Photo: Sharia Police Destroy 240,000 Bottles of Beer in Kano
in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north, publicly destroyed some 240,000
bottles of beer on November 27, 2013, Wednesday.
The banned booze had been confiscated from trucks coming into the city
in recent weeks, said officials from the Hisbah, the patrol tasked
with enforcing the strict Islamic law, known as Sharia.
Aminu Daurawa, the Hisbah chief in Kano, said at the bottle-breaking
ceremony he had "the ardent hope this will bring an end to the
consumption of such prohibited substances".
"We hope this measure will help restore the tarnished image of Kano,"
Daurawa added.
A large bulldozer smashed the bottles to shouts of "Allahu Ahkbar"
(God is Great) from supporters outside the Hisbah headquarters in
Kano,.
Kegs containing more than 8,000 litres of a local alcoholic brew
called "burukutu" and 320,000 cigarettes were also destroyed.
Since September, the Hisbah have launched sweeping crackdowns and made
hundreds of arrests in Kano following a state-government directive to
cleanse the commercial hub of so-called "immoral" practices.
The 9,000-strong moral police force works alongside the civilian
police but also has other duties, including community development work
and dispute resolution.
Sharia was reintroduced across northern Nigeria in 2001, but the code
has been unevenly applied.
Alcohol is typically easy to find in Kano, including at hotels and
bars in neighbourhoods like Sabon Gari, inhabited by the city's
sizeable Christian minority.
But the Hisbah boss vowed that this was set to change.
"We hereby send warning to unrepentant offenders that Hisbah personnel
will soon embark on an operation into every nook and corner of (Kano)
state to put an end to the sale and consumption of alcohol and all
other intoxicants," Daurawa said.
People accused of engaging in prostitution and homosexual relation
have been among those arrested in the latest crackdown, along with
alleged drunks and drug addicts.
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