HEALTH: Tracking Kidney Disease

Martins Ifijeh writes that inadequate facilities and high cost of treatment have become a challenge to the success rate of kidney dialysis in Nigeria

 The rising burden of kidney disease across the globe has continued to threaten human, social and economic existence, with hundreds of millions of people suffering from the scourge and over a million deaths recorded from kidney related diseases every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

One of the countries most-hit by this scourge is Nigeria, with over 36.8 million of its citizens known to be suffering from various forms of kidney disorders, representing about 23 per cent of the country’s population, according to available statistics.

This figure, which shows one in every seven Nigerians is a sufferer from some form of kidney disorder, has therefore prompted experts to raise the alarm that Nigeria was sitting on a keg of gun powder waiting to explode if nothing was done to quell the rising prevalence of the menace in the country.

They believe stakeholders, as well as the government has not zeroed into tackling the issue head on, as the country has failed to put facilities in place to match the rising problems occasioned by the disease in the country. They are also of the opinion that Nigerians must be educated on what to do to prevent the scourge as well as how to manage it.

A nephrologist, Dr. Benson Ariye, explained that over 50,000 Nigerians should presently be on dialysis because of one form of kidney problem or the other, but that only about 1,000 persons are presently undergoing dialysis in the country, which was one of the reasons a lot of Nigerians were dying from the scourge every day.

He explained that it was rare surviving kidney failure without undergoing dialysis or kidney transplant, adding that if government must protect its citizens from dying from preventable illnesses like Kidney failures or other forms of diseases, then it must put facilities in place to combat the issue. 

According to him, the bulk of those suffering from the disease in the country were poor or low income earners who may be unable to afford treatments in India, Canada or the United States. “The only institution they can rely on for support is our government. There should be availability of facilities to treat the various forms of kidney disorder in the country.

“Only a handful of hospitals in the country presently have these dialysis machines, which ideally should be spread across the country to tackle issues of kidney failure.”

He said one of the reasons why proactive measures must be taken was because the peak prevalence period for chronic kidney disease was between 30 and 50 years, representing the manpower shortage and economic waste, adding that “Nigeria can not afford to loose its active citizens because of inability to provide facilities to combat the health issue.

While lamenting the burden of the disease, he said estimated 15,000 new patients were being diagnosed every year in the country, making the number of persons needing treatments to increase markedly annually.

Ariye also called for the subsidization of kidney treatments in the country as most sufferers were unable to afford the treatments. “An average Nigerian would most likely not be able to undergo adequate treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) which is on the rise.

Despite the thousands of Nigerians who present their cases to the hospital, Ariye believed this represents just a tip of the iceberg of the entire burden of CKD, because majority of those suffering from end stage renal failure or other forms of kidney disorder often do not present their health issue to the hospital on time due to lack of awareness, prohibitive cost of health care services or use alternative treatment like spiritual healing and traditional methods.

He said awareness on early presentation was also key to reducing the scourge in the disease in the country.

The World Health report 2002 and Global Burden of Disease Project reports show that kidney disease represents the 12th cause of death and 17th cause of disability in the world. The report also believed this may be an underrepresentation of the contribution of CKD to global burden of disease.

Some experts however believes this figure may best suit that of develop countries as kidney disease is reportedly becoming a very high cause of death among people living in underdeveloped and developing countries, including Nigeria.  

“In Nigeria, the situation is such that chronic kidney disease represents about 8 to 10 per cent of hospital admission even though we know more than 50 per cent of people with the disease do not present their case to the hospital,” says a Resident Doctor with Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Dr. Kenneth Ifidon.

He said this goes to show that the prevalence of the scourge is increasing in the country even though kidney care facilities do not match the numbers of people presenting their cases to the hospital.

Causes
He said it was important people understood the causes of kidney diseases so they could prevent it. “Some identified causes of kidney diseases includes hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, among others,” he added.

