• PDP presidential team behind drug baron allegations against Tinubu – Keyamo
• APC thugs attacked Atiku campaign train in Borno – PDP
• 2023 elections: INEC makes new revelations about BVAS
• Eight Nigerian-Americans win in US midterm elections
• Nigeria not experiencing food shortage – Agric minister

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

PDP presidential team behind drug baron allegations against Tinubu – Keyamo

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential campaign team has been linked to the documents alleging that the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

Festus Keyamo, the spokesman of the APC presidential campaign council, alleged that the recent trip of the PDP’s presidential campaign team to the United States, US, was behind the controversial court document reportedly indicting Tinubu.

Appearing on Channels Television, Politics Today on Wednesday, Keyamo insisted that the US government never indicted or convicted Tinubu.

Recall that PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, led some of his campaign team to the US recently.

During the meeting, the team had said Atiku had a high-profile engagement with the US government.

However, Keyamo stressed that Atiku’s trip to the US was responsible for the court documents.

He lamented that such issues are rehashed whenever Tinubu decides to run for political office.

Keyamo said: “Tinubu’s detractors keep bringing up these issues over and over when his political profile is rising, when he wants to run for office or any political turn in his life, they will bring up these issues.

“This is what our detractors, the PDP, perhaps that is what they went to the US for when they pretended that they went for high-level engagement. This is part of the high-level engagement they went for.”

APC thugs attacked Atiku campaign train in Borno – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the “cowardly violent attack” on Atiku Abubakar’s campaign train in Maiduguri, the Borno capital.

The opposition alleged that the Wednesday incident was carried out by armed thugs “sponsored by the disconcerted All Progressives Congress (APC)”.

A statement by National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba said the motorcade made its way into Maiduguri amidst thunderous cheers.

The spokesperson noted that the ruling APC was frustrated, bitter, and envious of the overwhelming popularity of the PDP and Atiku.

Ologunagba said the party has information about how agents of certain APC leaders mobilized hoodlums to escalate violence.

The plot, he asserted, was to stop the PDP from holding its rally, adding that over 70 persons were injured and hospitalized.

“Hundreds of APC’s armed thugs stationed at major roundabouts and intersections in Maiduguri unleashed violence on the PDP convoy and innocent citizens.

“This attack is consistent with APC’s habitual resort to violence in the face of rejection as also witnessed in the attack on the PDP rally in Kaduna State on October 17.”

OIogunagba said APC’s “barbaric” behaviour is contrary to the Peace Accord signed on September 28 and constitutes a danger to democracy, the electoral process, and the 2023 elections.

The PDP commended “the brave and courageous people of Borno” for resisting “the APC thugs” and ensuring the success of Atiku’s rally.

2023 elections: INEC makes new revelations about BVAS

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has assured Nigerians that the Bimodal Accreditation System, BVAS, will not be hacked during the elections.

This was disclosed by Dr. Lawrence Bayode, the Deputy Director of ICT, INEC, on Wednesday morning while fielding questions on the Channels TV sunrise programme.

Bayode said the electoral commission had taken care of every surface attack vulnerability on the BVAS.

He said, “I want to say again that we have done everything to ensure that the BVAS is not compromised. The data on the BVAS will be secured.

“After the poll, when the data is transmitted to our backend server, the data in transit will be secured; and by the time the data gets to our backend server, the data will also be secured there.

“We have looked at the machine, and we looked at a lot of things; like, as I said earlier, you cannot build such a system, and you won’t fortify the system to solidify it.”

He added, “Whether we like it or not, people will try a lot to beat this system. But the more they try, the more they meet a brick wall.

“I can say categorically that we have taken care of every surface attack vulnerability on this system, and we have also tried our best to ensure that the system cannot be hacked into on election day. And I can say again that BVAS cannot be compromised.”

Eight Nigerian-Americans win in US midterm elections

Eight Nigerian-American politicians have won legislative offices in the United States midterm elections.

They won seats in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia (DC)

The Nigerian American Public Affairs Committee (NAPAC) released a list of the victors and their offices.

Gabe Okoye won Georgia State Representative, District 102; Segun Adeyina won Georgia State Representative, District 110.

Tish Naghise won Georgia State Representative, District 68; Phil Olaleye is Georgia State Representative in District 59.

Carol Kazeem is Pennsylvania State Representative, District 159; Oye Owolewa, U.S. House of Representatives (Shadow Representative) in Washington D.C.

Solomon Adesanya, now Georgia State Representative in District 43; Esther Agbaje was reelected as Minnesota State Representative in District 59B.

The Federal Government has congratulated the politicians on their successes

Amb. Lot Egopija, Nigeria’s Consul-General in New York, said the triumph showed the doggedness of Nigerians to survive everywhere.

“We are not surprised. We are happy, and we are delighted about the victory”, he told NAN.

The envoy advised others aspiring to be elected into offices not to give up their ambition.

Nigeria not experiencing food shortage – Agric minister

Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Mahmood, has debunked insinuations that Nigeria might experience food shortages owing to the flood situation that has ravaged a number of states in the country.

He, however, admitted that inflation was taking a toll on the country and it was not peculiar with Nigeria alone.

Mahmood made the clarification on Wednesday, after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

His words, “Yes, I have said time and time again. Currently, we do not have food shortage, there is no food shortage. High prices in some commodities, inflation, yes, is currently the same, just about everywhere around the world, for different reasons.

“Still the after effect of COVID, where supply chains have not totally opened. Climate change is an issue. And the current Ukraine, Russian war, there are a number of things. Different countries are tackling it based on their own peculiarity but currently it is a world phenomena”.

He said the Nigerian government is not resting on its oars to address the situation.

“I have also mentioned, one of the things is to make sure, first of all, that there is food in the country, supply and demand. That’s why we are making sure that we’ll do the dry season farming. We know that a lot of farmlands have been flooded and will lose some crops from the rainy season,” he noted.

According to him, the President, Muhammadu Buhari is 100% behind the augmentation of food production and that will be done.

He said, “So I’m assuring you again, there will be no food shortage, we are working on bringing down inflation. Another memo that was approved about three weeks ago on Farm Gate pricing.

“Farm Gate pricing is a situation where middlemen and even foreigners will go to the point of harvest and buy, we have prevented that because it increases the amount of produce in the market and also reduces the intake of the farmer himself. So we have stopped that and many other things.”