Author: Chronicle Editor

The Central Bank of Nigeria will peg its benchmark interest rate at 14 per cent at its November 22 meeting with an aim to restore flagging investor confidence and an eye on rapidly-rising inflation, a Reuters poll found on Friday. These two concerns will take precedence over stimulus for the battered oil-exporting economy, badly hit by recession in large part from the collapse in crude prices. The poll, taken this week, suggests the risk is rates may rise again. Ten of the 15 analysts surveyed said rates will be kept on hold on Tuesday, but three forecast a 100 basis…

By Nicholas Ojo-Awo For football fans, especially those following the top European leagues, this weekend is going to be nothing short of a block buster. Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich, Inter Milan vs AC Milan, Wolfsburg vs Shalke 04 but the greatest pick of the litter should be Manchester United vs Arsenal. Take a pause to give credence to the early years of the English premier league when these two teams were perennial winners or runners up, from the great teams of Sir Alex Ferguson embodied by the historic treble win of 1999 and those…

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he gets “no respect” from the media despite his managerial record. The Portuguese was criticised for his treatment of defenders Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw this season and for a run of four league games without a win. Mourinho has won three Premier League titles with Chelsea during two spells, and has won the Champions League twice. United host Arsenal on Saturday and Mourinho claims the media have more respect for Gunners boss Arsene Wenger. Mourinho publicly questioned Smalling and Shaw for missing the 3-1 win at Swansea earlier this month and suggested that…

Donald Trump has nominated his close conservative ally Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Sessions, a former prosecutor, was turned down for a federal judgeship in 1986 because of alleged racist remarks. Conservative Republican Mike Pompeo has been nominated as CIA director and retired Lt-Gen Michael Flynn has been appointed national security adviser. Trump’s latest picks were praised on Twitter by David Duke, former leader of the white supremacist KKK group. In a statement, Trump called Sessions a “world class legal mind”. “Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him,” he added. Sessions said…

Rapper Kanye West has revealed he would have opted for Donald Trump in the US presidential election if he had voted. “I told you I didn’t vote,” he told an audience in San Jose, California. “But I didn’t tell you… if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted on Trump.” Angry fans responded by booing the singer and throwing items on stage. West said he had “loved the debates” between Trump and rival Hillary Clinton and that his “approach was absolutely genius because it… worked”. See BBC Music Live for video footage The performer also asked for people to “stop focusing…

Mai-Abuna Maijir, a former staff of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH, who is also a prosecution witness in the trial of Mahmud Deji Sambo and Bukar Musti, both former staff of the Department of Finance and Accounts, UMTH, on Thursday, November 17, 2016 told Justice M. T. Salihu of the Federal High Court sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State that the accused persons diverted N148million from the coffers of UMTH using names of non-existent workers as conduit pipes. Sambo and Musti, who are former Assistant Director and former Assistant Chief Accountant, UMTH, are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial…

CSKA Moscow midfielder Roman Eremenko has been banned from football for two years after testing positive for cocaine. The 29-year-old Finland international was tested after CSKA’s 2-2 draw with Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on 14 September. He scored the Russian club’s equaliser. His ban runs until 6 October 2018. A Uefa statement said: “The analysis of the A sample revealed the presence of cocaine and its metabolites.” He is best known for his time in Dynamo Kyiv, with whom he became captain, winning the Ukrainian Premier League title in 2009, and playing in the Champions and Europa Leagues.…

A 38-year-old Nigerian man has been hanged for drug trafficking after being caught with 2.6kg of cannabis. “A 38-year-old male Nigerian national, Chijioke Stephen Obioha, had his death sentence carried out on 18 November 2016 at Changi Prison Complex,” the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement. Obioha, who graduated in industrial chemistry from the University of Benin in Nigeria, had originally moved to Singapore in 2005 hoping to be a footballer. He was arrested in 2007 by drugs officers who found 14 blocks of cannabis in a bag he was carrying and another 14 blocks in the flat…

The United States on Friday said it was concerned by the deaths of Nigerians in clashes between Shi’ite Muslims and police earlier this week and what it called the apparently disproportionate response of the police in the violence. Police said nine people were killed in the clashes during which officers opened fire on members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) taking part in a procession in the northern city of Kano on Monday, but the minority sect said dozens died. Security analysts have drawn some parallels between the IMN and Boko Haram, the Sunni Muslim jihadist group whose insurgency…

Sporting Kansas City have extended the contract of Ike Opara and Benny Feilhaber, tying the latter to a new two-year contract on Wednesday. Feilhaber, 31, is a former member of the US national team and will remain with the club until the 2018 season. The Brazilian-American midfielder joined Kansas City in 2013 from New England Revolution where he played 52 times and scored five goals. He has also played for English side Derby County as well as German side Hamburg SV. Unlike Feilhaber, defender Ike Opara only got a one-year contract extension but the deal includes a team option for…