According to him, hypertension was the leading cause of kidney failure in Nigeria, adding that it often presents no symptoms until it is at the advanced stage. “This is another reason why people should not just assume that since they are walking and not feeling any health issue, then there is no need for checkups. If you want to prevent many forms of health issues, it is imperative that you constantly go for checkups. When one does checkups for hypertension at early stage, the truth is, as you are taking measures to preventing it, you are also indirectly taking measures to preventing kidney disease. So the role of medical checkups cannot be overemphasized if we must stay healthy always.”

He said diabetes has been established to be the leading cause of kidney failure in the country, hence the need for people to prevent things that predisposes them to diabetes. Adding that, “diabetes occurs when the blood glucose levels are excessively high. “Tiny amounts of proteins in urine are an early sign of kidney damage in patients with diabetes.”

On HIV/AIDS, he said it increases the loads on the kidneys and may lead eventually to its failure, hence the need for people to be cautious about habits that predisposes them to risks of contracting HIV/AIDS.

Prevention
He said people must understand that the kidney was one of the most important organs of the body because of its enormous responsibilities and that attention should be paid to the kidney, while living a healthy lifestyle.

According to him, “while taking measures to preventing hypertension, diabetes and HIV/AIDS, direct healthy lifestyle will also go a long way in keeping the kidney healthy.”

He said avoiding caffeine addiction was one of the best ways of keeping the kidneys in check. “People who drink multiple cups of caffeine beverages each day are often at risk of forcing the kidney to work harder in pumping out the toxins in the caffeine, which overtime makes the kidney weak.

“If you find that you are urinating several times a day more than you used to, try cutting back on caffeine products to see if that helps. Too much caffeine isn't good for your body in many ways, and kidney stress is one of them”

He also explained that drinking of water was very vital to the health of the kidney. “People who drink plenty of water daily are less likely to have kidney disease because even though the kidney acts more as a filter than a reservoir, toxins can build up if there is not enough water pressure to push them through to the urinary tract for excretion.

“We know there are people who do not like drinking water except extremely necessary, but it shouldn’t be so. If you want to keep your body healthy, drink enough water,” adding that eating of fruits like water melon also goes a long way in keeping the kidney healthy.

Treatment
He said it was worrisome that treatment of kidney failure in the country has not been subsidized by the government, as poor patients continue to find it difficult accessing treatment.

According to him, a patient with kidney failure has a 3 to 5 hour dialysis treatment; three times per week while this treatment would only replace about 10 to 15 per cent of the function of healthy kidneys.

“Undergoing a session of dialysis in the country costs about N25,000.00, which means in a week the patient would have spent N75,000.00. This perhaps will continue for a long time. How do we expect the poor Nigerians to pay for this treatment?” He queried.

He said an outright kidney transplant cost an average of N4.5m outside the provision of a donor. “Though most donations are free because they come from relations and family members, but the determination of whether their organ is suitable for surgery or not are often investigated most times abroad thereby compounding the cost. After surgeries, patients must live on drugs to keep the foreign organ in check and these drugs are taking through out a lifetime and they are expensive,” he added.

He stressed that a government that puts its citizens first must design ways of making this treatment available and affordable for the ordinary citizens and people who also live in rural
areas where there are hardly healthcare facilities

Buhari traces looted funds to UK, Switzerland, others

President Muhammadu Buhari

The Federal Government has started tracing looted Nigerian funds to foreign nations with the aim of recovering and repatriating them.

The Federal Government specifically targets the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and other European jurisdictions where it believes corrupt officials have been stashing public funds.

This move came on the heels of the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari on his first day in Aso Villa office that he inherited an almost empty treasury from his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, thus vowing that his administration would recover all the looted funds stashed in foreign banks by corrupt Nigerians.

“The next three months may be hard, but billions of dollars can be recovered, and we will do our best,” the President was quoted as saying in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.

Some of the countries where looted funds from Nigeria have been kept in the past include Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Others are France, Germany, British Virgin Islands and other tax havens spread across the globe.

Adesina, who confirmed the move in an exclusive interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, said, the search for the looted funds will not be limited to these countries but anywhere in the world where they may be hidden.

