• Save my life, my father has kidney issues too – Ekweremadu’s daughter
• Court shifts judgment in PDP’s suit against Tinubu, Peter Obi’s running mates
• FG tells court to order ASUU to end strike
• 2 men drown as floods wreak havoc in Lagos
• Gridlock traps Lagos-Ibadan motorists, passengers for 16 hours

Across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, these are the five top Nigerian news stories you shouldn‘t miss:

Save my life, my father has kidney issues too – Ekweremadu’s daughter

Sonia, the daughter of former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, has spoken out about the scandal surrounding her organ donation.

The 25-year-old confirmed in a long Instagram post that she dropped out of the University of Newcastle in 2019 after being diagnosed with FSGS Nephrotic Syndrome, a rare kidney disease.

Sonia said that she is in London, UK, where she gets dialysis three to four times a week for five hours each time.

She wouldn’t talk about the legal problems that put her father in jail, but she did say, “During the time my father has been locked up, he has been diagnosed with acute kidney damage.”

A part of the statement then added: “In the circumstance above, I am appealing to anybody whom it may please to assist me willingly with a kidney donation in the name of God.

“This appeal would have been utterly unnecessary as every member of my family is eager to donate their kidney to me, knowing that I would do the same for any of them. Regrettably, a comprehensive medical examination showed that my case of nephrotic syndrome is a genetic illness, and the doctors advised against donation from any of my family members, as it would likely reoccur. In the time that my father has been incarcerated, he has been diagnosed with acute kidney damage.”

Senator Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, are accused of taking organs from a man named David Ukpo. Last week, David Ukpo asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to change its order from July 1 to release his bio-data so that it could be used in Ekweremadu’s trial in London.

Court shifts judgment in PDP’s suit against Tinubu, Peter Obi’s running mates

Monday, a Federal High Court in Abuja moved the date of its decision in a case brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the All Progress Congress (APC) and Labour Party over the replacement of their running mates to September 15. This is the second time that this has happened.

Kabiru Masari of the APC and Doyin Okupe of the Labour Party are the running mates whose replacements are being contested by the PDP.

The verdict was supposed to come out on September 12, but a court registrar told lawyers, reporters, and politicians in the courtroom that it had been moved to Thursday at 11 a.m.

The judge is supposed to be Justice Donatus Okorowo, but no reason was given for the change in date.

This is the second time the court has changed when the verdict will be given. The original date was last Tuesday.

In the lawsuit filed by Gordy Uche SAN on behalf of the PDP, the party says that the Electoral Act of 2022 did not include a “place holder” or temporary running mate and that Masari and Okupe are not eligible to resign, withdraw, or be replaced as presidential candidates, or to have new primaries to replace them.

PDP also says that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is running for president with the APC, and Peter Obi, who is running for president with the Labour Party, can only run for president in 2023 with Masari and Okupe as their running mates.

FG tells court to order ASUU to end strike

On Monday, the Federal government asked the National Industrial Court to tell the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end its seven-month strike.

The Minister of Education is a claimant in the case, and the President of ASUU is the only defendant.

The case was brought before Justice Polycarp Hamman by Sen. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labor and Employment, on behalf of the federal government. Ngige asked the court, among other things, to order ASUU to get back to work in the classroom.

When the scheduled matter came up, Mr. Ebunolu Adegoruwa, SAN, told the court that he was representing the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and that he had filed a suit in the same court about the same issue.

He also said that in the case NICN/ABJ/269/2022, the federal government is the defendant and SERAP is the claimant.

So, he asked that the existing suit be merged into one and that SERAP be added as a defendant. This way, the same court wouldn’t have to hear multiple cases about the same thing.

Counsel for the claimant, Mr. T.A. Gazali, SAN, said that the application was too early and that SERAP didn’t need to ask to be added to a case over the phone if its name wasn’t on the cause list.

In his answer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, who is the lawyer for ASUU, told the court that both lawyers had told him on Monday that they were filing some papers.

Falana also asked the court to put the case on hold so that both sides’ lawyers could file their papers and then come back after he had answered the claimant’s process.

In his decision, the judge said that the matter should be talked about again on Friday.

He also told the claimant to file and serve his process, and he told the defendant to file and serve his answer before the new date.

Hamman also said that SERAP’s request to join the suit was made too early.

2 men drown as floods wreak havoc in Lagos

Two adult men were swept away by floodwaters in Iyana Ipaja and Command, both in Lagos State.

This happened just a few hours after nine people who lived in a building that sank in Maryland were saved.

The incidents happened during the heavy rains that hit Lagos, especially over the weekend and early yesterday morning.

One of them, just called Alfa, was washed away when the flood hit Ajayi Street, Olubodun Ifesowapo, Fafunwa, Ipaja West, and Ti-Oluwani in the Alimosho Local Government Area of the state.

Alfa was said to have run away with his wife and four children at first, but then went back to his house to get some things and was taken away.

People in the community were able to save two other people who were with the person who died while he was being swept away.

Alfa’s whole family has been moved to stay with a relative because of what happened.

In a similar way, it was said that another adult man missed his step on the Command bridge and was carried away by the water before anyone could help.

Ibrahim Farinloye, who is the Lagos Territorial Coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), confirmed the incident.

According to him, some communities in Lagos have been affected by floods and emergency operations were ongoing in those communities, especially in Alimosho, Kosofe and Ifelodun Ajeromi areas.

Gridlock traps Lagos-Ibadan motorists, passengers for 16 hours

Travellers on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on Monday experienced a traffic gridlock on the Magboro-Berger section of the road, with some lamenting that they spent almost 16 hours on the road.

It was reported that the Berger construction company was conducting repairs on various parts of the road. However, traffic worsened on Monday.

It was observed that the gridlock started from Magboro, Ogun State inward Lagos State on Monday early hours.

A traveller, Oyinda Kazeem, regretted travelling, noting that she missed her appointment due to the traffic.

She said, “I had an appointment with a mentor I haven’t seen in a long time so I travelled from Ibadan. He is travelling overseas tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll see him.”

A worker in a private firm, John Adah, said he had to pack his car by the roadside and take an okada to Lagos to meet an appointment.

He said, “I need to get these documents signed otherwise we will lose the contract. I don’t have a choice but to run. I’ll come back to the car.”

Another commuter, who simply identified herself as Ayomide, said her boss was beginning to doubt her commitment to work as he always resumed late to work due to the traffic.

Meanwhile, commercial vehicles and motorcycles hiked their fares by over 300%, charging about N1000 for a trip from Ibafo to Berger.

The Ogun state Traffic Road Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Babatunde Akinbiyi, said there was a joint operation by TRACE, Federal Road Safety Corps, LASTMA and the police to reduce the traffic.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State FRSC, Florence Okpe, said the narrowing of the road compounded the traffic.