Gist Arena

Amuwo Odofin Local Government was, Monday, turned into a theatre of war following sporadic gunshots from suspected members of the Community Policing Youth Vanguard, who attacked everyone in sight.  Several persons, among whom were officials of the local council as well as visitors sustained injuries in the process. Reports said trouble started after officials of the Environmental Task Force attached to the local government, who had gone to demolish some illegal structures around Alakija area were attacked by suspected members of the Community Policing Youth Vanguard. Later in the evening, members of the group, numbering about a 100 reportedly stormed the premises of the local government with dangerous weapons such as guns, bottles and knives and attacked people there. When  Vanguard  visited the scene, yesterday, expended bullet shells and broken bottles littered the premises, with parts of the building vandalized. Victims recount ordeal One of the...

The Defence Headquarters has announced the arrest of a man who specializes in creating panic by sending out text messages threatening attack by Boko Haram terrorists. The suspect, Ugwu Lawrence (pictured) who was tracked by security operatives after dispatching text messages of impending bombings of some hotels in Abuja, confessed that he employed the gimmick because the management of one of the organisation failed to offer him employment. The suspect further confessed that his motive was a ploy to instil fear in the mind of the management’s chairman, and pleaded that he is actually not a terrorist. The suspect is still undergoing further interrogation preparatory to prosecution. 

A meeting scheduled between President Goodluck Jonathan and parents of abducted girls in Chibok, yesterday, could not hold as the parents shunned the meeting. The meeting was arranged after education activist and a victim of terrorist attack, Malala Yousofazai, met with President Jonathan on Monday and pleaded with the president to meet with the parents of the abducted girls to encourage them. Jonathan, in a statement delivered by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, accused the  BringBackOurGirls  activists of politicising the planned meeting by ferreting the parents out of Abuja before the meeting could hold. Every arrangement had been made for the planned meeting with president, including sending a bus from the Presidential Villa to bring the parents of the girls. The President’s statement noted that “those who would manipulate the victims of terrorism for their own benefit are engaging in a similar kind of evil: psychological terro...

The Speaker of the House of Representative, Hon Aminu Tambuwal has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to negotiate with terror group, Boko Haram to secure the safe return of the abducted Chibok girls. Tambuwal said this on Tuesday, July 15th, while receiving a delegation of the BringBackOurGirls campaign group in his office at the House of Assembly. While speaking to the delegation which paid him a courtesy visit, he said, "If negotiating is what will bring back, for instance, our Chibok girls, then for God’s sake, we should negotiate. Negotiating does not just mean you are submitting; you are not. It is just a strategy. Whatever we have to do we must do, to bring back these girls safe and alive." He explained that despite the hostilities between Israel and Palestine, they were still holding talks. Leadership reports that Tambuwal also called on President Jonathan to partner with the BringBackOurGirls group and answer their questions, while urging security agen...

Following the conclusion of tortuous legal and diplomatic processes between Nigeria and the Republic of Sudan, the co-mastermind of the Nyanya Motor Park bombing in which scores of citizens died and hundreds wounded, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche was Tuesday, 15th July, 2014 extradited to the country from Sudan where he had taken refuge. Aminu Ogwuche who was handed over to the Interpol Unit of the Nigeria Police Force by the Sudanese Authorities was flown into the country in a special flight from Khartoum which touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 3.00pm today. It would be recalled that the terror fugitive who had long since been arrested in Sudan following an international red notice issued for his arrest by the Nigeria National Bureau of Interpol had not been repatriated to the country before now due to some necessary processes involved in transferring suspects from one country to another. Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP MD Abubakar, CFR, NPM...

Less than 24 hours after Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, was impeached by the state’s House of Assembly, the ex-governor has spoken on his removal. Speaking through his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Ahmad Sajoh, on Tuesday, 15 July, 2014, Nyako said he had accepted his fate but asked his traducers to be mindful of God’s judgment. It could be recalled that the former governor was removed from his post after the Adamawa lawmakers deliberated on a report submitted by an investigative panel that probed allegations of financial misconducts against him. The committee submitted its report to the House on Monday, 14 July, 2014. It was gathered that seventeen of the 25 members of the Assembly adopted the report of the panel after Speaker Umaru Fintiri read the report on the floor of the House. According to reports, the panel found the governor guilty of all the 16 allegations of gross misconduct leveled against him by the House. According to the statement r...

The mastermind of the  April 14 th Nyanya bomb blast, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, who fled to Sudan after the bombing, has been arrested and handed over to Nigerian Security officials by INTERPOL. 29 year old Sadiq, believed to have been radicalized while studying at the South Wales University in Sudan, was arrested on  May 14th  and was only extradited today to Nigeria.