Churchill Choken

Update::   A candidate in upcoming presidential elections in DR Congo said Thursday that the national election commission had confirmed the long-delayed vote would be postponed again. Theodore Ngoy, one of 21 candidates vying to succeed President Joseph Kabila on Sunday, said the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) had informed him the poll was being postponed "for technical reasons." "CENI says that it is technically unable to organise the December 23 elections," he told AFPTV. "We are going to meet in the light of this information," Ngoy said. On Wednesday, a senior source in CENI said the panel would order a one-week postponement after a warehouse fire destroyed thousands of electronic voting machines earmarked for Kinshasa, the nation's capital. CENI chief Corneille Nangaa met in parliament Thursday with Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala and other candidates, ahead of a scheduled press conference. But opposition leaders immed...

Update:: Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna central, has mocked speculations that the reason why the Electoral Amendment Bill wasn’t signed, is because Russia will meddle or temper with our elections. The senator said the reason is simply an excuse and very untenable. The senator added that the government must submit to free and fair elections, saying “the world is watching. ” Shehu Sani, said this via Twitter on Thursday. However, some of his followers while responding to his statement said such “allegations against Russia for meddling in US elections or others is a western concocted media campaign to damage Russia’s image.” He wrote: The conjecture that Russia will meddle or temper with our elections if the electoral bill is signed & applied is baloney. Its an untenable mythical tale adopted & advanced as an excuse.The Government must commit & submit itself to free elections as ‘The World is watching us’. The conjecture that Russia will meddle or t...

Update:: Russian President Vladimir Putin threw doubt on American troops’ withdrawal from Syria, citing Afghanistan. Making the remarks Thursday in his annual press conference in Moscow, Putin said that he is not sure about the withdrawal of the American troops, citing the example of Afghanistan, where US troops have been deployed for over 17 years despite Washington’s consistent announcements of plans to leave the country. He also elaborated that the US military presence in Syria was illegitimate. Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian President regretted that the tendency to underestimate the threat of a nuclear war in the world is increasing. “The danger of the situation escalating is being downplayed. It now seems to be impossible, something of not critical importance. But if something like that happens, that might lead to the collapse of the entire civilisation, and maybe even our planet. “They [the US] are withdrawing from the INF Treaty. It’s hard to imagine what wil...

Update:: Ogun State governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Prince Dapo Abiodun said he once prostrated to his estranged friend Governor Ibikunle Amosun to accept the governorship ambition of Senator Solomon Adeola, a son of Yewa from Ogun West. He made the disclosure at a meeting with Yewa Traditional Council in Ilaro, debunking rumours that he was aversed to the idea of having a governor from the area for Ogun. “Let nobody think that we are not sensitive to the long time yearnings of Ogun West to also produce governor for the state. As a very strong believer in this cause, I personally took your son, Sen. Adeola to Gov. Amosun, begged and prostrated for him to support his governorship ambition but he refused. That I am the governorship candidate of APC today in our dear State remains a testimony of God’s awesomeness and that He is the only one who has the power to enthrone,” he said. Senator Adeola, from Pahayi, Ilaro, Yewa South Local Government but repres...

Update:: Flights at Britain’s second busiest airport, London Gatwick, remained suspended on Thursday after several sightings of drones flying near its airfield, causing disruption to thousands of people travelling before Christmas. Planes were unable to take off and a number of flights scheduled to land were diverted to other airports, Gatwick said, with the plans of at least 20,000 passengers already affected and thousands more facing disruption on Thursday and Friday. Over 100,000 passengers a day fly to and from Gatwick Airport each day. Gatwick’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Woodroofe said police were looking for the operator of the drone. “We also have the helicopter up in the air but the police advice is that it would be dangerous to seek to shoot the drone down because of what may happen to the stray bullets,” he told BBC radio. Gatwick apologised on Twitter here to affected passengers, adding that safety was its “foremost priority”. “My advice to those passenge...

Update:: Fresh reports have indicated that Nigerian singer, Douglas Jack Agu, better known as Runtown has been banned from entering the United States. According to Johnson Adumike, the General Manager of his erstwhile record label, Eric Many Entertainment, Runtown and his brother’s secured the US visa through the label but his brother’s refused to come back, thus staying in the United States illegally on expired visa. In his words, ‘the P-3 visa (which allows an artist or entertainer, individually or as a group, to enter the U.S) that Eric Many got for Runtown and his brothers to enter the United States has expired and Runtown’s brothers did not come back causing their visas to expire. Eric Many reported this incident to United States immigration, so when Runtown and his mother went to reapply for their visas, they found out that they have been banned from traveling to the US simply because America believes that both him and his mother may decide not to come back again just a...

Update:: Senator Bukola Saraki called for a 2019 financial bill following the budget presentation of President Buhari - The Senate president noted that the country's economy was still fragile - Saraki said the dip in oil price has greatly affected the country Senate president Bukola Saraki has spoken hours after President Muhammadu Buhari’s budget presentation saying the economy is still fragile. Saraki in a statement on Wednesday, December 20 noted that the dip in oil price played a major role in the country’s economy while also noting that the recession the country experienced affected businesses. He said: The last three-and-a-half years have been eventful ones at the global level and in our domestic economy. From dips in oil prices to major shifts in the economic landscape, crude oil production shut-ins and security challenges, the economy and Nigerians have been directly impacted by these events. “Many businesses closed down and many people lost their jobs during...

