Author: Chronicle Editor

Ireland has confirmed that it has reached a deal to give back to Nigeria €5.5 million ($6.5 million) looted by former military dictator Sani Abacha. The money is the latest Abacha-linked cash reclaimed by Nigeria. Corruption watchdog Transparency International estimates that Abacha, who ruled Africa’s biggest oil producer from 1993 until his death in 1998, stole as much as $5 billion of public money during that time. He was never charged with corruption in his lifetime. “The return of these assets will be the first time that Ireland has taken such action and will be a concrete demonstration of Ireland’s…

• Sanwo-Olu Okays 20 Per Cent Reduction In Apps Companies’ Operational Fee • New Guidelines To Take Off August 27 The issues surrounding the new Lagos State Government’s guidelines for the regulations e-hailing taxi services have now been put to rest, following a meeting between the State Government and representatives of the ride-hailing operators on Friday. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu attended the three-hour discussion held at the State House on Marina. Briefing the media on the outcome of the meeting, Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladehinde, disclosed that the State Government and the operators had unanimously adopted the new regulations, after…

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 329 confirmed new coronavirus cases in the country on Friday. The 329 cases announced by the Centre for Disease Control takes the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 48,445. The NCDC also announced the discharge of 1689 patients from isolation centers across the country with seven new deaths reported. Lagos state, the epicentre of the virus in Nigeria reported 113 new confirmed cases taking the total number of confirmed cases in Lagos alone to 16369. Nigeria announces 373 new coronavirus cases Kaduna state reported 49 new cases, Federal Capital Territory…

Bayern Munich sent out an emphatic and ominous message to their Champions League rivals with an absolute demolition of fellow European heavyweights Barcelona in a gloriously chaotic and utterly one-sided quarter-final tie in Lisbon. The high-pressing, energetic and ruthless German champions were on a different level to their Spanish rivals, as they have been for pretty much every opponent they have faced in Europe this season and in every competition since football restarted in June. They scored four times in the first half, added another quartet in the second, and could easily have netted more against a shell-shocked and shambolic…

A Nigerian man has been rescued from the garage of his parents’ house in the northern city of Kano, where he had been locked up for three years, police say. Ahmed Aminu, 30, was discovered after a police raid on the family’s residence. Neighbours had alerted a local NGO about his plight, and the police were then called. Mr Aminu’s father and step-mother have been arrested and police say further investigations are under way. In a horrific video shared on social media, an emaciated Mr Aminu, too frail to walk, was assisted into a vehicle as he was taken to…

Manchester United are willing to offer £70m-rated Spain midfielder Saul Niguez, 25, a long-term deal worth £150,000 a week to sign from Atletico Madrid this summer. (Star) Meanwhile, Manchester United are considering a swap deal in which France midfielder Paul Pogba, 27, would return to Juventus with Argentina forward Paulo Dybala, 26, moving the other way. (Tuttosport – in Italian) Barcelona coach Quique Setien is set to be sacked after their humiliating 8-2 Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich on Friday – and Mauricio Pochettino, Xavi and Ronald Koeman are the leading contenders to succeed Setien at the Nou Camp. (Mundo Deportivo, in Spanish) Indeed, reports in Spain claim former Tottenham and Southampton boss Pochettino…

Justice Nasiru Saminu of the Kano State High Court on Friday, August 14, 2020 convicted and sentenced one Chidi Okafor to one year imprisonment for fraud. The convict was prosecuted by the Kano Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on one-count amended charge of criminal breach of trust to the tune of N3,135,000 (Three Million, One Hundred and Thirty-Five Thousand Naira). The charge read: “That you Chidi Okafor, sometime in January 2019 at Kano, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did dishonestly convert the sum of N3,135,000 (Three Million, One Hundred and Thirty-five Thousand Naira)…

Following the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business across the nation’s seaports that was signed by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Oshinbajo in 2017, heads of federal government agencies in the maritime sector have resolved to implement actionable plans towards a 24 hours port operations. The agencies, which include Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), disclosed this at the second meeting of all the heads of maritime parastatals in the country in Lagos, recently. They believed that port efficiency and effectiveness cannot be…

Human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has declared that the sum of N5 million imposed on Nigeria Info 99.3FM, Lagos, by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is illegal. Although the NBC had anchored the imposition of the N5 million fine on a purported amendment of the broadcasting Code, Falana contended that only a court of competent jurisdiction has the power to impose fine. To justify its action, the NBC had accused the broadcasting station of providing its platform on August 10, 2020, “for a guest, Dr. Mailafia Obadiah, to promote unverifiable and inciting views that could encourage or…

A woman was burnt beyond recognition and three others injured on Friday when a truck conveying petroleum products exploded at Irete junction in Owerri West Council Area of Imo State. The incident happened at about 10 45am when the driver was trying to make u-turn after discharging the liquefied natural gas at the Forte Oil company along Owerri -Onitsha Express road. According to eyewitness, as the truck was making the U-turn, another vehicle XY 933UNW carrying full load of pineapples from the Onitsha to Owerri, rammed into it and exploded. The woman, the witness said, was trapped in the vehicle…