He said, “The search will not only cover UK, US, Switzerland, Germany and other known havens for Nigerian looted funds but will cover everywhere under the sun. Anywhere and everywhere that the looted funds are, we have an assurance from the United States of America to assist us to repatriate these funds from anywhere under the sun.”

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the Federal Government’s investigation was meant to identify the individuals who engaged in corrupt practices and ascertain the sums of money involved with a view to repatriating them.

One of our correspondents also learnt that anti-corruption agencies will play a prominent role in the exercise targeted at corrupt government officials in the recent past administration and their private sector collaborators, among others.

To this end, Adeniyi told Saturday PUNCH that the Federal Government is planning to engage the services of foreign private investigators to help trace and find looted funds belonging to the people of Nigeria.

“Everything that needs to be done to get all those funds repatriated will be done, including engaging private investigators,” the Presidential spokesperson added.

Buhari had lamented that officials of the recent past government jettisoned all financial and administrative instructions put in place in parastatals and agencies while embracing impunity, lack of accountability and financial recklessness in the management of national resources.

This, the President decried, had thrown the country into financial crisis.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that foreign search, which is expected to be thorough, will, among others, be directed at foreign banks with the ultimate aim of getting incontrovertible facts and figures that can aid the government in collaboration with the US and other members of the G7 nations to recover stolen funds stashed abroad.

Adesina said the identification of foreign banks being used to stash stolen funds was one of the mandates given to Buhari during a meeting he had with President Barak Obama at the recent G-7 summit in Germany.

He said, “When the President met with the G7, the promise that the American President gave him was that Nigeria should just provide all the facts, the figures, the statistics, including the banks.

“He promised that if Nigeria could make the information available, then the US will help in recovering the stolen funds.”

When asked specifically if the Federal Government had started identifying the banks, the presidential spokesman said, “Yes. In fact, the President said the government will spend the next three months identifying banks, individuals and monies that have been ferried out of this country.

“The assurance the President has given is that within the next three months, we have to concentrate on getting those monies back to the government coffers,” he added.

Buhari had said early in the week that his administration had received firm assurances of cooperation from the US and other countries in his quest to recover and repatriate funds stolen from Nigeria.

Buhari, while granting audience to members of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, had said that it was now up to Nigeria to provide the international community with the facts and figures needed to drive the recovery effort.

He said he would be busy, in the next three months, getting the facts that would help in recovering the stolen funds.

“In the next three months, our administration will be busy getting those facts and the figures to help us recover our stolen funds in foreign countries,’’ the President had said.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the Federal Government may also go after property owned by public fund looters in London, Dubai, US, Saudi Arabia and other choice international real estate markets where Nigerians are known to be some of the biggest buyers.

It was also learnt that the Department for International Development, a UK government department responsible for administering overseas aid, had alerted the President on over N1.3tn stolen during the last administration, where it is kept and who the beneficiaries are.

This money, a source close to the DFID said, is a low hanging fruit that the President can pluck during his first six months in the office with the help of the UK, US, and other G7 members without hassle.

“This was one of the agreement reached between President Buhari and the G7 countries when the former attended their meeting in Germany,” the DFID source toldSaturday PUNCH.

The US in March 2014 had ordered a freeze on $458m in assets stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and his accomplices. Abacha died in office in 1998.

The US Justice Department named two bank accounts in the Bailiwick of Jersey and two other accounts in France as depositories of $313m and $145m Abacha loot respectively. Four other investment portfolios and three bank accounts in Britain were also frozen, with an estimated value of at least $100m.

The US also named nine financial institutions – Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, now JPMorgan Chase, and New York-based units of Britain’s Barclays Bank and Germany’s Commerz bank – as places where some of the Abacha loots were laundered.

Similarly, the Crown Prosecution Service in the United Kingdom had estimated former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori’s loot stolen to be around $250m.

Ibori, who is serving jail term for corruption charges in a UK prison, was said to have bought six property in London, including a six-bedroom house with indoor pool in Hampstead for £2.2m and a flat opposite the nearby Abbey Road recording studios. There was also a property in Dorset, a £3.2m mansion in South Africa and further real estate in Nigeria.

