Gist Arena

A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday fixed February 9 for mention and hearing of a suit seeking the disqualification of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, from contesting the February 14 election. The court also ordered that Mr. Buhari be served the court documents ahead of the hearing. Justice Adeniyi Ademola gave the order on Monday in a suit FHC/ABJ/CS/14/2015 filed by way of originating summon by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Max Ozoaka, against Mr. Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Mr Ozoaka sought and secured an exparte order for the defendants to be served by substituted means, including notices in three national dailies. Mr. Ademola also granted the applicant’s prayers for an abridge time within which the defendants would enter appearance in the matter. In the substantive suit, Ade Okeaya-Inneh, SAN, counsel to the Mr. Ozoaka, is seeking among other relief: -“A declaratio...

Nigeria, the world’s seventh largest producer of hydrocarbon, accounts for about 68.1 per cent of the total revenue Africa is losing annually as a result of illegal transfer of revenues abroad. The report of the Thabo Mbeki High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa adopted on Sunday by African Union Heads of State and Government at their summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia said about $40.9billion (about N6.87trillion) of an estimated $60billion (about N10.08trillion) lost through such transfers from Africa are traced to Nigeria. The funds are stolen through corruption, tax evasion and illegal transfer of profits by multinationals, the AU said. Nigeria, which produces an average of 2.3million barrels of oil daily as the leading hydrocarbon producer in Africa, is being ravaged by poverty and underdevelopment. The report also identified Egypt and Morocco as the other countries with the largest estimates of illicit financial flows statistics of $28.2billion...

President Jonathan today received the forensic audit report on the finances of the NNPC which was launched after former CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi raised alarm over $20 billion missing from the NNPC coffers. The report was presented by Price Water Cooper’s country senior partner, Uyi Akpala and the Risk and Quality Leader for Africa, Gabriel Ukpe at the presidential villa. 

Wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Monday denied a media report (Read HERE ) that she was paid N3billion by the Niger Delta Development Commission to facilitate the agency’s 2015 Budget. The report had claimed that apart from the sum, Mrs. Jonathan collaborated with a former Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, in a number of schemes that enabled them loot the resources of the NDDC. But the President’s wife, in a statement by her media assistant, Ayo Adewuyi, described the report as hoax. Adewuyi further said the report was aimed at misleading unsuspecting members of the public and recruit them into their hate campaign against Mrs. Jonathan. He added that the step was meant to again portray her as an overbearing and intrusive woman against her well known passion for peace and advancement of the cause of women and children in Nigeria. The statement read, “Nigerians are very conversant with the workings of the National Asse...

A bomb blast has occurred outside the stadium where President Goodluck Jonathan addressed a campaign rally in Gombe state today.  Eyewitnesses told Saharareporters that the bomb was planted in a tricycle station along Abubakar Habu Hashidu Road some 200 meters from the stadium. President Jonathan had left the scene of the campaign rally some three minutes earlier. It is not known if any member of his convoy was affected by the blast. Gombe town had been largely locked down since morning as security operatives restricted movement of people in most part of the town. On Sunday, two separate explosions killed five people and injured others in the town including two suicide bombers.

Unknown persons carried out a coordinated bomb attack on three separate High Courts in Degema, Isiokpo and Port Harcourt areas of Rivers state this morning. According to reports, the bombs went off almost at the same time, burning court documents beyond recognition. The state police command confirmed the incident and said investigation is ongoing to bring the culprits to book. Fortunately no life was lost...

This is the moment a veteran plane spotter captured a rare look at a phenomenon that exemplifies the beauty of modern-day air travel. The aviation enthusiast named Schipholhotspot on Youtube posted a 30-second video, which shows an Airbus A380 – the world’s largest passenger airliner – slicing through a wall of clouds and leaving a mesmerising display in its wake. The man recorded the Dubai-bound Emirates aircraft as it soared into the clouds at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.  The superjumbo jet melts into the clouds as it makes its ascent, leaving a gaping hole in the wall as clouds swirl in its turbulent wake and form a circle that looks like the eye of a storm. Minutes later, after the double-decker plane is long gone, the wall splits in two as the clouds continue their beautiful spin. It was shot from the ground and aviation enthusiasts are amazed by it... Source: UK Daily Mail

Not The Real Image There was a miraculous experience yesterday at the Sons Manifestation Ministries, located at Magami area of Jalingo, when a 32-year-old woman, Mrs Grace Benjamin vomited a live python snake and other items during deliverance in the church. Mrs Grace, who confessed after her deliverance, told the church congregation that she has been a member of the marine kingdom for over 15 years. She added that under the sea were they operate, she was given the title of the queen of the kingdom due to the roles she always played. “I was made to be the queen of the marine kingdom because I always carry out every command and assignment given to me without fail,” she said. She stressed that for over 15 years that she was in the cult, she has used her power to kill so many fake pastors in the process. “Even my husband suffered a lot of setback in my hands, and his bid to resist all attempts to be intimidated” she confessed. She called on those...

Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan has set up a presidential intervention scheme to improve the technical and professional capacity in the value chain of the Nigerian movie industry.  Themed ‘Project ACT Nollywood and similar to the N3b Nollywood Intervention Fund launched 4 years ago by the Jonathan administration, this new initiative is specially designed to address pressing challenges of poor distribution system and menace of piracy, which are stunting the growth of the Nigerian movie industry. Saturday, January 24, 2015, Jonathan held a closed-door meeting with top entertainment figures in Lagos. The details of the meeting were not immediately disclosed but according to reports, the federal government last week launched the N2 billion Innovation Distribution Fund (IDF) aimed at improving the distribution of audio-visual content, cutting down on piracy, and better protect intellectual property in the industry. This is to ensure tha...

A 35-year-old  man simply identified as Wahab Sa’adu in Alapa, Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State, has severed his genitals with a razor blade. According to a family source, the victim, who is a fashion designer, rushed back home after he had chopped off his penis at a nearby bush in the village last Monday. The source who craved anonymity said, “we were at home preparing for the day’s work when Sa’adu came in with part of his manhood in his hand with blood stain all over his trouser. “His (Wahab) loud cry drew the attention of people in the neighbourhood to our house and everyone was shocked to see what had happened”. The victim’s father was said to have fainted on sighting the severed part of his son’s manhood. It was leant that the victim was first taken to a private clinic at Alapa for first aid treatment and later referred to a private hospital at Tanke, Ilorin, the state capital. Narrating his ordeal on his hospital bed,...

This is according to a posted on his Facebook page this afternoon. 

An ongoing investigation by SaharaReporters has revealed that former Education Minister Nyesom Wike and Nigeria’s First Lady, Patience Jonathan, collaborated in a number of schemes that enabled them to loot the resources of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The commission, which was established to spearhead economic development in Nigeria’s oil-producing delta, has been left financially insolvent, unable for the first time ever to pay salaries to its staff or to meet its obligations to contractors. Over a two-week investigation, insiders within the commission told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Jonathan and Mr. Wike, current governorship candidate of the People Democratic Party in Rivers State, caused a large part of the commission’s current woes. A source at the commission alleged that its management gave Mrs. Jonathan N3 billion immediately after the National Assembly approved the commission’s budget. “They said the First Lady had facilitated the passage of...

Barely 12 days to the general elections, a suit has been filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja challenging the eligibility of President Goodluck Jonathan. The plaintiffs, who are Prof. Tunde Samuel, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, Mr. Razak Adeosun and Yahaya Ezemoo, are pleading with the court to restrain Dr. Jonathan from contesting, putting himself forward and or accepting to contest for the office of President, Federal Republic of Nigeria at the 2015 presidential election. The only defendant in the matter, which is already assigned to Court 7, is the President. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the application, which was filed by a team of crack lawyers mostly Senior Advocates. The counsel in the matter are Yusuf Ali (SAN), A. B. Mahmoud(SAN), Adebayo Adelodun(SAN), Sirajo Chedi (SAN), Dr. Tunji Abayomi, Prof. Wahab Egbewole, K.K. Eleja and A.O. Usman. Six more Senior Advocates will join the team whenever the legal fireworks begin because the plaintiffs have ...

The inordinate ambition of two young men, Hassan Adamu and Abass Yusuf, to become car owners without buying one has landed them in police net as th ey have been arrested by the Special An ti-Robbery Squad (S ARS), Ahoada, Port Harcourt in Rivers State over the alleged killing of one Paulinus Echekwu, a cab owner and driver. The driver was reportedly lured out of his house on November 16, 2014 after he was told that there were some goods he would convey from Port Harcourt to Akwa Ibom State. The deceased was said to have received a call from Hassan that the company he was working for had some goods to transport to Akwa Ibom. Unknown to him, Hassan and his friend, Yusuf, had planned killing him, so that they could take possession of his Volkswagen Passat car. But before going to Hassan, Echekwu was said to have stopped by his sister’s house to inform her of the call from Hassan and the purpose, after which he dropped Hassan ’s number with his sister. As Eche...