Police enforcing Islamic law in the city of Kano publicly destroyed some 240,000 bottles of beer on Wednesday, the latest move in a wider crackdown on behaviour deemed “immoral” in the area.
The banned booze had been confiscated from trucks coming into the city in recent weeks, said officials from the Hisbah, the patrol tasked with enforcing the strict Islamic law, known as sharia.
A large bulldozer smashed the bottles to shouts of “Allahu Ahkbar” (God is Great) from supporters outside the Hisbah headquarters in Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.
Kegs containing more than 8,000 litres of a local alcoholic brew called “burukutu” and 320,000 cigarettes were also destroyed.
“We hope this measure will help restore the tarnished image of Kano,” said Daurawa.
Since September, the Hisbah have launched sweeping crackdowns and made hundreds of arrests in Kano following a state-government directive to cleanse the commercial hub of so-called “immoral” practices.
The 9,000-strong moral police force works alongside the civilian police but also has other duties, including community development work and dispute resolution.
Sharia was reintroduced across northern Nigeria in 2001, but the code has been unevenly applied.
Alcohol is typically easy to find in Kano, including at hotels and bars in neighbourhoods like Sabon Gari, inhabited by the city’s sizeable Christian minority.
But the Hisbah boss vowed that this was set to change.
“We hereby send warning to unrepentant offenders that Hisbah personnel will soon embark on an operation into every nook and corner of (Kano) state to put an end to the sale and consumption of alcohol and all other intoxicants,” Daurawa said.
People accused of engaging in prostitution and homosexual sex have been among those arrested in the latest crackdown, along with alleged drunks and drug addicts.
Nigeria is divided between a mostly Christian south and a predominately Muslim north.
AFP
How I wish my xtain counterpart can Do this in their states. May GOD guide us.
ReplyDeleteDo what? Does alcohol consumption stop your people still marrying underage girls, or which one is worse? Bunch of useless people..
DeleteThis is the begining of another crisis in Kano.Why going to nooks and crannies...Including ur so called Christian Minority areas?Have you tackle Bokoharam Issue or corruption in govt,why creating kios for the citizen in the name of Sharia.People has loose focus on what religion shld be,what we have now is tradition not religion.
ReplyDeleteThere nothing to copy here. Religion shld not be enforced. U worship God in spirit & in truth. If one is a true christian, he shld know that d bible doesn't support alcohol drinking & he won't do it. By breaking d drinks & bottles without one's resolution not to drink will not stop d drinking. Besides, that's someone's business capital that was wasted in this hard times.
ReplyDeleteNo! Christians will think its against them that this efforts are carried. They hardly remember even the Bible condemns such.
ReplyDeletePlease,read your Bible well. The Bible does not condemn drinking but it condemned getting drunk.
DeleteBunch of idiots. They suppose to be living caves.
ReplyDeleteYou no well, destroying bottles does it make you pple better? Has it stopped your pple from spilling innocent blood? abeg make person hear.
ReplyDeletevery gud kwankwaso,ALLAH did nt tel any religion 2 drink wat wl make him go abnormal.if u hv d pawa 2 stop kwankwaso go nd stop,dont abuse any one or.
ReplyDeleteMy father made his initial money selling Double Crown in the 70s and 80s.This beer was manufactured in Kano and the idea to situate the factory in Kano came from no less a personality than Ahmadu Bello himself. It was him that approved a blue print for the industrialization of the North with all these factories included in it in the early 60s.
ReplyDeleteHe was clear in his mind that even though Moslems do not drink beer, there are also Christians in the North that can patronize the products of the factory and help raise the GDP of the area.
I pity the moslems of today because they do not have the brotherliness that the Sadauna exhibited towards other peoples and their religions. Gone is the cohesiveness of the old North. If others followed the Sadauna's steps of inclusiveness, you would not have been hearing of the Middle belt now and there won't have been an anomaly like Boko Haram.
May God or Allah continue to bless Sir Ahmadu Bello and his accommodating spirit. Weep and cry for the North now because they have no sane leader again. No one is an Island, we need each other to function well. As strong as the right hand is, it cannot wash itself, it needs the left hand. A word is enough for the wise!!
Hypocrites! As a Christian, I'm not against Islam. I have Moslem friends that I love and share secret with. But for some over zealous fools to carry out actions that could lead to chaos in this present situation of insecurity in this country is what i don't understand. Are you not aware that as a human, one has certain right that others should not infringe on? These foolish guys should be kept in caves and dungeons where they will be fed with raw vulture meat. They are savages. Gosh! O.J
ReplyDeletethis is just exactly wot APC will offer in 2015 should they win, to islamize this country and force shara law on every one, pls be wise.