He also owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers costing £600,000, a £120,000 Bentley, a £300,000 Mercedes Maybach, and a private jet for £12m.

President Buhari said the last administration mismanaged the economy while stating that it was a disgrace that state governments in the country can’t pay salaries; hence, the need to recover looted funds wherever they may be hidden.

Commenting on the development, a former Minister of Finance and elder statesman, Chief Olu Falae, commended the move and described it as laudable and desirable.

Falae expressed the belief that looted funds could be recovered because the whole world is now talking about promotion of transparency in governance.

“If some monies could be recovered from Abacha loot in the recent past, then it will be possible to recover looted funds from others as well,” he said.

The former minister, however, urged the President to follow due process while going after the looted funds.

Falae said, “It is just that we have to follow due process because we cannot force the countries where the looted funds were stashed to return them because they are not subject to our authorities. But if we follow due process, it might be possible for us to recover those monies.

“The monies should not just be recovered; they should be used to develop the country. There should be no exception; anybody who has looted the public fund should be made to return it. Not only monies stashed abroad should be recovered, those stolen and kept in the country should also be recovered. I wish the President good luck in his move to achieve this initiative.”

Also, the Convener of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, asked Buhari to follow the normal channel through mutual legal assistant treaty that Nigeria has with the countries where such monies were stashed, if he really wants the stolen funds repatriated.

He said, “The President may succeed if he invokes the letter of the mutual legal assistant treaty, but I am not sure Nigeria has such with Switzerland although that country has been voluntarily returning Abacha loot to Nigeria.

“There are several other countries that may not be willing to return the volume of the money that was kept in their banks by the looters except there is international status that Nigeria can invoke to compel them to repatriate the fund.

“Nigeria has to go through legal process except it was one of the wish list that Buhari presented to the G7 countries. We have expressed it in some fora that we expected that Buhari would make it the top of his agenda at the G7 summit in Germany that he should get the G7 to cooperate with Nigeria on how not to allow looted funds by Nigeria’s public officials to be kept in their financial institutions.”

Adeniran also asked Buhari to prevail on the governments of the countries where the public funds were being stashed to assist Nigeria to expose those behind the practice.

He said, “Property acquired in those countries must also be investigated and if it is discovered that the property were procured through proceeds of corruption, they should be confiscated on behalf of Nigeria, sell them and repatriate the money to Nigeria.”

The National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere Renewal Group, a pan-Yoruba organisation, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo, expressed his support for Buhari’s move, which he described as a positive one for the country.

However, he blamed the US and other Western countries for doing nothing in the past to stop their banks from receiving stolen funds from corrupt individuals and corporations in Nigeria, while calling for the punishment of those found culpable.

He said, “It is our hope that something positive will come out of it considering that the banks in the US and some other Western countries were part of the laundering. They collected money from corrupt Nigerians and as far as we know, their countries did nothing to make sure the banks do not collect stolen money from Nigeria.

“Those found culpable in looting our public funds should be tried in the law courts. It’s not enough to collect the stolen funds without any sanctions meted out to them to serve as deterrent to others. Punishments meted out to corrupt individuals are also not commensurate with the crime committed, and this should be corrected.”

In addition, Famoriyo advised the Federal Government to restructure the country and enforce true federalism, which he said, would empower the states.

He said, “Development should be from bottom up and the other way around. What we need is true federalism; this unitary system cannot help us because it’s not sustainable. It’s a system that encourages states to be going to the Federal Government every month with cap in hand.”

Ministers, aides’ allowances surpass basic pay six times

Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Mr. Elias Mbam

Lawmakers are not the only political and public office holders whose allowances far outstrip their salaries,Saturday PUNCH can authoritatively reveal.

Investigation by our correspondent shows that ministers and presidential aides are also entitled to allowances more than six times higher than their annual salaries.

Analysis by our correspondent on Thursday showed that each minister is entitled to 15 types of allowances. Each presidential aide is also entitled to 15 allowances.

The annual allowances of each minister that are monetised is N12,678,764 as against an annual salary of N2,026,400 while monetised allowances of each presidential aide is N12,142,968.75 as against an annual salary of N1,942,875.

