Gist Arena

Former Chief of Army Staff, General Onyeabor Azubuike Ihejirika on Thursday opened a can of worms by declaring that the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory and APC Chieftain, Mallam Nasir El-Rufia is one of the frontline Commanders of the Boko Haram terrorist group. Speaking with Vanguard over allegation by the former minister that he (Ihejirika) and former Governor Modu Sheriff of Borno State were fingered as terrorists sponsors, (Read that HERE ) General Ihejirika said he is not surprised that this unimaginable allegation is coming from ‘one of the Boko Haram Commanders’. “The (Commanders) including El-Rufai know where the problem is. He should stop deceiving Nigerians by trying to divert attention”. According to Ihejirika, “When the Boko Haram operation started, supporters of the sect like El-Rufai said that there was nothing like Boko Haram and that the army was just killing innocent youths”. “If you also remember, not too long ago, some of the...

All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai, named former Borno State governor Modu Sheriff (recently defected to Peoples Democratic Party, PDP) and Lt. Gen Azubuike Ihejirika, a former chief of army staff as Boko Haram "kingpins". Posting the statement to his Facebook and Twitter pages, the former minister cited Australian hostage and crisis negotiator Stephen Davis, who alleged the above duo were key elements of the insurgency on  Arise News . Davis claims the information was disclosed by Boko Haram commanders, who claim the pair has targeted individuals for assassination and execution. El-Rufai's statement, posted to his Facebook account earlier today Below is the full statement, taken from El-Rufai's Facebook page. BREAKING NEWS: SHERIFF AND IHEJIRIKA JUST NAMED AS BOKO HARAM KINGPINS – AriseTV – August 28, 2014 Australian hostage negotiator Stephen Davis has just named Former B...

President Jonathan today August 28th launched the new national e-ID card at the Villa in Abuja. The new e-ID card which is powered by MasterCard is designed be also be used to transact and receive payments. The first phase of the project will see 13million Nigerians issued the card while the next phase will target 100million Nigerians. The project is a partnership with MasterCard, the Nigerian National Identity Management Commission and Access bank. See more photos below

Lol, always frowning. Kim and her husband Kanye West  pictured on their way to a romantic French restaurant for dinner late yesterday in L.A. See more photos below

The A-list pair tied the knot on Saturday in France, a spokesperson for the couple has confirmed. The couple, both Oscar winners, have been together for nine years and have six children. Brad Pitt was previously married to actress Jennifer Aniston, while Angelina has been married twice before, to actors Johnny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.

Ralph Nwoye The Enugu State House of Assembly has confirmed a clergy cum politician, Ralph Nwoye, as the new deputy governor of the state. Mr. Nwoye, whose name was forwarded to the Assembly on Wednesday, replaces Sunday Onyebuchi who was impeached on Tuesday over allegations that he raised chickens behind his official quarters and failed to represent Governor Sullivan Chime at some events. Mr. Nwoye’s political antecedent is unclear at this time. But he is said to be a former caretaker local government chairman in the state. He is also said to be a pastor at the Christ Ascension Church in Enugu. Mr. Onyebuchi’s impeachment is believed to have been masterminded by Governor Chime. The former deputy governor has however indicated that he would challenge his removal in court. The impeached deputy governor had told the impeachment panel set up by the state’s chief judge that Mr. Chime also operated a piggery at the Government House. Giving evidence before the panel last Wedne...

Unknown gunmen at about 5.20 this morning August 28th attacked an Army camp manned by six armed soldiers at Wunti -Dada, a suburb of Bauchi state, killing the commander of the camp and a soldier. According to reports by The Nation, the unknown gunmen arrived the camp in two motorcycles immediately after the early morning Muslim prayers and opened fire, killing the commander and the soldier. Wunti-Dada has been one of the known security challenge points within the state capital with a lot of unusual incidents. Both the Bauchi state Police Public relations officer and the the 33 Artillery Brigade spokesman have refused to comment on the development.

Following the death of Port Harcourt based doctor, Iyke Enemoah, from Ebola on August 22nd, 70 people in Port Harcourt who had primary and secondary contacts with the doctor and the hospital where he worked have now been put under surveillance in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly virus in the city. Dr. Enemoah's wife is the only one who has been quarantined.

The Nigerian government, Thursday, confirmed that the doctor that died in a hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, died of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD. The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, told journalists in Abuja on Thursday that the doctor contacted the disease after treating a patient who came in contact with Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who brought Ebola to Nigeria. According to the minister, the patient after experiencing some symptoms, went for treatment. “This primary contact of Mr. Sawyer’s evaded our surveillance team in the last week of July 2014 and travelled out of Lagos to Port Harcourt where, as we now understand, he consulted with a doctor and was apparently treated for some symptoms,” he said. “After four days, following a manhunt for him, he returned to Lagos by which time he was found to be without symptoms.” The same was, however, not the case for the doctor who treated him as he got infected and finally died on August 22. “Following the rep...

