The Katsina State Hisbah Board has arrested 12 Muslims on Friday for taking illicit drugs and eating food in broad day light during the month of Ramadan.
In the Islamic month of Ramadan, matured Muslims are required to abstain from food, drink, smoking, and marital sexual relations from dawn to sunset.
Katsina State has a majority Muslim population and the Shari’a legal system that empowers Hisbah exists in the state.
21 Century Chronicles reports that four young ladies and two men were arrested for the offence in Dutsin Ma while five men and one woman were arrested in Dan Nakola village of Daura.
“On Friday, we received a report from some residents that two young men have taken two young ladies into their room with food and illicit drugs to take. We dispatched a team to the area and arrested the four persons while they were taking illicit drugs. We caught them deep in the act,”Mustapha Aliyu, the Hisbah spokesman in Dutsin Ma said.
“Around 11pm same day, our men also caught two young ladies taking sholisho in a joint known for harbouring thugs and other miscreants,” he added.
In Dan Nakola, the officer in charge of Hisbah operations, Abdullahi Yusuf Daura led the crackdown on “notorious rendezvous” where six Muslims were arrested for eating food and taking illicit drugs.
Abdullahi told newsmen that a week ago, Hisbah staffers preached to the same persons for not observing the Ramadan and gathering teenage girls in the house.
“Today, as you can see, we’ve arrested six of them for still doing the same thing we preached to them last week. It’s now 4:00pm but we met them eating food and taking illicit drugs in the house during this holy month of Ramadan,” he said in Hausa language.
