Author: Chronicle Editor

Israeli ex-military chief Benny Gantz has been tasked with forming a coalition government after PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts ended in deadlock. It is the first time that someone other than Mr Netanyahu has received such a mandate since 2009. Speaking in Jerusalem on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin called on all sides to make “concessions”. Mr Netanyahu has been unable to build a coalition with a majority after September’s inconclusive election. Attempts to bring Mr Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party into a national unity government with the prime minister’s conservative Likud bloc failed. Mr Gantz now has 28 days in…

US Republicans have stormed a high-security impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, forcing a witness to delay her testimony by five hours. The Republicans chanted “let us in” as they forced their way into the hearing, breaching US House security rules. This week, Mr Trump urged Republicans to “get tough and fight” for him. Three committees in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives are investigating allegations of wrongdoing by the president. Democrats accuse him of illegally pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political rival, but Mr Trump and his supporters say he has done nothing wrong. How did the chaos…

The 39 people found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Essex, east of London, were Chinese nationals. Police are continuing to question lorry driver Mo Robinson, 25, on suspicion of murdering the eight women and 31 men. Officers in Northern Ireland have raided three properties and the National Crime Agency said it was working to identify “organised crime groups who may have played a part”. The trailer arrived in Purfleet on the River Thames from Zeebrugge in Belgium. Ambulance staff discovered the bodies in the container at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays just after 01:30 BST on Wednesday. The lorry…

Russia and Nigeria have signed a deal for Moscow to supply 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters to Nigeria, a senior official at Russia’s federal military-technical cooperation service said on Wednesday, the RIA news agency reported. The contract was announced as Russia welcomed dozens of African heads of state to the southern Russian city of Sochi amid a push by Moscow for clout on the continent. Over 50 African leaders made their way to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on October 23-24 for the inaugural Russia-Africa summit. Nigeria up 15 places on Ease of Doing Business ranking The summit is…

Nigeria is up 15 places in the 2020 World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking report, moving from 146 in the world to 131. The Bretton Wood institution made this known in its report released in the early hours of Thursday. A comparison of business regulation in 190 countries across the world formed the basis of the ranking. “Nigeria conducted reforms impacting six indicators, including making the enforcement of contracts easier, which placed the 200-million-person economy among the world’s top improvers,” the World Bank said in a statement. “Only two Sub-Saharan African economies rank in the top 50 on the…

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged qualified Nigerians to apply for the vacant position of Director-General of the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade in Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco. According to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretariat, applications for the vacant position must be accompanied by detailed curriculum vitae and should be sent to: Directorate of Cabinet, OIC General Secretariat, PO Box 178, Jeddah-21411, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Fax No. +966126512288, Email: vacancy@oic-oci.org The ministry’s spokesperson, Ferdinand Nwonye, in a statement, said the deadline for the submission of application is Thursday, October 31, 2019. NYSC members to enjoy new…

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, has confirmed that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will receive the new minimum wage of N30,000. Mr Dare disclosed this via his official Twitter handle on Wednesday evening. “New Minimum Wage: NYSC members to enjoy new minimum wage/allowee Details coming …” he tweeted. EFCC found stolen credit cards on Naira Marley Adding that, “Next week the DG NYSC will provide details of the new allowee for the Youth Corp members after full briefing from the Ministries of Finance And MYSD”.

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday heard that stolen credit card information issued by European, American and Latin American banks were retrieved from a laptop allegedly belonging to musician, Azeez Fashola popularly known as Naira Marley. An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) forensics expert, Mr Nuru Buhari told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that some of the credit card information belonged to four persons in the United Kingdom (UK) including one Nicole Louise. Buhari testified as the EFCC’s first prosecution witness in Marley’s alleged card fraud trial which began on Tuesday. The witness, who was led in evidence by…

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday said there is nothing worrisome about Nigeria’s debt portfolio. She said foreign and domestic debt stock notwithstanding, Nigeria does not have a debt crisis. Nigeria’s domestic and external debt portfolio stood at N25.7 trillion (about $83.88 billion) as at June 30, according to the country’s ‘Total Public Debt Portfolio’ obtained from Debt Management Office (DMO) website. The DMO said the current total debt stock comprises the federal and 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The minister spoke against growing concerns from some quarters that the country…

The Federal Government says it will decongest all the correctional centres across the country in six months, saying the purpose of setting up such centres was to rehabilitate, reform and reintegrate inmates back to the society. Responding to a question on the congestion of prisons in Nigeria, at the Joint Public Hearing on the 2020 Federal Government Budget, organized by the Appropriation Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, at the National Assembly today, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola disclosed that the Federal Government was passionate about the decongestion of correctional centres in the country. According to…