“Peace is not merely the absence of violence; it is the presence of justice, lawful authority, mutual respect and the assurance that every citizen can live without fear.”
The controversy surrounding reports of Hisbah activities in parts of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State demands a response that is firm, constitutional and profoundly peace-oriented. Plateau cannot afford another cycle of suspicion, religious anxiety and communal mobilisation. Its history demonstrates that apparently small disputes can acquire religious and ethnic meanings with devastating consequences.
On 30 August 2026, Governor Caleb Mutfwang directed security agencies to halt the activities of a group reportedly operating under the name Hisbah, describing such activities as illegal, unauthorised and unacceptable. The allegations included intimidation, harassment, extortion and the imposition of unauthorised rules and restrictions on residents. The governor further directed security agencies to identify and investigate those involved and prosecute anyone found culpable.
Yet there is an important development that should temper public reaction.
On 1 September 2026, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) in Plateau State denied that any Muslim organisation had announced or established a Hisbah organisation in Jos North. JNI Secretary Salim Umar reportedly attributed the controversy partly to social-media images and claims, some allegedly AI-generated, and urged government and citizens to verify information before acting upon it.
This distinction is crucial. The state must act decisively against any actual unauthorised enforcement activity, while simultaneously refusing to criminalise an entire religious community on the basis of unverified allegations. That is the balance demanded by constitutional democracy and public theology.
The real issue is not Islam; it is lawful authority
Hisbah, in its broad Islamic conception, is associated with the promotion of what is regarded as right and the discouragement of wrong. In some northern Nigerian states, institutionalised Hisbah structures operate with varying degrees of governmental recognition. But the existence of such structures elsewhere does not automatically create a legal mandate for their establishment or operation in Plateau.
The constitutional question is therefore straightforward: Who has the authority to enforce criminal law, regulate public order, arrest citizens and impose sanctions in Plateau State?
The Nigerian constitutional framework does not establish a religious police system. Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution provides that the Government of the Federation or a State shall not adopt any religion as a State Religion, while Section 38 guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Citizens are entitled to practise and manifest their religion, but religious freedom does not confer upon private individuals the power to become law-enforcement officers.
More importantly, Section 214 of the Constitution provides for the Nigeria Police Force and states that no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof. The Nigeria Police Act 2020 similarly assigns the Police responsibility for crime prevention, public safety, public order, protection of life and property and enforcement of the law.
Consequently, the central issue is not whether Muslims may organise themselves, preach morality or establish religious associations. They unquestionably may, within the Constitution. The issue arises when a private religious body crosses the line from religious persuasion to coercive enforcement.
That line must remain unmistakable.
Why Plateau must treat the matter with exceptional sensitivity
Plateau State is not an ordinary laboratory for religious experimentation. Jos and its surrounding communities carry the memory of prolonged communal and ethno-religious conflicts. The state has invested considerable social capital in rebuilding relationships between communities that have experienced deep mistrust.
Governor Mutfwang himself has repeatedly emphasised peaceful coexistence and the supremacy of lawful authority. In February 2026, following security incidents, he warned that public roads could only be restricted by duly authorised security agencies and declared that no grievance justified taking the law into one’s hands.
Plateau State Government
Against this background, even an unverified claim that a religious group is establishing a morality police can become dangerous. Rumours can generate fear; fear can produce mobilisation; mobilisation can produce confrontation; and confrontation can become communal violence.
This is precisely why the present matter should be approached as a peacebuilding and constitutional governance issue, rather than as a Christian-versus-Muslim confrontation.
The danger of parallel authority
The most serious threat posed by unauthorised Hisbah activity would not necessarily be its religious identity. The deeper danger would be the creation of competing centres of authority.
A democratic state cannot permit citizens to establish their own enforcement agencies and determine which laws others must obey. The same principle must apply regardless of ideological, religious or ethnic identity.
If a Christian group established a private morality police and began stopping Muslims, regulating dress, imposing religious codes or threatening sanctions, the state would rightly intervene. The same constitutional standard must apply to a Muslim organisation attempting similar actions against Christians, Muslims or citizens of other convictions.
This is the essence of equality before the law.
The Nigeria Police Act expressly requires policing to uphold constitutional rights and to operate fairly regardless of citizens’ religious, ethnic, political or economic affiliations.
Therefore, the appropriate principle for Plateau should be:
No religious privilege. No ethnic privilege. No political privilege. No vigilante privilege. One constitutional order for everybody.
