Constitution review: Reps remove immunity for president, govs

Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal

members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed new amendments to the 1999 Constitution.

A major highlight of the endorsement was the removal of the immunity clause for the President, the Vice President, the governors and their deputies. By implication, occupiers of the offices can be tried for criminal offences while still in office.

A total of 252 lawmakers voted in Abuja to adopt 70 new clauses added to the constitution.

The clauses were compressed into a constitution amendment bill already harmonised by a conference committee of the Senate and the House.

The motion for the adoption of the conference report was moved by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha.

Ihedioha doubles as the Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review.

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal presided over Wednesday’s session. A total of 261 members were present in the chambers when voting started.

Lagos to join oil producing states in 2015

Lagos State is set to join the league of oil producing states in the country come next year as the joint venture partners on the Aje Field offshore Lagos have taken the final investment decision on the exploration of the field.

A group led by Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited took the FID to develop the first phase of the Aje shallow water oil field for $220m.

The aim of the first phase is to produce 10,000 barrels per day of oil from two target wells in the Oil Mining Lease 113 area. A re-entry of Aje-4 will form the first producer, while drilling of Aje-5 is expected to be the second.

The plans include the use of Rubicon’s Front Puffin floating production, storage and offloading vessel, which produced oil from the Puffin field in the Timor Sea. The vessel will be brought up to specification soon, while the procurement of subsea equipment and the contracting of a drilling rig are progressing.

Chewing gum before surgery safe — Report

It’s safe to chew gum while fasting before surgery, researchers report.

Patients are usually told not to eat or drink before surgery to prevent complications while they’re under anesthesia, but it wasn’t clear if the same was true for chewing gum.

This new study included 67 patients who underwent gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures. About half the patients were allowed to chew gum until just before the start of the procedure, with no limit on the amount or type of gum, or duration of chewing.

The other patients did not chew gum.

Infections can cause bed wetting in children

Parenting is hard enough, but it becomes more complicated when a toddler who should be able to use the bathroom without any assistance keeps bedwetting. Wetting the bed can be an embarrassing issue among kids, but it’s actually very common.

According to a survey by the National Health Institute, United States, 15 per cent of children still wet the bed by age five. It quickly adds that less than five per cent of those kids do so by ages eight to 11.

Bedwetting, also known as bladder incontinence, has medical, emotional and psychological implications on the self esteem of the child if not handled properly. For instance, a child with bladder incontinence would likely be the butt of jokes from his/her siblings, friends and peers in school and at home.