9 Feb 2021
Police arrested a barber in Nigeria’s majority-Muslim Kano state for allegedly cutting his clients’ hair in styles deemed offensive to the Islamic faith, Nigeria’s
Punch newspaper reported Monday.
Local senator Abba Moro demanded the barber’s release from police detention on Sunday, explaining that he was arrested on January 15 and again on January 27 “by a group of Muslims over claims that the hairstyle he designed on two of his customers was insulting to Islam and the Holy [Islamic] Prophet Mohammed.”
The barber, named Elijah Ode, is “currently being tried in Gyadi-Gyadi Magistrate’s Court sitting in Kano State,” according to Moro. The senator said Ode has “been denied bail” despite intervention on his behalf by two Nigerian governors from his native Benue state and Kano state, where his business is based. Moro argued the barber’s arrest and continued detention is unconstitutional.
Senator demand release of Kano barber arrested over ‘anti-Islam’ hairstyle
Sunday Aborisade, Abuja
The Senator representing Benue South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Abba Moro, has demanded the unconditional release of Elijah Odeh, a young barber from his constituency being held in Kano State over hairstyles.
Moro, in a statement by his media office in Abuja on Sunday, said the barber was allegedly arrested for barbing different hairstyles on his customers, which was considered to be offensive to Islam.
Moro said Elijah, from Adum East, in the Obi Local Government Area of Benue State, was arrested a few days ago by a group of Muslims over claims that the hairstyle he designed on two of his customers was insulting to Islam and the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW).