. . . if they have to
Veiled police smash 80,000 beer bottles
Posted 2 hours 50 minutes ago
Islamic police have smashed 80,000 bottles of beer in the Nigerian city of Kano, enforcing a sharia law ban on consumption of alcohol that exists in much of the country's north.
More than 12 veiled female sharia police, called Hisbah, destroyed the beer bottles with sticks amid shouts of "Allahu Akbar" - God is great - on the outskirts of the northern city in a ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by government officials as part of "efforts to rid the state of immorality," Kano state Hisbah chief Saidu Dukawa said.
Kano city is the capital of the state by the same name.
"The sale and consumption of alcohol, like all forms of drugs and intoxicants, is illegal in Kano state, which practices sharia law and by this event we are enforcing that ban," Dr Dukawa said.
Thirteen trucks brought the bottles of beer to the venue.
The alcohol had been seized at the weekend by sharia police as the bottles were being delivered to the city from the mainly Christian south, where most of the country's breweries are located.
Although the sale and consumption of alcohol is banned in Kano state, beer trucks find their way to taverns in the predominantly Christian Sabongari neighbourhood, which is practically exempt from sharia law.
Since 1999, when Nigeria returned to civilian rule after years of military dictatorship, around 12 states in the predominantly Muslim north have reintroduced Islamic sharia law, though it has been selectively applied in many cases.
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