Armed Kano State Hisbah Board Targets Igbo Traders - Ohanaeze Ndigbo

Hisbah Board in action

PAN-Igbo group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has asked the Federal Government to abolish the Kano State Hisbah Board, which it claimed is already assuming the status of state police in disguise.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo contends that despite the position of the Northern governors over the establishment of state police, non-indigenes are no longer safe in the hands of the government agent in Kano.

In a statement issued at the weekend, President Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Kano State Chapter, Chief Tobias Michael Idika lamented the pains and devastation suffered by many Igbo business moguls whose goods and property worth billions of naira have been confiscated by the Hisbah guards.

“We have pragmatic evidence of the victimization of our people by armed Hisbah guards who were given powers to waylay, arrest, fine and prosecute their victims. In Kano alone, Igbo business men have lost billions of naira on the several attacks by the Hisbah Guards targeted at their lives and business concerns.

“The situation is the same in Minna, Kaduna, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Zamfara and other parts of the North where the Hisbah guards are holding sway. It is also pertinent to note that northern governors fund Hisbah guards with tax payers’ money,” Idika said.

He added: “In as much as Ohanaeze Ndigbo would not want to dabble into the politics of state police, we call on President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, enact a law abolishing Hisbah and other militant organisations being sponsored with government funds.”

The Igbo traditional society noted that the further the national debate on state police would amount to needless wastage of productive time and resources and agitating for adequate funding of the existing police force.

Hisbah Board confiscating Goods

“The best thing to do at this critical time of the nation’s history is to overhaul all the security agencies with a view to repositioning them to better wage, meaningful war against terrorism,” he said.

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo equally suggested possible solutions to the current insecurity in the country. “We strongly submit that it will be to the best interest of the country if the Presidency, Inspector General of Police and the Police Service Commission deem it right to post non-Muslim police commissioners to states where the Boko Haram insurgents are reigning supreme so as to do away with the syndrome of compromise. We say this because there have been cases where bad eggs within the security agencies are aiding terrorists to carry out their nefarious activities”.

The group challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to leave up to responsibility in fulfillment of his statutory task of securing lives and property of citizenry.

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