Author: Chronicle Editor

The Federal Government has resumed payments to former Niger Delta militants, as agreed under a 2009 amnesty deal, a government official confirmed on Thursday. President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been holding talks with militants to end attacks on crude pipelines, which cut Nigeria’s output by 700,000 barrels in 2016. The budget for cash payments to militants has originally been cut, but had to continue to halt the pipeline attacks. “Two months of the ex-militants’ stipends were paid yesterday. The rest of their stipends will be paid later in batches by (central bank) CBN,” Piriye Kiyaramo, an officer in the government’s…

Catholic Bishops have frowned at the rising number of unjustifiable killings going on in Kaduna state and other parts of the country. Arch Bishop Ignatius Kaigama, the President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), said that the evolving culture of brutality and wanton destruction to human lives in the country had become alarming and unparalleled in the history of the nation. In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, Kaigama called on Nigerians to have a rethink with regards to wastage of human lives. Kaigama said that taking human lives just because it suited ones religious, ethnic, political or even…

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has revealed that Multi-Links has just four internet users. This was made known in the latest Monthly Internet Subscribers in Lagos. The commission also stated that internet users in Nigeria’s telecommunications networks declined to 92,446,687 in November 2016, from the high of 93,176,061 in October. The data indicated that internet users on both Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks reduced by 759,683. Out of the 92.4 million internet users in November, only 30,309 users were on CDMA networks, the same number recorded in October. The rest were hooked…

A newspaper publisher, Nsibiet John, has been arrested in Akwa Ibom State for allegedly publishing defamatory materials against the deputy governor of the state, Moses Ekpo. The Chairman, League of Newspaper Publishers in the state, Ernest Akpan, revealed that Mr. John who publishes a local newspaper, The Ink, was arrested on Thursday morning by police detectives from the State Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia. Mr. Akpan, in a press statement, alleged that the publisher was arrested on the orders of the state deputy governor, Mr. Ekpo. He said the arrest was “shocking, unacceptable, and unfortunate.” Mr. Akpan said the deputy…

On Thursday, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, resumed duty following the payment of their outstanding salaries. The doctors were paid September to December salary in full and arrears from February to April, 2016. A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the hospital reports that doctors are seen attending to patients. The association had on Nov. 15, 2016, under its former President, Dr Chukwunonso Okoye, embarked on indefinite strike action to protest against the irregularities in the payment of their salaries. The Chief Medical Director, Dr Dennis Alagoa, lauded…

The Kaduna State Government has begun the cultivation of 10,000 hectares of land to create job opportunities for 10,000 youths. The Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Industrialisation and Micro-Credit Management Board, Alhaji Sabi’u Sani-Isma’ila, disclosed this on Thursday. He said that the programme would strengthen national food security, facilitate import substitution and enhance job creation and wealth creation. “The thinking of the new administration is to reduce rural poverty, curb unemployment by creating job opportunities for the youth and at the same time support in the national food security. “This can be achieved through the use of our God…

Army spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman says another Chibok schoolgirl has been found, one of the 219 stolen by Boko Haram insurgents on 14 April 2014. She was identified as Rakiya Abubakar. She has a six month old baby. She is the 23rd to be recovered so far, since the Buhari administration came into office. She was discovered by troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, in Maiduguri, during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists Usman, the Director, Army Public Relations, on Thursday in Abuja, said in a statement that preliminary investigation discovered that “she is the daughter of Abubakar Gali…

U.S. spy agencies have what they call conclusive evidence Russia provided hacked material from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks through a third party, three sources have told Reuters. U.S. officials had concluded months earlier that Russian intelligence agencies had directed the hacking. But until now, they had been less certain that they could prove Russia also had controlled the release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The timing of the additional intelligence is important because President Barack Obama has faced criticism from his own party over why it took his administration months to respond to the…

A lot is made about Olusegun Obasanjo writing an open letter to anyone in Nigeria. The former president’s reputation for writing Open Letters and leaving a mark on the recipient is popular. But many wonder what will happen now that he has written the Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Alaiyeluwa Adetona. Read Obasanjo’s letter below: December 30, 2016 His Royal Highness, Oba Alaiyeluwa S. K. Adetola, The Awujale & Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Adetona Road, P. O. Box 263, Ijebu Ode. ​The extract from your Autobiography “Awujale: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S. K. Adetola, Ogbagba II”,…

One of the rituals of my childhood was writing down New Year resolutions. Under instruction from our parents, my siblings and I distilled our hopes and dreams into written acts. It was inevitable, this rite that accompanied the dawn of each year. It was akin to budgeting for the rest of the year—enshrining the habits we intended to adopt and exemplify as well as those we planned to renounce and excise. The resolutions were meant to serve as ethical compasses for the year, navigation guides designed to illuminate our way, indicating paths to be taken, paths forsaken. Looking back now,…