Author: Opalim Lifted

The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, played a seated volleyball match on Saturday with army veterans, most wounded in battle against the country’s Islamist insurgency. Chronicle NG reported Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are in Nigeria to promote the Invictus Games, an initiative the prince founded to support the rehabilitation of wounded and sick service members and veterans, including Nigerian soldiers engaged in a 14-year conflict against Islamic extremists. The Duke of Sussex arrived with his wife Meghan on Friday in the capital Abuja, where they visited a school for an event on mental health, part of a trip…

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, and her husband, Prince Harry, are in Nigeria to promote the Invictus Games, an initiative the prince founded to support the rehabilitation of wounded and sick service members and veterans, including Nigerian soldiers engaged in a 14-year conflict against Islamic extremists. The couple had visited the Defence Headquarters in Abuja and Kaduna State. The DHQ expressed its delight to host the Duke and his wife, Meghan, who, in 2022, revealed that she was “43 percent Nigerian” after doing a genealogy test. The Duchess, speaking on a podcast, Archetypes, expressed her desire to learn more…

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived in Abuja, Nigeria, on Friday for a three-day tour to promote the Invictus Games. The couple’s flight to Abuja with British Airways was slightly delayed after the scheduled pilot went sick, and a replacement had to be quickly arranged. Some Nigerian officials met them on arrival, just before 5 a.m., at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. Afterward, officials took them out of a side door onto the jetty and into a waiting blacked-out minibus. “They will be tired after their journey, so they will rest, and then the first engagement is at…

An XEJET aircraft on Saturday reportedly skidded off the runway and landed in the grass at Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. Chronicle NG reported that barely 16 days after Dana Air was shut down by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authorities, a similar incident has occurred. Following this development, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) closed the airport’s 18/left runway. The Airbus with registration 5N-BZZ and 52 passengers on board departed Abuja and landed in Lagos at 11.29 a.m. The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) confirmed the incident. The NSIB noted that an aircraft belonging to XEJET Airlines skidded off the…

President Bola Tinubu has stated that his administration is set to make Nigeria the electric vehicle batteries and solar panels manufacturing hub in Africa. Tinubu also commended the inauguration of Nigeria’s largest lithium processing plant in Lafia, Nasarawa State, adding that it indicates a foreign investment-friendly environment. He stated this on Friday in Abuja during a meeting with Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Hi Yongwei, chairman of Avatar New Energy Materials Company Limited, and Zhenhua Pei, chairman of Canmax Technologies. Avatar, a Chinese firm, built the lithium processing plant, which produces about 4,000 metric tonnes daily, while Canmax Technologies…

Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers, has ordered the state’s assembly to be relocated to the auditorium in the administration block of the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital. The governor’s order is in the state’s official gazette, Executive Order of the Rivers State Government 001-2023, sent to reporters by his media aide, Boniface Onyedi. Fubara said the decision resulted from the burning of the Assembly on October 29, 2023, which made the chamber unsafe and threatened the lives of the staff and lawmakers. He explained that the relocation was to enable urgent renovation and reconstruction of the…

The Kogi state government on Friday deployed security operatives and hundreds of local hunters into the bush on the trail of bandits that invaded and abducted university students Thursday night. The bandits had abducted an unspecified number of students of Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTEC), Osara, Okene, after storming the institution and trapping the students in their classes. The Kogi state government said nine students were abducted. Information commissioner Kingsley Fanwo told journalists in Lokoja that efforts were on to rescue the abducted students. He said, “Hundreds of local hunters, who understand the terrain, as well as the…

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has rejected the request by the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, to halt trial in the hearing of the N80.2bn fraud charges brought against him. Justice Nwite gave the order on Friday while ruling on an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that the court should not hear any preliminary objection by the former governor until he appears in court to take a plea on 19 counts of fraud filed against him. Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has refused to set aside…

Bandits invaded the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTEC), Osara, Okene, in Kogi State and abducted some students on Thursday night. An eyewitness account noted that the bandits swooped on the university around 9 p.m. while the students were reading for their upcoming exams. The source said that the bandits came in through the bush, went into three lecture halls, and began to shoot into the air to scare the students. “They trapped the students inside the halls and began taking them; fear-stricken students in other halls scrambled to safety, scampering in various directions, throwing the school into total…

Siminalayi Fubara, Rivers state governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike’s loyalist in the River State Assembly, disagreed on Thursday over the governor’s proposal to renovate the state legislative quarters. The governor, during a visit to the legislative quarters in Port Harcourt on Thursday, unveiled the plan to renovate the buildings. But the pro-Wike lawmakers, led by the factional Speaker, Martin Amaewhuke, raised the alarm that the governor’s planned renovation was part of the plot to demolish the legislative quarters the same way he pulled down the House of Assembly in December last year. Amid the feud…