Gist Arena

Barely two weeks to the 2015 general elections, scheduled for March 28th and April 11th, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday charged his Resident Electoral Commissioner (RECs) to be steadfast in the face of distractions as the Commission will settle for nothing but the best elections. The INEC chairman, who spoke at a meeting with the RECs, held at the Commission’s headquarters, demanded focus and resilience in the face of those distractions. He described the meeting as an opportunity to examine closely whether there were still gaps in the commission’s preparations that needed to be taken care of within the next two weeks to keep on adding value to the elections.“ We need to do everything possible to make sure that the elections scheduled for March 28th and April 11th are indeed substantially much better than those we conducted in 2011 and the subsequent bye-elections in some states”, he dec...

Find the statement below... The attention of the media office of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki has been drawn to a purported allegation by Peoples Democratic Party that Senator Bukola Saraki who is one of the leaders of All Progressives Congress and a crusader of change in Nigeria is sponsoring a "Dirty Love Triangle between President Jonathan, Patience and Deiziani. Senator Saraki will like to state categorically without any iota of doubt that he is not aware of any love triangle between the President and the two women in question and therefore has not been, and he is not going to be involved in anyway, manner or  process of commissioning of such documentary. Senator Saraki has always centered all his argument on issues that affect the lives of Nigerians. Such issues include but not limited to unemployment, mismanagement of public funds, and non-implementation of the budgetary provisions just to name a few. These are the things that affect Nigerians and as a Se...

The Defence Headquarters just announced that Adamawa state is now free from Boko Haram as the last place captured by the terror group in the state has been reclaimed back by troops.. .

At least six people lost their lives today after dare-devil robbers dressed in military uniform robbed a bank on Admiralty Way in Lekki Phase 1. See some photos after the cut... The policemen were unfortunately around when the robbers attacked this afternoon. Their van was sprayed with bullets

There are reports of an ongoing gun attack at Lekki Phase 1, Road 14 specifically. It is not yet clear whether this is a case of armed robbery or an assassination attempt as one of the sources claimed. We will update this story as events unfold.  The robbery has ended. police men in a police van killed and others killed. the robbers escaped in speedboats. they actually came to rob FCMB bank in lekki. #VIDEO " @akintayoadisa : video of the siege at LEKKI 1. Road 14 junction pic.twitter.com/ANhOVIeX95 #ROBBERY @Gidi_Traffic — GIDITRAFFIC (@Gidi_Traffic) March 12, 2015 Photo credit:  @akintayoadisa

I Am, Lucifer. No come dey frown face as if you be winche. As you don hear Lucifer now, e dey be you like make you take off? Sometimes I wonder, What's really is in a name. Yea! Sometimes a name could be such a big deal. Am sure you've heard the phase "As pious as a Pope", but sometimes some of the Popes ain't all that, abi? As gentle and peaceful as Jesus, who really thought his followers Love and tolerance. Now,when you hear the name Lucifer nko? All negative things come to mind, like demons, Satan, evil, wickedness, name it. However, such mindset is as laughable as it is ridiculous and nonsensical. Now, let me bring light to the hidden things of darkness. The task is a laborious one but it is neither impracticable nor useless, just a way of sharing this Truth on somethings hidden by the darkness of prejudice and ignorance. The ignorant erroneously believes that Lucifer = Satan, has struck its roots too deep in the soil of blind faith, to allow ma...

APC released these photos of Buhari and other chieftains visiting a primary school in Rivers state today and claimed that this is how all public primary school in the state look like. A member of the APC Presidential team, Lola Shoneyin shared the photos and wrote  "All primary schools in Rivers State look like this. Happy pupils thrilled to meet 'President Buhari! ' Biko, Rivers state residents, is this what all your primary schools look like? See more photos below

As part of his administration’s plan to revolutionise agriculture in Anambra State, Governor Willie Obiano on Thursday launched a N16 billion worth plantation exclusively for cultivation and processing of tomato and cassava. During the launch, Obiano said that the state had opened its doors to agro-investors, who had since discovered what the state had to offer on investment. “Today, we are on a different turf; Ekcel Farms is investing in cassava and tomato. It will produce over 150,000 tons of tomato puree. This investment is a blessing to the Omasi people in particular and to the state in general. It will attract 13,500 direct jobs and over 100,000 indirect jobs,” he said. The governor explained that the company would allocate five per cent of its annual profit to the host community, 10 per cent to the state government and another five per cent to the provision of amenities. Earlier, Chairman of Ekcel Farms Ltd., Mr Emeka Okwuosa, said that the co...

Kemi Olunloyo, the daughter of an erstwhile governor of Oyo state, Victor Omololu Olunloyo, has been on rampage all morning on micro-blogging platform, Twitter. She has been dishing out some dirty details of her family, especially her father, whom she says used rituals to control the entire family. Below are tweets from Kemi Olunloyo’s rants revelations:

John Ajayi is a pastor who, on Tuesday begged the Orile Agege Customary court in Lagos to dissolve his marriage over adultery and desertation.  The 49 year old clergy said his wife Christiana left their matrimonial home since 2011. (They'd been married for 16 years) His story: “When my pastor-friend came to Lagos on my invitation for our church programme, I noticed how my wife was admiring him which made me to suspect a foul play. “After the pastor had returned to his base in Ibadan, my wife was nowhere to be found in Lagos, so I traced her to Ibadan and met her with the pastor. "Before she left finally in 2011, whenever she left the house in the morning, she would only return late in the night, she was not taking care of me and my family. “She would not welcome my family members anytime they come to our house, she did not take care of my mother when she was sick for four years until the woman died. “The worst of it is that she deni...

On March 6, the Moroccan government had through a well known journalist, Ziad Alami, issued a statement announcing that their King, Mohammed VI,  had refused to have a phone conversation with Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan. The Moroccan statement made it quite clear that they believed that Nigeria’s approach had more to do with the coming  elections, than with any interest in bilateral relations. In their statement, the Moroccans called Nigeria’s approach “biased”,  “abnormal” and “unhealthy”, and went on to remind Nigeria that they had a problem with us based on Nigeria’s stance over Western Sahara, a territory claimed by Morocco, but who’s independence is supported by  Nigeria. Despite this snub by the Moroccan King, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs  Ministry went ahead to issue a statement on Sunday, March 8, claiming that President Jonathan had spoken with Mohammed VI, and that “they  spoke extensively over the phone on ...

News from TheCable suggests that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau's rule as Boko Haram leader may have come to an end with Abubakar Bagdadi taking the helm of command for the insurgents.  An insurgent interviewed said, "Shekau's self-governance has ended on Saturday, the 7th of March 2015."  This was precipitated, we read, with a long internal disagreement within the Jihadi movements in Africa about the depth of knowledge Shekau is furnished with.  Due to his 'hastiness' we read, followers of Shekau's predecessor, Mohammed Yusuf, had opted out of the group in the past. These 'defectors' we read, had then moved on to join ISIS in Libya and other places.  " Sources knowledgeable with the activities of the ruthless insurgents in Nigeria hinted that what we are seeing is a methodological transformation of Boko Haram into a well-organised terror and propaganda machine that may not only appeal to the deprived in societ...

21 month old North West looked like a mini-me movie star as she jetted out of Paris with her mum Kim K today. North looked all shades of cute as she pulled her Frozen (Disney movie) suitcase as she walked with her mum through the Charles de Gaulle airport terminal to catch their flight.    This girl will be wondering why cameras keep following here everywhere she goes...