Hisbah cancels court-ordered TikTok celebrities’ wedding in Kano

Sharia-enforcing police in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano have cancelled a wedding of two TikTok celebrities that was ordered by a court after a viral kissing video, an official told AFP Sunday.

A court had ordered the Islamic Sharia police to have the two TikTok celebrities marry for posting the video, which it deemed “indecent”.

Kano is one of a dozen predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria where Sharia law operates alongside common law.

Videos of Idris Mai Wushirya and Basira Yar Guda had circulated on TikTok, showing them cuddling and kissing, drawing outrage among Kano residents.

On Monday, a magistrate court judge instructed the Kano Sharia police, called Hisbah, to within 60 days solemnise the marriage between two for posting videos showing them kissing, an act deemed indecent in Kano’s conservative Muslim society.

However, Mai Wushirya told Hisbah officials making preparations for the wedding that he was not interested in marrying Yar Guda despite having told the judge they were “in love”, Abba Sufi, Hisbah’s Director-General, told AFP.

“Mai Wushirya told us that he lied to the court that he and Yar Guda were in love to evade prosecution.

“With this development, we have cancelled the wedding and have resolved to refer the matter to the judge who gave the order for appropriate action,” Sufi said.

Mai Wushiryar’s parents had on Monday gave Hisbah their “explicit consent” for the wedding while the Sharia police were making efforts to contact Yar Guda’s family.

The Kano State Government had agreed to purchase a house for the prospective couple to meet the bride’s condition.

The court order drew mixed reactions among Nigerians.

The Nigerian Bar Association, the country’s lawyers’ union, condemned the court order as “an affront to the fundamental rights of the individuals concerned”.

“No court has the power to compel any person to marry another person or two persons to mandatorily marry,” Mazi Afam Osigwe, head of the NBA, said in a statement.

Kano is home to a burgeoning film industry dubbed Kannywood, the second largest in the world next to Bollywood in volume, with more than 200 films produced each month in the Hausa language spoken in the region and across West Africa.

The increasing use of social media by Kannywood for skits and songs made the board of censors extend its authority to social media, arresting and jailing several TikTokers for videos considered obscene or indecent.

AFP