Mr Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, has said that no explosion occurred at Zungeru power plant on Monday.

A statement by Mr Bolaji Tunji, Special Adviser, Strategic Communications and Media Relations, on Monday in Abuja said that the minister was reacting to some social media platforms that an explosion occurred at Zungeru power plant.

Tunji quoted the minister as saying that the report of an explosion was a figment of the imagination of the purveyors of such information.

According to the Minister, the Zungeru power plant is on the grid and the plant is running at optimum capacity.

“I have spoken with the Managing Director of Mainstream Energy and I can assure you that nothing of such took place in Zungeru.

”The plant is working and it continues to supply to the grid. We have video evidence from Zungeru that nothing like that occurred today and whoever is interested should go there to find out.

”It is rather unfortunate that people will sit down somewhere and cook up this sort of story. It is unpatriotic; such people should desist from creating unnecessary panic.”

The minister assured Nigerians of adequate supply of energy.

“We have seen the worst in the sector, we can only get better.

”We promised incremental supply of power and that is what is happening now and that’s why we have the present improvement and it will continue,”the Minister assured.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammed Pate, has inaugurated some medical structures in the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) for affordability of health care services.

Pate, at the inauguration on Monday in Gwagwalada, said that the infrastructures reflected President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and unwavering determination to bridge the gap in the health sector.

Some of the structures inaugurated were the mental health building, Cardiovascular Research Centre and Sen, Joshua Dariye medical Out Patient Clinic Block.

According to him, the structures will provide integrated care services and acute care for both inpatient and outpatient, in line with international best practices in the health sector.

“The health infrastructures in our teaching hospitals and the medical equipment provide services to Nigerians to expand the affordability of medical services in anticipation of the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases.

“We are unveiling the Cardiovascular Research Centre, mental health building and the Medical Outpatient Block as we have increasing cases of hypertension, diabetes and cancer in Nigeria and the health sector has to deal with it.

“I am very pleased with the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada for expanding the infrastructure, mobilising human resources and global partnership to build research centre.

“We are making progress, we are expanding the Primary Healthcare, expanding higher level services through our hospitals, rebuilding our human resources, retraining about 120,000 frontline health workers all over Nigeria,” he said.

Pate said that the President signed an executive order to unlock the healthcare value chain, which would allow us to produce some of the things needed, to enable Nigerians get treated in the country.

“We are very optimistic that the President’s mission on expanding health insurance coverage in the next few years will add to the momentum that we have built in the country,” he said.

Pata said the present administration was committed to improve the health sector by expanding primary health care services in the country.

This, he said would expand access to higher levels of services through hospitals and rebuilding human resources.

On the issue of cholera outbreak in the country, Pate called on all Nigerians to maintain basic hygiene to help prevent water and food diseases.

The Chief Medical Director, UATH, Prof. Bissallah Ekele, said the hospital was in need of Medical Imaging Report (MIR) machine and renovation of the male medical ward.

Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State has sworn-in four new Permanent Secretaries with a charge to exhibit transparency, integrity, and prudence in the discharge of their duty.

Oyebanji gave the charged at the swearing in ceremony held at the Governor’s Office in Ado-Ekiti on Monday.

He urged the newly appointed Permanent Secretaries to foster an atmosphere of teamwork, confidence building and collective responsibility, stressing the need for them to inspire others by being solution providers.

The governor urged the new appointees to embrace innovation and technology in their official duties.

He challenged them to justify their appointment by giving their best at all times and bring creativity, compassion and vigour to bear on their job as permanent secretary.

The governor called on all accounting officers across MDAs to re-double their efforts and increase the tempo of service delivery in order to achieve the shared prosperity agenda of his administration.

“I am so happy that today’s exercise is a product of a merit-based examination process and not as a result of man-know-man. I am also happy that people can become Permanent Secretary without knowing anybody,” he said.

The governor noted that the appointment was a continuation of the last competitive examination for both the State and the Local Government held in 2023.

He urged them to see themselves as “both managers of human and material resources of government.”

The new permanent secretaries were Mrs Funke Ajibola, Mr Michael Boluade, Mr Foluso Akinwumi and Mr Rotimi Akomolede.

Seaking on behalf of the new permanent secretaries, Boluade thanked the governor for the appointment, assuring that they would remain committed to developing the state.