Gist Arena

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reconstitution of the governing boards of the 21 federal colleges of education in the country. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja. According to him, the boards are statutorily responsible for the governance and overall policy formulation in the institutions concerned. He stated that in making the appointments of the chairpersons and members of the respective boards, the president, apart from ensuring geopolitical spread, was also guided by the stipulated requirements for such appointments. He noted that the requirements were in each of the Acts establishing the institutions, adding that appointees were required to, in addition to other requirements, be people of impeccable integrity, with reasonable commitment to teacher education. The minister said the affected federal colleges of education and their respective chairmen are as follows: Abubakar Galadima; Federal...

Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina was a guest on Channels TV this morning to speak on the suspension and investigation of suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Babachir Lawal and former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke. During the interview session, Adesina was asked how deep corruption in the presidency is. In his reply, he said "No, you don't need to single out the presidency. The question should be how deep is the corruption in Nigeria. There is corruption everywhere, everywhere in the country and don't forget that the Vice President has said it before that there is corruption everywhere. Judiciary, Executive, Legislator, there is corruption everywhere, possibly in broadcasting. There is corruption everywhere in Nigeria".  Asked to react to the question asked by suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF "Who is the P...

Police officers in Abuja today arrested staunch PDP member, Deji Adeyanju over his planned protest against the proposed secret trial of the leader of the Indigenious People of Biafra IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu. Deji and his group met to start off their protest march at the Unity Fountain Abuja but he was arrested. He has since been released.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has reversed the cashless policy it directed banks to introduce effective April 1, 2017 in some parts of the country. The policy had been in operation in some parts of Nigeria before now. Areas where it had been in operation were Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Aba, Anambra and Rivers State. It has also been in operation in the Federal Capital Territory. Th policy covers withdrawals and deposits above N500,000 and N3 million for individual and corporate accounts respectively. For corporate accounts, CBN had directed banks to charge 5 per cent and 10 per cent for deposits and withdrawals above the threshold. It fixed 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent for deposits above N500,000. In the circular directing the reversal to the old order, the Director of Banking and Payments System Department, Dipo Fatokun, said: “You will recall that a directive was issued on the nationwide implementation of the cashless policy vide our circulars with r...

The Senior Advocate, Femi Falana stated among other suggestions that the recovered money must not be taken to Federation account for "sharing". He also suggested the protection law for whistleblowers.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has appealed to the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, not to order the execution of condemned persons that have been sentenced to death in the state. The Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday April 28th, disclosed that Ambode would soon sign the death warrants of the condemned inmates in the state. Accoding to Kazeem, his he visited the Lagos state prisons recently and discovered that those on death row were acting as though they had certain rights which excluded them from being executed. He revealed that the prison officials complained about this attitude of theirs and called on the Government to act and remedy the situation.  "Lots of people are on death row, Rev. King is not the only one on death row, it is on the instruction of Ambode that I visited the prisons recently and I discuss the issue with the prison officials and they...

The suspended director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayodele Oke, has told Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that his agency received the sum of $289,202,382 on the orders of former president, Goodluck Jonathan in February 2015.  NAIJ.com recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, April 19, suspended Ayodele Oke over the role of the NIA in the ownership of $43m (about N13bn) uncovered by EFCC operatives in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi. The president also suspended the secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir Lawal, in connection with his indictment for contract fraud by a Senate ad hoc committee on mounting humanitarian crisis in the north-east.  Buhari consequently ordered for their investigation by a three-man panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The Punch reports that a top government source, on Thursday, April 20, disclosed that Oke admitted to the Osinbajo-led committee that his agency received the ...

SaharaReporters has obtained the full list of occupants of a swanky apartment building in Lagos where operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) found close to $50million last week. The building, located at 16 Osborne Road in Ikoyi, has nine floors of 19 Apartments and two penthouses. It is owned by a former Peoples Democratic Party chairman, Ahmed Muazu, who retained for himself the penthouses, 10A and B; as well as Apartments 11A and 11B. Since the raid became public, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has laid claim to the funds, its Director-General Ayodele Oke saying it was meant for covert operations authorized by President Goodluck Jonathan during his tenure. SaharaReporters, however, reported on Monday that the woman who was discreetly ferrying the money into the apartment in bags was Mr. Oke’s wife, Folashade. According to the apartment ownership list obtained by SaharaReporters, other owners include a former Guaranty Trust Bank...

Embattled Secretary to the Government of the Federation,SGF Babachir Lawal, was suspended in connection with fraud in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on North East.

Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday declared Jehovah's Witness as an extremist organization and ordered the state to seize its property in Russia. The court, after six days of hearings, ordered the closing of the group’s Russia headquarters and its 395 local chapters. The Interfax news agency quoted Justice Ministry attorney Svetlana Borisova in court as saying the Jehovah’s Witnesses pose a threat to Russians. 'They pose a threat to the rights of the citizens, public order and public security,' she told the court. Confirming the ruling, the religious group said: 'We are greatly disappointed by this development and deeply concerned about how this will affect our religious activity,” Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, said in emailed comments. 'We will appeal this decision, and we hope that our legal rights and protections as a peaceful religious group will be fully restored as soon as possible,...

Following the suspension of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, Dr Habiba Lawal pictured left has assumed his position in acting capacity pending the outcome of the investigation panel probing the allegations of fraud leveled against Babachir. In the same vein, Ambassador Arab Yadam who is the most senior director at the Nigeria Intelligence Agency NIA, has assumed office as the acting DG of NIA pending the outcome of an investigation of suspended NIA boss, Ambassador Ayo Oke. President Buhari also ordered the suspension of Oke following the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.

A retired deputy director in the National Intelligence Agency, Ibrahim Ibrahim, has alleged that the N15 billion found in an apartment in Ikoyi last week, was part of the money Former President Goodluck Jonathan released through the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for the PDP 2015 campaigns. According to DailyTrust, Ibrahim who retired in 2006 said Jonathan approved the money for the distribution to PDP chieftains during his campaign period. The suspended NIA Director General, Ayo Oke, however refused to distribute the said money. “A lot of things have happened; a lot of public officers have actually drifted away from the disciplined course and as a result so many things have happened. The NIA is not an exception at all. I think what really happened was that the money was issued to the agency (NIA) just in the same way it was given to the NSAs office. President Jonathan approved $289 million or so in November 2014 in excess of the approved budget of the a...

Ugo Ehiogu, Youth coach of Premier league club, Tottenham has passed on. According to Tottenham's official website, the Nigerian/Englishman died this morning after he was rushed to hospital by ambulance after suffering a heart attack  on Thursday  (Read  here ). Ehiogu played for Aston Villa and Middlesbrough over 350 times and also represented England four times. He was aged 44 and is survived by a wife and son. May his soul rest in peace...

Over 30 football fans watching the UEFA Europa League football quarter-final match between Manchester United and Anderlecht lost their lives in an electrocution tragedy which happened at a viewing center in Nyahasang, Atimbo Calabar, Cross River state last night. According to reports, a transformer near the viewing center fell which caused one of the high tension cables attached to the transformer to fall on the zinc of the viewing center building. At least 30 people died from the electrocution while the few that survived were badly burnt and have been taken to Cross River state Teaching hospital. May their souls rest in peace. Amen. 

Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity when he spoke with State House correspondents Wednesday said that the government is considering ways of enhancing the structural capacity of the whistle-blower mechanism. He said: “In a word, government thinks that the whistle-blower mechanism is too important to be left without a strategic, national direction”.   Garba Shehu continued to say: “No public policy can succeed or go far enough without public support and participation. When the citizens realise they are victims of corruption, they may feel encouraged to join the efforts to expose looted funds”. Shehu explained that the recovery of huge amounts of looted funds through the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and whistle-blowers “is a revelation about the mindless, callous and reckless scale on which Nigeria had been robbed by unpatriotic and egregiously selfish public ...

Kim Kardashian caused an outrage and was slammed by some fans on social media after she transformed into the Virgin Mary for her latest Kimoji. She put her face as the virgin Mary on a candle and made matters worse, by making the colorful image animated so it blurs in a psychedelic fashion, in honor of 420 (April 20) - also known as Weed Day. Some of the comments below:

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is considering declaring a former Commissioner of Local Government in Niger State, Kantigi Liman, wanted after a further N2billion was traced to his United Bank for Africa account by the agency. An EFCC insider told PREMIUM TIMES the discovery brings to N6 billion funds traced to accounts held by the politician and companies linked to him. The Commission had weeks earlier traced N4billion to two accounts in GTBank, both linked to Mr. Liman. The first account belongs to Sadiq Air Travel Agency Limited and the second to Kantigi. Sources at the Commission however disclosed that the politician, who was a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 election, has been elusive. “He is on the run and all efforts to track him down have been futile. The next option left for the Commission is to declare him wanted,” the source said. The source further disclosed that investigations so far i...