Don Faults Kano Government over Sheikh Abduljabbar Kabara’s Ban
The banning of an Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasir Kabara from further preaching, and the closure of his mosque and school in Kano State have raised a lot of “serious legal issues”, a university don has said.
Kano state government rose from an executive council meeting on Wednesday with a resolution to halt the scholar’s activities, saying the action was necessary to forestall any security breach that may arise from what they called his inciting pronouncements.
State commissioner of information, Muhammed Garba, who announced the banning of the scholar, said security operatives have been instructed the ensure that the ban was complied with, and Nigerian Sketch’s searches revealed that there were heavy security presence at his residence, mosque and school.
Dr. Muhammad Bello of the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, has however faulted what he called the arbitrariness of the state government’s action, saying it violated the orderliness of constitutional democratic values.
According to him, questions must be raised whether the state executive council can determine a citizen’s culpability and proceed to punish him.
“Question must be asked whether the state executive council can, by way of a resolution only, restrict one’s freedom of expression.
“It should also be queried whether the state executive council can, without the support of a legislation, restrict the freedom of thoughts and religion of a cleric’s followers.
“It must be asked also whether the executive council, by its decision, has not overreached itself and encroached the domain of the courts by retroactively punishing a purported incitement.
“In fact, one must ask whether the executive council is constitutionally equipped to determine incitement”, Bello said.
Abduljabbar himself has been quoted to have said his predicaments in the hands of Kano State government has political undertone since he did not support the governor’s re-election bid in 2019.
