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Kano govt’s destruction of bottles of beer hypocritical, provocative – HURIWA
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Monday faulted the destruction of 1.9million bottles of beer and intoxicants worth N200million by the Kano State government.
The Kano State Hisbah Board had on Sunday destroyed the items which were confiscated within Kano metropolis under the state’s Shariah law.
In a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, the group said Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s approval of the items’ destruction contravened Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which prohibits the recognition of a particular religion as state religion and Section 42 of the Constitution.
HURIWA added that President Muhammadu Buhari had also manifested his “partiality” for Islam and ethnicity that he had rubbished Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution in the implementation of the principle of Federal Character in his appointments.
Read also: HURIWA tells US, UK what to do to politicians found wanting during Ondo gov’ship election
The statement read: “Governor Ganduje’s total disregard of the constitution shows that there is a conspiracy to Islamise Nigeria. We condemn Ganduje’s approval for the destruction of alcoholic beverages as despicable, provocative, vexatious and primitive.
“Destroying the products in the name of his personal religion even against the clear provisions of Sections 10 and 42 of the Constitution is unacceptable, just as the rapid Islamisation of Kano State is unacceptable going by the fact that indigenous non-Moslems are living and doing their businesses in Kano reputed to be one of the biggest commercial centres of Nigeria.
“Besides, the Kano State government shares from revenues harnessed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which goes into the Federation Account and beer manufacturing industry pays a lot of taxes into the central treasury from where Kano draws its monthly allocations.
“Why destroy the economic derivatives from whose source some of the monthly allocations Kano collects emanate? This is hypocrisy and this is offensive to all good thinking people and against the constitution.”
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