Corpun file 20642
BBC News Online, London, 17 October 2008
Nigerian man jailed for idleness
A Nigerian Islamic court has sentenced a 20-year-old man to six months in jail and 30 strokes of the cane for idleness --
in a case brought by his own father.
Jamilu Samaila's father told the court in northern Bauchi state that his son had refused to go to school or to find a job and had joined a delinquent gang.
Samaila Tahir said his son was "bringing shame on the family".
Bauchi was one of several Nigerian Muslim majority states to re-introduce Islamic Sharia law in 2000.
The new laws reintroduced some of the harsher Islamic penalties which had been removed under colonial rule.
Mr Tahir told the Tudunalkali neighbourhood court that his son no longer listened to him and that he was "sick of his nefarious deeds".
"Please put this boy in prison so that I can be free," he said.
Court clerk Tasiu Musa said that the judge sentenced the defendant for "having no job and also for associating with bad friends, which is an offence contrary to the Sharia penal code".
He said Mr Tahir had asked for his son to be jailed "for as long it deems fit", reports AFP.
The Nigerian News Agency reported that the sentence of 30 strokes of the cane was carried out immediately.
© BBC MMVIII
