A COUPLE have been publicly flogged in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state for failing to prove their allegations that the Islamic head of the village had sex with their daughter, a court official said. Haruna Dutsi and his wife, Aishat, were given 80 strokes of the cane each in a public spectacle in the village of Dutsi. The accused had taken the couple to an Islamic Sharia law court to challenge the accusation, where they were asked to provide four witnesses to support their claim. Two men were also publicly flogged for drinking alcohol in public and stealing. Zamfara state was the first of eight northern states to introduce the Sharia following Nigeria’s return to civilian rule last year. The state has also been the most active in applying the code despite opposition from the country’s Christians, dominant in the south, and from the federal government. – AFP