Update:: Access Bank Plc to gain 19 million customers from Diamond Bank The Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, said the bank had finalised plans to raise $250m Tier 11 capital. During a press briefing on the merger between the two banks in Lagos on Wednesday, Wigwe said the bank’s customer base would hit 29 million after the merger with Diamond Bank Plc. He said, “Access Bank has already finalised terms and obtained regulatory approvals for a Tier II capital issuance, which will raise $250m, available for drawdown in January 2019. “Access Bank has also obtained “No objection” from the Central Bank of Nigeria to undertake a rights issue to raise up to N75bn ($ 207m) in H1 2019. Shareholder approvals and other regulatory approvals will be obtained before the offer opens. This accelerates the capital management plan to support retail growth, previously set out in the bank’s five-year strategy.” The Access Bank boss put Diamond Bank’s current customer ...

Update:: South Africa's state prosecuting authority has issued an arrest warrant for Grace Mugabe, Zimbabwe's former first lady, local media reports a lobby group as saying. Mrs Mugabe was accused of assaulting a young model, Gabriella Engels, in a hotel in South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, in 2017. She was allowed to return home after she applied for diplomatic immunity - but in July this year a court annulled a government decision to grant her immunity. Mrs Mugabe said at the time that she had acted in self-defence after the "intoxicated and unhinged" model attacked her in a hotel room where her two sons lived.

Update::  of Africa's top musicians - Diamond Platnumz - has been banned from performing in Tanzania. Basata, the regulatory arts board in the East African nation, said it had taken the decision because he had performed one of his songs that had been banned a few weeks ago. On Sunday the singer, who popularised "bongo flava", Tanzanian hip hop, performed the song Mwanza to big crowds during a festival in the port city of the same name. Mwanza was banned as the lyrics contained the Swahili word for “horny” and because the authorities considered some of the dance moves in the video to be lascivious.

Update:: The Islamic police force in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano has told the BBC it is going to charge two women with planning an illegal wedding. The Hisbah said the planned gathering by the suspected lesbian couple was considered immoral. The women are in custody and were arrested on Monday along with 10 of their guests and the owner of the venue. The ceremony was to take place in the Sabon Gari suburb, an area set aside for non-Muslim residents of the bustling commercial centre. Under federal law, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 14 years in jail, while gay marriage and displays of same-sex affection are also banned.

Update:: The Trump administration says US troops are being withdrawn from Syria, after the president said the Islamic State (IS) group had been "defeated". The Pentagon said it was transitioning to the "next phase of the campaign" but did not give details. Some 2,000 troops have helped rid much of north-eastern Syria of IS, but pockets of fighters remain. It had been thought defence officials wanted to maintain a US presence to ensure IS did not rebuild. There are also fears a US withdrawal will cede influence in Syria and the wider region to Russia and Iran.

Update:: WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand' highest court on Thursday said it would hear an appeal from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who is attempting to overturn a lower court's ruling that he can be extradited to the United States to face racketeering and copyright charges. The Supreme Court said it had jurisdiction over the appeal and granted leave for the case to proceed, according to a statement on the court's website. The six-year legal saga is widely seen as a test for how far the United States can reach globally to apply American firms' intellectual property rights. The Court of Appeal in July upheld a lower court ruling in 2017 that the extradition could take place. U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three co-accused Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million (138.65 million pounds) in revenue by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material. "We ...

Update:: The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) has shrunk from $ 2.319 billion in November 2018 to $631 million as at Thursday, December 19, 2018. This indicates that the special account recorded a deficit or withdrawals totaling $ 1.68 billion between last month’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, which held in Kaduna and the last one in Abuja Thursday. The November FAAC meeting was held in Kaduna at the 2018 Conference of the National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) where the three tiers of government shared N788.139 billion for the month of October. Explaining the deficit recorded in the ECA, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who briefed journalists at the end of the FAAC meeting, said withdrawals were made by the federal government from the Account to settle the last tranche of the Paris Club refunds. Isa-Dutse said, “The balance in the ECA is $631m. The final payment for Paris club refun...

Update:: Confirming the dissolution of the executives, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said; “The two governors and the state excos have publicly expressed the fact that they will support candidates in other parties, in their respective states. “So those excos, right from the state to the ward levels are not people we can trust to work honestly for the success of our party in the next election. “It is within our powers to ensure that we protect the interest of the party and also to activate relevant sections of our constitution which prohibit members from carrying out activities that are inimical to the interest of the party,” he added. It was gathered Wednesday night that the party leadership was making wide consultations including seeking the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend both Govs. Amosun and Okorocha. Vanguard could not independently ascertain the development as at the time of filing this report Wednesday night. M...

Update:: The Guardian gathered that Mrs. Oluwatoyin Abiodun, Mr. Ojo Ayodeji, Mr. David Omoyajowo, Mr. Isaac Solomon and Mr. Femi Tuki allegedly diverted the public fund to their private purses. They were paraded yesterday at the state police command with Mr. Ayadi Orimisan, who allegedly aided them to perpetrate the crime. While parading the suspects, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Femi Joseph, disclosed that they were issuing fake tax clearance, certificate of road-worthiness and fake driver’s licence. Joseph, who noted that the police had begun investigation into the matter, added that the suspects would be charged to court at the conclusion of investigations. According to the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties, Dr. Doyin Odebowale, interim investigation shows that the state government has been defrauded to the tune of N200 million. Odebowale revealed that the investigation indicted the civil servants, leading to their arrest ...