ReplyDeleteDestroying ordinary beer bottlle is mere hypocracy. D best thing to do is to educate the consumers first. De will stop taking. Bharam weapons are being destroyed, have stop killing? Lesson for d wise.
ReplyDeleteIf you guys can put this your energy to tackle Boko Haram ,I think the North will be a better place.
ReplyDeleteno to stop drink that matter or breaking bottle matters is out come is the outcome those things
ReplyDeleteThe state government should stop from collecting allocation from FG then. After all, breweries are paying taxies and the state govt shares from proceed that comes from the so called "prohibited substances". This is noting but hypocracy to get cheap popularity under the disguise of religion.
ReplyDeletei quite agree with anomalous 10:30 saying "Please,read your Bible well. The Bible does not condemn drinking but it condemned getting drunk" the drinks should have been sent to Lagos state instead. we need them for fridays' night faji where both christains and moslems sit together to drink beer at the same table. with these kind of happenings in the north, i doubt the future of Nigeria.
ReplyDelete"
The action is commendable on both moral and religious grounds.So even if you are not a follower of any of the two major religions,its aimed at curbing the high level of moral decadence in the society,waste of hard earned resources and health related risks.
ReplyDeleteLets be objective and make meaningful criticisms on issues that have direct bearing on societal norms.
The Holy Bible or The Glorious Qur'an, which one permitted drunkenness? So what Dr. R M Kwankwaso did was to obey the teachings & tenets of both books of God. Or are you condemning him because your marriages, naming ceremonies, burials are conducted with alcoholic drinks? No sane Christian or Muslim that will not welcome this development. It's only those hypocrites that see everything wrong with what a Muslim tries to do to better his/her religious life. As far as I know both Christianity & Islam prohibited drunkenness, drug abuse, homosexuality etc. So allow the man (Kwankwaso) to do the peoples' mandate or follow due democratic process in raising objections.
ReplyDeleteHipocrit go 2 sabon gery its de same moslems dat flood evryway drinkin bear. Is alchole more harmful dan de drugs de so call hisbah are engaged of useless pple.
ReplyDeleteReligion is personal and it is not by force. God is free in all things. Why should anyone cause problems because of the way i want to worship my God? You end up rendering problems to people who earn living for the business they do. This must be a devilish celt called islamic religion. My fellow Christians should please leave the North for them as they are bunch of lazy and illiterate people. We can never be the same, North & South.
ReplyDeleteI served in Kano state, i have not seen drunker and drug addict people like Kano citizen. hypocrites, go to sabon gari in the night you will find good number of them there, doing their normal runs. please stop destroying peoples financial capital in the pretends of blood sucking religion. go back and tackle underage marriage, under-education and your baby Boko Haram!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSome people can really be blinded and unrealistic. Your house is on fire, and you are busy chasing rats. What does alcohol consumption by another person have to do with another person practicing his religion? This is hypocricy to the core. Religion is a thing of the mind,and very personal, God is the ultimate judge, and not one hypocrite rotting in sin who thinks he can use force to make people behave like him in the name of religion. Gush.
ReplyDeleteA warning to non Muslims in Kano, the police has taken up the fight of Boko haram. Be watchful, this is a start of something that Will not end well for non Muslims. Christians please watch and pray!
ReplyDeletethis picture is making me thirsty for a cold bottle sef. mscheeeew!
ReplyDeleteChristains- espectially the igbos leave the north, for this northern people. They will never accept Ur belief. They hate U with a passion for not bowing to the black stone in Mecca/Medina. These guys are barbarians.
ReplyDeleteTis is hypocrate in the highest order when their camping nd hiding their sons under the cave they are still having guts to go nd destroying someone earning, wit dis their giving Boko Haram's room-Bounce of illitrate.
ReplyDeleteSharia just like the laws in the bible was not given by God so that anyone would justify themselves before Him. It was given so we all could recognise that we by ourselves can not meet his standards and therefore cry to him for help from a freewill. No law enforced today can put humans in a better position like Adam and Eve, but they still failed to keep God's standards. Have u ever thought that these two pple were in the best position never to be immoral, without any laws or sharia and they still fell? How much more pple of this generation? If you enforce outward compliance to morality, can you enforce inward compliance? Does God not judge our hearts which is the actual reflection of our being? And if you fail in your heart, have you not failed morally too? Truth is all this overzealousness in enforcing a religious creed does not free anybody from falling short, misbehaving or being criminal. God should be worshipped via freewill and not by force!
ReplyDeleteyes religion should be a thing of free will and by force most expecially in a country like nigeria where it is written the constitution that any citizen be allowed to practice his or her own religion.
ReplyDelete