Gist Arena

20-year-old Armenian weightlifter Andranik Karapetyan crashed out of the Olympics in agony after he suffered a terrible elbow dislocation during the 77kg weightlifting event. Described as one of the favorites at the event, his left elbow gave way during a second attempt to lift 195kg (429lbs). Andranik had strode onto the stage with confidence and lifted the vast weight onto his broad shoulders. But when he attempted the clean and jerk, his left arm gave way and his joints popped out. He screamed in pain as the vast weight crashed to the mat behind his head and a medical team quickly rushed to his aid. The weightlifter was later seen being carried in to an ambulance on a stretcher on a saline drip. More photos below... Watch video below...

Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, this morning commissioned the first ever medical helicopter emergency service in Nigeria. The commissioning of the helicopter pad took place at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital LASUTH.

As the controversy surrounding the alleged padding of the 2016 budget continues, a member of the  House of Representatives and Chairman House Committee on Legislative Compliance, Abiodun Olasupo, says they were elected to pad the budget as it is their constitutional responsibility to pad the budget. According to the Nation, Olasupo said this while inspecting some projects within his constituency in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State yesterday August 10th. "If you look at the Nigeria Constitution, what Honourable AbdulMuminin Jibrin refer to as padding is tantamount to what the constitution defines as the function of a member of House of Representative because the constitution guarantees the three major function of making law, appropriation, and over sight. In appropriation it is either for us to add, subtract or change and what Hon Jibrin has been trying to say is that we are changing, inserting and adding, so if that is what he calls padding then that is what the ...

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) today shot dead a suspect in an anti-terror operation in the Canadian province of Ontario, according to several media reports. Canadian media reports say police had raided a property in Strathroy, about 225km (140 miles) south-west of Toronto and the 'terrorist suspect' named as Aaron Driver, 24, was arrested last year for openly supporting ISIS on social media. RCMP said in a statement it had received "credible information of a potential terrorist threat". "A suspect was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to the public's safety," it added. "As this is still an unfolding matter and the investigation is still under way, we are not able to provide further comment at this time." According to CTV network, his alleged plan was to use a homemade bomb to create mass casualties. Driver, a Muslim convert, came to...

Barely two weeks after the group Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, disclosed that President Buhari had ordered the corporation to intensify its search for oil in the North East region, oil explorers and their machines have landed the region and are currently searching for oil. Photo credit: Rariya

Multi-award winning legendary nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, met with President Muhammadu Buhari few hours ago at the president’s office inside the presidential villa, Abuja as the agenda of the meeting described as a private one, was not made public and the Presidency did not issue any statement on it. "Professor Wole Soyinka visited this morning. We had quite a lot to talk about," President Buhari tweeted as he share photos from the legend's visit. According to Punch Newspaper, as the legendary writer emerged from the President’s office after the meeting, he was visibly surprised to see State House correspondents who were already laying ambush for him in front of the Press Gallery. “I didn’t come to see you people,” he said as he attempted to break through a barricade set up by the journalists. When it became clear to him that the reporters would not relent, Soyinka said, “I came to discuss national and international ma...

In a statement issued by Hakeem Bello yesterday in Abuja, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has spoken of the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to merge the Ministries of Power, Works and Housing. The minister who spoke during the 'Town Hall Meeting and Policy Dialogue for Good Governance' organised by the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANI), stated that he welcomed the responsibility of heading three federal ministries as it was a cost saving initiative by the president. Speaking in response to a question on the challenges he has on running three ministries, the minister said; “About whether I can cope with three ministries or not, on one hand, we have spoken of the high cost of running government and in trying to mitigate or reduce that cost, Mr. President, in his wisdom decided to merge the three ministries together. “Now, two of those ministries have had a...

Former President Jonathan met with Zambia's only female presidential candidate, Edith Nawakwi of Forum for Democracy and Development party yesterday August 10th. Jonathan, who is in Zambia as head of African Union's head of election observer team, said he was excited that a woman was running for presidency. He challenged other African countries to allow women run for such positions. This morning he visited various polling stations were voting is ongoing for the presidential election. See more photos below..

President Buhari is currently holding a closed door meeting with Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Reason for the meeting which is taking place inside the president's office, is yet unknown.

