Gist Arena

Some concerned Senior officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service have released a statement defending their suspended boss, Mr. David Parradang, in the controversial recruitment exercise that rocked the agency during the last administration.   Femi Adesina, spokesperson of President Buhari last week stated that Parradang was suspended by president Buhari for his alleged involvement in the recruitment exercise that led to the death of 16 applicants. The statement from the concerned officials after the cut... “Still on Suspension of Parradang of NIS…Setting the Record Straight” The recent suspension of CGI David Shikfu Parradang OFR, mni as the Comptroller-General of Immigration with effect from 21 August 2015, is a matter that has been generating rhetorics and innuendoes in the information space. It is a development that has set so many tongues wagging and the self-styled puritans who are known for prancing on public issues and hurling uninformed analyses have y...

As part of its backward integration plan in the rice sector, Pearl Universal Impex, an importer of rice, has committed over $100 million (about N20 billion) on the cultivation of 7,500 hectares of rice farm and construction of two rice mills in Niger state. The chairman of the company, Pulkit Jain, who disclosed this while receiving the Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, at the farms recently, said the proposed investment, will see the firm creating 4000 direct jobs and 20000 indirect jobs through their outgrower scheme. Pulkit Jain, in a statement, said the firm intends to farm rice three times a year on the land. “We have some challenges, such as the bad road here. But we are bringing $2 million of our own money to invest in the road, bringing the total of the entire project to $100 million”, he said. Jain disclosed that the company has been a major importer of rice in the country with imports of 350,000 metric tonnes of rice yearly in the ...

The chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission commission, Elias Mbam says a new wage formula for members of the National assembly will be released next month by the commission. RMAFC is the government agency saddled with the responsibility of determining the remunerations of political office holders in Nigeria.  The commissions Chairman announced the new wage plan after a meeting with President Buhari. The President had expressed his displeasure over the approval of outrageous remunerations for political office holders by the commission. The commissions boss while speaking said “We are currently reviewing the subsisting remuneration packages and it is going to reflect the socio-economic realities of today. We expect that before the end of next month, it will be ready. But it will go through a process, it is not something that you will just say yes or no. No member of the National Assembly should earn up to N1million per month” and t...

Press statement from the presidency  President Buhari Tuesday in Abuja blamed past administrations for the current situation in which Nigeria is forced to spend billions of Naira annually on alleged subsidies for petroleum products. Speaking at a meeting with the Chairman and members of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, President Buhari expressed the view that the escalation of petroleum subsidy payments over recent years was due to the deliberate neglect of the nation's refineries, oil pipelines and other related infrastructure to allow the importation of petroleum products and corruption to thrive.   The President, who restated his huge disappointment with the way Nigeria's oil industry has been run since he left office as Petroleum Minister and Military Head of State, said that he was convinced that if the development of the country's domestic refining capacity and petroleum products distribution network had kept pace with national dem...

The chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission commission, Elias Mbam says a new wage formula for members of the National assembly will be released next month by the commission. RMAFC is the government agency saddled with the responsibility of determining the remunerations of political office holders in Nigeria.   The commissions Chairman announced the new wage plan after a meeting with President Buhari. The President had expressed his displeasure over the approval of outrageous remunerations for political office holders by the commission. The commissions boss while speaking said “We are currently reviewing the subsisting remuneration packages and it is going to reflect the socio-economic realities of today. We expect that before the end of next month, it will be ready. But it will go through a process, it is not something that you will just say yes or no. No member of the National Assembly should earn up to N1million per month” and that t...

Read the press statement below... The attention of the media office of the President of the Senate, Sen. Abubakar  Bukola Saraki has been drawn to a publication alleging that the Senate President hired one Uboh to smear the integrity of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC. It is pertinent and with all sense of responsibility and commitment to state unequivocally that the story is far from the truth. A fabricated story that can not sell to dent the image of Senator Saraki.  The general public is fully aware that the said online platform which published the false story has been an agent of media attack on the person of the Senate President and that all  allegations made by the online platform against the have fallen flat on their face as bare lies, concocted with malicious intention. To set the record straight, no body can rightfully claim that Senator Saraki engaged the services of the petitioner or any other person for that m...

