Gist Arena

The Nigeria Football Federation has strongly rejected insinuations made by the Minister of Sports Barr. Solomon Dalung in a recent TV interview that the Nigeria Olympic football team being stranded in Atlanta, was a hoax. In the interview  on Thursday , Dalung hinted that shady deals by the NFF were behind the country’s football team being stranded for several days at their training base in Atlanta, before they finally made their way to the Olympics in Brazil.  “The Atlanta event was quiet dirty and some of the actors (involved) cannot stand before Nigeria (to answer to these charges),” Dalung alleged. "The event of Atlanta was another attempt to rip the country off.” After hearing of the interview, Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Hon. Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande said everyone in the NFF was shocked on the allegations made by the Sports Minister seeing that the NFF President Amaju Pinnick has been giving the sports minister c...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the recent crisis in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has shown that the party’s era had come to an end. Mr. Obasanjo disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists in Jalingo, the Capital City of Taraba, during a tour of some projects in the state. When asked to comment on the ongoing crisis in his former party, the PDP, Mr. Obasanjo simply said “in the part of the country where I come from, there is a saying that you cannot say ‘good night’ and come to say ‘good evening’ in the same place. “So for me, it is good night for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that’s all,” he said. Mr. Obasanjo. who was one time Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, had torn his membership certificate before the 2015 election denouncing the party in its entirety. Recently when a picture and story went out in the media that he was at a PDP event at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, he also made it ver...

New technical adviser of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr has called up 23 players for the 2017 African cup of Nations qualifier against Tanzania in Uyo on  3rd of September 2016 . The German tactician surprisingly called up youngster Victor Osimhen and Ifeanyi Ubah goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa, while other bigger names like Victor Moses, Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo and John Mikel Obi make the cut.  It will be Rohr's first match as Nigeria boss, and although Nigeria missed out on qualification to AFCON 2017, the match will give the German an opportunity to meet the players and discuss his future plans. See the full list of called up players below... FULL LIST: Goalkeepers : Carl Ikeme (Wolverhampton Wanderers, England); Emmanuel Daniel (Enugu Rangers); Ikechukwu Ezenwa (FC IfeanyiUbah) Defenders : Leon Balogun (FSV Mainz 05, Germany); William Troost-Ekong (Haugesund FC, Norway); Chidozie Awaziem (FC Porto, Portugal); Jamiu Alimi...

The senate president, Bukola Saraki, and his predecessor, David Mark, and other prominent Nigerians may soon be in trouble as the Presidency has ordered the investigation of present and past Nigerian officials named in the Panama Papers scandal. The chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Sam Saba, confirmed the directive to PREMIUM TIMES. This newspaper had published leaked papers from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonsecca, which were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The 2.6 TB files, involving 214,488 entities, exposed incredible secrets of the underworld economy, where a network of banks, law firms and other middlemen utilize shell companies, sometimes to hide illegal wealth. PREMIUM TIMES identified at least 110 Nigerians and companies operating offshore shell companies in tax havens. Mr. Saba said the Presidency forwarded names of some persons mentioned in the Panama Papers, to the agency for investigation. “I want to let you know th...

The General Overseer of the Later Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare on Friday urged Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari as he steers the ship of state. According to him, any change for good normally takes time. Bakare, who was the running mate to Buhari during the 2011 Presidential Election under the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), spoke with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He met behind closed doors with President Buhari for about fourty five minutes. Bakare said: “I will like to appeal to all Nigerians that we should just excise a bit of patience. This change will not become chain that will tie all of us down. Change for good takes time and we should just exercise a little bit more of patience. “We trust that government is listening and the leaders are listening too and they will respond to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.” He added Speaking further on the cha...

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government is set to rehabilitate the 414 grazing reserve centres and stock routes across the country, what it described as steps taken to end the clash between farmers and Fulani herdsmen in parts of the country. National Coordinator, Grazing Reserve Rehabilitation at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mahmud Ibrahim, disclosed this while speaking during a sensitisation and mobilisation programme on the issue at Wawazange Grazing Reserve in Dukkku Local Council of Gombe State. Ibrahim said government would not rest until the lingering crisis between farmers and cattle breeders ended. According to him, the project, which is being carried out by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Agriculture, is in conjunction with Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria to curtail the crisis among farmers and herdsmen in the country. He said 10 states had already been mandated for the rehabilitation of the grazing reserves an...

