Nigerian Newspapers: 10 things you need to know this morning

Good morning! Here are 10 things you need to know this morning:

1. Deliberating on the 2014 budget, Nigerian Senators of both PDP and APC, yesterday blamed Ngozi Okonjo Iwaela for imposing the economic policy of the International Monitoring Fund (IMF) and that of the World bank on Nigeria, instead of an indigenous economic
policy. The lawmakers have argued that the Western economies were collapsing unlike the indigenous economies of China and India.
2. Making a very strong headline this morning is the letter reportedly written by 11 PDP Senators to the Senate President, notifying him of their intention to defect to the opposition APC. Report however said that contrary to what was said in Lai Mohammed’s press release, some of the Senators have denied that 11 senators were defecting to the APC.
3. Still on defection saga, 10 lawmakers who were initially loyal to former Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, have disassociated themselves from his latest decision to defect to the PDP. They said they will continue to remain in APC, despite Shekarau’s latest move.
4. Equally making news headline this morning is the statement issued by the Taraba State government over the recent video of ailing Damba Suntai where he reportedly said that he was not fit to rule the state due to his failing health. The state government is claiming that the video was tutored, blaming media organisations for lifting the story from an unverified source.

5. The new National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Adamu Mu’ azu had assembled party leaders in a closed door meeting on Wednesday to address all anomalies in the party. The meeting that enjoyed massive turnout of governors and lawmakers was not attended by the G5 governors as expected by the Chairman.
6. As the political crisis in Rivers State continues unabated, the State governor, Rotimi Amaechi has further accused the Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph of frustrating internal security in the state. Amaechi said Mbu would always ask him to write applications to the Police Command on issues bordering on security, a development he said was completely unhealthy.
7. The Rivers State Police had on Wednesday set free 275 Boko Haram suspects out of the 294 who were arrested on Sunday. Report says the remaining 19 suspects who could not give any concrete reason on why they were in Port Harcourt have been subjected to further investigation.
8. Former Military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida has denied writing to President Jonathan about the state of the nation. Babangida said he did not write any letter with the title, “Your aides are misleading you”, hence termed the report as bad journalism emanating from the blues.
9. As the Boko Haram attacks on innocent citizens in the north continues to get worse at every passing day, residents of some communities Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States are fleeing their homes and heading into Gombe State. Report says there is continuous confusion in Gombe state over the mass movement of people into the state.
10. Lastly, and on a sad note, the Nigerian home based Super Eagles bowed to a 10-man Black Stars’ team yesterday in the ongoing CHAN tournament. The Eagles who were held to a goalless draw in the match failed to proceed to the final as they lost to Ghana via penalty shootout.