Churchill Choken

Update:: Another tsunami could strike Indonesia, experts have warned, two days after more than 200 people were killed by a wave triggered by a volcanic eruption. The tsunami “appears to have been caused by an underwater collapse” of part of the Anak (or “child of”) Krakatau volcano, said David Rothery of The Open University in Britain. Anak Krakatau is a new island that emerged around 1928 in the crater left by Krakatau, whose massive 1883 eruption killed at least 36,000 people. The volcano has been particularly active since June, noted Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff at the University of Paris-South. The tsunami that struck on Saturday was the second to hit Indonesia in six months. Indonesia has 127 active volcanoes and lies on the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire” where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent. Anak Krakatau, located in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands, is close to densely populated zones. And while the tsunami was relatively small, R...

- PDP says any plan to extend the tenure of IGP Idris will be seen as a plot to carrying out rigging in the 2019 elections - Kola Ologbondiyan, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, alleges that the police boss has surrounded all the state commissioners of police with his own men who would be following them to any strategic meeting and spying for him - Ologbondiyan raises doubts about President Buhari’s intentions to conduct a free and fair election in 2019 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to drop the alleged plan to extend the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, by another six months. Kola Ologbondiyan, the national publicity secretary of PDP told journalists on Sunday, December 23, that any plan to extend the tenure of Idris will be seen as a plot to perpetrate rigging in the 2019 election, The Tribune reports. The party’s spokesperson alleged that the police boss had surrounded all the state com...

Update:: With the increasing adoption of electronic payment platforms, fraudsters are still managing to bypass security systems of financial institutions to steal customers’ savings. IFE OGUNFUWA examines the tactics being used by the cybercriminals I wanted to use the remaining money in my account to make part payment of the third term school fees of my two children in secondary school. I am also looking for another furniture project so I can make more money to offset the rest of the fees but none is forthcoming,” a sad-looking Lagos-based furniture maker, Mr Sunday Mogbonjubola, told our correspondent. He added, “But now there is no money left to pay these debts.” He said two weeks earlier, he was in the house when he received five text messages on his mobile device in quick succession. When he viewed them, he discovered they were debit alerts from his bank. Not fully recovered from the shock, he said he received a sixth debit alert. According to him, “The alerts showed t...

Update:: A man and a woman arrested over the drone disruption that brought Christmas getaway flights to a standstill at London’s Gatwick Airport were released without charge on Sunday, police said. Paul Gait and Elaine, the 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from the town of Crawley, near Britain’s second-busiest airport, were arrested on Saturday. The police swooped after three days of disruption from Wednesday to Friday, affecting 140,000 passengers. “Both people have fully co-operated with our enquiries and I am satisfied that they are no longer suspects in the drone incidents at Gatwick,” Sussex Police detective chief superintendent Jason Tingley said in a statement. Drones were sighted buzzing around the airfield more than 50 times, forcing the government to bring in specialist military resources to help counter the threat. The dangers posed by drones include the possibility of a device smashing into a passenger plane or being sucked up into an engine where its ...

Update:: The Civil Society Legislative Centre (CISLAC) and other anti-graft groups have said that the low knowledge on African Union Convention for Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC) has limited the anti-corruption fight in Nigeria. They made the observation at the preliminary launch and findings of the country report on the implementation of AUCPCC. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the African Union adopted the AUCPCC on July 1, 2003 and it became effective on Aug. 5, 2006. Ms Chinwe Ndubeze, one of the Directors in the Legal Department of the EFCC said while Nigeria signed on Dec. 16, 2003 and ratified the 12 article convention on Sept. 26, 2006, the implementation and awareness had, however, been low. “Concerned about the negative effects of corruption and impunity on the political, economic, social and cultural stability and its devastating effects on the economic and social development the African States adopted AUCPCC. “In spite of this, many ...

Update:: At his 80th birthday, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, has warned that the future of Nigeria “is not in naira and Kobo’’, but in the legacies left for generations of Nigerians. The octogenarian advised Nigerians, especially the young ones, to do everything possible to leave good legacy behind for future generation. The former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria held the anniversary at his farm at Basaa, Zaria in Kaduna State which was attended by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. He said the ceremony was an opportunity for “members of the Abdullahi Kwasau dynasty to come together, “to know one other, speak with one another and strengthen the relationship with one other”. Obasanjo, who was at the ceremony organised by Abdullahi Kwasau Dynasty, advised Nigerians to forge a collective force against the current insecurity. He called on Nigerians not to plant the seed of destruction for the country. Obasanjo said: “We have to work together to make our country...

