Author: Chronicle Editor

* JP Morgan says accusations “without merit” * Relates to disputed 2011 oilfield purchase by Shell, Eni * Deal also being investigated in Italy, Netherlands Nigeria has filed a claim against JP Morgan Chase for more than $875 million, accusing it of negligence in transferring funds from a disputed 2011 oilfield deal to a company controlled by the country’s former oil minister. A spokeswoman for JP Morgan dismissed the accusation on Thursday, saying the firm “considers the allegations made in the claim to be unsubstantiated and without merit”. The suit filed in British courts relates to a purchase of the…

Nigerian women and others around the world will return to the streets this weekend, one year after millions marched to protest US President Donald Trump’s election, with a new goal – electing more women’s rights advocates. Trump’s misogynist comments and policies rolling back birth control and equal pay efforts have propelled many women into activism for the first time, campaigners said, pointing to the success of social media campaigns against sexual harassment. “I think that these are natural outgrowths of that outpouring of energy and they reflect some of the issues of the people who marched,” Vanessa Wruble, head of…

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was “disrespectful” by talking publicly about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, say Borussia Dortmund. The Gunners are interested in signing the £60m-rated Gabon forward, who has been left out of his side’s trip to Hertha Berlin on Friday night. On Thursday, Wenger said Aubameyang would “fit in” at Arsenal. “We regard it as disrespectful that Arsene Wenger expresses himself about players of other clubs,” said the club. Sporting director Michael Zorc added: “There is no contact on our part with Arsenal. “Arsene Wenger certainly has enough currently to deal with the performance of his own players.” READ: Gerard Pique…

The management of the University of Lagos has announced that President Muhammadu Buhari approved of a television license for the university, UNILAG TV. The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, made the announcement today in Abuja. The Vice Chancellor commended Buhari at a meeting with the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, and the Senior Special Assistant, Garba Shehu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday. Ogundipe expressed the hope that the TV station would enhance research-oriented education and ease communication within and outside the university campus. He said the TV station…

Nigerians have faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership style and with majority condemning Nigeria’s system of government, which they say make for lawlessness. Following the reports gathered, Nigerians opined that there is an error from the foundation of government that needs serious amendment. Stivin Promise, one of the respondents shared his view that “The issue is that there is an error from the foundation of our government, which until is amended, something good cannot come out from the seat of power.” Maxwell Maxwell included that “Firstly, there is no system of government which is why there is lawlessness. What kind of…

A builder who kidnapped, raped and murdered his niece appeared to admit he knew she was dead during a furious WhatsApp row with his wife while on the run from police, a court heard. Jurors at the Old Bailey were told how 33-year-old Mujahid Arshid had become “sexually fixated” with Barclays bank worker Celine Dookhran. He is alleged to have enlisted the help of labourer Vincent Tappu to kidnap the 20-year-old and another young woman by bundling them into the boot of his pick-up truck in July last year. They were said to have been bound and gagged as he…

Connections formed by years of captivity and shame at marrying militants might explain why some Chibok girls have chosen not to return home from their Boko Haram ordeal, experts say. Their militant Islamist captors released a video on Monday showing some of the remaining girls – who were kidnapped from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok – appearing to relish their new life and disavow their old. More than 200 girls were abducted in 2014 and 106 have been found or freed. They are now undergoing a special course at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola. One more girl…

Gunmen in Pakistan shot and killed two women working on a polio eradication campaign on Thursday, the latest in a string of attacks on efforts to protect children from the crippling and sometimes deadly disease. No group claimed responsibility for the killings in the southwestern city of Quetta but such attacks have in the past been carried out by Islamist militants, who oppose the immunization of children as un-Islamic. Sakina Bibi, 50, and her 20-year-old daughter, Alizah, were giving immunisation drops to children when two gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot them, said police official Naseebullah Khan. “They died on…

The Presidency has denied reports first published by Reuters that President Muhammadu Bauhri granted a radio interview where he said he had not decided if he will re-contest. The Presidency on Thursday denied distanced itself from the purported radio interview in which he said that he did not know whether he would seek re-election in 2019. Reuters had cited Buhari as saying in the interview that the decision was both personal and also one for all Nigerians. The presidency said the person speaking had not been Buhari, and that Buhari had not given any interviews on Thursday. It was not…

Kaduna State Government has banned fostering and adoption of children due to abuses by orphanage homes in the state, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, has said. Baba said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Kaduna that the government had discovered that some of the orphanages were conduits for trafficking and abuse of children. She said that the ban would remain in force until the government sanitise the system of adoption and fostering of children in the state. “When we came on board, we found out that people…