Headline

Wike To FCT Officials: Wahala Don Come, I’ll Increase Your BP

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2023

Editor

Peeved by the growing level of filth and haphazard transportation system in the nation’s capital, Abuja, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, has charged top officials of the administration to sit up or seek redeployment elsewhere.

Specifically, he ordered the director in charge of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, to clean up the city, saying he would be on his case to the point of increasing his blood pressure.

On transportation, Wike told top officials of the secretariat in pidgin that wahala don come.

He gave the charge yesterday in Abuja while receiving handing over notes from the Permanent Secretary in the FCTA, Mr Olusade Adesola.

He said: “I will ensure that Abuja gets the best. You will see projects upon projects, and projects that will be completed and not abandoned.

“I am not a party to abandoned projects. I start a project when there is money, as such we will look into our finances before we begin any project.

“I believe in the renewed hope of President Bola Tinubu, and Nigerians will see the difference in no distant time”.

He said in the meantime, there had to be immediate deliverables to assure the people that the government was determined to turn the fortunes of the territory around.

“We are here to deliver the short-term deliverables for people to see that Abuja is coming back to what it was supposed to be. People are complaining of street lights not working, I am complaining too. We must fix it within the shortest possible time”, he said.

The former Rivers State governor charged the director in charge of street lights to do everything possible in the shortest possible time to restore lights to the streets of Abuja.

On sanitation, Wike said he would be mounting immense pressure on the director in charge to the point that he might even develop high blood pressure.

He declared: “You must be ready to work hard. I must make sure I give you BP, so you must work hard. You can’t be sleeping when the environment is dirty. You can’t be a director for anything.

”It is an opportunity for us to tell Nigerians and Mr President that we cannot disappoint. If you are in charge of sanitation, buy your drugs, carry them all the time because I will disturb you all the time to make sure Abuja is clean.”

On transportation, Wike said: “Wahala don come, there are too many illegal bus stops in the city. I have respect for women, but this one I will not. If you don’t have the capacity, let us replace you now.

”In this job, people will not like you, but in the end, if you do it well, you will be appreciated. Things are tough, yes, but we cannot live in a lawless society because things are tough.”

On her part, Minister of State in the FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, said with the support of staff, what Wike had done in Rivers would be replicated in the FCT.

“I am of the firm belief that, together, and with your support, we will replicate what the Minister (Wike) has done in Rivers in the nation’s capital, especially at the area councils and satellite towns.

“This is so that the lives of our people in the rural areas will be positively touched. It is also instructive to state that maximum commitment, cooperation, and loyalty are expected from all staff because it will not be business as usual.

“We will run with the vision of President Tinubu, which we will be unveiling as we hit the ground running,” she said.

Earlier, the permanent secretary assured the ministers of the unalloyed support of the entire staff of the FCT Administration in ensuring the actualisation of the mandate of President Tinubu.

Also, Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority FCDA, Shehu Hadi, thanked Wike and Mahmoud for accepting to serve and reposition the FCT.

Headline

Judge In Maradona Negligence Case Resigns Amid Scandal

Published

18 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

The Argentine judge who caused the collapse of a trial over the 2020 death of football legend Diego Maradona has resigned, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Julieta Makintach’s involvement in a clandestine documentary about the trial of Maradona’s medical team led to the proceedings being scrapped in May after two months of hearings.

No date has yet been set for a new trial.

“I have the honor of addressing you in my capacity as judge (…)in order to submit my resignation from my position,” Makintach wrote in a letter to the governor of Buenos Aires that was shared by her lawyer.

Makintach was facing impeachment proceedings over her participation in the documentary about the case against seven medical staff accused of manslaughter over Maradona’s death.

Maradona — considered one of the world’s greatest ever players — died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery.

He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs — two weeks after going under the knife.

Prosecutor say the conditions of his home convalescence were grossly negligent.

Makintach was one of three judges hearing the case.

Headline

Netanyahu Vows To Thwart ‘Any Attempt’ By Iran To Rebuild Nuclear Programme

Published

18 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to crush any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme in a national address to the country after 12 days of war.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said after a ceasefire put a halt to airstrikes by the two countries against each other.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

Headline

Netanyahu Hails ‘Historic Victory’ In Iran War

Published

18 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in his country’s 12-day war against Iran and vowed to prevent Tehran rebuilding its nuclear facilities.

“We have achieved a historic victory,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation after the start of a ceasefire agreed to by both countries.

“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he told viewers in the near-10-minute speech.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

The head of Israel’s military Eyal Zamir said earlier on Tuesday that its strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “by years” and the campaign against the country was now “entering a new phase”.

Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States as the ceasefire took hold.

But Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

Israel’s government said in a statement earlier Tuesday that it had removed the “dual existential threat” of Iran’s nuclear programme and missiles during its strikes.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s attack on Iran, named “Operation Rising Lion”, would be “recorded in the annals of Israel’s wars, and will be studied by armies all over the world.”

It included repeated strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile sites, assassinations of military and domestic security service leaders, as well as the bombing of state media and Evin prison in Tehran.

After the United States joined in the conflict with strikes on Sunday, President Donald Trump said his forces had “totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites.

Analysts said, however, that it remained unclear whether the strikes had put the nuclear threat out of reach, with the possibility that Iran had moved its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium away from the targeted sites.

Tehran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.