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A six-member commission set up to regulate and supervise the full implementation of Islamic law in Niger State, northern Nigeria, was inaugurated on Monday, the daily Lagos-based ‘Guardian’ newspaper reported.
Governor Abdulkhadir Kure said that the Sharia legal code, introduced in Niger some 16 months ago, was being implemented slowly to ensure that peaceful coexistence continues among different religious groups, some of whom were opposed to its introduction, the daily reported.
The governments of some northern states have tried to reassure non-Muslims that they would not be affected by Sharia. Christian groups say this would be impossible given the close daily contact between the communities.
Meanwhile the governor of the northern state of Kaduna, Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, warned politicians on Monday not to use Sharia as a means of furthering their own careers, ‘The Guardian’ reported. Speaking at the opening of a workshop for the harmonisation of the Sharia legal system at Ahmadu Bello University in neighbouring Zamfara State, Makarfi said politics should be clearly separated from the application of the Islamic legal code.
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