*PDP reportedly shuns zoning, throws open party’s 2023 presidential ticket

*Kano court sentences atheist to 24 years in prison

*FG identifies over 1,500 civil servants with fake employment letters

*Expert lists 3 reasons Kaduna is vulnerable to terrorists’ attacks

*Ondo Amotekun, Soldiers clash over arrest of 100 cows

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

PDP reportedly shuns zoning, throws open party’s 2023 presidential ticket

At its final meeting, the 37-member zoning committee, led by Benue governor, Samuel Ortom, said it would not make its decision known to the public.

But a leaked document, as reported by the Guardian newspaper, showed that the committee recommended as follows: (1) Zoning, as in our party’s constitution, is affirmed; (2) In spite of (1) above, the ticket is thrown open, this time around due to exigency of time; (3) Our party is encouraged to always make the issue of zoning very clear at least six months before sales of forms; (4) Our party should commend the efforts of some of our contestants on the issue of consensus candidacy; the efforts should be seen to a peaceful and logical conclusion.

This is against the calls and expectations that the party should zone the presidential ticket to the South – ahead of the 2023 general election.

Read also: YNaija2023: Meet the PDP candidates who have big dreams for Nigeria

Kano court sentences atheist to 24 years in prison

The Kano High Court Tuesday, sentenced an atheist, Mubarak Bala, to 24 years imprisonment after he reportedly pleaded guilty to an 18-count charge of blasphemy levelled against him by the Kano government.

Bala, who is the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested at his home in Kaduna on April 28, 2020, over his Facebook post considered to be critical of Prophet Mohammed and Islam.

FG identifies over 1,500 civil servants with fake employment letters

The Federal Government says it has uncovered over 1,500 workers who joined the Federal Civil Service with fake appointment letters.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan, who said this in Abuja Tuesday, talked about delisting them from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

Expert lists 3 reasons Kaduna is vulnerable to terrorists’ attacks

A security analyst, Christopher Oji, according to Guardian newspaper said, “Terrorists see soldiers as enemies and as their enemies, they are the first target, so they are vulnerable to attack.

“Secondly, soldiers are seen as the most formidable security agency and once they are able to subdue the military, then the country belongs to them.

“I will want to believe that terrorists have infiltrated the military to the extent that the enemies within are giving out their colleagues to the terrorists. This is where the government has its own blame.

“How can the government conscript some repentant terrorists into the army? These people don’t repent. The government should do something drastic to avert more damages.”

Ondo Amotekun, Soldiers clash over arrest of 100 cows

The personnel of the Ondo security outfit, codenamed Amotekun and soldiers Tuesday clashed in Akure, over the arrest of over 100 cows that violated the state’s anti-grazing law.

Acting on a distress call from farmers in the Oke Aro area of the state capital, over the destruction of their farmlands, the personnel of the security outfit reportedly stormed the area and arrested the cows in the act.

Men of the Amotekun, according to an eyewitness account, were resisted from taking the cows away by some soldiers reportedly attached to the 32 Artillery Brigade, (Owena Cantonment), Akure. They reportedly claimed that the cows belongs to their officers in the barracks, Vanguard reports.