Obviously the battle for the political soul of Abia State is still on and very hot, the victory of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu at the Court of Appeal does not mark the end of the legal tussle and the political imbroglio in Abia State. According to Abia Facts Newspaper   Dr Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah has filed his Notice of Appeal to the Supreme Court and Motion for Stay of Execution. This is the final battle for the governorship seat of Abia State, will Ikpeazu still win at the Supreme Court or will Ogah finally take over the seat?

In celebration of World Humanitarian Day today August 19th, UNICEF Nigeria shared these photos from the Boko Haram attack on its humanitarian convoy last month. The humanitarian convoy was attacked on Thursday July29th, by suspected Boko Haram militants as it returned to Maiduguri from delivering aid in Bama, injuring a UNICEF employee, an International Organization for Migration contractor, two soldiers and three civilians... "We celebrate all humanitarian workers who risk their lives daily trying to help alleviate the sufferings of people affected by humanitarian disasters and crises. We celebrate our colleagues whose convoy was attacked by Boko Haram along the Bama-Maiduguri road in July after delivering live saving supplies to internally displaced persons in Bama northeast Nigeria. They are still there, working. They believe in our ‪#‎sharedhumanity‬ ; in one humanity."

The Japanese plastic surgeon, Dr Katsuya Takasu, who reportedly fell in love with the Nigeria's Under 23 team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and promised to give each player of the squad $30,000 if they win Gold, $20,000 if they win silver and $12,000 for bronze (Read  here ), is now on his way to Rio to watch their Bronze medal match and donate $390,000 to Coach Samson Siasia and the team's Captain, Mikel Obi.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has declared that the State Government will sue the Police and the Department of State Services, DSS, for sealing up Sharks Stadium, initial venue of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Convention of August 17, 2016. Speaking at the Government House, Port Harcourt while inaugurating the Peace and Security Committee of the State today, Governor Wike said that Rivers State Government will seek judicial interpretation if the Federal Government was right to take laws into their hands. The governor stated that the security agencies should not think that the illegal invasion of Sharks Stadium and other government property was a dress rehearsal for the rigging of the forthcoming rerun elections in the State. "I hope what you did that day is not what you plan to do during the rerun elections. We allowed it because we had visitors from outside. Nobody will allow you rig elections in this state". The...

. ..and because she didn't wear her wedding ring to the beach. If I had such an expensive wedding ring, I wouldn't wear to the beach either. But below is how MTO is reporting the impending 'epic divorce' Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may finally be over. No one expected their marriage to last – and now it appears to be over. MediaTakeOut.com has been hearing whispers for MONTHS that Kim Kardashian appeared to be UNHAPPY in her marriage. Now for the first time, Kim is making a statement. Kim released some STAGED PAPARAZZI PICS with her son Saint and daughter North West. In the pics Kim looks GREAT – and the photos were retouched by Kim’s personal paparazzi team. Given that the photos were completely STAGED by Kim, she is obviously making a STATEMENT by not wearing a wedding ring. And that statement may be the first SHOT FIRED in what looks to be the most EPIC DIVORCE BATTLE in modern history. Ladies and gentleman sit back an...

APC Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, says the PDP lacks the moral basis to comment on the state of the Nigerian economy since it was the party's policies that led the country to its present state. Oyegun stated this in a statement he released by his media aide, Segun Dipe. Read the statement below... The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which brought Nigeria to its present situation after 16 years of locust, lacks the moral basis and the credibility to comment on the country’s economy or condemn a government that is working hard to clear the mess left behind by the disgraced former ruling party, according to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun. In a statement issued by his Media Office in Abuja on Thursday, the National Chairman said it is stomach-churning and downright immoral for the ruinous PDP, which has yet to show remorse or exhibit any form of penitence for presiding over the mindless looting of the nation’s treasury, to now p...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo today said he has bid goodnight to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which he was a founding member. Speaking to newsmen after accessing some projects in Taraba state, Obasanjo discredited claims that he was planning to return to the party. “In the part of the country where I come from, there is a saying that you cannot say ‘good night’ and come back to say ‘good evening’ in the same place. So for me, it is good night for the Peoples Democratic Party and that’s all” he said. On February 16th last year, the former president supervised the tearing of his PDP membership card.