The Kano State Hisbah Board has launched a manhunt for six popular Kano TikTokers accused of sharing explicit contents on their TikTok and other social media handles.
The Board said the action of the young men and women violated its extant laws and regulations.
The TikTokers on the Hisbah’s wanted list include Murja Ibrahim Kunya, Abubakar Ibrahim (G-Fresh), Sadiya Haruna, Ashiru Idris (Maiwushirya), Ummee Shakira, and Hassan Makeup.
This is coming some months after Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, the Commander-General of the Board, extended an invitation to all female TikTokers in Kano for an interactive session.
During the meeting, the board offered rehabilitation and empowerment opportunities to the TikTokers, including vocational training and scholarships in order to dissuade them from their immoral ways.
Sheikh Daurawa, in his address, urged all social media entertainers to refrain from posting contents that could promote immorality in the society.
In an interview with BBC Hausa Service, Sheikh Daurawa clarified that the board’s primary goal was to ensure entertainers ceased posting inappropriate contents. He emphasised that repeated arrests were not the board’s intention.
The TikTokers had signed an undertaking with the Hisbah Board to be of good behaviour and abide by the rules.
However, it appears that the content creators were not adhering to the agreement, prompting the Hisbah Board to launch a manhunt for erring ones among them.
Sheikh Daurawa expressed the board’s reluctance to immediately prosecute offenders, emphasising the desire to achieve compliance rather than punitive measures.
Daurawa also revealed that the Hisbah Board recently engaged with TikTok representatives in Lagos, where assurances were given about promptly deleting accounts that are found to have violated rules such as breach of peace or insults against religions, whenever a report is filed against the account users.
“This is even more effective than arresting the Tiktok users. It is more painful for a Tiktok user to have their accounts deleted after gathering so many followers,” Sheikh Daurawa said.
The six popular TikTokers are among the most followed content creators in Northern Nigeria and had been on a collision course with the Hisbah Board before now.
