Nigerian newspapers: 10 things you need to know this Thursday morning

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Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday suspended the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr David Babachir Lawal and ordered an investigation into the allegations of violations of law and due process made against him in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE). The president equally ordered a full scale investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has made a claim, suspending also the Director General of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the investigation.

2. Bauchi State Police Command has announced the arrest‎​ of​​​ one Muhammad Adamu Nafiu, male, aged 25, of Balanga, Gombe State, at Tama village in Toro LGA of ​the state.
​Commissioner of Police, Garba Baba Umar, in a statement on Wednesday, said the ​suspect was a notorious ​top commander of Boko Haram, who relocated to Tama village in order to evade arrest after the​ sect was​ dislodged by troops at Sambisa Forest.

3. Barcelona are out of this year’s Champions League, following a 0-0 draw with Juventus at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. Barcelona were unable to overturn a 3-0 defeat they earlier suffered in the first leg as Lionel Messi missed several chances. Monaco, Juventus, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have now qualified for the Semi-final.

4. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sum of N449,750,000 found in an abandoned Bureau de Change shop in Victoria Island by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Justice Rilwan Aikawa on Wednesday said the anti-graft agency should temporarily take custody of the money following an ex parte application brought before him by the commission.

5. Constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has claimed that previous censuses conducted since the amalgamation of the northern and southern regions of Nigeria, have always been manipulated in favour of the north.. Ozekhome was reacting to a recent statement credited to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, where he called on the chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) to shelve the conduct of the proposed 2018 national census.

6. Prominent Nigerians and groups, on Wednesday, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for suspending the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Lawal; and the Director-General of National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke.
Some of the groups are the Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders. Shehu Sani and other prominent Nigerians equally hailed Buhari for his decision.

7. The Federal Government, on Wednesday, said 745 persons had died in 8,057 suspected cases of Cerebrospinal Meningitis across the country since the outbreak of the disease. This was contained in a statement by the Technical Assistant, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Lawal Bakare.

8. The Naira on Wednesday appreciated by N12 as it exchanged for N385 against the US dollar in the parallel market. This is follows the $62 million dollar supplied to Bureaux de Change segment by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

9. Report says no fewer than 13 suspected militants have been arrested in connection with the killing of four policemen, a Nigerian Army Captain, and two residents, in the Ishawo, Ikorodu area of Lagos State. The report further says the suspects were arrested in a joint operation by men of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad and the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command.

10. Some beneficiaries of the Federal Government Social Intervention Scheme, N-Power Programme, on Wednesday, protested in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital over the non-payment of their allowances since they were enrolled five months ago. The aggrieved placard carrying youths decried the rigorous process they had been made to go through over claims that their names were not properly matched or that they had no acceptable BVN numbers.