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

Lagos announces end of COVID-19 4th wave

The Lagos Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says consistent decrease in COVID-19 case positivity from 29.3 percent recorded on December 21, to 1.9 percent as of January 20, indicates the end of the fourth wave in the state.

Abayomi advised Lagos residents to get vaccinated and continue to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions to further reduce the spread of the virus.

Kidnappers collected ₦3m ransom, killed Asma’u, buried her in shallow grave – dad

Shuaibu Wa’alamu, father of an eight-year-old girl, Asma’u, allegedly abducted and killed by his neighbour in Zaria, Kaduna, narrated how his daughter was killed by her abductors despite collecting ₦3m as ransom.

The story which was first broken by a friend of the father, one Musa Ahmed, shared by Hausa Fulanii on Instagram, hinted that the girl was kidnapped while on her way to buy a recharge card.

The post read, “My friend’s daughter, an eight-year-old girl, had been kidnapped on her way to buy a recharge card in our neighbourhood. She was for the past 42 days with her abductors who demanded the sum of ₦3m which was given to them, but sadly, they killed the girl eventually.”

Nigeria attracts $31.82bn from US, five others in 33 months

Capital inflows from the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, and Mauritius hit $31.82 billion in three years, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The NBS data showed that the six countries accounted for 83.32 percent of the total capital of $38.18 billion imported into Nigeria from over 100 countries from January 2019 to September 2021.

The UK accounted for the highest foreign inflow of $17.34 billion, followed by the US ($5.79 billion), South Africa ($3.99 billion), UAE ($1.80 billion), Netherlands ($1.68 billion), and Mauritius ($1.09 billion).

2023: South-East won’t accept VP slot, Igbo leaders warn

South-East will not accept vice-presidential slots from any political party in the 2023 presidential race, prominent Igbo leaders said, according to Sunday Vanguard.

Cautioning the presidential hopefuls against settling for less in the interest of the South-East, Igbo leaders said that current deep-seated mistrust among Nigerians can only be addressed by the Igbo presidency.

Prominent among those who spoke was the First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, who called on APC and PDP to present people of Igbo extraction as presidential candidates.

World-class, tier-four data centre to be ready in Nigeria by March — FG

The Federal Government Saturday, said that a world-class and tier-four data centre under construction in Kano is expected to be ready for commissioning by March.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Patanmi, disclosed this during an inspection visit to the site of the ongoing project in the state.

Pantami said the centre has 41 terabytes memory capacity and about 2.2 petabytes storage capacity.

“Government has its main data centre in Abuja, another one in the South, which is a backup, and this is another one in the Northwest,” he said.