Sunday News In Brief.

Good morning! Here are things you need to know this morning according to dailypostng and punch:

- The APC has condemned the Saturday invasion of its Lagos offices by security agents, saying it was the worst political scandal in the history of Nigeria as a country. The party in a statement throught its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, likened the invasion to the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974.

- A combined team of the Department of State Security and armed military personnel, on Saturday stormed the membership data centre of the All Progressives Con­gress (APC) in Ikeja, Lagos, vandalizing equipment and vital documents. The security men also arrested some of the staff of the party who were in office during the unexpected invasion.

- PDP Reps members have termed as a joke the plan by Tambuwal and his supporters in the House of Representatives to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan. According to latest reports, PDP caucus in the House have agreed that no member of the party will be part of the plan, saying the exercise will definitely be a total waste of time.

-The Senate has said that there will be no crisis at the House of Representatives on Thursday, when it resumes plenary on Tuesday. This assurance was given by chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs.

-President Goodluck Jonathan has denied his involvement in the Thursday invasion of the National Assembly by the Federal Police, saying the Police acted according to intelligence gathering. The President’s denial came through his Media aide, Reuben Abati during an interaction with some journalists.

- The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has denied media reports that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki has ordered the arrest of Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal at a meeting with Vice President, Namadi Sambo and Inspector General of Police, Suleman Abba. NSA says Dasuki had been out of the country and couldn’t have given such an order.

- The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State has said that despite Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s close relationship with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, his reign in Ogun state Government House will end in 2015. The state chairman of the party, Adebayo Dayo, expressed optimism that Obasanjo will work for the PDP come 2015.

-. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has issued a one week ultimatum to the Itsekiri and Ijaw in Delta State to resolve their ongoing disagreement over the $16 billion Delta Gas City project or government would take the project elsewhere. Report has it that the Minister issued the deadline to the representatives of the two ethnic groups, who met with the NNPC, in Abuja last week.

-The Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on media and publicity, Reuben Abati, has distanced the President from the Thursday fracas at the national assembly where lawmakers were teargased by the police.

In a recent interview with selected journalists, Abati said the determination of President Jonathan’s administration, if re-elected, is to continue to take Nigeria forward.

He stated that in four years, the President had been able to transform the economy and the people’s lives in many ways.

--Former presidential candidate and renowned economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has dismissed most of those occupying leadership positions in Nigeria as worthy of being in jail, noting that “I’m carrying an international campaign to make sure many of them (the leaders) end up in jail in The Hague.” He called on youths to use the technology at their disposal to network and create a new nation instead of complaining on the side of the street.

The erudite academic, who disclosed this in an interview with Saturday Sun, wondered why Nigerians will collect N200 or N1000 to deliberately cast their ballot for somebody every normal thinking person knows would damage their future. He identified the attitude as what discourages him from fighting for the impoverished masses of the country.

800 migrants rescued in Mediterranean sea

Nearly 800 people have been rescued from boats in distress in the Mediterranean Sea in the last 48 hours, Italian and Libyan officials said.

The Italian coastguard said on Saturday that it rescued at least 520 people from five boats in Libyan waters late on Thursday, in response to distress signals from the boats headed towards Sicily.

An additional 171 people were also rescued during the overnight mission in the waters north of Tripoli.

The Italian navy’s response comes a day after Libya’s navy announced it rescued 105 migrants from a boat that broke down off the coast of Garabulli, 50km east of the capital.

This brings the total number of reported rescues over the weekend to 796 people. There were no details on their nationalities.

Greek port authorities also said that they rescued 16 people when a boat carrying mostly Syrian refugees capsized off Mytilene.

In 2013, almost 8,000 people arrived on European shores in the first six months, and 35,000 in the second half of the year. This year, at least 65,000 people took the risk in the first half of the year, and more than 150,000 people have landed since.

The migrants making the perilious journey usually hail from poor or conflict-ridden countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. -punch