Update:: Cuba will soon be legalising gay marriage if the updated country’s constitution adopted by the country’s National Assembly on Saturday is anything to go by. The approval of the constitution is the final step before a national referendum expected to approve the new charter in February. The new constitution contains more continuity than change, although it recognises the de-facto modernisation of Cuban society over the last decade. The constitution maintains Cuba as a centrally planned economy ruled by a single Communist Party, but recognises private property for the first time and paves the way for a separate referendum on legalising gay marriage. It also creates the role of prime minister alongside the current president, as well as provincial governors. Legalising private property is a formal recognition of significant change in Cuban society since former President Raul Castro permitted home and auto sales, creating a booming real-estate market, and allowed more ...

Update:: The number of active oil rigs in the country fell by 17.6 per cent to 28 in November, as global oil benchmark, Brent crude, fell to its lowest level this year. Brent plunged below the $60 per barrel mark in November from a four-year high of $86.74 per barrel in early October. Data obtained from Baker Hughes Incorporated and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday showed that the Nigeria’s rig count stood at 34 in October. The country and Kuwait recorded the biggest decline in the number of rigs among its peers in the OPEC in November. Rig count dropped to 44 from 50 in Kuwait; fell to 152 from 155 in Saudi Arabia; declined to 67 from 69 in Venezuela, and dipped to 57 from 58 in the United Arab Emirates. Ecuador saw a rise in its rig count to 13 in November from 8, while that of Angola and Iraq increased by one to five and 61 respectively. Rig count is largely a reflection of the level of exploration, development and production activities occ...

Update:: Atiku revealed this at a parley he held with civil society organisations last Thursday in Abuja. Atiku said: “There must be a partnership between civil society organisations and political parties to enthrone, sustain, maintain and develop democracy. Therefore, I would like to appeal for the strengthening of this partnership between civil society organisations and PDP, because it was PDP that enthroned democracy in this country in 1999, and not the APC.” He explained that there was need to dignify Nigerians at home and abroad, which a PDP government would do through providing good governance, security, jobs and prosperity. “We will also respect law and order and obey court orders,” he said. He assured his guests that his party would tackle the issue of kidnapping by providing employment, “because most of those kidnapping are jobless.” Atiku said it is possible to bring back Nigerians that have excelled abroad by offering them things they are used to abroad. “N...

Update:: Slack has apologized after it shut down the accounts of users who have visited Iran following a poorly executed effort at complying with U.S. sanctions against the country. The company, which has eight million users of its productivity tool , has scrapped that first go at the policy. But it did confirm it will now block all activity in Iran and other sanctioned countries, although user accounts won’t be closed. As one of the world’s largest community services, that botched first implementation will have impacted significant numbers of users — both in terms of enterprise teams and free accounts which use Slack for membership of interest groups and communities. The victims affected included Amir Abdi, a machine learning scientist at the University of British Columbia (UBC) who is also the recipient of the Vanier scholarship for PhD talent. Abdi told Motherboard that his account was shut down without prior warning, and the same appeared to apply to a numbe...

Update:: The federal government received over N132 billion subscriptions from 2,073 investors for its N100 billion seven-year 15.74 per cent Sukuk offer, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has said. The DMO, in a statement in Abuja on Saturday, announced the result and added that the bond would be due in 2025. It said that the high success rate of the Sukuk, which is the second by the federal government, showed investors’ appetite for government securities. The debt management office added that it showed the investors’ interest in the fact that the proceeds would be used to improve the state of road infrastructure in the country. The bond, which is aimed at funding road infrastructure across the six geo-political zones, is payable semi-annually. Subscription for the bond, which is guaranteed by government, closed on Monday. The government, had in 2017, raised a N100 billion seven-year debut Sukuk bond for the financing of 25 road projects across the six geo-political zone...

Update:: Nigerians have taken to social media to congratulate Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele Bello and her husband, AbdulRasheed–Bello aka JJC Skillz, on the birth of their twin boys Akindele-Bello has been trending on Twitter as Nigerians rejoiced over the reported birth of her twins. They have trooped to her Instagram page and that of her husband’s to drop their congratulatory messages. The birth of the twins was confirmed by Akindele’s publicist, Mr. Biodun Kupoluyi. He said, “the family just welcomed a set of twin. They are boys.” Meanwhile, Akindele has been posting cryptic messages on her insta stories, mostly in the Yoruba language, saying she has been given a new name and that God is great. The popular actress, fondly called Jenifa by her fans had suffered a pregnancy loss in 2017, after she was seen without her pregnancy bump, just months, after she was seen with one. The reported birth of Akindele-Bello’s twins is coming after a Lagos-based prop...