Headlines

The National Industrial Court has ordered the Academic Staff union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its seven months strike and return back to the classroom.

The order followed the granting of an injunction sought by the counsel to the federal government.

The federal government’s counsel, James Igwe, had applied for an interlocutory injunction to restrain ASUU from continuing with the strike pending the determination of the referral by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

In his ruling in Abuja on Wednesday, Justice Polycarp Hamman granted the government’s application.

He also dismissed the argument of Femi Falana, counsel to ASUU, that the interlocutory injunction should be dismissed and the court should instead grant an accelerated hearing for the referral earlier filed by Mr Ngige.

ASUU strike has been going on for over seven months as it commenced on the 14th of February, 2022. Negotiations between ASUU and the federal Government had been unsuccessful, prompting the Government to take the matter to the National Industrial Court.

Details Later …

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released its Final list of Presidential and National Assembly candidates for the 2023 general elections.

This is in line with Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 and item 8 of the timetable for the 2023 elections.

The list was released in a press conference signed by INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

According to the commission, 18 political parties’ field presidential candidates and their running mates, while for legislative elections, 1,101 candidates are vying for 109 Senatorial seats and 3,122 candidates for Federal Constituencies, that is, House of Representatives seats.

A total of 4,223 candidates are contesting 469 legislative positions.

The commission added that 3,875 of the candidates are male, made up of 35 for Presidential and Vice Presidential, 1,008 for Senate and 2,832 for House of Representatives, while 381 females, comprising one for Presidential, 92 for Senate, and 288 for House of Representatives are contesting the elections.

INEC also noted that there are 11 Persons with Disability in the race.

The released list for Akwa Ibom Federal Constituencies contains the name of the state’s ex-Governor, Godswill Akpabio, under the All Progressives Congress’ Senatorial candidate for Akwa Ibom North West.

The inclusion of Akpabio on INEC’s final list signals an end to the controversy surrounding his nomination by its party.

It is observed that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and his contender, Bashir Machina, miss out on the list as no senatorial candidate was listed for the APC in Yobe North.

The list for State elections would be published October 4.

The list can be downloaded here

The Republic of Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam’s managers have allowed surplus water to drain from the dam.

Over 100,000 Nigerians have been displaced, 300 have died, and more than 500,000 have been impacted in the past few months due to the recent rainfall in Nigeria and the opening of the dam.

This was revealed by data provided on Monday in Abuja during an emergency technical conference on the flood situation across the nation by the National Emergency Management Agency and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency.

“Based on our communication with NIHSA, the Lagdo Dam operators in the Republic of Cameroon, had commenced the release of excess water from the reservoir on September 13, 2022,” the Director-General, NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed, stated while speaking at the meeting,” he said.

He added, “We are aware that the released water cascades down into Nigeria, through River Benue and its tributaries, thereby overwhelming communities that have already been impacted by heavy rainfall.

“The released water complicates the situation further downstream, as Nigeria’s inland reservoirs including Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro, are also expected to overflow between now and October ending.

“According to NIHSA, Kainji and Jebba dams have already started spilling exess water from their reservoirs. This will have serious consequences on frontline states and communities along the courses of rivers Niger and Benue.”

The states most likely to be impacted, according to Ahmed, are Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Niger, Nasarawa, Kebbi, and Kogi.

Additionally, he noted that some Niger-Delta states, such as Edo, Delta, Anambra, Cross-River, Rivers, and Bayelsa, were likely to witness severe flooding as a result of the region’s above-average rainfall and the combined waters of the Niger and Benue rivers as they flow into the area.