Across the thirty-six states of Nigeria, these are the five biggest stories you shouldn’t miss out on:

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Ramadan: Sultan confirms sighting moon

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, has confirmed the sighting of the moon signalling the start of Ramadan – The Cable reports

The sultan, in a live broadcast on Monday, 12th April, announced that the Ramadan fast will begin on Tuesday, 13th April. He also urged Muslims to ensure strict adherence to the COVID directives during the Ramadan period.

“Reliable reports of moon sighting were received from Muslim leaders and organisations across the country, which they duly verified and authenticated before sending to us,” he said.

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El-Rufai to lay off public servants in Kaduna

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna on Monday, 12th April, disclosed plans to disengage some public servants in the state for economic reasons – Premium Times reports

The announcement was contained in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye.

A part of the statement read “Therefore, the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service. It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state. The public service of the state with less than 100,000 employees and their families) cannot be consuming more than 90% of government resources, with little left to positively impact the lives of the more than 9 million that are not political appointees or civil servants.”

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Osinbajo: Nigeria making progress on COVID-19 vaccine

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday, 12th April, disclosed that Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, is already working on the local production of the COVID-19 vaccine – The Punch reports

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo spoke while representing The President virtually at a forum organised by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.

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New ‘Nigerian COVID’ strain rock UK city after rise in cases

A new Coronavirus strain killing twice as many people as other variants have been detected in Kent, a county in Southeast England – The Guardian reports

The new variant discovered in Nigeria has also sparked fears as it could be even deadlier than the South African form, according to reports.

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NAF: we’re not hiding anything about missing plane

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has disclosed that it is not covering anything concerning the missing Alpha jet, which disappeared from the radar on Wednesday, March 31 – The Nation reports

Edward Gabkwet, The Force Director of Public Relations and Information, said tough efforts are on to recover the missing aircraft as the crash site is yet to be located.