Morakinyo Akinosun
KANO – Morality police in northern Nigeria, Kano State Hisbah Board on Friday, arrested a Jigawa State official for alleged adultery.
Auwal Danladi Sankara, the Commissioner of Special Duties in the northwest Jigawa State was arrested for allegedly committing adultery with a married woman, Tasleem Baba Nabegu in an uncompleted building.
Hisbah Director General Abba Sufi confirmed the arrest and detention of Auwal Danladi Sankara.
“We have been having problems with Sankara because he is operating illicit drug Centers in the name of Hotels with Prostitution and drug addiction activities,” he said, noting that the Hisbah Board was preparing to prosecute Auwalu Sankara on Monday at a competent Court of Laws.
The commissioner was caught following a complaint lodged before the command and other security outfits by the woman’s husband, Nasir Bulama who resides in Kano, an official of the Hisbah Board said on condition of anonymity.
The source said the operatives swung into action and carried out intense surveillance leading to the arrest of the commissioner.
Local news outlets quoted the source to had said: “The husband, Nasir Bulama told us that he is suspecting the commissioner of having an affair with his wife and mother of his two children.
“We launched a surveillance exercise and Thursday night we caught them after they entered an uncompleted building belonging to the commissioner. After our operatives knocked at the door, he came out with his gateman asking who was it while she was sitting inside the vehicle.
“Upon seeing our operatives and her husband, she switched on the car and attempted to break away and run which in the process she hit the wall and drove back, hitting the gate also.
“After the attempt to run and subsequent damaging of the vehicle, she then met two other vehicles blocking the way that necessitated her to stop.
“The commissioner had confessed to have had an affair with the woman at least three times.”
The Hisbah Board is a religious police force responsible for the enforcement of Shari’a to only Muslims in Kano state and other parts of the northern Nigeria.
Since 2000, twelve states in northern Nigeria have added criminal law to the jurisdiction of Shari’a (Islamic law) courts. Shari’a has been in force for many years in northern Nigeria, where the majority of the population is Muslim, but until 2000, its scope was limited to personal status and civil law.
The relationship between the Hisbah Corps and civil police has been sometimes acrimonious. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), to whom the Hisbah must report crimes, frequently refuse to cooperate in enforcement of religious law.
On multiple occasions, NPF officers have arrested Hisbah members for trespassing when the latter have attempted to enter private property to enforce Sharia. And, in 2006, two senior Hisbah officers were detained by federal police and questioned on suspicion they were seeking foreign funding to train militants.
As of 2010 there were approximately 9,000 male and female officers of the Kano State Hisbah Corps.
The Kano State Hisbah court has extended its rule to some Northern States with high population of Muslims in Nigeria. Some regions in States like Kaduna and Kwara now have rules from the court that governs them. The court set up rules that bans women and girls from using Mobile phones and sunglasses amongst other things listed.