Sharia in Nigeria

[2] According to some critics (Leo Igwe, chair of the board of trustees for the Humanist Association of Nigeria), the adoption of Sharia law violates Article 10 of the Nigerian constitution guaranteeing religious freedom.

"[2] According to Human Rights Watch, hisbah activities in Nigeria bear a similarity to other vigilante groups in that country, in that they are "made up mostly of locally-recruited young men who usually patrol their own neighborhoods and sometimes instantly administer punishments on people suspected of carrying out an offense, without, or before, handing them over to the police".

On 10 August 2020, Omar Farouq, a 16-year-old (tried as an adult under Islamic law having passed puberty), was sentenced to 10 years in prison with menial labour for "using foul language toward Allah in an argument with a friend."

[3] Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22-year-old music studio assistant was sentenced to death on 10 August 2020, for making "a blasphemous statement against Prophet Mohammed in a WhatsApp Group," was "remitted back to the Sharia court for a retrial due to procedural irregularities".

In Kano State, on 30 May 2003, a group of about twenty hisbah disrupted a wedding party on the basis that it was an “immoral gathering” and that music was being played.

[11] In July 2022, three men aged 20, 30 and 70 years old were charged with "committing the offence of sodomy" and sentenced to death by stoning (rajm).

"[13][14] In August 2021, it forbade the use of mannequins with heads to advertise clothing in shops, Ibn Sina stating, "Islam frowns on idolatry.

[18] In 2002, a man who pled guilty to murdering a woman and her two children was convicted under Sharia laws in Katsina State and hanged.

[22][23] This position has changed given the judicial pronouncement in the case of Alkamawa V Bello(1998) LPELR-SC.293/1991[24] Hence, Sharia is now seen as a distinct and universal legal system.

In 2020, trucks carrying alcoholic beverages belonging to non-Muslims were destroyed and bars were raided by the hisbah after it accused owners of "corrupt acts".

[15] In 2002, negative light was brought to Sharia in northern Nigeria when Amina Lawal, a single mother in Katsina State, was accused of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning by a state Sharia court for conceiving a child out of wedlock; the father was released without conviction for lack of evidence.

It ruled that pregnancy was insufficient evidence for the sentence to be carried out and Lawal returned to private life.