Author: Chronicle Editor

Arsenal avoided an FA Cup giant-killing and spared manager Arsene Wenger further pressure with a hard-fought fifth-round victory over non-league Sutton United at Gander Green Lane. Wenger made seven changes from the side thrashed 5-1 at Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie – and his players had enough to see off a team 105 places below them on English football’s ladder. Lucas Perez’s cross-shot gave Arsenal the lead after 26 minutes and Theo Walcott doubled the advantage from close range 10 minutes after the break with his 100th goal for the club. Victory set…

An Ado Ekiti High Court on Monday sentenced a 45-year-old commercial driver, Lawrence Adedapo, to seven years imprisonment for raping an 80-year-old woman, Madam Grace Asaolu. The sentence on Adedapo has brought to five the number of persons convicted for the offence in the last two years in the area with one of them bagging life sentence. Before his sentence on Monday, the Presiding Justice Dele Omotoso said he convicted Adedapo based on evidence before the court which showed that the driver forcefully had carnal knowledge of the old woman and was guilty as charged. According to the court, the…

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) says about 65,000 of its members in Katsina State, have begun seven-day fasting and prayers for the quick recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari. Rev. Nelson Onyeka Chukwu, CAN Chairman in the state, who disclosed this to journalists on Monday in Katsina, said that the prayers would be offered at Mountain of Fire Church at Kofar-Kaura, Katsina and in six other Churches. Chukwu listed the other Churches as Church of God Mission, Calvary Baptist, ECWA, St. Martin De Porres Catholic Church, and C&S, Dutsin-ma road, all in Katsina. He further said that that the prayers…

The Supreme Court has affirmed the 1958 Lagos State Acquisition of Land along Ilasamaja/Oshodi Expressway now Isolo Industrial Estate and Matori Estate. According to a statement signed by Kayode Oyekanmi, assistant director, Public Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of Justice the Government of Western Region had in 1958 acquired a vast area of Land measuring 5000 acres for public purposes. The land acquired was within Badagry, Ikeja and Lagos. After the creation of Lagos State, the area of Land which fell within the State was an area amounting to approximately 929.6 acres,. However, in 1979, 34 persons who were affected by…

The Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi is set to revamp some laws and instead introduce a law which would stop men from involving in forced marriages and domestic violence. In a speech on Sunday Mr Sanusi said that a connection had been established between polygamy, poverty and terrorism, Nigeria’s widely read Punch newspaper reports. Local media quotes the powerful religious leader and former governor of the central bank saying: “Those of us in the [mainly Muslim] north have all seen the economic consequences of men who are not capable of maintaining one wife, marrying four. They end up producing 20…

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has rolled out its plan to sell $1 million weekly to each of the country’s 21 commercial lenders at a rate of 375 naira to clear a backlog of demand and try to narrow the difference between the official and black market rates, traders said on Monday. Traders said commercial lenders have compiled a list of bids from customers awaiting dollars. The central bank has been selling dollars at 305 naira to clear a backlog of demand from manufacturing, agriculture and airline companies, hoping also to help drag Nigeria out of its worst recession in…

Three UN agencies said on Monday declared famine in parts of South Sudan. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN children’s fund UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) said no fewer than 100,000 people are facing starvation in parts of violence-plagued South Sudan. “Famine is currently affecting parts of Unity State in the northern-central part of the country. “A formal famine declaration means people have already started dying of hunger,” the three agencies said. An additional one million are on the brink of famine in several parts of the country, where farming has been hampered…

Telecommunications companies in the country are looking to block calls via Skype and WhatsApp in a bid to generate revenue of up to N20 trillion, The PUNCH reports. It was reliably gathered that subscribers might also be prevented from performing certain functions like voice and video calls on WhatsApp and Facebook, among other OTT services. Skype is a proprietary Voice-over Internet Protocol software for calling other people on their computers or mobile phones. Phone calls using the Skype software can be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks; and calls to other users within the Skype service are free-of-charge,…

More than 680 Cubans have been deported back to Cuba since the United States ended its decades-old policy giving them preferred immigrant status in January, state media reported Saturday. According to official Cuban reports, 683 people have been sent back to the Caribbean island from the United States, or from Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, where they were crossing in a bid to reach the US border. On January 12, then-president Barack Obama scrapped with immediate effect a 1995 policy that had given Cubans near-automatic entry to the United States if they managed to set foot on American…

The Nigerian Community in South Africa have confirmed attacks and looting of Nigerian-owned businesses in Pretoria West on Saturday. Mr Ikechukwu Anyene, President, Nigeria Union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from Pretoria, South Africa, that the attacks began at 4.00 a.m. He said that the union had reported the incident to the Nigeria mission and South African police. “As we speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been looted and burned by South Africans. “One of the buildings is a mechanic garage with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned…