Gist Arena

The Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Leather Science & Technology (NILEST), Zaria,  Dr Isuwa Adamu, has said  that consumption of animal hides and skin, popularly known as  Ponmo  is dangerous to human health.  Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, today in Abuja, Adamu said scientific research has shown that  ponmo  doesn't have any nutritional value to human health and that some of the animals where  ponmo  is gotten from are usually sick & harbor dangerous chemicals. "In fact, it is not advisable for you to consume  ponmo  in the sense that some of the animals killed and used for  ponmo  actually have skin diseases.  Some of these skin diseases are such that boiling them ordinarily, may not kill the bacteria.  Some of the animals because of the ailments that they have gone through, are sometimes treated by way of injection with chemicals.  People don’t allow the...

Unbelievable! This stunning 27 year old transsexual woman (meaning she used to be a man) named Mayang Prasetyo from Indonesia was murdered by her 28 year old chef husband Marcus Peter Volke who then cooked her in their apartment in Brisbane, Australia. When police entered the home, they found some of Mayang's body spread out across their home while some of her remains were found boiling in chemicals on a stove. After killing and cooking his wife who once advertised herself as a high-class transsexual escort, Marcus slit his own throat as he fled from police. See photo of the couple below Neigbours of the couple called police after they perceived a terrible smell coming from the apartment on Saturday night October 4th. When police arrived there, Marcus fled the apartment and his body was later found in a wheelie bin close to his home. Nobody knows why he killed his wife but according to his family, he had no history of mental illness or doesn't have a violent recor...

Former Minister of Education Mrs Oby Ezekwesili and Presidential spokesperson, Doyin Okupe, who don't see eye to eye, pictured above at an event together recently..

Peter Okoye is the new face and spokesperson for Olympic Milk. He signed the endorsement deal for several millions of Naira last week and will be officially unveiled soon, a source revealed exclusively yes, it's just Peter, not P-Square. This is the first time one of them will be endorsing a brand without the other.

Gospel act, Tope Alabi has spoken for the first time since her former spiritual father, Prophet Ajanaku passed on. Late Prophet Ajanaku and Tope used to be very close, that the singer sang his praises on different tracks. They were too close for comfort, that church member’s started spreading rumours that the prophet and the singer must be having something intimate together. And alas before the cock could crow, Tope and the prophet have already started having issues and the prophet came out to announce the singer asked him for sex. Sex? Tope denied it, and vowed not to say anything further about the accusation, but said God will vindicate her.Continue below... Till he died, Tope and the Prophet weren’t on talking terms, and he was the last thing she was ready to talk to the press about. However in a Radio interview on Faaji Fm on Monday, Tope gave the real reasons why she parted ways with the prophet and also denied being behind a CD currently circulating that she is fr...

Article written by reader, Ife. Enjoy... It all started on my way to Dubai where I was weighing 142kg. I will normally get an extra seat belt aboard the flight which for me is normal. Upon arrival at Doha airport, I had a small heart attack which sent me to the emergency unit of the airport. After all the check-ups that I got, all that the doctor could tell me is that i need to loose 50kg of your body weight, if not, i might be at a very high health risk. Even though I have been battling my body fat since 1999 with no result, the expression on the doctor face tells me that I don’t have any other option than to shed the weight. I tried all sorts of workout in gym, but all in vain. So for 6 months in 2009, I did a lot of workout in the gym and all I lost was 12kg but still not satisfied because I was still an obese. I should not weigh above 80kg according to my BMI. After all I did and my effort without the desired outcome, I became very sad. I have spent most of my...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has warned Governor Rotimi Amaechi to stop insulting President Goodluck Jonathan or be ready to face the consequences of his actions. The party, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday, described recent comments by Amaechi against the Jonathan-led federal government as childish and unwarranted, adding that the governor’s outburst was shameful. The statement, signed by Jerry Needam, media aide to the state PDP chairman, noted that “Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, says unwarranted name-calling, attacks and rabble-rousing comments of Governor Rotimi Amaechi against President Goodluck Jonathan at a recent function is shameful and childish.” PDP said such outburst showed that Governor Amaechi had demeaned the exalted office of the Governor and exposed himself as one with a loose tongue. Continuing, it said, “The PDP regrets that Amaechi has been instigating the people of Kalabari ...

The South African media have published documents confirming the legitimacy of the $9.3million botched arms deals between Nigeria and the former apartheid enclave. Reports by Rapport and City Press affirmed federal government’s official position that the transactions were legitimate. The media houses said contrary to insinuations, end user certificates and a ‘shopping’ list accompanied the transactions as well as a note from Nigerian government authorizing the deals. According to the reports, documents showed that the earlier consignment was approved by the Nigerian government  through the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), which is officially mandated to issue the end-user certificate for such transactions involving the nation’s security agencies. An entire “shopping list” was also said to have been supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition. A top security source in the int...

