Officials of states including Ogun, Gombe, Benue, Lagos, Ondo and Sokoto, said they had enough bed spaces to admit COVID-19 patients.

This came to the fore as the number of officially confirmed COVID-19 infections hit 236, 014 while the rate of full vaccination was stalled at 3.9 per cent as of Saturday.

Despite the increasing cases, the Nigeria Police Force, the military, and other security agencies have failed to enforce the compulsory vaccination mandate for their personnel.

On Friday, the country recorded 1,584 new cases, while on Saturday the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control confirmed 1,305 new cases of the virus.

The agency added that on Saturday alone, 21 persons died of COVID-19 complications bringing the fatality toll across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to 3,014.

Amidst the surging cases, the Ogun State Government said it had no fewer than 260-bed spaces in the four isolation centres in the state. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, while fielding questions from one of our correspondents in Abeokuta, said there was no need for more beds over the rising cases of COVID-19

She said “Ogun State has 260 isolation beds; four isolation centres.  No no need for more beds.”

Coker said the state was not charging any fee for COVID-19 tests. She however said N39,000 was being charged by private laboratories in the state.

Recall that the Federal Government had on Monday, 27 July said schools could reopen on August 4 so pupils could revise for two weeks in preparation for the examination which is scheduled to begin on August 17.

Lagos State Commissioner for Education Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, and the Special Adviser to the Ogun State Governor on Education, Mrs Ronke Soyombo, confirmed this to The Nation on Tuesday.

However, Ekiti Commissioner for Education Mr Foluso Daramola said SS3 pupils would resume, but that the state had not decided on whether Junior Secondary Three (JS3) pupils would also return.

“I am just coming from a meeting at the governor’s office on the issue.  We will issue a statement on it,” she said.

The Special Adviser to the Ogun State Governor on Education said schools considered to be high risk in Ogun would not be allowed to reopen, noting that such schools would be identified through their responses in an online reopening form.

In the form, schools are given the options of “risky” (coded red), “moderate” (yellow) or “none” (green) in response to questions about their readiness for resumption.

Soyombo said schools have until Friday evening to submit the form, which can be downloaded from the ministry’s website.

She said: “For schools that fill mostly red (risky) in all the fields, we will not reopen them.  We may need to do a contingency plan for their students.”

She said the state has met with stakeholders on the reopening, while risk assessment training has been conducted.

Soyombo said public schools in Ogun had been provided with water, soap and other facilities in line with the requirements for resumption.

Federal Government Colleges (unity schools) will resume on August 4 for SS3 pupils only.

Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Ben Gong, said the Presidential Task Force (PTF) would announce on Thursday whether JSS3 pupils would resume.

Also yesterday, Benue State Government approved the reopening of schools for SS3 pupils.

Commissioner for Education Prof Dennis Ityavyar, said JSS 3 pupils would also resume.

He said the government had put necessary measures in place to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

He urged parents to ensure their children wear facemasks and observe other safety precautions.

On the planned handover of missionary schools to their owners, Ityavyar said a committee headed by the Secretary to the Government, Prof Anthony Ijohor, had been set up to make recommendations within a week.

A militia of Islamic Fulani herdsmen murdered Christians as part of an aggressive and strategic land-grabbing strategy across the Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Southern Kaduna and parts of Bauchi state, the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), a British non-profit run by a member of the British House of Lords, Baroness Cox, reported.

“They attack rural villages, force villagers off their lands and settle in their place — a strategy that is epitomized by the phrase: ‘Your land or your blood,'” the report said. “In every village, the message from local people is the same: ‘Please, please help us! The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes.'”

“In every village, the message from local people is the same: ‘Please, please help us! The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes.'”

— Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust report

The report, published Nov. 18 but circulated this month, is titled “Your Land or Your Body.” It also estimates about 6,000 Christians have been killed by members of the Fulani ethnic group since 2015 and another 12,000 displaced, according to a copy obtained by The Christian Post.

Nomadic Fulani herdsmen “seek to replace diversity and difference with an Islamist ideology which is imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply. It is – according to the Nigerian House of Representatives – genocide,” Baroness Cox told the Christian Institute.

“Something has to change — urgently,” Cox also told Christian Today. “For the longer we tolerate these massacres, the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a ‘green light’ to carry on killing.”

Tensions over land-scarcity have been rising in Nigeria as the Sahara Desert continues to expand and the population is on the rise. Predominantly Christian communities remain the target of land-grabbing attacks, suggesting “religion and ideology play a key part” in the Fulani herdsmen’s motive.

The Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the majority of the Christian deaths in Nigeria in 2019. About half of the Christian deaths this year occurred in five separate attacks in Kaduna between January and November, the report said, according to Christian Today. Christians are also being killed by Boko Haram, a jihad terrorist group, in the Borno state, the report said. The exact death toll is not known.

“The attacks have, on occasion, led to retaliatory violence, as communities conclude that they can no longer rely on the government for protection or justice,” the report said. “However, we have seen no evidence of comparability of scale or equivalence of atrocities.”