A Perth-based international adviser, Dr. Stephen Davis, who survived months of extreme danger to try to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by terrorist group Boko Haram, has alleged that one of the primary sources of funding for the terror group is Nigerian politicians. THISDAY had exclusively reported that one of the key federal government negotiators trying to secure the release of the Chibok girls from the clutches of Boko Haram was Davis. Davis has worked in Nigeria in the past with the Archbishop of Canterbury and Head of the Church of England, Justin Welby, to negotiate the release of kidnapped oil industry workers in the Niger Delta. Speaking yesterday in an interview on ABC News, an Australian television station, Davis, 63, said he had realised the only way to stop the kidnappings was to stop the sponsors of Boko Haram. While Al Qaeda was involved in training Boko Haram recruits, Davis said one of their major sources of funding - aside from raiding banks -...

Four hundred and eighty Nigerian soldiers who fled into the Cameroon following a heavy battle with the Boko Haram insurgents have explained that they took the action because of inadequate weapons at their disposal. A junior officer, who acted as proxy of the soldiers, told the French news agency, AFP, that his colleagues who spoke with him from Cameroon claimed that they fled after running out of ammunition. He added that the soldiers also spoke of the troops facing well-armed Boko Haram fighters. AFP said the officer insisted on anonymity since he was not authorised to speak. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), in a report quoting Cameroon’s Army spokesman, Didier Badjek, had on Monday said Nigerian troops fled but the DHQ denied the claim, saying the soldiers strayed into Cameroon in a “tactical manoeuvre” On Wednesday, AFP quoted one Basuma Muhammed, a resident of Gamboru-Ngala, a border town with Cameroon in Borno State, as saying that soldiers joined hund...

Indications emerged on Wednesday that the military high command had started taking "decisive" steps against security personnel involved in acts inimical to the military tradition. It was gathered on Wednesday that four army officers were arrested for allegedly encouraging some of the soldiers, who disobeyed a directive on posting to Bama, one of the areas where Nigerian troops are in serious fight with the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists. Mutiny is defined as a situation, in which a group of people such as sailors or soldiers refuse to obey an order or orders and try to take control away from their superiors. The posting was said to have affected mainly the 21 Armoured Brigade Garrison, Maiduguri in Borno State whose men were said to be on standby for redeployment to Bama.  It was learnt on Wednesday that the posting did not go down well with the men of the unit, who were of the view that the garrison should have been a rear party (support unit) rather than being po...

Ford Motor Corporation says it has not foreclosed the establishment of an automobile assembly plant in Nigeria, but insists that the conditions must be right before it would do so. One of the conditions, according to the firm, is for the country to have a free-trade agreement with its neighbouring nations to ensure free movement and unhindered market for all locally produced vehicles and other goods within the West African region. The President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company (South Africa), Mr. Jeff Nemeth, who dropped the hint, said the American automaker would not risk having a vehicle assembly plant in Nigeria unless the government is serious enough to put infrastructures in place. He said: “You don’t want to import parts for ever.  All the support structures have to be in place such as the IT, road, rail and power. That, I have not seen [in Nigeria] .  “What are the sales opportunities in Nigeria right now? You are just selling about 100,000 n...

To protect the fleeing 480 Nigerian soldiers from harm, Cameroonian troops killed 27 suspected Boko Haram militants between Monday and Tuesday, the Cameroon State Radio said yesterday. The radio said the Cameroonian soldiers escorted their Nigerian counterparts back home after the Tuesday attack. It said Cameroonian soldiers killed the insurgents who attacked areas the Nigerian troops fled to during a battle with the militants. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) in Abuja claimed that the troops “strayed” into Cameroon while making a “tactical maneouvre”. Sixteen of the suspected insurgents, the radio said, were killed on Monday and the 11 others on Tuesday. Cameroonian troops, the radio said, beat back two attempts by Boko Haram to enter the country’s northern territory through a locality sharing borders with Borno State. The troops seized heavy weapons and destroyed one of the vehicles the militants came with, the report added. Following the attacks, President ...

Naija movie industry has witnessed various celebrities in marital disarray. Most of them, very heartbreaking and disappointing to their fans. Here are the popular marriage breakups that shocked and rocked Nollywood: Funke Akindele Funke’s marriage to Alhaji Almaroof crashed barely after a year. Almaroof, the man who stole Funke’s heart last year, swept her off her feet and landed her in the altar, has become a serial baby daddy, keeping a string of affairs, and even returning to the women he had prior to the celebrity wedding with Funke Akindele, it was only a matter of time before it was all out in the air. [One of them then said, "it's over"] Eucharia Anunobi: Although, Eucharia wanted her marriage with Charles Ekwu to last, the ex-hubby had other plans as he depended on the actress for his own welfare and that of the family until he was caught red-handed making love to their 13 year-old house girl. Laide Bakare: The story of Laide Bakare’s separation from h...