Gist Arena

The Acting Director, Defence Information, Colonel Rabe Abubakar says the end of Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and the West African region is imminent. Speaking to pressmen in Abuja today September 14th,  Col. Abubakar said that with the renewed commitment of the military leadership and the determination of the troops in the mission areas, Boko Haram activities will soon be a thing of the past. He attributed the feat recorded so far to motivation and injection of right arsenal in the prosecution of the battle against insurgency.

Sodiq Adebayo, aged 22, Akeem Gbadamosi, 21 and Eugene Ocran, 19, have been charged with the murder of 17-year-old Marcel Addai. Marcel was stabbed in the chest on September 4 after being chased through St John's Estate in Pitfield Street, Hoxton, London on Sept. 4. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A 40-year-old woman, who did not want to be named, said she saw the victim being chased before falling to the ground as she watched from her nearby flat.

President Buhari has arrived France on his 3 days visit. He was received at the Pavillion de Honour, Orly International airport, Paris by H.E. Mr. Thierry Leleu, Governor of Val de Marne. Continue to see more photos

President Buhari departed for France this afternoon on a three days visit. Buhari who was invited by the President of France, Francois Hollande is expected to visit the Headquarters of MEDEF,  France ’s largest federation of investors and employers, where he will participate in a  France /Nigeria Investment Forum with leading Nigerian and  French  entrepreneurs. Continue to see more photos.

1. She met him at a Motor Park 2. She was a university student - GREAT IFE while he was only a Polytechnic student in Kwara Poly (Remember the discrimination) – she could have snubbed him - but she responded. 3. His friends complained that he was carrying Christianity too zealously as if he was the only Christian - she became zealous too. 4. He took her to church in 1976 and made her sign an agreement (SAILING UNDER SEALED ORDERS) to marry and follow him whether he becomes blind, lame or handicapped… she signed. 5. Just before he married her, he told her God had sent him to LIBERATE THE Worlds (while he was still hopping between jobs) and went on to resign his job; his elder brother lambasted him, she stuck to him. 6. He told her God had shown him the key to prosperity - she believed.

The hope of recovering the abducted Chibok girls yesterday dimmed further with the declaration by a returnee from Boko Haram camp. Twenty-one-year old Tabitha Adamu, one of the women freed from the sect’s camp and handed over to the Borno State Government last week, said the girls had turned to Boko Haram fighters. Tabitha, who is expectant for one of the sect’s commanders who forcibly married her, said she mingled with the girls at various times in the sect’s camp. According to Tabitha, she was taken from Bayan Dutse in Gwoza Local Government Area, when the insurgents invaded her village. She said: “They killed my father and brother. They took me along with my mother but at some point we were separated. Since then, I’ve not set my eyes on my mother. When he (Abu Kabir, my Boko Haram husband), wanted to marry me, he gave the women who were taking care of us N5,000 as my bride price.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday said that the fight against corruption is aimed at saving the soul of the nation. Buhari who was represented by Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, made this statement at the second plenary meeting of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), near Port Harcourt.   He said: “ Our fight against corruption is not just a battle of virtue and righteousness in our land, but it is a fight for the soul and substance of our nation. “ Corruption in our country is endemic and it constitutes a parallel system,“ he said. According to the President, corruption has made a potentially prosperous country struggle to feed and provide jobs for its people. “ Hundreds of thousands of infants and maternal mortality statistics, hundreds of thousands deaths from communicable diseases are traceable to the greed and corruption of a few,“ he said. Buhari urged Nigerians to think of resuscitating the nation`s economy be...

Following sustained offensive by ground troops and pre-emptive air strikes by the Nigerian Air Force, scores of Boko Haram terrorists have continued to surrender to the Nigerian troops even as more have indicated willingness to lay down their arms. Vanguard gathered that many of the terrorists were moving out of their Sambisa haven which has received continuous pounding from the air as a result of airforce reconnaissance flight that exposed their hideouts. A statement by the Acting Director of Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman noted that the action of the terrorists, meant to escape collateral damage, was due to the new offensive strategies put in place for ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’ by the military high command. According to the statement, “the new strategies being employed by the military have started yielding positive results with scores of terrorists surrendering to troops and many more willing to surrender. “The strategies employed included sust...

Former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur, says former President, Goodluck Jonathan, was betrayed by people around him. Tukur said Jonathan wanted to please everybody and not offend anyone, adding that people took advantage of this and messed him up. He stated this in a recent interview with  Vanguard. “Maybe people don’t understand Jonathan. He wanted to be fair. I always say to them, I said look, party is not a tea party, where you have to please everybody, it is not possible.

Officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have been accused of drowning a 32-year-old graduate of Law, Dapo Olasore, in the Agboyi, Alapere area of Lagos State. The incident reportedly happened on Sunday after the officials, who came in two vans without number plates, raided the area. According to Punch Metro, Olasore, aka Omopo, was about boarding a canoe to a neighbouring community to see a relative, when the officials stormed the community. They were said to have shot sporadically into the air, sending frightened residents fleeing in different directions. However, Olasore, who was by the riverside, was said to have been held by the trousers by the NDLEA men; and in a bid to free himself, fell into the water. A boatman, who attempted to save him, was said to have been threatened with guns, leading to the death of the victim. When Punch’s correspondent visited the community, he observed a crowd of residents and motorcyclists in the area, who had got...

The new Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, has purportedly requested for the files of senior officers of the service. Ali had only last week stated that President Muhammadu Buhari, mandated him to do three things at Customs- to restructure, reform and increase revenue generation. To achieve all this, it is believed that the new Customs boss will have to flush out corrupt officers from the service. Punch reports , that Ali has commenced the process of scrutinising files of top officers of the service as well as looking into petitions written against some employees. Some of the petitions written against the employees has to do with cases of illegal sales of seized goods by officers of the service. The new comptroller general is also expected to investigate violations of rules and regulations on clearance of goods as well as false declarations and misapplication of tariffs.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he left behind over N287bn loot recovered from late Head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha. Obasanjo says he left in the national treasury the money, which is broken down as; $2bn, £100m and N10bn in cash and property. He said the funds were paid into the treasury through the Central Bank of Nigeria. Based on the present exchange rate, the money would be higher than N287bn, but the exchange rate in 2007 was N125.88 to a dollar and N247.99 to a pound. The information was obtained from Vol. II of Obasanjo’s memoir, My Watch, under the sub-heading; ‘Recovery of looted funds’. He said: “In total, by the time I left government in May 2007, over $2bn and £100m had been recovered from the Abacha family abroad, and well over N10bn in cash and properties locally. All were paid to the public treasury through the Central Bank.

A FORMER Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries Limited, Mr. Festus Odimegwu and a former presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi, are among the ministerial nominees that have been screened by the Department of State Service, The PUNCHlearnt authoritatively on Sunday. Those already said to have been screened as nominees for President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet also include a former Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and a Lagos-lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN). Also on the list are a former Chief of Army, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazu (retd.); an ex-chief executive of the Federal Inland Revenue, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okaru; a former finance commissioner in Lagos State, Mr. Wale Edun; and a former National Legal Adviser to the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, Abubakar Malami (SAN). The PUNCH learnt that the screening of the nominees had been concluded on Friday. Buhari had last week at a press briefing in Accra, Ghana, that he would name members of his cabin...