Clashes follow introduction of new legal code in Kaduna

LAGOS, 5 November (IRIN) - Several people have been killed in clashes in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State amid tension over the introduction on Friday of a new legal system under which Sharia - Islamic law - would coexist with canon law.

Violence on Friday and Saturday in the town of Gwantu claimed at least 10 lives, a police source told IRIN by phone from the state capital, Kaduna. Scores of people, mainly Muslims, fled predominantly Christian Gwantu for Kaduna, 20km away.

The source said the trouble in Gwantu had not been sparked by religious differences but by an attempt to relocate the headquarters of a local government council. The violence is said to have erupted when Muslim Hausa-speakers, whose neighbourhoods are near the council's headquarters, opposed the move.

However, tension had escalated following the announcement of the new legal code, introduced by Governor Ahmed Makarfi, even though it is seen by observers as a compromise. Under the code, predominantly Muslim communities in the state would apply the Sharia, while mainly Christian communities would apply canon or customary law.

The announcement of plans to introduce Sharia in Kaduna had led to Muslim-Christian clashes in February last year in which more than 2,000 people died. The compromise measure was intended to defuse the tension in the state.

Over the past two years at least a dozen states in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north have adopted Islamic law, sparking religious clashes in a number of northern towns, and reprisals in the mainly Christian south.

With tension mounting in Kaduna, police and troop reinforcements have been sent in to stem the violence. "We have noticed a far higher number of armed police and soldiers than usual patrolling the streets since Friday," Okey Nweze, a resident, told IRIN.