Author: Chronicle Editor

A US couple wrongly accused of staging a real kidnapping have reached a $2.5m (£1.8m) defamation settlement with the city of Vallejo in California. Denise Huskins was taken from a home she shared with boyfriend Aaron Quinn by a masked intruder in 2015. After she was found safe 400 miles away, a police spokesperson described the investigation a “wild goose chase” and the abduction a “hoax”. Matthew Muller, a former lawyer, was convicted in 2017 for the kidnapping. The police eventually apologised but the couple’s lawsuit accused the city and two police officers of defamation and inflicting emotional distress, US…

Hip-hop superstar Drake has set a new record in streaming — this time in video games. The most streamed artist on Spotify, whose latest hit “God’s Plan” has spent the last seven weeks at number one on the US singles chart, made waves this week when he joined the streaming video-game platform Twitch. His livestream — on which he joined the shoot-’em’-up adventure “Fortnite” with players including video-game star Ninja — drew 628,000 viewers, Twitch said, far outpacing the previous record of 388,000. Twitch, which is owned by retail behemoth Amazon, saw in the success signs for future growth of…

Nigeria hopes a long-delayed bill to overhaul parts of the country’s oil industry can be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari to be signed into law by the end of March, the head of a parliamentary petroleum committee said on Friday. The OPEC member is Africa’s largest oil producer. Crude sales are the nation’s economic mainstay, making up two-thirds of government revenue, but the sector’s development has been held back for decades by mismanagement. The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) is the first part of a larger piece of legislation, known as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), to pass through parliament.…

The Vice-President of The Gambia, Mrs Fatoumata Tambajang, has said that The Gambia would ‘collapse’ if Nigerian professionals in the country withdraw their services or leave the country. Tambajang made the remark at a dinner organised for the Nigerian delegation to the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the Nigeria House, New York, on Thursday night. The vice-president, who was represented by Dr Mamadou Tangara, the Ambassador/Permanent Representative of The Gambia to the UN, commended Nigeria for its numerous support to her country. She said: Gambia is very grateful to Nigeria for its support. If Nigeria withdraws…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has arraigned Kayode Odukoya, Managing Director FirstNation Airways on a four-count charge of forgery, use of false information, perjury and stealing to the tune of N1. 7 billion. He was arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja on Friday. The defendant allegedly forged the Memorandum of Loss of Lagos State Certificate of Occupancy in respect of a property located in Lagos, so it could be acted upon as genuine. One of the counts reads: “That you, Kayode Odukoya, on or about the 21st day of March, 2013 in…

Striker Alvaro Morata has been left out of the Spain squad but Diego Costa, who he replaced at Chelsea, has been recalled for two friendly matches. The 25-year-old has made 39 appearances for the Blues this season but has not scored for them in 2018. Costa, who joined Atletico Madrid in September, has been recalled for the first time since June 2017. Spain play Germany in Dusseldorf on 23 March before hosting Argentina in Madrid four days later. READ: I’m not going to run away or cry because of a few boos – Mourinho Morata’s domestic team-mate Marcos Alonso is…

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said he is not “afraid of his responsibilities” during a 12-minute defence of his record in the wake of the Champions League exit to Sevilla. Mourinho was criticised for his approach to the match, prompting a wide-ranging monologue in the build-up to Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Brighton. He began by saying: “I am alive.” “I am not going to run away or disappear or to cry because I heard a few boos,” added the 55-year-old. Mourinho arrived at Friday’s news conference with a neat piece of green paper underneath his diary. On it was…

A don, Prof. Ifeoma Nwoye, has advocated implementation of poverty alleviation solutions that can foster and stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit in poverty–stricken areas of Nigeria. Nwoye made the call when she delivered the 10th Inaugural Lecture of Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger, with the title, “That Evil Called Poverty: Entrepreneurial Escape to Comfort Zone”. She said that if the government wanted to offer resource-assistance to the poor, “the leaders should do so not through handouts.” Nwoye said instead of handouts, the poor should be empowered through boosting of programmes to be “handled by the poor themselves and non-governmental organisations and…

South Africa’s former President, Jacob Zuma, is to face prosecution for 18 charges of corruption, the director of public prosecutions has confirmed. They include more than 700 counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering. He denies the charges. Mr Zuma, 75, was forced to resign as president last month by his party, the ruling African National Congress (ANC). He was facing his ninth no-confidence vote in parliament before he left office. The charges against Mr Zuma relate to a 30bn rand ($2.5bn; £1.7bn) government arms deal in the late 1990s, before he became president. Zuma’s corruption charges: A brief history…

The chief executive of a company that created highly-secure smartphones allegedly used by some of the world’s most notorious criminals has been indicted. Canadian-based Phantom Secure made “tens of millions of dollars” selling the modified Blackberry devices for use by the likes of the Sinaloa Cartel, investigators said. The charges marked the first time US authorities have targeted a company for knowingly making encrypted technology for criminals. The Department of Justice arrested Vincent Ramos in Seattle last week. He was indicted on Thursday along with four associates. The BBC has been unable to reach Phantom Secure. READ: United Nations staff…