A teenage girl that was abandoned by her captors in Adamawa State nearly two weeks ago is not one of the schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram sect since April, the leader of the Chibok Elders’ Forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, has said. The girl was abandoned at Mararraban Mubi in Hong local government area of Adamawa and was feared to be one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. The girl of about 20, was found after she was dumped at an unidentified location from where she trekked for three days to a village near Mararraban Mubi, where she was found by villagers and taken to a nearby police station. She was later moved to Abuja and kept in custody of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI). To ascertain her true identity, leaders of Chibok community in Abuja and the Vice Principal (Academics) of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, were brought to Abuja to identify the girl, who gave her name as Suzanna Ishaya. However, it has been established beyond reasonable doubt...

The acting governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar, has disclosed that his boss, Governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai, is missing. Umar, who stated this in Jalingo during a media chat with journalists, said that he had not set his eyes on his boss, Governor Suntai, since he was smuggled into the country by a certain cabal: "Few of my aides and I were already at the domestic wing of the airport to receive my boss but, unknowingly to me, the cabal was already waiting at the international wing of the airpot where the plane conveying my boss was directed to land.  "When I got to know that the plane landed at the international wing, I rushed to the place to receive him, but he was in a jeep which immediately drove him to T.Y. Danjuma Lodge.” He added that the cabal, which surrounded the ailing Suntai, was holding him hostage in order to hold onto power to the detriment of his health. He called on citizens of state to eschew religious differences and work towa...

A nurse in Spain has become the first person to contract the potentially deadly Ebola virus outside of West Africa in the latest epidemic, the worst on record, authorities said Monday. The nurse had gone into a room in a Madrid hospital that had been used to quarantine an elderly priest, Manuel Garcia Viejo, who contracted Ebola doing missionary work with victims of the same disease in Sierra Leone. The priest died Sept. 25. About 30 other people who had cared for the missionary are also being monitored, officials said. Also, Monday, President Barack Obama said his administration was developing added protocols for screening airline passengers for Ebola. Obama also said he was ordered increased efforts to educated medical providers on how to handle such cases, and that he would also push other large national to provide financial aid to the West African countries were the epidemic is occurring. Obama spoke to reporters after briefed on the Ebola situation by health advis...

A fierce battle is said to be ongoing as at the time of reporting, between Boko Haram and Nigerian troops who have intensified efforts to reclaim territories captured by the terrorists in northern Adamawa. Reports indicate that over 100 Boko Haram members have been killed in the latest offensive as Nigerian troops forced the terrorists out of Michika town which had been under their bloody grip for a month. Troops are reportedly advancing towards Gulak in consolidation of the successes they have recorded but the insurgents were reported to have regrouped and launched an offensive against them, leading to the fierce battle between the two sides. “The Nigerian troops have gained entry into Michika and are now fully in control of the town, having dealt a severe blow to the insurgents, as they lost about 100 members; some escaped with injuries sustained from gun shots,” said a source. Another source from the area said Nigerian troops were facing a stiff resistance from the terro...

A mum has been arrested over claims she allowed her young daughter to be raped by a gang of men from the age of four.  The girl, who is now 10, told detectives that she was repeatedly sexually abused over a five-year period by different men, leading to the arrests of seven people, including her mom and her uncle.     A security source told news men it is one of the worst examples of alleged child abuse that officers have ever encountered. It is absolutely horrific. On a scale of one to 10 this ranks at around a 20. According to the girl, she was living with her mother in South Dublin at the time the attacks took place and she would take her to a number of houses where she was forced by different men to perform horrific sex acts. Officers have been unable to establish if money was exchanged whenever the girl was abused. Although the alleged abuse began when the girl was four, officers believe the worst attacks took place when she was aged be...

Residents of Erukun community in Itori, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, were jolted over the weekend after detectives stormed the area and arrested suspected members of a syndicate that hide under the cover of spiritualists to swindle unsuspecting members of the public. At the end of the operation which lasted for hours, 11 members of the syndicate including four women whose ages range between 35 and 52 years, were reportedly arrested in three buildings located inside the forest. Boldly written in front of one of the buildings is the inscription; Heritage Naturalist Car Limited a.k.a Isese Ajogunba. It is commonly believed to be a spiritual healing home where people with varying ailments visited from far and near, for treatment. Communicating with the dead Crime Guard learnt that Operators of the shrine had reportedly boasted of their ability to communicate with the dead, a feat they claimed aided the healing process. However, behind the curtains, the su...

Anambra State Police Command has uncovered a baby factory where women with unwanted pregnancies are harboured till delivery, after which the babies are sold to interested buyers, with or without their mothers’ consents. Consequently, the suspected owner of the baby factory has been arrested and detained by the police for allegedly selling one of the new born babies for N700,000, without the mother’s consent. A source said the suspect, who is from Imo State, whose name was withheld by the police for security reasons, was alleged to have opened a maternity home at Odekpe in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State where she nurtured the babies after birth and then sell them to prospective buyers. The source hinted that the deal that landed her in police custody started on August 27 when a baby boy was born. According to the source, the suspect had on August 28, a day after the delivery, sent Adaku, mother of the baby, to a nearby compound to fetch a gallon of water to ba...