But government must also avoid a dangerous overreaction
The Governor’s intervention is understandable and, where unlawful enforcement is established, necessary. However, the government must distinguish between verified unlawful activity and misinformation
This is particularly important because JNI has now publicly rejected the claim that an Islamic organisation in Plateau had announced plans to establish Hisbah.
Government therefore has a double responsibility.
First, it must investigate whether individuals actually operated under the name Hisbah, whether they intimidated or extorted residents, whether they attempted to enforce religious rules, and whether anyone sponsored or organised such activities.
Second, it must investigate the origin and circulation of the allegations and images that generated public anxiety.
The latter is not a secondary matter. In a conflict-sensitive environment such as Plateau, misinformation can itself become a security threat.
The solution, therefore, is neither complacency nor collective punishment. It is evidence-based law enforcement.
Five urgent measures for Plateau State.
1. Establish the facts immediately.
The Plateau State Government, Police Command and other relevant security agencies should conduct a transparent investigation into the reported activities. Names, locations, uniforms, commands, financial sponsors, activities and victims should be documented. Those found to have violated the law should face prosecution, while innocent citizens should not be harassed.
2. Create a rapid-response interfaith verification mechanism.
The government should convene representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Jama’atu Nasril Islam, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, security agencies and relevant local authorities. Its purpose should be early verification of sensitive religious claims before they become crises.
3. Establish a clear boundary between religious organisation and law enforcement.
Muslim and Christian organisations should remain free to preach, educate, counsel, mediate and promote moral conduct. But arrest, detention, extortion, physical coercion, confiscation of property and enforcement of criminal law must remain within legally constituted institutions.
4. Develop a Plateau peace-and-digital-information protocol.
The apparent role of social media in the present controversy deserves serious attention. Where manipulated or AI-generated materials are being circulated, authorities should quickly publish verified information. Religious leaders should become partners in countering misinformation rather than waiting until rumours become violence.
5. Build the response around restorative peace rather than repression alone.
Where individuals are found culpable, prosecution should follow due process. But the government should simultaneously engage Muslim and Christian leaders to prevent the incident from becoming a narrative of religious persecution. Public theology teaches that justice and reconciliation are not contradictory; authentic peace requires both.
From a Christian public-theological perspective, the Church should resist the temptation to interpret every security question through a purely religious binary.
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers”places Christians under an ethical obligation to pursue peace. Romans 13:1-4 presents legitimate civil authority as having responsibility for public order, while Micah 6:8 calls God’s people to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” with God.
These principles have profound public implications.
The Christian response to an alleged Muslim religious-policing structure should therefore not be hatred of Muslims. It should be a principled defence of constitutionalism, human dignity, religious liberty and equal citizenship.
Likewise, Muslim leadership should recognise that defending religious freedom also requires defending the freedom of others. The most powerful Islamic witness in a plural society is not coercion but moral credibility, peaceful coexistence and respect for the law.
The Nigerian Constitution provides the common civic space within which these convictions can coexist.
Plateau must choose prevention over provocation
The present controversy may ultimately prove to have been exaggerated by misinformation. JNI’s denial makes that possibility impossible to ignore.
But even if the reports prove substantially false, the incident has exposed a deeper vulnerability: Plateau remains sufficiently sensitive to religious narratives that misinformation can rapidly become a security concern.
That is why this moment should not be wasted.
The state should use the controversy to strengthen intelligence gathering, community policing, interfaith dialogue, responsible digital communication and constitutional literacy. The Police Act itself provides for community-policing structures designed to promote cooperation, conflict resolution, intelligence gathering and maintenance of law and order through lawful institutions.
What Plateau needs is therefore not another informal security architecture. It needs stronger legitimate institutions.
The state’s answer to insecurity must not be competing authorities. Its answer must be competent policing, accountable governance, credible justice and communities that trust one another.
Plateau has paid too high a price for communal suspicion to allow another spark whether real, exaggerated or digitally manufactured to become a fire.
The urgent message to government, religious leaders, security agencies and citizens is therefore simple: investigate without prejudice, enforce the law without discrimination, speak without inflaming passions, and protect every citizen without regard to faith or ethnicity.
The goal should not be to defeat Christians, Muslims, Hisbah, vigilantes or any particular community.
The goal must be to protect Plateau.
“Where the law is respected, religious freedom is protected; where justice is impartial, fear loses its power; and where citizens recognise one another as neighbours before they recognise one another as rivals, peace can finally become stronger than the memories of conflict.”
Cliff Stanley, Political Scientist, Public Theologian, Cliffstanley3@gmail.com
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