre in Nigeria. With President Olusegun Obasanjo as chairman of the occasion, the ceremony had in attendance most of the movers and shakers in Nigeria, and financial pledges were made, all running into about N6.8 billion. On return to the Villa that day, the late President told one of the aides, “Please tell Mr Hallawi I want to see him.” Born in Kano to Syrian parents, Mr. Waleed Hallawi, a respectable old man, was a dependable associate of the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.  “Inherited” by his younger brother, Mr. Hallawi was the go-to man whenever the Y...