Author: Chronicle Editor

Trade between Nigeria and China stood at 9.5 billion dollars in 2016, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy, Mr Zhao Linxiang, said on Saturday. Linxiang gave the figure at a dinner to host participants of different training courses in China in Abuja. The envoy said though bilateral relations between both countries faced challenges, Nigeria remained China’s fourth largest trading partner in Africa. “In the first 11 months of last year (2016), our bilateral trade reached 9.5 billion dollars. It is a great achievement under the current condition the Nigerian economy is. “So far, China’s total investment in Nigeria…

Disgruntled soldiers in Ivory Coast reached an agreement with the government late on Friday resolving a dispute over bonus payments that had threatened to reignite a nationwide army mutiny, negotiators for the mutineers said. There was no confirmation of the deal from the government, and it was not immediately evident that the terms had been accepted by the rank and file, who took to the streets in Bouake, the second largest city, and other locations on Friday. Soldiers, most of them former rebel fighters, launched a revolt in Bouake a week ago that rapidly gained momentum in the world’s top…

About five staff and two students of the Tulip International School, located in the Isheri area of Ogun State, have been abducted from their school premises by gunmen. This was confirmed to Channels Television, by the anti-kidnapping squad of the Ogun state police command. The source said that the gunmen invaded the school, formerly known as Turkish International School, Friday night in a white Hilux and took the students and the teachers away. The students, one from the Junior Secondary School and the other in Senior Secondary, were said to have been part of a moral instruction class when they…

Some youths all around the Kogi state capital city of Lokoja on Saturday were at several beer parlours to celebrate the return of the controversial Mavrodi Mondial Movement (MMM). The Ponzi scheme, banned in Russia where it originated, froze the accounts of 3 million Nigerian members in December, causing panic and anxiety. The scam returned yesterday, a day before its initial comeback date of 14th January. Most of the revellers were students of the state owned polytechnic in Lokoja. They expressed surprise about the comeback of the pyramid money investment scheme, that promises players 30 per cent return, a day…

Mr Ndu Ughamadu,the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says the corporation has resumed loading of petroleum products in all its depots nationwide. Ughamadu made the disclosure in a statement on Saturday in Abuja. He said that the resumption of activities at the depots across the country followed the suspension of strike by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers,(NUPENG). He further said that the current petroleum products, stocked for supply by the corporation, would be sufficient for over 37 days. According to him, with the resumption in production of diesel…

The Nigerian Military says it has successfully repelled an attack by the Boko Haram terrorists at Kangarwa in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno. Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, the Director of Army Public Relations, said in a statement in Maiduguri that the operation was carried out on Friday. According to him, the operation was carried out with the assistance of the Nigerian Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance planes. He said “the futile attack, launched by the terrorists group from the shores of the Lake Chad in the evening, lasted till midnight. ““The resilient troops repelled the incursion and in the…

As U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to turn the White House over to President-elect Donald Trump next Friday, he has offered some advice to his successor on etiquette. Excerpts of Obama’s advice to Trump were broadcast on Friday in his recorded interview with CBS News’ Steve Kroft for “60 Minutes”. “One thing I’ve said to him directly, and I would advise my Republican friends in Congress and supporters around the country, is just make sure that as we go forward, certain norms, certain institutional traditions, don’t get eroded, because there’s a reason they’re in place,” Obama said. The interview would…

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has again failed to get President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia to relinquish power after he lost the presidential election. Instead, The Gambia’s President-elect, Adama Barrow, has left the country after talks failed to persuade President Yahya Jammeh to step down, BBC Africa reports. Nigeria’s president flew to Banjul to try to broker a deal but Mr Jammeh would not relinquish power. Mr Barrow is now heading to Mali, where he will meet West African leaders attending a summit there. The former estate agent wants to resolve the transitional deadlock so he can be sworn in…

Beneficiaries of the Federal Government Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) for the poor and vulnerable in Ekiti State have started to receive the N5,000 cash promised them by the Buhari-led federal government. Indeed, some of the beneficiaries of the cash transfer have started receiving their money since December 30, last year. At the Access Bank located at Secretariat Road in Ado Ekiti, over 200 beneficiaries were seen on Wednesday smiling home after collecting the cash while some beneficiaries who had not received alert besieged the Customer Service of the bank to make enquiries. One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Opeyemi Kudirat from…

Sokoto State Government on Friday said it had earmarked N32 million for the mass wedding of 100 couples in the state. The State commissioner for Religious Affairs, Alhaji Mani katami, disclosed this at the inauguration of the committee on Islamic Marriage Mediation in Sokoto. He said ‎beneficiaries would be drawn from the 23 local government areas of the state. He said the gesture was part of measures taken by the state government to assist less privileged members of the society. ‎Katami urged members of the committee to ensure fairness in the discharge of their assignment. ‎The committee, which has Sheikh…