Gist Arena

Emiworo is a small community which sits 30 kilometers between Ajaokuta and Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. A sleepy town, Emiworo would have been covered up by hills and mountains surrounding it but the town embraced civilisation through education. One of the missionaries to have visited the town was Phyllis Sortor, who founded Hope Academy in Emiworo. A school of 400 pupils in its nursery, primary and junior secondary arms, the ambience of the school is inviting and devoid of disturbances from the town. Sortor, through the Hope Academy and Hope Extension, runs educational services for some schools in Kogi and Akwa Ibom states. Aside the Hope Academy at Emiworo, Sortor, through the International Child Care Ministries, a non-profit organisation, opened a new school in Enugu on January 19, 2015 with 82 children, 58 of whom are Muslims and Fulanis. One of the ICCM schools is the Bright Hope, Ikot Ntuk in Akwa Ibom State. There is another in Udung Ukoh, also in Akwa ...

Yemi Alade became a breakout star with her hit, Johnny.In an interview with Leadership ng,she says she has seen fans fainting at her shows I did my African tour last year and you can imagine the love and craze for Yemi Alade.  It got to a point that a lady fainted. Nigerian music is massive in other countries. It has become a global brand. While performing in Paris, I got five “Johnnys” on stage; men who love my music.  My brand, “Yemi Alade”, is growing fast and I thank God for it. I’m elated that this is happening to me; I had hoped for this. I had my African tour in 2014 and my tour of Nigerian cities was in 2013. Do your fans go into a frenzy during your shows? Yes! It happened during my African tour. Two ladies were so engrossed at my peak performance, they suddenly passed out and it was such a frenzy. Security and medical officials had to quickly wade in and revive them. It was humbling.  Your sexiness, swag and talent is drawing a lot...

Niger and Chad on Sunday launched major ground and air strikes in northeast Nigeria against Boko Haram, after the militants formally pledged allegiance to the Islamic state group in Syria and Iraq. The attacks, which follow a sustained build-up of troops in southern Niger, opens up a new front in regional efforts to wipe out the Islamist group, whose six-year insurgency has spread across borders. "Very early this morning, troops from Niger and Chad began an offensive against Boko Haram... in the area of Bosso and near to Diffa," a Niger government source in Niamey told AFP on condition of anonymity. More than 200 vehicles, some of them with machine guns, as well as tanks, ambulances, water tankers and transport trucks, were seen moving towards the border, radio station Anfani, based in Diffa, said. Aircraft targeted Boko Haram positions on Saturday and early Sunday, it added, while a Diffa resident and aid worker said troops were seen heading ...

Mohammed Emwazi has apologized to his family for the shame he has heaped on them after being unmasked as the ISIS butcher from Britain known as Jihadi John. The Sunday Times of London reports that Emwazi, 26, a British computer-science graduate, had conveyed his message of regret from Syria via a third party. He is said to be sorry for the “problems and trouble the revelation of his identity has caused” for his parents and siblings, according to an informed source. Emwazi has not expressed any remorse for his barbaric actions, however, which have included the on-camera beheading of a number of Western hostages. The Londoner’s family, originally from Kuwait, have been forced into hiding after Emwazi was identified as Jihadi John 10 days ago.

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has extended the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), hitherto scheduled to end today, by two weeks . In a statement issued today, INEC said the exercise will continue across the country until 22 March, six days to the presidential election. Ogun state still lags behind other states in the collection, with the cards not available in the principal cities of Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu, among others. Governor Ibikunle Amosun clamoured on saturday for the extension of the collection deadline. Announcing the latest extension, Kayode Idowu, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, said: “This latest extension offers the last opportunity for duly registered persons to collect their PVCs before the general election scheduled for March 28 and April 11, 2015,” he said. INEC urged “all registered persons that are yet to collect their PVCs to use this last opportunity in doing so, in order to ...

In a  statement  released today, PDP Presidential campaign spokesperson, Femi Fani-Kayode alleged that Governor Shettima of Borno state, APC Presidential candidate Gen Muhammadu Buhari and APC Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed know the whereabout of the missing Chibok. Reacting to the allegations via his media aide, Malam Isa Gusa, Governor Shettima pleaded that no one should take Fani-Kayode serious as he is physically an adult but mentally a child. He spoke with journalist in Abuja. What he said below. "Femi Fani-Kayode is one Nigerian that is physically an adult but mentally an infant. We all know that going into exchange with an infant is like having a dialogue with the blind, deaf and dumb, this is why it is thoughtless for any serious minded person to exchange words with Femi Fani Kayode not to talk of someone like Governor Kashim Shettima who has too many serious issues he is competently handling with patriotism as a result of which he was not only e...

The spokesperson of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, Fem Fani-Kayode has alleged that APC Presidential candidate, Gen Buhari, Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima and APC National Publicity secretary Lai Mohammed, know where the missing Chibok girls are. Fani-Kayode said this in a statement he released today responding to a statement by the APC doubting President Jonathan's comments in his interview on AIT that the Chibok girls are still alive. According to Femi Fani-Kayode, if the girls are not found, Gen Buhari and the APC should be held responsible.. "Whilst the majority of Nigerians are overjoyed by the fact that the President has given us hope by saying that the girls are still alive. Lai Mohammed and the APC are not happy. The truth is that they do not want those girls to be found and neither do they care about their welfare or their safety. We say this because this was a man, and a party that complained and protested at the fact...

In March 2014, Chris Brown's baby mama Nia Gonzalez' friends threw her a baby shower at a Houston apartment banquet. At the time, her friends and even Nia herself thought her baby daddy was a guy named Brazil who was at the shower. Months later, we all found out that the baby is actually Chris Browns. And now, her baby shower photos is news. She sent them exclusively to TMZ a year after it held...and the world cares...because she was carrying Chris Brown's baby, now named Royalty, in her belly at the time. See more photos below..  

Press statement from Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose... Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the card reader machines the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) intends to use to accredit voters during the March 28 and April 14 elections as a fraud capable of scuttling the elections.  The governor, who expressed doubt over the forthrightness of the INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega in handling the elections said; "Unless INEC has an agenda that is different from conduct of free, fair and credible elections, use of the card readers should be suspended for future elections so as to enable proper test running of the technology." Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose, who said he was not against the use of any technology to ensure credible elections, added that the flaws recorded during the last Saturday test run exercise were too fundamental to be ignored. He point...

Rising actress Adunni Ade in Elegante by Tiannah!  - See more at: http://www.lailasblog.com/2015/03/sexy-or-trashy-actress-adunni-ades-see.html#sthash.Pz2dicZL.dpuf

The field testing of card readers which was held on Saturday was largely successful but not without some hitches. These irregularities in the exercise that was meant to be a dress rehearsal according to findings by our correspondents ranged from the inability of the card reader to identify some finger and thumb prints and slow pace of the process. However, occurrences of success permeated most of the poll units visited by our correspondents. The major grouse of electorate in Niger State was the time spent on the accreditation of each voter. This, many of the participants in the mock polls described as “too slow” This drew the attention of both the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress in the state on Saturday which commended the Independent National Electoral Commission. The state PDP Chairman, Umar Musa Maali, said “the time spent to accredit one voter is much. If it can take a minute per voter to be accredited, and with a polling...