Author: Chronicle Editor

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has raised an alarm that refugees and migrants, many of them Nigerians, are taking more “diversified and dangerous journeys” to cross rough seas to enter Europe. UNHCR Director of Europe Bureau, Vincent Cochetel, while releasing a new report “Desperate Journeys” on Monday in New York, said that they are relying on people-smugglers or using flimsy boats to cross rough seas to Europe. He said that increased border restrictions and lack of accessible legal ways to reach Europe have caused more desperation among refugees and migrants. “About 90 per cent of…

Claudio Ranieri was relaxing in Rome on Monday following his sacking as Leicester manager nine months after an historic Premier League title win – but the Italian’s presence was everywhere around the King Power Stadium as the Foxes dominated Liverpool on a night of high emotion. Ranieri spent the day with his grandson at the Bioparco Zoo while the team he took to the title in arguably British sport’s greatest story battled their way out of the relegation zone with a 3-1 win against Liverpool. And if he managed to find himself in front of a television screen he will…

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has criticised the trend on the social media of comparing President Muhammadu Buhari and acting President Yemi Osinbajo. Ojudu said that without the President, there could not be the Vice or acting President. “I think it is thoughtless. I also see it as a ploy by the opposition to cause unnecessary division. It is a joint ticket. The President and the Vice President were elected based on the manifesto of the party,” he told the State House Press Corps, “Since they were sworn in they have been committed…

Former Google executive Amit Singhal has left his new job at Uber for not disclosing an allegation of sexual harassment at his former employer, a charge he has denied. Uber executives were made aware of the allegation this week by tech news outlet Recode, which said an investigation at Google had found the charges “credible.” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick asked Singhal to resign Monday because Singhal did not disclose the investigation, a person familiar with the details of Singhal’s departure told USA TODAY. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity for not having the authority to speak publicly about…

Arsenal and Chelsea have joined the queue of clubs keeping a check on Nigerian prospect Henry Onyekuru. According to MailOnline other clubs interested in the lad include Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Monchengladbach and Lille. The 19-year-old winger plays for K.A.S. Eupen in Belgium and was a target for Celtic in January who had a bid of £1million rejected. Onyekuru went AWOL for several days in the hope of pushing through a transfer to Glasgow but has since returned to action and has been given assurances he can leave in the summer. The Belgians though are looking for £6million with the fee…

Former President George W. Bush said Monday that the media is “indispensable to democracy,” a break from the position of his fellow Republican, President Donald Trump, who has called the press “the enemy of the American people.” “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. That we need the media to hold people like me to account,” Bush told Matt Lauer, anchor of NBC’s “Today” show. “I mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has recovered a sum of N900, 000 (nine hundred thousand naira) mistakenly deposited in an account of a customer in a new generation bank. The customer, Aliyu Usman Tilde, who owned the account having done no business with anybody to warrant such credit in his account, reported the suspicious lodgement to the Gombe zonal office of the EFCC. The EFCC through discrete investigation discovered that the money belongs to a law firm that was engaged by the Federal Ministry of Justice in a case that involved a former staff of Federal Ministry of…

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has stated that there has been no free and fair election in Nigeria in the last couple of years. Ugwuanyi said this in Enugu when the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee led by Senator Ken Nnamani paid him a courtesy call. He said that lack of free and fair election was responsible for the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria’s democratic experiment on inability to conduct a free and fair elections over the years. He said that it had become imperative to put in place a robust electoral act that would engender peace and stability in…

Long-standing tensions between herdsmen and farmers have flared up again in Kaduna state, northern Nigeria, leaving possibly hundreds dead in tit-for-tat violence. Earlier this month at least 21 people were killed and several homes were destroyed when suspected cattle drivers attacked five farming communities. Three districts in the predominantly Christian south of the state — Kaura, Jema’a and Zangon Kataf — have been riven by conflict for the last three decades. But the clashes between the Muslim, largely Hausa-speaking Fulani cattle drivers and the mainly Christian farmers have escalated since December, when a Fulani chief was killed. The Roman Catholic…

Nigerian police say it is not clear if a ransom was paid for the release of two German archaeologists freed by their kidnappers over the weekend. Professor Peter Breunig and Johannes Behringer of Frankfurt’s Goethe University were seized at gunpoint Wednesday from Jenjela village in Kaduna state, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Two villagers who tried to help them were killed by the kidnappers. The kidnappers released the Germans on Saturday night, said a police statement. The kidnappers made direct contact with the German Embassy, a senior police officer involved in the search told…