Author: Chronicle Editor

President of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan on Tuesday during plenary,  decried what he described as a noisy chamber. Lawan spoke while responding to a point of order raised by Senator  George Sekibo (Rivers East) who had noted that the chamber was noisy. Senator Sekibo came under Order 56( 9 and 10) of the Senate Standing Orders as Amended. Finance bill not only about VAT increase – Sen. Adeola Sekibo said, “the chamber is too noisy.” The Senate President, Lawan, however, ruled that Sekibo was in order. “The chamber is noisy,” Lawan said while urging the senators to maintain decorum…

Nigerian Afropop superstar, Ayodeji Balogun aka Wizkid has won SoulTrain’s Ashford and Simpson Songwriters’ award. NAN reports that he won the award at the 2019 ceremony held on Sunday in Las Vegas. The ‘Ojuelegba’ singer earned the award for his collaboration with Beyonce, Blue Ivy Carter and Saint John on the sensational song of Beyonce’s ‘Lion Heart: The Gift’ album. Wizkid shares the award with other credited songwriters including, Beyoncé Knowles, Carlos St. John, Adio Marchant and Shawn Carter. Finance bill not only about VAT increase – Sen. Adeola Others are Stacy Barthe, Anathi Mnyango, Michael Uzowuru, Ayodeji Balogun and…

Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, has stated that contrary to popular sentiment about the Executive Finance Bill 2019 being about increase in Value Added Tax (VAT), the bill is a composite one seeking amendment in seven Acts of the National Assembly with removal of taxes in some economic sectors. Adeola, according to a statement signed by his media adviser, Kayode Odunaro, spoke ahead of a Joint Public Hearing by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Finance on the Finance Bill slated for Tuesday after its referral to the Finance Committee. Adeola stated that the bill, which aims…

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has described the victory of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa and Kogi States, respectively, as an affirmation of the acceptance of APC across the country. Congratulating Mr. David Lyon for his historic victory of defeating his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart after the party had ruled Bayelsa State since the country’s return to democracy in 1999, Sanwo-Olu in statement, Monday, said: “The victory of our party’s candidates in Bayelsa and Kogi is a testimony to the acceptance of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s reforms and APC’s progressive actions.” He thanked all stakeholders who made…

President of the General Assembly (PGA), Amb. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, says the United Nations must continue to insist on the protection of the freedom of expression and association around the world. Muhammad-Bande stated this at an interactive session with representatives of civil society organisations at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday. He noted that there could be no democracy and peace if people were not allowed to freely associate and express themselves. “The United Nations must continue to affirm freedom of association and freedom of expression regardless of location. Larger portion of Nigeria’s oil, gas wealth yet untapped — Total…

Mr Ahmadu Kida-Musa, Deputy Managing Director, Deep Water District of Total Exploration and Production Nig. Ltd., says there are still billions of barrels of oil and trillions cubic feet of gas yet to be discovered in Nigeria. Kida-Musa said that Nigeria had not fully explored its oil fields even in the “so-called” matured areas not to mention the frontier areas yet to be explored. The oil chief made the assertion during a panel session of the 37th Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Lagos on Monday. Nigeria 1.6m to1.7m bpd oil output in line with OPEC cut – NNPC…

Sixteen of the candidates that participated in the Nov. 16 governorship election in Kogi have accepted the results of the election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Addressing a news conference in Lokoja on Monday shortly after the announcement of the election results, the coalition of 16 candidates led by Dr Sani Teidi, the candidate of the Young Democratic Party urged losers to work with the winner for accelerated development of the state. ” We congratulate His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello for the overwhelming victory at the poll and all those who participated in the election. ”…

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Revd Justin Portal Welby has responded to an open letter by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) urging him to use his good offices and leadership and his “friendship with President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on him to obey court orders most recently involving activists Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare who remain in arbitrary detention despite a court order for their release.” This development was disclosed today by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare. SERAP had in the letter to Archbishop Welby expressed “serious concerns about the disturbing trends by state governments and federal government to use the court…

The Nigerian Army says its troops have overcome another ambush by the Boko Haram terrorist in Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno. The Nigerian Army Operations Media Coordinator, Col. Aminu Iliyasu, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja. Iliyasu said that the encounter took place on Monday when troops of 153 Task Force Battalion deployed at New Marte embarked on fighting patrol to Dikwa to hunt and destroy remnants of the insurgents. According to him, the troops encountered an ambush staged against them by some remnants of the criminal Boko Haram insurgents along the patrol route at Ala Village, 7…

The Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State during the 2019 general election, Senator Buruji Kashamu, has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) for winning the November 16 governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states. In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday, Kashamu said the misfortunes that have befallen the PDP were long foretold and self-inflicted. He blamed it all on the “evil machinations and merchantile politics of the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus.” The statement reads in part, “Secondus is only interested in his pocket and where…