Court Remands Two Friends for Stealing 20 Cartons of Detergent in Kano
Two friends, Mustapha Dayyab, 21, and Aminu Isah, 23, were arraigned before a Sharia Court in Kano State on Friday for allegedly breaking into a shop and stealing 20 cartons of detergent.
The defendants, who are residents of Rijiyar Zaki Quarters Kano, pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge of criminal conspiracy, shop breaking and theft.
The judge, Malam Umar Lawal-Abubakar, ordered that the defendants be remanded in a correctional centre and adjourned the case until July 10 for further hearing.
The prosecution counsel, Mr Abdul Wada, told the court that the defendants committed the offence on June 18 at Abubakar Rimi market Kano.
He said that the defendants broke into a shop belonging to Alhaji Abudulrazak Dayyib, the complainant, and stole 20 cartons of detergent worth N120,000.
He said that during the investigation, a bunch of keys were recovered from the defendants, which they used to open the shop.
He said that the offence contravened sections 97, 239 and 287 of the Kano State Sharia Law.
Sharia law is a system of Islamic religious law that governs personal and family matters for Muslims. It is enforced by Sharia courts in some states in northern Nigeria, such as Kano.
Sharia courts have the jurisdiction to hear and determine appeals in respect of matters involving Islamic personal law from the decisions of lower courts.
Sharia courts also have the power to impose harsh punishments such as death penalty for blasphemy, amputation for theft and flogging for adultery.
In 2020, a Sharia court in Kano sentenced a 22-year-old singer, Yahaya Aminu Sharif, to death for blasphemy and a 13-year-old boy to 10 years imprisonment for making derogatory statements about Allah.
The sentences sparked outrage from human rights groups and international bodies such as the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which condemned the blasphemy laws in Nigeria.
The secular branch of Kano State High Court later freed the boy and ordered a retrial for Sharif.