Author: Chronicle Editor

An Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court has ordered that two teenagers, Olajire Ayomide,18, and Tope Owoeye ,19, be remanded in prison over alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old. The Prosecutor, Inspector Johnson Okuade, told the court on Wednesday that the accused committed the offence on February 8 at Afao Street, Ikere-Ekiti. He said the accused on the said date unlawfully gang raped a 14-year-old girl, leading to her admission in the hospital. The prosecutor said the accused did the act after they had approached the girl and she refused their proposal. He said they later accosted her at a river side…

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has called on petroleum products marketers to stick to the N145 per litre approved pump price for petrol in order to make life easy for Nigerians. The GMD gave this charge today in Abuja while presenting a commendation letter to the Managing Director of BOVAS & Company Limited, an Ibadan-based petroleum marketing company, for consistently selling petrol at the approved price of N145 per litre. He said NNPC was fully convinced that it was possible for oil marketers to sell petrol at the approved price and still…

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has died in South Africa, a senior official in his MDC party has said. Mr Tsvangirai, 65, a former prime minister, had reportedly been suffering from colon cancer. “He died this evening. The family communicated this to me,” MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri told Reuters. Mr Tsvangirai’s career was marked by a long political struggle against former President Robert Mugabe. He had been beaten and imprisoned numerous times. Announcing Mr Tsvangirai’s death, Mr Mudzuri said on Twitter that the MDC had “lost our icon and fighter for democracy”. Mr Tsvangirai founded the MDC (Movement…

South Africa’s embattled President Jacob Zuma has resigned his office with immediate effect. He made the announcement in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday evening. Earlier, Mr Zuma’s governing ANC party told him to resign or face a vote of no confidence in parliament on Thursday. The 75-year-old has been under increasing pressure to give way to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC’s new leader. Mr Zuma, who has been in power since 2009, faces numerous allegations of corruption. READ: Nigerian Army tells Boko Haram leader Shekau to surrender His resignation came at the end of a…

A Cristiano Ronaldo brace helped Real Madrid come from behind to boost their hopes of once again retaining the Champions League during a pulsating last-16 encounter with Paris St-Germain. The Portuguese forward scored a late close-range strike after his penalty had cancelled out Adrien Rabiot’s opener at the end of a thrilling first half. Brazilian left-back Marcelo wrapped up the victory minutes after Ronaldo’s tap-in with a goal created by Marco Asensio. The emphatic spot-kick meant Ronaldo became the first player in Champions League history to score 100 goals for the same club Last season, Zinedine Zidane’s Real became the…

Sadio Mane scored a hat-trick as Liverpool marked their first Champions League knockout game for nine years with an emphatic victory at Porto in their Champions League last-16 first-leg tie. Mane opened the scoring when home goalkeeper Jose Sa failed to hold his placed strike. Mohamed Salah then showed wonderful composure to steer the ball home for Liverpool’s second and his 30th of an incredible debut season at the club. With two away goals scored, the visitors could have been forgiven for taking a more conservative approach from then on but instead they went for more. A swift Liverpool counter-attack…

Boko Haram factional Leader, Abubakar Shekau has been told by Major General Rogers Nicholas, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, to surrender to troops. Nicholas said during the monthly press briefing of Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri on Wednesday that there were no options left for him (Shekau) than to surrender. The call comes less than 48 hours after Shekau said he was tired of fighting, Nicholas said the troops had recorded significant successes in the ongoing clearance operation against remnants of the terrorists, noting that 186 insurgents were killed and over a thousand had surrendered. “We have crushed the…

Two companies in Delta and Edo were sealed on Wednesday by officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, over N8 billion tax debts. The Leader of the enforcement team, Mrs Anita Erinne, said the companies were sealed over failure to remit over N8 billion taxes payable to the Federal Government. She said that one of the affected companies (name withheld), located in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta, was indebted to the tune of N121 million. She also revealed that the other defaulting company in Edo owed the government N8.1 billion. The team leader tendered separate ‘Warrant of Distraints’…

A national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said evolving “true change” in the country as promised by the party is not an easy task, stressing that, corruption can’t go away overnight. Tinubu, recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to lead the party’s consultation, reconciliation and confidence-building team, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja when he visited National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. In giving Tinubu the assignment, Buhari had explained that it was to improve cohesion within its chapters in the state ahead of 2019 general elections. The assignment will involve reconciling political…

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, says the inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index, CPI, has further dropped to 15.13 per cent in January from 15.37 per cent recorded in December, 2017. The NBS disclosed this in its CPI report for January 2018 released on Wednesday in Abuja. The CPI which measures inflation, started the year 2018 increasing by 15.13 per cent (year-on-year) in January 2018 According to the bureau, this is 0.24 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in December (15.37 per cent). It stated that the rate recorded made it the twelfth consecutive disinflation…