Lagos, Nigeria — Zamfara, the northern Nigerian state that pioneered the introduction of the Islamic Sharia law in the country, has amputated a convicted thief's wrist. It is the second such punishment since the law was introduced in the state in 1999.

Press reports said Saturday that the state cut off the right wrist of a middle-aged man named Lawali Isa Gummi on Thursday, after he was tried under the Islamic law and convicted for stealing three bicycles valued at 9,500 naira (86 US dollars).

After Sharia Court Judge Shu'aibu Yahaya Bungudu found Lawali guilty, and the state Ulama Consultative Committee said the punishment was in line with the tenets of Islam, the Zamfara Executive Council, presided over by state governor Ahmed Sani Yerimah, approved the execution of the sentence.

Consequently, Lawali's wrist was amputated at a government hospital in Gusau, the state capital.

In the first major enforcement of the Sharia in Zamfara in March 2000, a convicted cow thief, Bello Jangegbe, also had his right wrist cut off for stealing.

The latest punishment will rekindle the controversy surrounding the introduction of the Islamic law by several states in the predominantly Moslem northern part of the country.

Christians, residing mostly in the south, oppose the introduction of Sharia, arguing that it is against Nigeria's 1999 Constitution, which prescribes secularism and that it could be used against Christians residing in the states that have adopted the law.

Moslems say Sharia is an important part of their religion, and denied that Christians could be forcibly tried under the law.

Sharia riots twice broke out last year in the northern state of Kaduna, almost equally divided between Christians and Moslems, leading to several deaths and the destruction of property.

Nigeria's federal government has refused to be drawn into the Sharia controversy, though President Olusegun Obasanjo said "political Sharia" would die a natural death.

Some analysts have described the introduction of the law as a subtle protest by the north for losing political power, hence the tag "political Sharia."

Responding recently to claims that the punishments under the Sharia, which include death by stoning for adultery, amounted to a violation of the rights of those involved, Federal Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Bola Ige said he was ready to challenge such infringement in court only if those affected complain directly to his office and were ready to testify in court.

"If anybody knows any Muslim or Christian who is willing to come and say his rights have been violated, I will take the matter up," Ige said in a recent interview.

"The court is not just going to listen to me if I go there and say they violated Jangegbe's right and (I) put him in the witness box and he says 'Allahu Akbar, My Lord, I accept what they have done to me because I violated Allah's law and I am happy with my hand that has been cut off,'" he added.