₦airaland Forum

Iran's President Rouhani issues chilling warning that the U.S made a 'grave mistake' by killing Soleimani and will face the consequences 'for years to come' after his family asks for revenge

President Hassan Rouhani told Soleimani's family during a visit on Saturday that the U.S. had committed an 'unforgettable crime' against the Iranian nation.

When one of the notorious general's daughter's asked who will take revenge, the president told her: 'Everyone'

The leader of Iran's Quds Force was killed in an airstrike on Friday ordered by President Donald Trump

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatolla Ali Khamenei, warned warned that 'the continuing fight & ultimate victory will be more bitter for the murderers & criminals'

Trump said he ordered the killing because Soleimani was plotting 'imminent and sinister' attacks against Americans

He added that the airstrike was not to start a war, but to stop a war

In a visit to the notorious general's house on Saturday, one of Soleimani's daughter's asked President Hassan Rhouani for revenge.

'Who is going to avenge my father's blood?' she asked.

In response, he promised her that 'everyone will take revenge' and 'we will, we will avenge his blood , you don't worry.'

'The Americans did not realize what a grave mistake they have made. They will suffer the consequences of such criminal measure not only today, but also throughout the years to come,' Rouhani said.

'This crime committed by the US will go down in history as one of their unforgettable crimes against the Iranian nation.'

It’s South-East’s turn to produce president in 2023 — Iwuanyanwu, PDP BoT member

A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, says it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next president in 2023. He also notes that members of the ruling All Progressives Congress now parading themselves as “avengers” were behind the corruption in the PDP, among other issues, in this interview with RAPHAEL EDE

As a civil engineer, what is responsible for the total collapse of federal roads in most parts of the country and how did you tackle the situation when you were chairman of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency?

The major problem of the failure of roads generally is two things: The first one is faulty design and the second one is faulty construction. These are the two reasons why roads fail. But recently, the cause is mainly poor construction. Now the fact is this, I talked to some engineers recently and I believe that some of us who are senior engineers need to come together and look into these matters because they are getting out of hand. Nigeria is investing so much in road infrastructure and unfortunately, after the roads are built, they collapse within a short time. This is simply because most of the contractors are not building to specification. When we build roads, there are certain basic engineering requirements. We have various aspects of the foundation; first of all, we carry out the design to ascertain the volume of traffic that goes on the road. The road is not built for every kind of traffic. The cost of the road will depend on the traffic but here incidentally, most of the roads are asphalt concrete. Asphaltic concrete-built roads are very expensive roads and are durable. An asphaltic concrete road, if properly designed, is supposed to last for about 50 years without any maintenance. But unfortunately in this country, there is hardly any of these roads that last for five years without maintenance. So, I think the cause is poor design and construction. Usually, an engineer who designs a road is supposed to calculate the run-off and put adequate culvert that will take up that type of water; when that is not done, the road will be alright but when it gets to that point it will collapse. When a road is washed out, it means that the design has not taken into account the proper amount of rainfall in the area; the discharge and the runoff are all supposed to be taken care of in the design. The answer to your question is yes, the failures are caused either by faulty design or faulty construction and it is important that every senior engineers come into the matter to ensure that federal and state governments are saved the colossal amount of money they are losing through this type of failures. It is even worse with the state governments- most of the state governments carry out construction without design and engineering supervision. The contractors just come to do what they like and go. When they award the contract, they should make sure that the contractor who is doing it has got a staff member supervising that job. The person should be a well-qualified engineer who is registered by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and a member of the Nigeria Society of Engineers. That is the person who will be held professionally liable for any failure.

But there have been allegations of compromises on professionalism by both the engineers and major government players, how can this be addressed?

The engineers are professionally liable. If any engineer supervises a job and a contractor fails to deliver a job that is acceptable to engineering standard; if it is discovered, such an engineer will be penalised and disciplined by the Nigerian Society of Engineers and COREN. So, if the case is not brought up by the state government or reported, there is nothing the NSE or COREN can do. The truth is that in our profession, you have a professional obligation in everything you do; that is why when a professional designs a job, he puts his signature and seal. That signature and seal mean that you have accepted the professional responsibility for the job you have done.

As a member of the PDP BoT, how would you describe the recently-concluded governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states in which the ruling APC won?

Frankly speaking, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am in the PDP but I am not a young man, I am a senior citizen of this country and my main interest is in Nigeria. I’m not among those politicians who will come every time to blame the opposition or blame the other parties. The truth about it is that those of us in the PDP saw the whole thing coming. I don’t want to blame people; you know I have seen people blame the president several times. Blaming the APC is not correct. I am very sad about it because I would have liked the PDP to win. Bayelsa is a PDP state, why should our party fold its hands to allow our members to vote for the APC? Something is wrong. The truth about it is that Bayelsa is traditionally the strongest PDP state in the South-South. But all these blames on the APC, they blame INEC and so on, I don’t share in them. Our people should have done their part. I don’t share this idea of people blaming people and giving excuses. My advice is that the election is gone and it is over; let us now as the PDP in that state reorganise our group and get ready for the election in 2023. The truth is that the APC won with an overwhelming majority.

There are insinuations that Nigeria under the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) is divided. They have alleged that he has promoted ethnicity beyond any other leader in the history of the country. Do you agree with that insinuation?