The members of organised labour and pensioners on Tuesday demonstrated in Owerri over the non-payment of more than 10 months arrears of pensions and salaries owed them by the Imo government. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that scores of pensioners and workers dressed in black dresses had assembled at the entrance of Imo State House of Assembly as early as 7 a.m. The placard carrying workers and pensioners marched on major streets in Owerri to press for the payment of the arrears of the salaries and allowances owed them. Some of the placard reads, “Pay 10 months salaries of ITC workers now; Owelle pay retired workers their gratuities and pensions; The Soul of the Dead will not rest until their terminal benefits are paid to their next of kins’’. The Speaker, Mr Acho Ihimi, who addressed them, said that government was seriously working toward liquidating all the arrears owed workers and pensioners in the state. Ihimi said the bailout fund which the st...

The man handcuffed in the photo above was arrested while robbing motorists at CMS this morning. Hopefully more arrests will be made soon.

According to the man who shared the photo, Sageer Tafawa-BaLewa, these are allegedly some of the vehicles recovered by the present Bauchi State Governor from his predecessor, Mallam Is a Yuguda. 

Ms Perez, who was three months pregnant, reportedly fell unconscious after waking up in the night to use the outside toilet at her home in La Entrada, western Honduras. It was believed she may have collapsed in an apparent panic attack after hearing a burst of gunfire. But when the teenager started foaming at the mouth her religious parents called the local priest believing she had become possessed by an evil spirit. Relatives told how the priest tried to exorcise her, but she later became lifeless and was rushed to hospital, where three hours later doctors declared her dead. Ms Perez was buried in the wedding dress she had recently used to get married. A day after her funeral, her husband Rudy Gonzales was visiting her grave at the La Entrada General Cemetery when he heard banging and muffled screams from inside the concrete tomb and raised the alarm. The footage shows desperate family members breaking through the concrete block tomb with a sledgehammer, before ...

Moroccan gunman Ayoub El Khazzani was flanked by four armed police officers in bulletproof vests as he was escorted into the Paris courthouse wearing prison scrubs. The 25-year-old, who boarded a Paris-bound train armed with a Kalashnikov, a Luger automatic pistol, ammunition and a box-cutter, is being questioned by counter-terrorism investigators. Khazzani opened fire, wounding a man before being wrestled to the floor and subdued by three young Americans - off-duty servicemen Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone and their student friend Anthony Sadler - and a Briton, 62-year-old business consultant Chris Norman.  (Mail Online)

According to a report by  Daily Trust , members of the Senate and House of Representatives have been paid N93million as allowance for the 6 weeks recess they embarked on August 13th. The National Assembly members had embarked on the recess after 14 days of sitting without any deliberation. They are to resume sitting on September 29th. The allowance is reportedly 10 percent of the annual basic salary of the legislators as stipulated in the remuneration package for political, public and judicial office holders in Nigeria by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). Unlike the three other recesses that they have embarked upon, the current recess is their statutory annual holiday. The report also states that the National Assembly members have been paid their accommodation allowance as well as what is tagged 28 days allowance.

Obasanjo taught me never to join issues with imbeciles, fools and the living-dead – Fani Kayode. A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani Kayode says that he has developed thick skin for those who always attacked him. The PDP chieftain stated that one of the things the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo taught him was never to respond to criticisms of some persons who were not fertile upstairs. FFK, as he prides himself, has come under heavy criticisms recently for saying Nigeria will break up if Ndigbo were killed again. Apparently responding to the heat generated by his comment, the former minister said he had decided to ignore whatever anybody thought about him. He aired his view via a Facebook post. Hear him, “One of the things that I learnt from my leader, President Olusegun Obasanjo is that one must never respond to the ignorant, the uncouth, the uncultured, the unlettered, the unrefined and the accursed. “He also taught us never to join ...

The probe panel set-up to investigate the immediate past administration of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi has said it is not out to witch-hunt anyone. Chairman of the committee, Justice George Omereji said this during his inaugural address to declare the sitting open. Justice Omereji said the commission would give room for fair hearing to all parties, adding that all parties had the liberty to contract the services of any legal representative of their choice. While highlighting the terms of reference of the committee, Justice Omereji said the Judicial Commission of enquiry would among other things, investigate the sale of the valued assets of Rivers State. He said, “I must state here that the Commission is a fact finding body and not a court of Law. It is not on a witch hunting mission and its activities would be strictly based on the memoranda submitted by the parties. “The Commission shall uphold the principle of fair hearing, give adequate and equal opportu...