Gist Arena

The driver and security guard who killed former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure, Professor Albert IIemobade, have been remanded in prison till September 18th. The men, Daniel Ita and Olayemi Bamitale, who confessed to killing the academician, were arrested while they tried to sell off his car. A Chief Magistrate sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital today ordered that the accused men be jailed in Olokuta Prison while the case awaits trial . 

The leadership of PDP has rejected the appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari as the acting Chairman of INEC. At a press briefing in Abuja today July 1st, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, said the PDP was rejecting Mrs Zakari's appointment based on her closeness to the Presidency as well as one of the APC governors. Mr Metuh also said that due process was not followed for her selection as acting chairman. "The PDP has declared the appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari as unacceptable and demand that President Buhari changes her immediately. The PDP is particularly disturbed by the development in INEC where President Buhari, who knew all along that the immediate-past INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega would be leaving office by June 30, had to wait for him to handover to one of the national commissioners only to reverse it immediately, thereby injecting bad blood in the commission. The situation in INEC since the PDP government reformed and granted i

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors on Wednesday announced a $200 million (N39 billion) credit to Lagos State to support a range of reforms pertaining to fiscal sustainability, budget planning, budget execution, and improvement of the investment climate. The World Bank, in a statement in Abuja, said that the facility would help sustain the state’s recent economic growth and poverty reduction, while continuing to deliver social services to the city’s expanding population. The credit from the International Development Association, the Bank explained, would support the Third Lagos State Development Policy Operation, the last of a series of two development policy operations aimed at improving public finances and the investment climate in a fiscally sustainable manner. In the past decade, the World Bank noted that Lagos State had achieved significant economic growth, improved its infrastructure and services, significantly reduced crime, and brought millions of people out

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took office a month ago on a wave of hope that he would quickly deal with a deepening economic crisis and an Islamist insurgency in the north. So far, he hasn’t met those expectations. While Africa’s biggest oil producer has been hit by a 40 percent fall in petroleum prices in the past year that has slowed economic growth and weakened the currency, Buhari, 72, has delayed naming a cabinet until September. As the momentum of being the first opposition candidate to win power at the ballot box fades, critics are mocking him as a sluggish elderly man, or “Baba Go Slow.” Buhari has acknowledged the crisis, saying last month that his government is facing severe financial strain, with a Treasury that’s “virtually empty,” and his party is calling for patience. Yet his lack of urgency in tackling economic woes could leave Nigeria badly adrift, said John Ashbourne, an economist at Capital Economics in London. “Every week that Nigeria go

This twitter user claimed to have seen senator Ben Bruce driving his Electric car out from the national assembly, and he decided to share Checkout what Nigerians said about it below

Tiger Woods is allegedly dating the ex-wife of a friend and fellow professional golfer whom he was having an affair with when he was still married to his ex girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn.   The 39-year old is said to be having a 'steamy affair' with Amanda Boyd, 27, who divorced former PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner in April. According to reports, Tiger and Amada started the relationship while Woods was still with Lindsey Vonn after they 'flirted' on the tour circuit. They have allegedly been together for several months, and a source told the magazine it is now 'serious '.  Dufner, 38, and Boyd married in May 2012. He won the major in 2013 but has since struggled with back problems.   According to divorce papers filed on March 16, Amanda and Jason suffered an 'irretrievable breakdown of the marriage'.   They separated on February 17 due to a 'complete incompatibility of temperament'. A source told the Enquire

Spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has washed off his hands from a wedding ceremony of his daughters, (name withheld) which comes up next Sunday in Lagos. Fani-Kayode made this known in Lagos in response to a question on the marriage, shortly after he was discharged and acquitted by the Lagos High Court on the case filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He said, “I won’t attend the wedding, am not aware of it and I did not give my approval” The bride to be is a daughter to Fani-Kayode’s first wife, Yemisi Wada, who is a daughter to the former governor of old Kwara State, Adamu Attah. Efforts to reach the mother of the bride to be proved abortive as calls placed to her GSM line were never answered.

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed an application for the extradition of Senator Buruji Kashamu, to the United States of America to face illicit drugs related offence trial. The immediate past Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, had filed the application on May 28, 2015 upon an alleged United State government’s request asking the Nigerian government to submit Kashamu for extradition. Justice Gabriel Kolawole in his ruling held that he lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit in the face of the subsisting orders and judgments of the Federal High Court, Lagos in Suit Nos. FHC/L/CS/49/2010 and FHC/L/CS/508/2015 restraining the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) from entertaining any extradition request from the United States of America against Kashamu on the basis of the same allegations from Kashamu had been exonerated by two British court judgments. Justice Kolawole noted that th

Press statement from the PDP below...  As you are aware, today marks exactly thirty-two days of the inauguration of a new administration under the APC, which was elected into power over three months ago on the basis of their numerous promises to the Nigerian people.  Even though this government has continued to plead for patience, we are worried that indications from President Muhammadu Buhari and his party do not inspire desired confidence in the citizenry that they are adequately equipped and ready to chart a direction for the enormous challenges of governance. In the last one month, instead of a journey to change as they claim, all we have witnessed are avoidable tension, wrangling within the ruling party, disruption of legislative activities in our National Assembly, painful economic stagnation, pronouncement of voodoo achievements and overall uncertainty in the polity all due to the apparent inability of our respected President to provide leadership. We have a Presid