Tension and high expectations from all the parties were evident on the commencement of hearing of the six(6) appeals before the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division yesterday. As usual the court was full with spectators and lawyers. Funny enough none of the dramatist personae was present. A bit of drama when PDP carried their internal squabble to the court. The two factions added flavor to the already high tensioned court room. One Barrister Bashir Madugu, Legal Adviser to a faction of PDP announced himself as representing PDP while Chief Vincent Ogbulafor former PDP Chairman representing another faction announced himself as BOT member or chairman,( can't remember)of PDP. This confusion infuriated the presiding judge who made it clear that she was not ready for any drama. The presiding judge thought that the drama was over when Chief Ogbulafor once again sprang to his feet to emphasize his status in PDP and denigrating any other person who is claiming to represent PDP in the case. T...

Donald Trump  on Wednesday , accused President Barack Obama of founding the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, ISIS. The Republican candidate emphasized the president's full legal name: Barack Hussein Obama, in the latest attack on the White House campaign trail. "In many respects, you know, they honour President Obama," Trump said during a raucous campaign rally outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "He is the founder of ISIS." He repeated the allegation three times. "He's the founder of ISIS, okay?" he added. "He's the founder. He founded ISIS." Trump has long blamed Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for pursuing Middle East policies that created a power vacuum in Iraq that was exploited by ISIL. He has sharply criticised Obama for announcing that he would pull US troops out of Iraq, a decision that many Obama critics say created the kind of instability in which groups such as ISIL thrive...

Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator Bala Ibn Na'allah has said his party, APC, underestimated the damage done to Nigeria by the last administration when they offered change during the campaign last year. According to Na'allah, the present hardship being experienced by many Nigerians is as a result of the problems created by the last administration. He said this in a new interview with  Daily Trust "I am a Nigerian first before becoming a senator and therefore, if it worries Nigerians, I should equally be worried. But, the thing is that I don’t have the authority to speak on behalf of my party. It is equally true that I don’t have the authority to speak on behalf of the Senate. But, as a citizen and as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the perspective I have seen things, it is obvious that the APC led federal government underestimated the damage that was done to the country when they offered themselves to provide the change Nigerians requ...

According to an authoritative report by  Punch  late on Wednesday, the embattled speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, shunned the invitation of the Nigerian Police Special Investigating Panel over allegations of budget padding. The report revealed further that the Speaker did not honour the police invitation because the letter was not signed by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris. It was gathered that the panel had in a letter to Speaker Dogara requested him and others mentioned in the petition to appear before it last Friday as the speaker did not honour the invitation.  Rather, he met with President Muhamadu Buhari over the budget crisis on Friday. While Dogara’s accuser and a former House Appropriation Chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, appeared before the panel last week Friday, and on Tuesday, Dogara and other principal officers shunned it. It was further gathered that on Wednesday, the police invitation was r...

The sex-crazed men who gang-raped the woman A group of five businessmen have been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly abducting and gang-r*ping a customer. The evil men also demanded the sum of N2m for her to be released. According to  Punch , the men identified as Ugochukwu Eso, Gabriel Obinna, Chinedu Ezechukwu, Akubueze Nnadozie and Godwin Balogun perpetrated the dastardly act in a hotel around Agege area of the state. It was gathered that one of the men identified as Obinna used a Magic Voice application on his phone while feigning that he was a woman to lure the victim to his house to inspect some non-existent goods. Explaining how the gang operates, a police source disclosed that they lure female customers into their midst, gang-rape them and threaten to blackmail the women with video recordings of the r*pe unless some money was paid to them. The suspects reportedly demanded N2m to release her, but she later parted ...

A lecturer at the Department of Languages and Linguistics of the Osun State University, Ikire Campus, Dr. Wale Ojoniyi, is currently in trouble following the release of a video tape of his alleged sex escapade with a 400 level English student of the institution, Mercy Ikwue. The student, who released the over 30-minute video clip, recorded it in a hotel room. Although some claimed the lecturer raped the student, real sexual intercourse was not captured in the video. There was also no attempt by the man in the video to coerce the student to cooperate with him. In a petition written to The Punch, some students of the university claimed that Ojoniyi was instrumental to the suspension of the female student, after she was allegedly caught for examination malpractices. On her return to the university after the one academic session rustication, the petition claimed the lecturer mounted pressure on the student for an amorous affair but the lady resisted hi...