Gist Arena

Nurses in all government hospitals are to go on strike by midnight on Sunday to protest refusal of the Federal Ministry of Health to implement agreements and court rulings dating back to 34 years. The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives said the strike will be "total" but hospitals in Borno are exempted from the industrial action on account of disruptions in service delivery there. "We are forced to take this action because patience for 34 years can be mistaken for foolishness," the association said Wednesday. Gist Arena

Article written by award winning writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie titled 'Why can't he just be like everyone else?'  Find it below... I will call him Sochukwuma. A thin, smiling boy who liked to play with us girls at the university primary school in Nsukka. We were young. We knew he was different, we said, 'he's not like the other boys.' But his was a benign and unquestioned difference; it was simply what it was. We did not have a name for him. We did not know the word 'gay.' He was Sochukwuma and he was friendly and he played oga so well that his side always won.

— The Group Managing Director of  Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr Andrew Yakubu, yesterday in Abuja said that kerosene was not sold at the official price of N50 per litre because of diversion of the product by some marketers. The other reasons for the high price of kerosene, according to him, include sharp practices by middlemen, usage for road construction and aviation fuel, among others. Yakubu said this at an investigative hearing on the supply, subsidy and distribution of kerosene in the country. The hearing was organised by the House of Representatives on Petroleum (Downstream). He said that this trend could be checked through adequate monitoring of the country's border to ensure that the product was not smuggled. Yakubu also said that the diversion of the product would be curtailed if the production and supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) was improved. He said that the corporation was making efforts to make pipelines across the country functional to c...

BAUCHI — An unholy alliance between a family and a native doctor has allegedly claimed the lives of two people in Zwall village of Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State. The family of Adamu Goni and a native doctor (names withheld)  agreed to administer charms on four members of the family, including a pastor, over their alleged involvement in witchcraft. The family, it was learnt, had been worried over calamities befalling its members, so it sought solutions from a native doctor. The startling revelations were made inside the shrine of the native doctor, a development that almost prompted angry youths to lynch him. Trouble started when the native doctor administered his charms on four  members of the family who were suspected to be involved in witchcraft activities. The purpose of the charm was to  compel them to confess their involvement or not. It was gathered that of the four that were administered with the charm, the spell affected two who, howev...

The life of a 17-year-old student of Bowen University, Opeyemi Odusanya, has been cut short by some cult members in Lagos. It was gathered that the undergraduate was murdered for allegedly rejecting sexual advances from some youths in the area and also for "being too proud." PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim was a 300 level student of Biochemistry at the university. Police authorities told our correspondent that Opeyemi was stabbed to death by the cultists at her parents' house in the Alakuko area of Lagos on February 3, 2014. Police sources told PUNCH Metro that investigations had revealed that the culprits were residents of the area. A police officer, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "In the afternoon of February 3, 2014, the deceased went to buy airtime for her telephone. As she was returning, a group of cult members trailed and entered the house with her. "Opeyemi was alone at home when the guys entered. They instructed her to turn on the generator so ...