State government denies reports of Christians fleeing

An exodus of Christians and southerners from the northern state of Kano prior to the official introduction of Sharia law there on Wednesday has begun, ‘The Post Express’ newspaper reported on Saturday. Residents, fearing that the launching of Islamic law in the state could precipitate killings, decided to relocate to other parts of Nigeria, the daily said. However, a Kano state official denied on Sunday that Christians and southerners were leaving. “It is normal for people to leave a particular area. Don’t forget that Kano is a commercial city where people come and go. There is nothing unusual about the movements,” Sanni Mohammed, a spokesman for the State government, told AFP. In February, hundreds of people were killed or injured, private and public buildings destroyed when Christians demonstrated againt the introduction of Sharia in the northern city of Kaduna, some 200 km southwest of Kano. Kano and Kaduna have large Christian populations, unlike the states of Zamfara and Sokoto which adopted the Islamic code earlier this year.