The Kano State Hisbah Board has taken seven suspected cross-dressers into custody after conducting a late-night raid at a well-known social spot in the city centre.
According to the board, the arrests followed an intelligence-driven operation after reports of alleged immoral activities at the venue located along Zoo Road in Kano.
Confirming the development, the Deputy Commander General of the Hisbah Board, Sheikh Mujahid Aminudeen Abubakar, stated that all those arrested are teenagers under 23 years old and that the establishment will soon be sealed.
Sheikh Mujahid added that early findings revealed the suspects travelled from Kogi, Bauchi, and Kano States to participate in activities the board described as immoral.
He also noted that during the raid, Hisbah personnel apprehended a young man and a woman found together in a tricycle, while another missing woman was tracked to Sokoto and reunited with her family.
According to him, the suspects and operators of the facility will be handed over to relevant authorities for further action.
He reiterated Hisbah’s commitment to tackling social vices in the state and urged residents to report suspicious activities to the board or other appropriate authorities.
The board recently carried out a similar operation in the Gaida area of Kumbotso Local Government Area, where six suspected cross-dressers were arrested following complaints from residents.
In that incident, the suspects reportedly confessed and pleaded for leniency. However, while the board directed that appropriate action be taken after the investigation, it has remained silent on whether the earlier suspects have been prosecuted or found guilty.
In October, Hisbah police arrested 25 young people accused of organising a gay wedding in socially conservative northern Nigeria, authorities said Sunday.
The sharia police, known as the Hisbah, stormed an event centre in Kano, the largest city in the predominantly Muslim region, where the alleged wedding was expected to take place, acting on a tip-off from residents, officials said.
Eighteen men and seven women, all in their early 20s, including the pair believed to be getting married, were taken into custody, said Mujaheed Abubakar, deputy head of the Hisbah.
He told reporters that one man was “planning to tie the knot with another young man at the scene of the illegal assembly”, and that an investigation seeking prosecutions would be carried out.
Sharia, the Islamic law code, based on the teachings of the Koran, runs parallel to state and federal justice systems in 12 northern Nigerian states.
Under the local interpretation of it homosexuality is punishable by death, although the sentence has never been enforced.