The Grazing Reserves Audit Committee headed by the Chief of Staff to the President has clarified its mandate, stating that it was not set up to recover grazing reserves across Nigeria.
A member of the committee, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, made the clarification on Friday at the virtual meeting of the National Economic Council presented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, who briefed the media after the meeting, said Bagudu’s presentation was to inform the Council about the essence of the grazing reserves audit.
“The summary of the presentation was to brief NEC on the essence of the audit which is to document available land in order to aid the implementation of the 10year National Livestock Transformation Plan approved by NEC in 2019.
“The presentation clarified that the audit committee is not mandated to recover grazing reserves.”
COVID-19
Umahi said that the Council received a progress report from the Chairman of the NEC Committee on the Covid-19 pandemic, Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa.
He said that report showed that the Federal Ministry of Health was establishing oxygen plants across the 36 States in the country, while six States have been provided with oxygen cylinders so far.
Okowa’s report also indicated that the federal government has paid for 40 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines coming in batches, with a considerable amount of the vaccines expected into the country between now and January 2022
“Nigeria is now classified among the 50 countries in the green zones,” Umahi, quoted Okowa to have said in his presentation.
He said that the Council was informed that the number of cases was 208, 404; the number of cases tested was 3,142,971; number of active cases was 9,520; number of discharged cases was 196,123l; while the number of deaths was 2,761.
“Council was also informed on the global situation of Covid-19 with over 237million confirmed cases and over 4.8million deaths due to Covid -19. There are now over 6.3billion vaccine doses administered.
“Nigeria is still in the first wave of vaccination and vaccination tools will improve as the country receives additional vaccines.
“Covid-19 cases have declined by 7.5% over the last week.
“States are urged to continue to push testing activities in other to detect new cases before the situation worsens
“An update on travel restrictions on certain countries expected to be announced soon by the federal government.”
Cholera outbreak
According to Umahi, the Council was also briefed on the cholera outbreak in the country with the current number of suspected cases standing at 88,704.
He said that the number of states affected was 31 and the Federal Capital Territory, while the number of deaths was 3,208.
Dominica Nwabufo