Ministers and presidential aides receive similar allowances. These include regular and irregular allowances. The regular allowances are those which values are paid on monthly basis and include motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance, special assistant, and personal assistant.

Others are domestic workers, entertainment, utilities, security and newspapers/periodical allowances.

The irregular allowances are those that are paid at periods other than monthly and range from annual payments to once in four years. Some others are paid whenever they occur irrespective of the period and how many times they occur.

These irregular allowances include accommodation, furniture, duty tour, estacode, medical, severance/gratuity and leave.

The allowances are specified in the remuneration package of political, public and judicial office holders prepared by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission and passed into law in 2007 by the National Assembly.

The allowances are calculated as percentages of the annual salaries. While some are more than 100 per cent of the salaries, others are much lower than 100 per cent.

For a minister, the motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance is 75 per cent of the annual salary. Personal assistant is 25 per cent; domestic staff, 75 per cent; entertainment, 45 per cent; utilities, 30 per cent; newspapers/periodicals, 15 per cent.

Accommodation is 200 per cent; furniture, 300 per cent; severance/gratuity, 300 per cent and leave allowance, 10 per cent. The same percentages apply to the presidential aides.

In monetary terms, a minister gets N1,519,800 for motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance; N506,600 for personal assistant; N1,519,800 for domestic staff; N911,880 for entertainment; N607,920 for utilities; and N303, 960 for newspapers/periodicals.

Accommodation allowance is paid once a year and amounts to N4, 052,800 for a minister. Furniture allowance which is paid once in four years is N6, 079,200. On an annual basis, this comes down to N1, 519,800. Severance/gratuity is paid at the conclusion of tenure and is N6, 079,200 and on an annual basis, it also comes down to N1, 519,800 for a tenure of four years.

The duty tour allowance of a minister is N35, 000 per night while the estacode is $900 per night. These two allowances have no fixed time for payment and therefore are paid when they occur. Medical, special assistant and security allowances are not paid in cash. They are provided for by the government.

A presidential aide gets N1, 457,156.25 for motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance; N485, 718.75 for personal assistant; N1, 457,156.25 for domestic staff; N874, 293.75 for entertainment; N582, 862.50 for utilities; and N291, 431.25 for newspapers/periodicals.

For a presidential aide, accommodation is also paid once a year and amounts to N3, 885,750. Furniture allowance which is paid once in four years is N5, 828,625. On an annual basis, this comes down to N1, 457,156.25.

Severance/gratuity is paid at the conclusion of the tenure and is N5, 828,625 and on an annual basis also comes down to N1, 457,156.25. A tenure of four years is assumed.

The duty tour allowance of a presidential aide is N25, 000 per night while the estacode is $800 per night. Just like for the minister, these two allowances have no fixed time for payment and therefore are paid when they occur.

Medical, special assistant and security allowances are also not paid in cash. They are provided for by the government.

In theory, the minister is entitled to a motor vehicle loan of N8, 105,600 while a presidential aide is entitled to a vehicle loan of N7, 771,500. This loan is repayable before the expiration of the tenure.

This is because under the monetisation policy of the government, public officials are not entitled to vehicle as it has been monetised.

The fact, however, is that they have several official vehicles and drivers at their disposal and do not have to resort to taking the motor vehicle loan except they need the money for other needs.

There are also other categories of public office holders that are placed on the same scale of salary and allowances with ministers. These are the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Head of Service and Chairmen of Constitutional Bodies.

Source: Saturday Punch

US court approves same sex marriage nationwide

President Barack Obama
| credits: guardianlv.com

The United States Supreme Court on Friday delivered a historic ruling legalising same sex marriage across the country.

In the historic judgement, Justice Anthony Kennedy said gays, like every normal human, have the right to be happy.

She said, “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.

“Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Friday’s Supreme Court ruling now makes the US the 21st country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage across its territory. Following the latest development, couples of same gender would now be accorded every rights and privileges enjoyed by normal unions.

Reacting to the development, President Barack Obama congratulated the gay community in the US, saying the ruling had changed the country.

