Gist Arena

T he wife of the leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, says her husband’s disappearance should be the major issue that will dictate discourse as the nation goes to the poll next year. Uchechi Kanu, speaking in an interview published by BBC on Monday , said the Nigerian government should account for her husband’s whereabouts, else, people will not vote. “In the next coming election,” she said, “we need to have that in mind that for us to ever be better, we need to stand up. “Yes, Nnamdi Kanu’s issue should be the number one thing: where is he? You need to provide him; at least tell us where he is. You need to at least do something before you run an election, otherwise we aren’t going to vote.” Mr. Kanu is wanted by the Nigerian government for alleged treason. He has not been seen in public since September 2017 when the army raised his residence in Abia state. The army denies knowing his whereabouts. Mrs. Kanu maintained t...

G overnor Aminu Masari’s Special Assistant on Religious Affairs, Abdullahi Darma, accidentally crushed his daughter, Aisha, with his car in Katsina on Friday. Punch sources disclosed that the incident occurred at Darma’s Katsina house when he was reversing the vehicle. Sources reveal that the governor’s aide was unaware that his daughter was behind the car. “The car ran over the girl and she died on the spot.” a member of the family source stated. Darma posted the news of the disheartening occurrence on Facebook and was flooded with a barrage of condolences from sympathisers and associates, many of who also visited his residence to commiserate with him. “A few minutes ago, I got tested by God. I was reversing my car when I crushed my daughter mistakenly and she died,” he said in Hausa in the Facebook post. Darma was brief in an interview on Sunday when our correspondent sought to know how the accident occurred. He described it as “an act of God.” It...

T he Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the Malabu Oil scam trial involving the former Attorney-General Mohammed Bello Adoke and the ex- Minister of Petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke, PremiumTimes has said. In a letter dated September, 27, 2017, and obtained by the online newspaper, the AGF said, following due examination of the case files, he was able to determine that the EFCC had no significant evidence to prove its allegations of sharp practices against the principal players and others in the controversial Malabu oil deal. OPL 245 oil block was approved for sale by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in a sales and purchase deal involving Shell, Agip-Eni and Malabu oil and gas ltd. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has, however, been investigating fraud and criminal conspiracy charges against Mr Adoke, Mr Etete and their alleged accomplices since 2016 on the case. While the offic...

P resident Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria is in need of sacrifices by all citizens so as to be “freed from corruption”. Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, quoted Buhari as saying this ata meeting with Katsina senior citizens, in Daura, his hometown, on Sunday. Shehu said the president called on all Nigerians to be prepared to make sacrifices as a foundation for national growth and development. He added that there are occasions when citizens must “pay the ultimate price” for the progress and unity of the nation. ‘‘The Nigeria of our time is in need of sacrifices by all citizens to free it from corruption, poverty, crime and underdevelopment,’’ he was qouted to have said. The president also commended the Katsina stakeholders for “complementing” his administration’s efforts at national development. He assured Nigerians that the security of lives and property would continue to receive priority attention. Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina state, said the ...

T he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC has rejected an appeal by former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, to settle out of court the brewing dispute over the strange payment of $11,489,069.03 into her domiciliary accounts. Mrs Jonathan through her counsel approached the antigraft agency for an out of court settlement. The Nation reports that EFCC has however turned down her request and has asked her to appear before a court by entering into a plea bargain in line with the laws of the land. The agency said it would only accept a plea bargain in which the court is carried along. Investigations by EFCC showed that some persons made strange depoits into the domiciliary account of the former first lady while she and her husband were in power. EFCC detectives have not been able to trace about 29 of the 31 individuals and companies which made the controversial deposits.  A source in the antigraft agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said that an out-of...

W ole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, says he should be examined by a psychiatrist if he joins the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) masterminded by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo recommended the coalition in a letter he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari in January. The elder statement had asked Nigerians to rally round the movement, saying neither the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) nor the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could give Nigeria the leadership it deserves. But speaking in an interview with BBC Yoruba, Soyinka said the coalition is not meant for someone like him. “Me? Obasanjo would establish a group and I will become a member of such group? That means they should get a psychiatrist to examine me,” Soyinka said. He also spoke about the letters which Obasanjo and former military President Ibrahim Babangida addressed to Buhari. Soyinka said people should get suspicious “when these soldiers speak” because there is the possibility th...

I n what appears to be a volte-face, former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the weekend turned around and praised President Muhammad Buhari for achieving huge success in an area where previous administrations, including his, could not make headway. Obasanjo had last month passed a damning verdict of the Buhari administration, saying he felt disappointed by Buhari, whom he supported during the 2015 presidential poll. In a 13-page statement he issued on January 23, the former president categorically asked Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019, adding that instead, he should honourably “dismount from the horse” to join the league of the country’s former leaders whose “experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the side line for the good of the country.” But speaking at the weekend while performing the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of Azikel Refinery, the first private modular refinery in the oil and gas-rich Niger Delta region, Obasanjo...