In Kaduna State, Pastors and Imams have been compelled to obtain licence before preaching, or pay N200,000 Fine.
Today, Friday, June 7, the State’s House of Assembly, passed the Religious Preaching Regulation bill, 1984, into law
It was gathered that the bill is aimed at regulatting religious preaching in Kaduna State with a view of promoting religious harmony and peaceful co-existence amongst the residents of the state .
The Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Abdullahi Shagali, said the bill, when signed into law, stipulates that in each of the 23 LGAs of the state, a committee to be known as the Local Government Inter-faith Committee has to be established.
According to him, the committee shall consider and recommend to state Inter-faith Regulation Council all applications for the grant of licence to religious preachers as well as screen and recommend preachers for the grant of license among other functions.
The supplementary provision explained that all cassettes, compact disks (CDs), flash drives or any other communication gadgets containing religious recordings from accredited preachers may be played inside a private dwelling unit or vehicle, entrance porch (zaure), Church, Mosque and any other designated place of worship.
It further stated that any person who plays religious cassette or uses a loud speaker for religious purposes between the hours of 11pm to 4am in a public place, and uses a loudspeaker for religious purposes other than inside Church or Mosque, commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years or pay a fine of less than N200,000.00 or both.
The bill added that any person who publicly insults or seeks to incite contempt any religion, by making false statements in such a manner as to be likely to lead to a breach of peace, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years a fine of not less than N100,000.00 or both