“I just wanted to say congratulations. Americans should be very proud, because small acts of courage slowly made an entire country realise that love is love. The situation has changed our country,” he said.

Source: The Punch

Buhari dissolves NNPC board

Almost a month after he assumed office, President Muhammadu Buhari has dissolved the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation with immediate effect.

The announcement was made in a terse statement issued on Friday by the Director of Communications in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Haruna Imrana, on behalf of the HoS, Mr. Danladi Kifasi.

“The directive to that effect was conveyed in a letter signed on Friday, by Kifasi. In it, the President thanked members of the dissolved board for their services to the nation.

Following the victory of Buhari at the presidential election on March 28, there had been growing calls on the new government to tackle the alleged corruption in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which currently contributes over 80 per cent of the country’s revenue.

Specifically, there had been calls from several quarters for the reform of the NNPC, as the corporation had been described as one of the world’s most opaque national oil companies.

Prior to the dissolution, members of the board, according to the NNPC, include the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Chair of the board); the Group Managing Director, Dr. Joseph Dawha; the Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts, Mr. Bernard Otti; the Group Executive Director, Corporate Services, Dr. Dan Efebo; Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar; Mr. Danladi Wadzani; Prof. Olusegun Okunnu; Mr. Danladi Kifasi; Mr. Steven Oronsanye, and Mr. Ikechukwu Oguine (Coordinator, Legal Services/Secretary to the corporation).

The immediate past president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, had in July 2012 reconstituted a new board of the NNPC, with the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, as the chairperson.

There has been speculation that Buhari will keep the Petroleum minister portfolio for himself in his yet-to-be-announced cabinet rather than trust anyone else with the ministry.

The immediate past President, International Association for Energy Economics and Director, Emerald Energy Institute, University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Wumi Iledare, had earlier this month urged the president to immediately reconstitute the board of the NNPC and professionalise the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

He said, “In fact, he must, as a matter of urgency, reconstitute the NNPC board with no political appointees and must put round pegs in round holes in the corporation as mandated in the NNPC Act of 1977.”

Iledare, who is also a Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Energy Studies, Louisiana State University, United States, urged the President to ensure that all the agencies in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources are manned by competent hands with no political godfathers.

“He (Buhari) must professionalise the Ministry of Petroleum Resources as soon as possible,” Iledare said in The PUNCH report, headlined ‘Reconstitute NNPC board now, experts urge Buhari’.

“I will be glad to recommend many qualified people to him.”

Commenting on the dissolution of the board, the Head of Energy Research, Ecobank, Mr. Dolapo Oni, said, “It’s in line with our expectations that his restructuring of the petroleum sector would likely start at the NNPC. And I believe this is targeted at blocking leakages in the system and improving transparency and accountability at the NNPC.

“However, the absence of a cabinet or Petroleum Minister supports popular belief that he might want to lead the sector himself,” he added.

Source: The Punch

Blasphemy: 8 sentenced to death in Kano

An Upper Sharia Court, Rijiyar Lemo in Kano State, has passed death sentences on eight persons for blasphemy against the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW).

A press statement re­leased on Thursday, signed by one Alhaji Nasiru on be­half of the chief registrar, Kano Sharia Court, said those sentenced to death were convicted under Sec­tion 110 and Section 382B of the Kano Sharia Crimi­nal Procedure Law (2000) The statement added that four other accused persons were discharged by the court for not being found guilty under Section 404 of the Kano Sharia Crimi­nal Procedure Law (2000).

Those discharged and acquitted by the court in­clude, Alkasim Abuba­kar , Yahya Abubakar Isa Abubakar and Abudulahi Abubakar.

The case, according to the statement, was between the Commissioner of Po­lice, Kano State versus one Hajia Mero Ibrahim and 12 others .

Recall that in May, 2015, one Abdul Nyass, a Tijjani preacher and others, were arrested and charged to the Upper Sharia Court in the state capital.

While the court process was progressing a demon­stration took place in the state capital , which result­ed in setting ablaze a por­tion of Kano Sharia Court building, Rigiyar Lemo.