Author: Chronicle Editor

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has said the corporation has secured a total of $3.7 billion in Alternative Financing Agreement in the last three years. Speaking yesterday in Lagos at the 35th annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Baru said securing external funding arrangement was crucial to sustaining oil and gas production and ensuring the survival of Nigeria’s energy future. “Within the last three years, we have embarked on several successful alternative funding programmes to sustain and increase the national daily production and producibility,” Baru said. According…

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe and his wife have been granted immunity from prosecution, the military said Thursday, allowing the couple to remain in the country. Col. Overson Mugwisi, a spokesman for the Zimbabwean Defense Forces, told CNN that an agreement had been reached with Mugabe that included immunity and a guarantee of safety for the former leader and his wife, Grace Mugabe. Mugabe resigned on Tuesday, in a historic moment that brought his 37 years of oppressive rule to an end. The former leader has been accused of ordering a string of massacres in the early to mid-1980s in…

Since his assumption of the mantle of governorship of the most populous State in the Federation, His Excellency, the Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, OFR has been preoccupied with the herculean task of evolving strong and enduring institutions towards making the State viable, sustainable and self-reliant. According to him, strong and enduring institutions are more important than a strong leadership because the latter is ephemeral and transient and when a strong leader is no more in the saddle of leadership everything crumbles as the world has witnessed many a time. That is why since 29th May, 2015…

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said revenue generated from Value Added Tax (VAT), increased by 1.73 per cent in the third quarter of 2017. The NBS announced the figure in a sectoral distribution of value added tax report for third quarter, 2017 posted on the bureau’s website posted in Abuja. The further disclosed that the figured increased from N246.30 billion in the second quarter to N250.56 billion in third quarter. VAT is a tax on the amount by which the value of an article has been increased at each stage of its production or distribution. It also stated that…

Nigeria are the only one of Africa’s five representatives from the last World Cup who return for the 2018 edition in Russia and will be looking to better their place in the last 16 in Brazil. A crop of exciting youngsters headline a team representing Africa’s most populous nation and who will play at the World Cup for the fifth time, having mostly underachieved in the past. Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Henry Onyekuru and Moses Simon represent a new generation that has emerged since the 2014 finals as Nigeria surprisingly qualified easily from a tough group that included Algeria, who…

A Federal high court sitting in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria has restrained a Lagos businessman, Mr Victor Gbolade Osibodu and his company Vigeo Limited and their agents from dealing with monies under their control in 17 commercial banks in Nigeria pending the determination of a claim of N8,701,770,328.83 suit filed against them by ECOBANK. The court also ordered the affected banks to freeze and not to carry out any transactions on the accounts of the defendants and they should depose to an affidavit disclosing the nature, value, and balances in their custody. The court also restrained Osibodu and his agents from…

Kogi state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has offered to foot the bills of 25 medical students of the Kogi State University, Anyigba, who would be proceeding to complete their studies in three selected universities across the country. The decision to farm out the students, whose studies have been stagnated in the last two years due to the lack of accreditation of university’s School of Health Sciences, was to enable government find lasting solution to the challenges of the institution. Governor Bello, who announced to the elation of the students the award of scholarships, enjoined them to do the state proud…

An Oregon woman has been jailed after her inmate boyfriend died following a kiss the two shared to conceal the transfer of drugs into a prison. Melissa Ann Blair kissed Anthony Powell last year to pass seven balloons filled with methamphetamine into his mouth. Two balloons later ruptured in his stomach and he died of methamphetamine toxicity, prosecutors said. A US judge said both Powell and Blair were to blame for the death. “It was tragic and sad but he shares responsibility for what happened,” US District Judge Marco Hernandez said of Powell. The 41-year-old inmate was serving a life…

Edinson Cavani and Neymar both scored braces as Paris Saint-Germain registered a thumping 7-1 Champions League win over Celtic at Parc des Princes. The Scottish side were on the end of a 5-0 humbling in the reverse fixture two months ago, but might have allowed themselves to dream of a more memorable evening when Moussa Dembele gave them a shock lead after just 56 seconds. That early goal only served to spark PSG’s heralded attacking triumvirate into life, though, as Cavani, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe scored four first-half goals to leave Brendan Rodgers’ side shell-shocked, effectively settling the game before…

Manchester United passed up the opportunity to secure progression to the Champions League knockout phase, as Michael Lang’s late winner clinched a 1-0 victory for Basel and put the Swiss side in the driving seat to finish second behind their visitors in Group A. Jose Mourinho’s side needed only a point to win the group and looked as though they would cruise to victory during a first half in which they controlled, but Basel rallied brilliantly after the break and stole a deserved winner right at the end. United were absolutely dominant in the first half and created a host…