In Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, Sharia

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

has been instituted as a main body of civil and criminal law in 9 Muslim-majority and in some parts of 3 Muslim-plurality states since 1999, when then-Zamfara State

Zamfara State

Zamfara State is a state in northwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Gusau and its Governor is Abdul'aziz Abubakar Yari, a member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party . Until 1996 the area was part of Sokoto State....

 governor Ahmad Rufai Sani began the push for the institution of Sharia at the state level of government.

States

As of 2009, the following 9 states have instituted Sharia:

• Zamfara State
  Zamfara State
  Zamfara State is a state in northwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Gusau and its Governor is Abdul'aziz Abubakar Yari, a member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party . Until 1996 the area was part of Sokoto State....
  
   (January 27, 2000)
• Kano State
  Kano State
  Kano State is a state located in North-Western Nigeria. Created on May 27, 1967 from part of the Northern Region, Kano state borders Katsina State to the north-west, Jigawa State to the north-east, Bauchi State to the south-east and Kaduna State to the south-west...
  
   (June 21, 2000)
• Sokoto State
  Sokoto State
  Sokoto State is located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2005 it has an estimated population of more than 4.2 million...
  
  
• Katsina State
  Katsina State
  Katsina State is a state in northern Nigeria. Its capital is Katsina, and its governor is Ibrahim Shema, a member of the People's Democratic Party...
  
  
• Bauchi State
  Bauchi State
  Bauchi State is a State in northern Nigeria. Its capital is the city of Bauchi. The state was formed in 1976 when the former North-Eastern State was broken up...
  
   (June 2001)
• Borno State
  Borno State
  Borno State is a state in north-eastern Nigeria. Its capital is Maiduguri. The state was formed in 1976 from the split of the North-Eastern State...
  
  
• Jigawa State
  Jigawa State
  -Location:Jigawa State is one of thirty-six states that constitute Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is situated in the north-western part of the country between latitudes 11.00oN to 13.00oN and longitudes 8.00oE to 10.15oE. Kano State and Katsina State border Jigawa to the west, Bauchi State to the...
  
  
• Kebbi State
  Kebbi State
  Kebbi State is a state in north-western Nigeria with its capital at Birnin Kebbi. The state was formed from part of Sokoto State in 1991. Kebbi State is bordered by Sokoto State, Niger State, Dosso Region in the Republic of Niger and the nation of Benin. It has a total area of...
  
  
• Yobe State
  Yobe State
  Yobe State is a state located in Northern Nigeria. A mainly agricultural state, it was created on August 27, 1991. Yobe state was carved out of present-day Borno State. The capital of Yobe state is Damaturu.-Geography:...
  
  

the following 3 states have also instituted sharia in some parts with large Muslim populations

• Kaduna
  Kaduna
  Kaduna is the state capital of Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria. The city, located on the Kaduna River, is a trade center and a major transportation hub for the surrounding agricultural areas with its rail and road junction. The population of Kaduna is at 760,084 as of the 2006 Nigerian census...
  
  
• Niger State
  Niger State
  Niger State is a state in the western part of Nigeria and the largest state in the country. The state capital is Minna, and other major cities are Bida, Kontagora, and Suleja. It was formed in 1976 when the then North-Western State was bifurcated into Niger State and Sokoto State.The state is named...
  
   (January 13, 2000)
• Gombe State
  Gombe State
  Gombe State, located in the northeastern part of Nigeria, is one of the country's 36 states; its capital is Gombe. The boundaries of the state roughly correspond to those of the Gombe Emirate,a traditional state.[2]...
  
  

Riots

There have been numerous riots over the implementation of sharia law, primarily involving non-Muslim minorities in the states which implemented the system. One such riot killed over 100 people in October 2001 in Kano State.

Amina Lawal

In 2002, negative light was brought to sharia in northern Nigeria when Amina Lawal, a single mother in Katsina State, was accused of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning by a state Sharia court for conceiving a child out of wedlock; the father was released without conviction for lack of evidence. The conviction provoked outrage both in southern Nigeria and the West, with many national and international NGOs lobbying the federal government to overturn the conviction. In 2004, the conviction was overturned by the Sharia court of appeal, and Lawal returned to private life.

Executions

In 2002, the first execution of a man under Sharia took place in Katsina State; Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

condemned the execution.