Author: Chronicle Editor

The All Progressives Congress (APC) members of the Senate have removed Ali Ndume as their leader. The development was conveyed by Senate President Bukola Saraki who read a letter sent to him by the caucus. The caucus elected to replace Ndume with Ahmed Lawan, their letter read by Saraki said. The development sets ground for effective removal of Ndume as Senate Leader. Addressing journalists after the Senate’s plenary, Ndume said the decision of the caucus to remove him as leader “shocked him”. He said he was oblivious of what led to the decision or where the meeting was held to…

A Ugandan man was buried with $5,700 (£4,700) which he wanted to offer God as an “offertory” to forgive his sins and save him from hell fire, the privately owned Daily Monitor newspaper has reported. Charles Obong, a former government employee who died at the age of 52, made the request in his will, his family was quoted as saying. However, the grave was dug up and the money removed from his coffin after community elders and clerics became aware of it, the Daily Monitor reported. It quoted the Anglican Church’s Rev Joel Agel Awio as saying that no amount…

As the wanton killings currently going on around communities in Southern Kaduna has gotten to an alarming stage, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Tuesday, took the bull by the horn by setting up an Adhoc Committee, to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the crisis. It could be recalled that various communities in Southern Kaduna have been under consistent attacks by Herdsmen since 2011, resulting in deaths, injuries, loss of property and displacements of the locals. In the recently renewed attacks, no fewer than 808 persons have been reportedly killed in 53 villages across the…

Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara named former prime minister Daniel Kablan Duncan as vice-president, a new post created under a constitution approved by referendum late last year. Duncan, 73, an economist, has served in posts at the West African central bank and as finance minister and is among Ouattara’s closest long-time collaborators. He resigned as prime minister on Monday. “This is a person of experience, a great servant of the state, who has demonstrated his exceptional personal and professional qualities in all the high functions he has occupied,” Ouattara said in a speech to lawmakers. In Duncan, Ouattara – himself…

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have agreed to use a private judge to keep their divorce proceedings confidential. The Hollywood stars released a joint statement saying they would keep all divorce documents and proceedings under seal in order to “preserve the privacy rights of their children and family”. It continues: “The parents are committed to act as a united front to effectuate recovery and reunification.” Private judges have become more popular in the US in recent years. They are most often used by wealthier clients in family law cases, civil cases and breach of contract disputes. They have the same…

The Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER) has called on Pastor Enoch Adeboye to rescind his resignation as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The call came in a statement issued by the Executive Director of the Abuja-based human rights group, Mr Frank Tietie, on Tuesday. Tietie said CASER would seek a court order to compel Adeboye to reverse his decision should the “holy man of God’’ refuse to voluntarily do so. Adeboye stepped down as the General Overseer of the RCCG in Nigeria on Saturday on the basis of the controversial Corporate…

The immediate former governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, has appeared in court for alleged financial misappropriation during his tenure as governor. Shema was arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Bako by the Katsina state government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday. He, however, did not take plea. Earlier, EFCC counsel, Jibrin Samuel (SAN), had urged the court to remand Shema in prison so that they could have access to him at will. Samuel asked that the administrative bail earlier given to Shema be revoked, saying he had shown some signs of not reporting to the commission.…

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed he had to overcome media “campaigns” against him to win FIFA’s inaugural “The Best” prize for the world’s best player in 2016. Ronaldo lifted the award at a star-studded ceremony in Zurich on Monday after a glittering year on the pitch saw him lead Madrid to Champions League glory and captain Portugal to their first ever major international triumph at Euro 2016. However, Ronaldo’s year was blighted by reports from an international consortium of media organisations in December that claimed a huge data leak involving 18 million documents showed the Portuguese hid 150 million…

Nigeria is the world’s 14th largest troops contributing nation to UN Peacekeeping operations, according to the latest data published by the UN peacekeeping. The data obtained by our New York correspondent, showed that Nigeria contributed a total of 2, 170 peacekeeping personnel in 2016. It showed that as at Aug. 31, 2016, Nigeria had provided 403 policemen, 46 military experts and 1,721 troops, out of which 232 were females. According to the data, the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping missions are Ethiopia with 8,326, India with 7,471 personnel and Pakistan which contributed 7,161. Jamaica, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Latvia, and the former…

The U.S. has declared that the days of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) are numbered. The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement that the ISIL terrorist group was being pushed out of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria, as the counter-ISIL forces were moving to liberate the territories. Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis explained that the coalition forces were consolidating daily on their gains against the mindless terrorist group. Davis said it was significant that counter-ISIL forces had reached the Tigris River and converged on the three axes from which…