Thursday, December 20, 2001

Sharia court orders amputation of hands, legs in Sokoto

From Eric Meya (Sokoto)

EVEN as the state government grapples with the furore generated by the
death sentence passed on Safiya Husaini over alleged adultery, a Sharia
court in Sokoto State has ordered the amputation of the right hands and
left legs of two convicted armed robbers.

The duo, Malam Sani Shehu (a.k.a Wang Yu) and Malam Garba Dandare
(a.k.a Dan Jega), were found guilty for stealing a policeman's beret,
belt and bicycle.

They were also accused of robbing one Sababa Bamaiyi of No. 1, Sama
Road, Sokoto, of electronic equipment valued at N130,000 and N80,000
cash.

According to the prosecutor, the robbers stole the police officer's
belongings while asleep at the residence of the Assistant Inspector
General (AIG) in charge of Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi states.

The judge, Kadi Bawa Sahabi Tambuwal, said the convicted men's
punishment was based on the fact that they were found guilty of armed
robbery and not ordinary theft.

He said the verdict was based on the provision in the Holy Quran and
Suratul Ma'idah Chapter 5 verses 32 and 33.

He said the court also took into cognisance section 150 (B) of the
Sharia penal code.

He said they have 30 days to appeal against the judgement.

However, the accused persons said they were satisfied with the judgement
and would not appeal.

The Islamic legal code came into operation in the North in January 2000,
with Zamfara State blazing the trail. Governor Sani Ahmed had said then
that it was meant to rid the society of corruption and other social
vices.

By November, Kaduna State had joined the club of Sharia states, as it
adopted the Islamic law as the legal means of regulating the private and
public lives of its citizens. At the last count, no fewer than 12 states
are operating Sharia.

Literally, Sharia means "the source of all life, the straight part of
Allah." And in a bid to make people thread this path, several sanctions
had been imposed on those who deviated from the path of life.

Some have been asked to pay the supreme price - death - while others
have lost their limbs. The first victim of Sharia was Mallam Bello Jangebe
whose hand was severed for stealing a cow.

And for stealing two bicycles, Lawali Isa, a fire-wood seller, became
the second person whose hand had to be amputated. He did not appeal
against the judgement.

Consequently, his hand was amputated. But his wife never recovered from
the shock she suffered when she saw her husband without his two hands
after returning from "guillotine room."

A traditional ruler in Jigawa State was also caught by the long arm of
Sharia.

The ruler, Alhaji Abba Ajiya of Kazaure, was sentenced to one year
imprisonment and 40 strokes of the cane, by an Upper Sharia Court in
Kazaure, for "camping" a housewife, Faiza Bala.

The conviction of the traditional ruler for "unlawfully kept" woman,
came after a trial which lasted six weeks, during which love letters,
among other exhibits, were tendered.

The offence, which is contrary to section 389 of the penal code, carries
a punishment of two years imprisonment and N5,000 fine or both.

In November this year, the Deputy Speaker of Zamfara State House of
Assembly, Alhaji Abdulsalami Ahmed Asha, was arraigned before a Sharia
court in Samaru, Gusau, for selling his official peugeot car at the cost
of N2.1 million.

In Funtua, Katsina State, two policemen received 100 strokes of the cane
following their conviction by a Sharia court over illegal confiscation
of petrol from fuel vendors.

The fuel vendors had reported the policemen to the Sharia court,
alleging that they forcefully took the petroleum product from them.

But to avoid the wrath of Sharia, a 28-year-old man, Mohammed Ali, had
to renounce his faith following his arraignment in Sokoto Upper Sharia
court for stealing.

Ali, who professed to be a Christian, said he should be tried according
to Biblical injunctions, which he said forbid amputation.

The judge, Mallam Bawa Salabi Tambuwal, however, said even under
Biblical laws, Ali cannot escape amputation. He said Matthew chapter five,
verse 30 recommended amputation of the right hand of a thief.

Ali was eventually sentenced to nine months imprisonment. He later
reaffirmed his faith, Islam, after escaping amputation.

In Narbodo, a town in Toro Local Council area of Bauchi State, a Sharia
court handed down a 100 strokes of the cane sentence to a pregnant
woman, Hajo Poki, for committing fornication.

Poki, who was impregnated by one Suleiman Poki, was to be flogged after
the delivery of the seven month-old pregnancy she was carrying then.

The court ruled that the woman failed to prove her case that the man had
an intercourse with her, without evidence, an offence contrary to
section 142 of the Sharia penal code.

But the most celebrated of all the convictions of accused persons by
Sharia court is that of a 35-year-old Safiya Husaini, who was sentenced
to death by stoning in October this year.

Before Safiya, however, a 35-year-old man, Attahiru Umar, had been
sentenced to death also by stoning, for committing sodomy with a minor
by an Upper Sharia Court in Birnin Kebbi, capital of Kebbi State.

That was the first sentence of death by stoning passed by a Sharia
Court. Umar who confessed to the offence, was given the right to appeal
against the sentence.

Also sentenced to death was a man, Sani Rodi, who was to be killed by
knifing after he was convicted by Katsina City Sharia court for taki
the lives of a housewife and two of her children.

Safiya, the first woman to receive a death sentence, was found guilty of
adultery by an Upper Sharia Court in Sokoto. But reprieve came her way,
when the sentence was suspended by a higher Sharia court.

Her case had attracted both national and international attention with
several local and international bodies, including government, demanding
that she be left off the hook.

Safiya has also alleged that she was raped by Yakubu Abubakar, the man
who impregnated her .

"There was no justice: I was seduced by a man and that man was asked to
be set free while I am being punished. I want to get justice", she had
told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Safiya's sentence, like others before it, has attracted scathing
criticisms.

"It would be crass, a miscarriage of justice, to carry out the death
sentence on me, for a baby I conceived through rape," the 35-year-old
Sokoto woman, who had been married twice, said.

But criticism of the Sharia and pronouncements by its courts, are
largely "unmerited," according to Governor Abdulkardir Kure of Niger
State.

Kure, who spoke in Minna during inauguration of a commission, which is
working on modalities for implementation of Sharia in the state, said
Nigeria Moslems have "unqualified rights to live their lives in
accordance with the tenets of their religion.

"It is a flagrant exhibition of arrogance to call a law, which all
Moslems considered to be divine, barbaric," Kure said further.

Governor Ahmed Sanni Yerima of Zamfara State said Sharia is a dividend
of democracy to the people. At a ceremony during which he swore-in the
state's acting Grand Kahdi, Alhaji Muhammed Bello Alkali, Sani said
through the introduction of Sharia, Zamfara has carved a niche for
itself among other states.

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