Welcome to Kano where “Islamic police” vandalise hotels, jail owners for selling liquor

The police in Sabon Gari, Kano, may have outsourced their duties to Sharia-law-wielding “Islamic police” properly known as Hisbah.

This “Islamic police”, NewsroomNG was reliably informed, seemed to have struck a “deal” with the real police to harass, brutalise, arrest, prosecute, and jail anyone found guilty of breaking the Sharia code.


Kano hoteliers have, unfortunately, fallen victim to this obviously unconstitutional “police” while the real officers of the law seem to turn a blind eye or even partake in the condemnable process.

On April 5, armed members of the “Islamic police” stormed several hotels in Sabon Gari, brutalised their owners, workers, customers, and took them away in police handcuffs, we were told.

The Hisbah is reportedly angry the hoteliers are selling alcohol and spreading sexual immorality in a “Sharia state”.

They reportedly seized valuable alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, cash and refrigerators. They also, according to multiple sources who spoke with NewsroomNG, vandalised the hotels.

“I was going about my legal business when they stormed our premises coming in about five trucks,” Udechukwu Lawrence whose Keen Village hotel was raided on Tuesday.

“They even went away with one of my refrigerators. I don’t know what a fridge has got to do with this. They seized the money from the sales we made that morning. The money was a little less than N10,000.

“They seized drinks worth over N300,000 from my hotel. They seized other drinks which were not even alcoholic. They practically looted the place.

“They broke lots of doors. Even the place where I was hiding during the raid, they broke the door down before they got to me.

“When we were being attacked, my friends called the police and DSS. They showed up. But the Hisbah had carried us away to their headquarters before then. From there, they charged us to one Magistrate 16 Court.

“They arrested some customers and some of my workers. They took us to their office. From their office, they charged us to the court the same day.

“We were remanded in prison that same day but the members of my association were able to negotiate my freedom that night.

“The Hisbah people had a prepared remand warrant. The court also sits any time, even at times when it shouldn’t. Immediately people are arraigned, they remand them in prison without question then ‘re-charge’ them to court the following day.

“That’s what they did to us. I was granted bail the next day.”

Lawrence told us he’s been running the Keen Village hotel since 1996. But the operations of Hisbah made him feel uncomfortable.

“They said my offence was selling alcohol which they say is prohibited, and that I was keeping women. And this same alcohol…the breweries that make them pay value added tax (VAT), I pay VAT and Kano state gets its share of the money. Kano’s tourism board also tax us.

“Today (Thursday) alone, I’ve received two SMS from Kano State’s internal revenue board requesting me to pay my alcohol sales tax. If I’m not allowed to sell alcohol why am I being taxed for its sales?”

Sam Onyeonwu, the 72-year-old man who owna Samban hotel was also allegedly beaten up when his out fit was raided. Here’s what he told NewsroomNG on Thursday:

They were at my hotel on March 22. They returned on Tuesday (April 5). They arrested me that day. I was later granted bail. They destroyed a lot of things in my hotel. I just finished burying my late wife. I lost nothing less than N1.5 million in the April raid. For the March raid, I lost N2.5 million. When they came to arrest me, I said I was going nowhere. They slapped me. They beat me up. They manhandled me and pushed me into their vehicle. They came with all sorts of weapons. They had machetes, knives, and sticks. I suffered humiliation…at my age. I’m 79 years old. And I’ve been paying all the taxes the government asked me to pay.
Lawrence, who spoke earlier said he was told to leave Kano if he’s not comfortable with the “Islamic police”.

“They said we could leave the state if we’re not comfortable with their operations,” he said.

When NewsroomNG called Kano state police spokesperson Musa Magaji to confirm the incident, he became nervous, denied knowledge of the Hisbah and hung up on our reporter. He refused answering a subsequent call.

“I don’t know anything about any Islamic police in Kano,” Magaji said before hanging up the phone.

The association of hoteliers in the state told us they’ve filed fresh petitions to the Kano state government and relevant authorities.

“We’ve written another petition to the commissioner of police,” an official told us.

He added:

We wrote to DSS, the governor himself, the relevant commissioner, tourism board which controls hotels in Kano, the Kano and national chapters of Christian association of Nigeria (CAN), the Sabon Gari local government chairman.
The hoteliers also protest the raids on Wednesday calling on governor Umar Ganduje to enforce their constitutional rights.

WATCH: Kano hoteliers protest against “Islamic police” harassment

Kano instituted Sharia courts and customary courts on June 21, 2001. Eight other northern states instituted the same since 1999.

The move began with then Zamfara State governor Ahmad Sani Yerima who began the push for the institution of Sharia at the state level of government in 1999.

Under Sharia law, women are flogged or even beheaded for committing adultery, and thieves are amputated.

But Islamic scholars say the law applies only to Muslims.

Reports say there’ve been numerous riots over the implementation of sharia law, primarily involving non-Muslim minorities in the states which implemented the system. One such riot killed over 100 people in October 2001 in Kano State.

In October 2013, under immediate past governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the Hisbah arrested 150 people for indecent dressing and for sporting “immoral” hairstyle.

Then Hisbah director-general Abba Sufi said the “Islamic police” was cracking down on immorality on Kwankwaso’s orders.

“We arrested 150 men and women in the past week, including prostitutes and their boyfriends, transvestites, alcoholics and those engaged in indecent dressing in contravention of the sharia legal code,” Hisbah spokesperson Yusuf Yola told AFP.