Post Express, Lagos, 6 July 2000

Don't Post Christian Graduates to Sharia States, CAN Warns

By Dele Ogunyemi

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has warned the authorities of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), against posting Christian graduates from the southern states to any Sharia state in the in the North, expressing fears that the safety of their children could not be guaranteed.

However, despite the threat, Kano State has forged ahead with the implementation of the Islamic legal code. On Tuesday, a Magistrate Court sentenced a middle aged man, Mallam Nasiru Mohammed (alias Danwada) to 80 strokes of the cane. He was flogged publicly for drinking alcohol. The sentence was at variance with the earlier promise of the state government to commence enforcement of the Sharia on November 26, 2000.

Chief Magistrate Mohammed Sani Abdullahi who passed the sentence said it was in accordance with Section 399 and 403 of Penal Code.

But Tuesday in Ibadan, CAN, while sounding out a warning to the NYSC, said since Christians would not want to be ruled by Sharia in any way whatsoever, it had rejected the Sharia legal system in its entirety. The association also said it has dispatched a Save-Our-Soul signal to President Olusegun Obasanjo in this regard.

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Apart from the 80 lashes, Mohammed who was sentenced in a Wudil magistrate court in the headquarters of Wudil local government area of Kano State was also jailed for one year for reigning abusive words on one Mallam Mohammed Musa Baita, while in his drunken state.

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