Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for the immediate disbandment of the Kano State Hisbah Police while accusing the State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje of ‘talibanising’ the State.
HURIWA noted that the police system offends the Constitution of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria and called for an end to its operation.
The rights group accused Governor Ganduje of carrying out the blueprints of the Organization Of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
HURIWA noted that contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, in most states of Northern Nigeria, there exists one form of religious security apparatus or the other under different names with uniformity of functions and operations of Hisbah.
It noted that Hisbah Police in Kano State, backed by the State Hisbah Corps Law of 2003, “which functions principally to enforce Islamic sharia by ‘enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong on every Muslim’, is reasoned as not an establishment of an Act of the National Assembly as provided for by our constitution.”
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HURIWA lamented that the Hisbah Police which is not empowered to effect arrest, is now often effecting arrest, which they
sometimes do in the crudest fashion including disruption of social and economic activities.
“More worrisome is they often invade people’s privacies or premises without warrant or legal authority. They also carry out raids of vessels or vehicles or premises believed to be harbours of or used in delivery of alcohol, seize and destroy the products.”
HURIWA further claimed that despite the argument that the Hisbah Police do not bear arms, they have in actual fact been found with arms and have thereby become a threat to lives in some occasions especially to the non-indigenous residents of or visitors to the state.
The rights group called for the immediate disband of Hisbah Police since it is not an establishment of an Act of the National Assembly.
“So, we are by this statement urging the Nigerian government to disband the illegal HISBAH POLICE with immediate effect,” the group said.
HURIWA said it was perturbed on how Ganduje is turning Kano State into a Taliban State, with sentences that offend constitutional freedoms.
The group pointed out that sentencing to death of 23-year-old upcoming musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu after he was found guilty of blasphemy by the Upper Sharia Court, and other similar incidents are testaments of how the State has recently turned into a Taliban State.
“There seems to be no disparity between what Gov. Ganduje is doing in Kano State and what Boko Haram Terrorists have been preaching,” HURIWA said.
According to HURIWA, it was now obvious that Ganduje is carrying out the blueprints of the OIC, which does not augur well for Nigeria’s democracy.
NAN