Gist Arena

Repentant ex-militants in Imo state were today granted amnesty by the state governor, Rochas Okorocha, a‎fter they surrendered their weapons to the state government and vowed never to return to their old ways. The governor received them at the Victory Chapel at the government house, prayed for them & advised them to shun violence, oil pipeline vandalism, cultism & other criminal activities.

In a new video by the Boko Haram, suspected members of the sect said they were plotting to capture President Muhammadu Buhari. The footage, narrated in Hausa, is said to have been shot somewhere in Borno State, northeast Nigeria where the sect has its base. It showed suspected terrorists praying on what the narrator said is an Eid ground on Sallah day Monday. The video was posted on YouTube Tuesday and the group said it was using it to send out message that it remained a strong force. The terrorists have lost several territory they once controlled as the Nigerian military continues its onslaught against them. The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, did not appear in the video, but the narrator said his deputy, whose name was not mentioned, represented him at the gathering. In the video, which was recorded in composite to capture two Eid grounds, the group stated its willingness to continue its jihad against the Nigerian state. The group also calle

The government of President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated the Central Ogbia Regional Water Supply Project in Bayelsa state. Suleiman Adamu, minister of water resources, who inaugurated the project, said 13 communities, including Otuoke, hometown of former President Goodluck Jonathan, would benefit from it. He said the commissioning shows that the Buhari administration is committed to completing all viable projects that have positive impact on the lives of our people “without any political sentiments”. Adamu said adequate water supply for human and livestock production is a crucial aspect of social and economic development. “The project we are inaugurating today is among the high priority projects for water supply,” he said. “This project commissioning, therefore, further demonstrates that the Buhari administration is committed to completing all viable projects that have positive impact on the lives of our people without any political sentiments.”

Confidential medical data of gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and basketball player Elena Delle Donne was hacked from a World Anti-Doping Agency database and posted online on Tuesday.  The Russian cyber espionage group called Fancy Bear published records of "Therapeutic Use Exemptions" (TUEs), which allow athletes to use otherwise-banned substances if they have a verified medical reason to do so, the Independent reports. Williams, who revealed in 2011 she had been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an energy-sapping disease, issued a statement via her agent in which she said she was granted TUEs "when serious medical conditions have occurred," and those exemptions were "reviewed by an anonymous, independent group of doctors, and approved for legitimate medical reasons."    "I was disappointed to learn today that my private, medical data has been compromised by hackers and

Contrary to reports, Kabiru Sokoto, mastermind of 2011 Christmas Day bombing, is still in custody, the Nigerian Prisons Service said yesterday. “Please disregard the rumour. He’s still in prisons custody,” Biyi Jeje, NPS’ spokesman, said. Mr. Dikko, also known as Kabiru Sokoto, was convicted in December 2013 after being found guilty of plotting the car suicide bombing on St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, near Abuja. The attack left about 40 people dead. Publications and blogs this week reported that Dikko, 32, might have been released as part of a purported prisoners swap deal between the Federal Government and the Boko Haram sect.  Boko Haram has demanded the release of its members held by the government in exchange for Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the group in 2014.  While the Federal Government has indicated interest in a prisoners swap deal with Boko Haram, the modalities for this have yet to be made public.  “There’s no tru

Read the statement below... Arik Air, West and Central Africa’s largest airline, is pleased to announce that scheduled flights will resume from 11 am today, Wednesday September 14, 2016. Members of the public and our esteemed customers are advised to discountenance the disparaging allegations, unsubstantiated and uninformed claims about the airline’s inability to meet its financial obligations to aviation fuel marketers and a purported withdrawal of insurance services to Arik Air by its insurers. While the current scarcity of aviation fuel (JET A1) has impacted on the operations of airlines in the country, Arik Air is in good standing with its fuel suppliers and has been meeting its obligations to them and to our insurers. With the regularization of the required documents relating to the renewal of the insurance, Arik Air will be resuming its normal flying schedule from 1100 hours on Wednesday, September 14, 2016. Arik Air regrets the unfortunate inconvenience c

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said the Federal Government is not persecuting former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience. Reacting to reports of $15 million found in an account owned by Patience Jonathan, Lai Mohammed said it will be wrong for anyone to claim that the Federal government was probing the former first family as it was Patience Jonathan herself who came out to claim the foreign currency found in a strange account operated by a former aide of Jonathan. He said this in an interview with journalists in Oro, Kwara State yesterday tuesday September 13th. “If you look at the history of Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s issue, I think she was the one that came out to claim that the money found in the accounts of one of the aides to the former President, her husband, belonged to her. It was not the EFCC that claimed so. She claimed that the money that the guy was being prosecuted for belonged to her. It was only then they late

A militant group, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, NDGJM, in the early hours of yesterday, blew up the Afiesere-Iwhrenene major delivery line to UPS/UQCC, operated by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NDPC/Shorelines Petroleum, in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State. The attack, confirmed by a leader of the group, self-styled Gen. Aldo Agbalaja, came as the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, which ceased hostilities, last month, accused the military of harassing elderly men, women and innocent youths in the region under the guise of hunting for militants.  Meanwhile, Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, has warned that the Federal Government’s plan to continue to militarize the region and intimidate the people despite the fact that NDA and other dangerous militant groups had opted for dialogue, will not make the region to forsake the Niger Delta struggle. Also, acting Secretary of Gbaramatu Traditional Council, GTC, Chief Godsp

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has stated that the time for identifying the cause of the economic recession and those responsible for it is over and that all political leaders should start working together to find a solution.  At an interactive press briefing with media correspondents in Kwara State, after observing the Eid-el-Kabir prayers in Ilorin, Saraki said the Senate on resumption will respond to the economic  crisis with a number of measures which include getting managers of the economy to give account to the people, making tough recommendations to the President on needed changes, formulating necessary legislative framework for economic recovery and wide consultations across the private sector. He reiterated his call for a broader and bolder economic plan with input from both legislative and executive arms of government, the private sector, professional groups. All the groups, he said, must work together to put in place interventions that will cr

A Junior Secondary School (JSS) II student of Gyegeh Memorial College Logo1 , Makurdi, Benue state identified as Jessica Beer, has allegedly committed suicide. According to close sources, Jessica took her life after her boyfriend simply identified as Labi, a pork meat seller at Wurukum Market in Makurdi the state capital, impregnated and abandoned her and then impregnated another girl.‎ Jessica was so devastated by the development that she drank a poisonous substance and was rushed to a hospital in Akpehe where doctors confirmed her dead on arrival .

Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said she was using her $15m, which was frozen in four companies’ accounts, to settle medical bills while she was out of the country. She, therefore, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Skye Bank to lift the restriction on the accounts. Patience said this in a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016, written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, which was addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu. The PUNCH had reported that the four accounts belonged to the following companies: Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited. A houseboy, a driver and other domestic workers of a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to Jonathan, Waripamowei Dudafa, were named as directors, b

President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the National Youth Service Corps members of Igbo extraction to tell their colleagues that there is no hope of having a sovereign ‘Biafran State’. Buhari said this when over 100 corps members serving in Katsina State came to visit him at his Daura residence on Tuesday. A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, said the President urged the corps members to do everything to ensure the unity of Nigeria. Speaking specifically to corps members from the south-eastern states, the President said, “Tell your colleagues who want Biafra to forget about it.” The President said as a young soldier during the Civil War between 1967 and 1970, he fought hard to ensure the unity of the nation. He, therefore, maintained that Nigeria would never disintegrate under his watch. Buhari added, “As a military commander, I walked from Degem, a border town between the North and the East, to t