Read the press statement below... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday July 1, 2015, arraigned the duo of Osaze Akhigbe and Ndekwu Jindu before Justice Lawal Akapo of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja on an 11-count charge bordering on conspiracy to obtain goods and money by false pretence. The defendants, Akhigbe and Jindu were arrested by the EFCC sometime in 2013 based on a petition from one Jolanta K, an American. Jolanta alleged that she met jindu, who introduced himself as a self-employed Caucasian pharmacist, online in June 2012. Impressed by his profile she “fell in love” with him, and both agreed to get married. She further alleged that in the course of the relationship, the defendant at different times hoodwinked her into parting with over Sixty Four Thousand United States Dollars ($64,000 USD). Count 2 of the charge reads; “That you, Osaze Akhigbe on or about the 6th of September 2012 at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division with

EFCC Press statement below .. . The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today received with shock, the ruling of Justice Rita Ofili- Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court Lagos, acquitting Mr. Femi Fani-kayode, a former minister of aviation, of the two count charge of money laundering preferred against him by the Commission.  The Commission is making effort to obtain a Certified True Copy of the ruling, to enable it respond appropriately after careful review of the judgment.  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has said it will challenge Femi Fani-Kayode acquittal by a Federal Court in Lagos. Fani-Kayode was , Wednesday, discharged and acquitted of the money laundering charges he has been facing since 2008. Details later.

A young man who decided to raid the house of God by repeatedly robbing a church, tasted the other side of Lagosians when he was caught in the act and given the beating of his life, almost to the point of death. The incident happened after luck ran out of the perennial church robber as he was caught while carting away electronics from a church located at Kayode Adebanji Street, NNPC, Ejigbo area of the state. The criminal is reported to have stolen Plasma TVs, microphones, keyboards, generators, lighting materials as well as offering and tithes, from the church several times. But he ran out of luck when he scaled the fence of the church to steal a split unit air conditioner. He was sighted while dragging the AC from the wall and nabbed. He allegedly confessed to breaking into the church several times and stealing their items. He was then beaten to a pulp and was almost lynched but for the intervention of the pastor who made sure he was handed over to the polic

Happy couple!

An Abia State-based constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr. Anthony Agbazuere, has warned the leadership of the ruling All Progressive Congress to treat with caution, the leadership crisis rocking the National Assembly, saying it can consume both APC and President Muhammadu Buhari if not carefully handled. Agbazuere, who gave the warning Wednesday at a press conference in Umuahia, advised APC hierarchy to “swallow their pride and accept Senator Olusola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogora as Senate President, and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively in the interest of the party and to move Nigeria forward.” He said any attempt by APC to plot the impeachment of Saraki and Dogara “will not only fail but destroy APC.” Agbazuere further said APC must stop threatening Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, saying his emergence “is a bitter pill which the APC must swallow to survive.” His said, “APC must not forget that the same structure which b

Article written by Dr Peregrino Brimah of Ends.ng. Read below... Nigeria’s president Muhammad Buhari takes his personal security seriously. After being sworn in, the president waited over a month before moving into his official Aso rock residence. The delay in relocation was attributed to suspicious security lapses, possible espionage and overall distrust of the department of state security, DSS headed by the service chief Ita Ekpeyong and NSA Sambo Dasuki. Reliable reports have it that the DSS has been expelled from all sensitive positions in Aso rock. It is understandable that where Buhari has a choice, he chose not to move into Aso rock because he did not trust the nation’s service chiefs and security departments. The people of Maiduguri have no such choice, nor do the people of Adamawa and Yobe. They cannot simply decide to not occupy homes under protection by these same risky chiefs. They cannot order an overhaul or select the departments to provide them security. They

A store in Lusaka, Zambia posted a CCTV footage of a woman effortlessly stealing a flat screen plasma TV from their store and placing it between her legs while a female accomplice looks out for her. She then walks away normally like nothing happened. See the video below

Two suicide bombers on Wednesday morning accidentally blew up themselves at Molai Leprosy/General Hospital and about 100 metres away from a locally established market, living both of them dead with two people injured as many residents including admitted patients and hospital workers scamper for safety. The suicide bombers were suspected to be terrorists who sneaked into the city from Sambisa forest, a fortified camps of the Boko Haram sect. Molai village is south and about 10km drive to Maiduguri along the closed down Maiduguri-Damboa- Biu road, unfortunately, after the closure of Dalwa main market which is a stone throw to Molai, another market was established for people around neighbouring villages Just last week Saturday 27th of May, 2015, two suicide bombers who were suspected to have been targeting a locally established market in Molai village which is an outskirt of Maiduguri metropolis detonated their explosives at the main gate of the missionary Leprosy an

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state took to his twitter handle to congratulate Femi Fani-Kayode over his victory at a Federal high court in Lagos today. See interesting tweets below

Read the press statement below... Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted, humbled and relieved by this verdict. In the last seven years, I have been subjected to the most malicious, vicious, sinister, well-orchestrated, insidious and devastating form of political persecution and wickedness.   The whole process almost destroyed my life, my family, my reputation, my health and my career. I thank God for his goodness, his mercy and for the fact that today, the whole nightmare has finally come to an end. Initially, I was accused of stealing N19.5bn of public funds when I was Minister of Aviation. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of stealing N6.5bn. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of laundering N200m. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of laundering N99m. It was thrown out by the courts. Finally, I was accused of laundering N1m and N1.1m respectively, and today, both of these charges have also been thrown out by the courts. I