Kano: Hisbah police arrest 80 persons eating in public during Ramadan fast

The Islamic Sharia police known as ‘Hisbah’ briefly arrest 80 people accused of eating in public, rather than fasting from dawn to sunset as Muslims are required to do during their holy month of Ramadan.

Adamu Yahaya, the spokesman of Hisbah, disclosed this to BBC that the people were arrested at different times across the city of Kano in the past couple of days.

Furthermore, he said those arrested were Muslims and officers do not target non-Muslims because they are not bound by Islamic law.

Yahaya said the reasons given by those arrested is that they were eating because they did not sight the Ramadan crescent themselves while others feigned sickness, but the authorities found their excuses baseless.

The 80 persons arrested were released because they were ”first-time offenders”, the spokesman added.

However, the Hisbah office warned them that they would be taken to court, if they were found eating during fasting period again.