I’m in sympathy with the people who rule this country. He is not an angel but he has his strong points. Every ruler who comes in must be assessed by his strong points. We in the South-East are not happy because if you look at the government of today, you hardly see a south-eastern name mention anywhere. I think this government has been the worst for us. In fact to bear an Igbo name now seems to be an offence. Before now, you hear the name of Igbo persons in the high positions but now it looks as if there is a general decision that the Igbo people cannot hold high positions. Look at the presidency that is zoned between North and South: Obviously people know that by this zoning, the South-West and South-South have gone; now that it will be the turn of the Igbo people; but some of them have started given excuses that the Igbo cannot produce president, and so on. How can the Igbo people, who fought for the independence of Nigeria, not be able to present candidates? I have an Igbo candidate in the APC who can be president. I have an Igbo candidate in the PDP who can be president. I have Igbo candidates in other parties who can be president.

“This action is clearly a manifestation of vengeance and it shows that this Governor is not out to serve any public purpose or pursue any development agenda. In his narrow-mindedness, he believes his victory at the polls is empowerment, entitlement and enablement to settle scores, provoke and pursue inter-family rivalry.

Those who voted for the party in power in Kwara State and Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq obviously did not vote for the man to enable him to wage war against Dr Olusola Saraki and his legacies. They expected the development and fulfilment of promises.

“If the Governor believes people are not taking stock of his misguided and deceptive actions and that because he is in power, he could do whatever he likes, he must be a joker.

“Also, this war against the Sarakis will not successfully veil his unpreparedness for governance and divert people’s attention from the glaring lack of visionary, clear-cut plan to deliver on his empty promises to the people. He definitely cannot get away with all the atrocities he has been committing."

“We read with dismay the tantrum thrown by ex-Senate President Bukola Saraki over the justice done by Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on the issue of government property at Plots 1, 3 and 5 Ilofa Road in Ilorin, which was converted to personal use and appropriated by him and the late Senior Saraki. We take enormous pride in the governor’s action because it is for overriding public interest and the state must pull out all the stops to recover all its looted resources.

“He has done the right thing and turning a blind eye to Saraki’s trail of transgression would have suggested that this governor and the ex-Senate President are cut from the same cloth and bunch of self-seekers.

“Besides, Saraki is only being given a dose of his own medicine. We were living witnesses to his jackbooted dictatorship. Has he forgotten that on assumption office as the state governor in 2003, he dissolved all the 16 LGAs Chairmen in Kwara State under his successor, late Muhammed Lawal and in their places appointed caretaker chairmen?

“That under him, the Idi-Ape, a family compound of the Lawals was razed down and the licence to operate a nursery and primary granted to the deceased ex-governors third wife and sister to the incumbent governor, Aisha, was revoked by his government.

That the popular Idi-Ape Market was scrapped and anything that had Lawal on it was attacked with the sole aim of obliterating the deceased from history and erasing his name but the man is evergreen.

“Our advice to Saraki is to take his medicine and stop groaning about it to the media. At best, he should seek legal recourse, which we know is a long shot.”

On Thursday, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, said he would not mind breaking some toes if it would enable him to serve the ordinary people of the state and also fight for their rights.

According to a statement made available to by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, said the governor, who clocked 52 on Christmas Day, made the declaration during his Birthday Thanksgiving Service held at the St Peter’s Cathedral, Aremo, Ibadan.

He said his determination to render service to the ordinary people informed his decision to declare free and qualitative education in the state, adding that education remains the surest way to lift people out of poverty.

The governor also said he never thought he would live up to 30 years on earth, adding he is always very grateful to God for giving him the opportunity to live beyond three decades.

“I thought I would join the army, fight for my country and possibly get killed and that may be the end of the story. So for me, every year I have lived above 30 years is like a bonus,” he added.

The governor maintained that he was getting more matured at 52 and appreciated everyone who has made an impact on his life.

He also thanked the people of Oyo State, without whom he said he would not have been able to achieve anything in the last six months of his tenure as governor of the state.

A 37-year-old man, Mutiu Sonola, has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly beating his 34-year-old wife, Zainab Shotayo, to death.

The Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident on Thursday, said the suspect was arrested on Wednesday following a report by the father of the deceased.

Mr Oyeyemi said the father complained at ibara police division that he was called on phone that his daughter was having a misunderstanding with her husband and that has been beaten to comma by the husband.

He said the complainant further told the police that he quickly raced to the scene and rushed his daughter to the general hospital, Ijaye, where the doctor confirmed her dead.

He said that as soon as the suspect realised that the victim is dead, he ran away.

“On the strength of the report, the DPO Ibara division SP Dada Olusegun mobilized his detectives and went after the suspect. His hiding place was eventually located and he was promptly arrested,” Mr Oyeyemi added.

He said preliminary investigation revealed that the man is fond of beating the deceased at any slight provocation and that the incident of that fateful day was a very minor disagreement.

He said the corpse of the deceased has been deposited at a mortuary for autopsy.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the homicide section of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for further investigation and prosecution.

IgbereTV reports that the Nigeria Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, stated that through the Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Nigeria will be able to produce industrial machine spare parts including those of aircraft.

Onu made this declaration on Monday, when he visited the Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu State to inuagurate some projects.

The minister said it was cheering to observe that the institute also shares the diversification agenda of the Federal Government.

He said: “I have seen the progress so far made in this institute but we want them to do more. We want PRODA to be a centre of excellence.”

The minister was happy with the induction furnace project of the institute which has the capacity to produce industrial machines and aircraft spare parts.

He said with the two furnaces, the institute could produce non-ferrous materials including aluminum and stainless steel.

He also challenged the institute to continue its research on the production of lithium batteries with a view to commercialising the findings.

On the pencil production project of the institute, Onu said he was satisfied that production had finally started on the project.

“We have all seen pencils produced by PRODA and this effort is quite commendable,” he said. He also encouraged them to do more and not relent, as Nigeria will gradually attain tecnological Independence.