Nigerian barber arrested over ‘haram’ haircuts

In Nigeria, a barber from Benue state has been arrested in Kano for allegedly giving his customers haircuts which offend the Islamic faith in the Sabongari area of the state.

He was arrested by the Kano State Hisbah Corps.

Elijah, was picked up after two of his customers were seen with hairstyles deemed blasphemous to the Islamic religion

He was arraigned in court on Tuesday, February 2, and later remanded. He had taken to Twitter late last month to reveal details of his arrest.

His tweets read; “My name is Elijah, I’m a barber based in kano. I was being arrested by Matro Area command police authority bank road kano on 15th January 2021.

“Reasons for the arrest goes thus : According to the police officers that showed up in my shop that day in response to the allegation made against me by some members of the Islamic group in kano. They said that they received a report that, I gave two of my clients a haircut style with a design of an image which was said to have some similarities with something in Islamic religious group.

“However, they eventually arrested me, took some of my barbing tools. They also arrested the two of my clients who had the hair style on their heads. We were being detained in the evening on Friday 15th till Saturday night 16th. We were being charged approximately 27000 plus for the alleged offense. My shop was being shut down for 4 days and it took 4 days as well for me to be able to get my tools back.”