The Kano State Hisbah Board has deployed personnel to mosques to ensure the safety of lives and property during the Holy month of Ramadan, stressing that youths who eat in the public during fasting period “will not be spared”.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the Board, Ibrahim Lawan on Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Kano.
“Hisbah corps will visit mosques during Iftar, Tarawih, Tahajjud prayers to protect worshippers and their property from unpatriotic elements. Those who engage in societal vices during this sacred month will be dealt with,” the Commander-General of the board, Dr Harun Ibn-Sina said.
Mr Ibn-Sina called on the general public to assist orphans and the needy, in a bid to give succour to their suffering.
Mr Ibn-Sina said that clothing, food items, grains, water and cash, could also be given to those in need.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the Kano State Hisbah Corps is a religious police force in Kano state, Nigeria. responsible for the enforcement of Shari’a to only Muslims in Kano state and other parts of northern Nigeria.
The Kano State Hisbah Corps was established by the state government in 2003 with the institutionalization of formerly local and privately maintained hisbah security units.
Hisbah, which is an Arabic word meaning “accountability”, is an Islamic religious concept that calls for “enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong on every Muslim.”
The Hisbah Corps, which operates under the jurisdiction of a Hisbah Board composed of government officials, secular police officers, and religious leaders, is highly decentralized with local units supervised by committees composed of officials and citizens in the communities in which they operate.
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.[7]
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.