Prof. Muhammad Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, announced that N260 billion has been set aside for the national revitalization of Primary HealthCare Centers.
At the sectoral ministerial press briefing held in Abuja on Friday to commemorate President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office, Prof. Pate made this statement.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency is working to increase the number of PHCs from 8,300 to 17,000 and equip them with the necessary tools to provide basic healthcare services, according to the minister.
“I’m very pleased to say that there is N260 billion sitting at the state level right now,” he stated. For the purpose of revitalizing the PHCs, all of the federation’s states have been mobilized. This resource comes from the Basic HealthCare Provision Fund as well as the International Development Association because, as we mentioned earlier, having the resources available is essential to revitalizing our PHCs.
“Thus, the states have this N260 billion in their pockets, and a lot of the work that has been going on over the last few months is to mobilize the resources to be able to deploy.”
He mentioned that the states would receive guidelines from the federal government regarding the implementation of medical facility equipment and revitalization.
“We addressed the significant gaps in several states that we found from the previous year’s audits of how some of these resources were being used, which we looked at through the governor’s forum and the National Economic Council before this administration.
“I would like to express my gratitude to our state governors for their proactive approach in ensuring that resources are allocated to their intended purposes. They saw the direction that the President had set forth with the Health Sector Renewal Initiative and the compact they signed,” the minister said.
Additionally, he declared that 120,000 frontline health workers would receive three years of training from the government.
In the meantime, thirteen terrorism financing cases have been found guilty, according to Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
He continued by saying that the Justice Ministry had also successfully completed 150 requests for Mutual Legal Assistance and obtained 12 requests for extradition from foreign governments and law enforcement agencies.
At the sectoral ministerial press briefing on Friday in Abuja, Fagbemi revealed this information while presenting the Federal Ministry of Justice’s annual report card.
“Securing 160 convictions for criminal offences, 87 convictions for terrorism cases, and 3 novel convictions for extremist terrorism actors involved in the radicalization of children and violence against women,” stated Fagbemi in her remarks.
He clarified that this is consistent with the ministry’s mission to improve national security and safety by means of legal action.
Additionally, he stated, “There is increased interagency synergy for prosecution of maritime cases, electricity offenses, and collaboration with stakeholders in the public and private sectors on cybersecurity protection and cybercrime prosecution.”
The AGF disclosed that the ministry, in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Council, and other relevant parties, has recommenced the trial of terrorism cases.
Speaking about the accomplishments of the ministry’s agencies, Fagbemi stated that 2,849,203 public complaints concerning various human rights issues were handled by the National Human Rights Commission.
He said that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons had obtained 65 convictions, including those of eight offenders who were prosecuted under the Violence Against Persons Act and 57 human trafficker perpetrators.
“The organization also freed 1,600 victims of human trafficking, of whom 340 were equipped with a variety of skills and 90 were registered in educational programs to further their own empowerment,” he stated.
He continued by saying that the ministry and the Nigerian Law Reform Commission were reviewing legal elements that were impacted by the recommendations made in the report of the Oronsanye Committee and in the white papers on the 2012 and 2022 restructuring and rationalization of Federal Government parastatals, agencies, and commissions, respectively.
According to Fagbemi, who works for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, roughly 959,917.30 kg of illegal drugs were found, 13,798 suspected drug traffickers were apprehended, and 3,247 drug offenders were found guilty.
In all, 7,586 drug-abusing individuals received counseling, and 1,337 others were successfully rehabilitated, according to his statement.
“In addition, over 3,188 public enlightenment programs were conducted to raise awareness about the dangers of drug abuse and trafficking in schools, places of work, worship centers, markets, motor parks, and communities,” stated Fagbemi.
According to AGF, the Legal Aid Council handled 5,081 cases involving low-income individuals.
In a similar vein, the AGF revealed that Nigeria was expected to get approximately £2.1 million in corruption proceeds from the Jersey Bailiwick.
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