Up until a decade ago, a form of Sharia law operated as an integral part of Nigeria’s Customary law family. In 1999/2001, legislatures of the 12 Arewa States of Northern Nigeria (Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger, and Gombe) made new laws to extend the provisions of the Sharia law in their contiguous domains (ie Hausaland) to include criminal law.