Nigerian Court Says Islamic Police in Sharia States Have No Power Over Christian Converts
Federal ruling curbs Kano State's Hisbah 'Sharia police' authority in landmark case — but the family who rescued the convert from forced marriage still faces criminal charges.
In a huge win for Christians world-wide living under Sharia law, a Federal High Court in northern Nigeria ruled in May that Kano State’s Hisbah (Islamic) religious police have no authority to arrest Sarah, a 22-year-old woman who converted from Islam to Christianity. The decision marks the first known federal court ruling explicitly limiting the jurisdiction of Islamic enforcement units over converts in Nigeria’s Sharia states.
But the Abara family — the Christians who sheltered Sarah after she fled forced marriage and family abuse — still faces kidnapping charges in Kano. Sarah’s Muslim siblings, working with Hisbah police, filed the charges after the family helped her relocate to safety in Jos in January 2026.
The May 26 ruling found that the Hisbah’s actions against Sarah were “a flagrant violation of her fundamental right to human dignity and freedom of religion.” The court ordered Kano State and the Hisbah to cease pursuing her arrest over her conversion or refusal to marry, and awarded financial compensation.
Beyond Legal Authority
Sarah fled her family home in Kano State in 2025 after her elder siblings beat her and attempted to force her into marriage. Her parents had died years earlier. The Abara family took her in, and she converted to Christianity while living with them.
Her siblings enlisted local Hisbah police to have her arrested. She was detained for four days, during which she was beaten and pressured to accept the marriage. After her release, fearing continued threats, the Abaras helped her relocate to Jos. Her siblings then accused the family of kidnapping, and they were arraigned without legal counsel on February 26, 2026.
The case exposes a pattern: Kano’s Hisbah Corps, established in 2003 to enforce Sharia law among Muslims, increasingly operates beyond its legal mandate. A 2021 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom report found that the Kano Hisbah’s responsibilities include “arrest and detention despite the fact that those activities are outside its legal jurisdiction.”
Kano State officials, however, claim broader authority. The state commissioner for information told investigators in 2021 that “Hisbah arrests Muslims and Christians in the state once you go contrary to the laws governing the operations of Hisbah.”
Pattern of Cases
The case mirrors others documented by Alliance Defending Freedom International, which provided Sarah’s legal defense. In January 2026, a 15-year-old Christian girl, Ummi Tambaya, was held by a Hisbah commander in Rogo, Kano State, amid fears of forced conversion. A local pastor reported five other similar cases in the area.
In 2024, a Christian man named David was tortured and imprisoned for helping two women converts escape death threats from their families. A Nigerian High Court overturned his conviction in July 2025 after ADF International lawyers intervened.
Rhoda Ya’u Jatau, a Christian health worker, spent 19 months in detention on blasphemy charges after sharing a WhatsApp video condemning the May 2022 lynching of Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, a Christian student stoned to death and burned by a Muslim mob at Shehu Shagari College in Sokoto. Jatau was acquitted in December 2024 due to lack of evidence.
Two students arrested in connection with Yakubu’s killing were defended by a team of 34 lawyers and acquitted after prosecution lawyers failed to appear in court.
Enforcement Gap
The Hisbah Corps consists of “young men with a low level of formal education, no background in law, and no training in law enforcement or procedures for arrest, investigation, or gathering of evidence,” according to a 2004 Human Rights Watch report. Members are locally recruited youth who patrol neighborhoods enforcing Kano’s interpretation of Islamic law.
Nigeria’s 12 northern Sharia states criminalize blasphemy with penalties including death by stoning or hanging. Approximately 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria in 2022, and over 7,000 in 2023 — more than all other countries combined. Nigeria ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
“No one should be coerced to leave their faith, and certainly no Christian should ever be threatened by Islamic morality police,” said Sean Nelson, senior counsel for global religious freedom at ADF International. “The court’s ruling in Sarah’s case affirms that the Hisbah police have no jurisdiction over Christians or other non-Muslims.”
The Abara family remains out on bail as their criminal case continues. ADF International is supporting their legal defense.
“The Abara family kept me safe in a time when I had nowhere else to go,” Sarah said. “I am grateful to them especially for introducing me to the Gospel. It is not against the law for me to choose my faith in Jesus.”